Our Story
From Coffee Waste to Climate Opportunity
Climate Coffee grew from the work of High Plains Biochar, a Wyoming-based company founded by Rowdy Yeatts to develop practical, carbon-negative technology for the real world. High Plains Biochar began by transforming waste biomass into useful heat and stable biochar—a carbon-rich material that can improve soil while keeping carbon from returning to the atmosphere. Its equipment is designed and manufactured in the United States, with roots in Laramie, Wyoming.
That experience led to a powerful question: What if the same circular technology could transform the way coffee is roasted?
Coffee creates an enormous stream of organic material in the form of spent grounds and coffee chaff. These materials are typically treated as waste, while conventional roasting continues to consume natural gas, propane, or grid electricity. We saw an opportunity to connect those two problems.
Climate Coffee was created to turn yesterday’s coffee waste into the clean heat needed to roast tomorrow’s beans. Instead of relying on fossil fuels, our system converts spent coffee grounds and chaff into renewable thermal energy. That heat is transferred indirectly to the coffee, protecting the beans from open flame and fossil-fuel combustion gases while supporting a smooth, controlled roast.
The process doesn’t end when the roasting is finished. The remaining carbon-rich biochar can become a valuable agricultural resource rather than another waste product. This creates a circular model in which coffee waste produces useful heat, supports cleaner roasting, generates biochar, and may create opportunities for verified carbon removal.
High Plains Biochar demonstrated that waste biomass could generate heat, produce biochar, and support carbon-credit opportunities. Climate Coffee brings that same practical, regenerative thinking to one of the world’s most widely enjoyed products.
Our story began in Wyoming, but our vision is global: partner with coffee shops, roasters, and communities to replace a wasteful, carbon-heavy system with one that continually puts its own resources back to work.