CO-FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

Biochar Pioneer | Reforestation | Carbon Restoration | Biodiversity

Over four decades, Brando Crespi has worked at the crossroads of sustainability, regenerative development, biodiversity and climate-smart innovation – pioneering the use of biochar and biocarbons to restore ecosystems and build circular economies. Co-founding Pro-Natura International (PNI) in Brazil in 1986, he pioneered biochar in agroecology and helped lift over 7 million people out of poverty by facilitating the deployment of €1.6 billion into the sustainable development of 63 countries. PNI's impact earned the 1997 US Academy of Sciences' Mitchell Prize, widely considered to be the “Nobel Prize of Sustainability.” Brando has driven or advised major reforestation and carbon restoration initiatives, including Amazonian reforestation,  the "Green Great Wall ” projects in China and Africa, and the creation of biochar companies in Nigeria, Brazil, and Senegal.