Full Name
Karen Haugen-Kozyra
Job Title
President
Company
Viresco Solutions
Speaker Bio
Karen Haugen-Kozyra is President of Viresco Solutions Inc. – a network of leading advisors making sustainability real for public and private clients in the agriculture, bioenergy and sustainable food sectors across North America and globally. Our team of experts enables clients to meet their environmental, social and economic sustainability objectives by leveraging our knowledge and experience in environmental policy, markets and economics. On the Sustainability front, Karen and her firm help companies navigate the nexus between lowering their carbon footprint and developing an overall sustainability strategy.
Karen has over 30 years of experience in agricultural greenhouse gas measurement and modelling and climate change/environmental policy development – spanning her tenure at the provincial Department of Agriculture, Climate Change Central and now in the private sector. Karen began her career measuring soil organic carbon change and other greenhouse gases in a network of sustainable cropping system sites across Alberta, and was part of the Prairie Soil Carbon Balance project from 1997 to 2001 – which helped prove out the potential for carbon storage in Canadian soils. During her tenure with the provincial department of Agriculture, she developed the infrastructure and protocols necessary to support compliance level carbon credit trading in Alberta, which features the largest amount of soil carbon sequestration tonnage in the world (over 17 Mt of CO2e reduced/removed to date under the Conservation Cropping Protocol) . Karen’s company was involved with adapting 13 carbon offset protocols into the California, Quebec and Ontario linked carbon markets under the Western Climate Initiative. Recently, in conjunction with Canadian Forage and Grasslands Association, we successfully had the Climate Action Reserve approve and publish the Canadian Grasslands Project Protocol for use in Canada on a Voluntary basis (see: http://www.climateactionreserve.org/how/protocols/canada-grassland/ . Viresco is currently working with partners (National Corn Growers/Soil Health Partnership, Bayer) and others to pilot a carbon accounting and insetting framework that for more cost-effective carbon reductions at scale from no till and cover cropping, achieving the second certification for an Ag Project under SustainCert (see: https://www.virescosolutions.com/scalable-on-farm-greenhouse-gas-reductions-and-water-quality-improvements/). Further, Viresco is heavily involved in adapting and testing the new beef module of the Cool Farm Tool to North American beef production systems with Alberta Beef Producers, as well as conducting Emissions Reduction Alberta funded mitigation strategies on the Bovaer feed additive at commercial scale feedlot production in Southern Alberta (Royal DSM, see: https://eralberta.ca/projects/details/demonstration-reduced-enteric-methane-emissions-growingfinishing-beef-cattle/ ).
Karen has over 30 years of experience in agricultural greenhouse gas measurement and modelling and climate change/environmental policy development – spanning her tenure at the provincial Department of Agriculture, Climate Change Central and now in the private sector. Karen began her career measuring soil organic carbon change and other greenhouse gases in a network of sustainable cropping system sites across Alberta, and was part of the Prairie Soil Carbon Balance project from 1997 to 2001 – which helped prove out the potential for carbon storage in Canadian soils. During her tenure with the provincial department of Agriculture, she developed the infrastructure and protocols necessary to support compliance level carbon credit trading in Alberta, which features the largest amount of soil carbon sequestration tonnage in the world (over 17 Mt of CO2e reduced/removed to date under the Conservation Cropping Protocol) . Karen’s company was involved with adapting 13 carbon offset protocols into the California, Quebec and Ontario linked carbon markets under the Western Climate Initiative. Recently, in conjunction with Canadian Forage and Grasslands Association, we successfully had the Climate Action Reserve approve and publish the Canadian Grasslands Project Protocol for use in Canada on a Voluntary basis (see: http://www.climateactionreserve.org/how/protocols/canada-grassland/ . Viresco is currently working with partners (National Corn Growers/Soil Health Partnership, Bayer) and others to pilot a carbon accounting and insetting framework that for more cost-effective carbon reductions at scale from no till and cover cropping, achieving the second certification for an Ag Project under SustainCert (see: https://www.virescosolutions.com/scalable-on-farm-greenhouse-gas-reductions-and-water-quality-improvements/). Further, Viresco is heavily involved in adapting and testing the new beef module of the Cool Farm Tool to North American beef production systems with Alberta Beef Producers, as well as conducting Emissions Reduction Alberta funded mitigation strategies on the Bovaer feed additive at commercial scale feedlot production in Southern Alberta (Royal DSM, see: https://eralberta.ca/projects/details/demonstration-reduced-enteric-methane-emissions-growingfinishing-beef-cattle/ ).
Speaking At
