BOULDER — Boulder County, through its new Climate Innovation Fund, has awarded more than $500,000 in grants to five organizations to use toward sustainability projects.

The county’s Office of Sustainability, Climate Action & Resilience “created the fund in early 2022 to encourage innovation and provide seed capital for cutting-edge technologies that fight climate change locally through nature-based solutions, carbon dioxide removal and landscape restoration and resilience,” according to a Boulder County news release.

The projects and their funding amounts are:

• Biochar Now, Berthoud, $100,000.
• Boulder Watershed Collective, Boulder, $100,000.
• Drylands Agroecology Research, Longmont, $100,000.
• Ollin Farms, Longmont, $90,000.
• Takachar, Boston, $150,000.

 “We need to kickstart fresh ideas and creative solutions to tackle the climate crisis and these grant recipients will do that locally,” Boulder County commissioner Marta Loachamin said in a prepared statement. “Grounding innovation and technology development through a place-based approach can advance equity and amplify outcomes that respond best to our community’s needs, which is why the county selected projects that will have positive local impacts and community benefits. We look forward to seeing this work make a difference right here in Boulder County, and we also look forward to sharing what we learn with our community and with innovators and scientists around the world.”