Interning at Amata Green: Summary of My First Few Weeks as an Intern

by Layla Horeff

My name is Layla Horeff and I am a Sustainability Intern at Amata Green for the Spring 2021 semester. I am currently a junior at Loyola University Maryland pursuing a Business Management degree with a minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies, interning here to gain valuable work experience while helping a company who shares similar values to mine. With the company, I have been researching various questions in order to bring them closer to reaching their goal of finalizing a business plan for a new project in Andalucia, Spain.

My first big project was to research which fertilizers work best for growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, aubergine, and green beans. This was important as these are the most grown greenhouse crops in Almería, Spain, one area where one of Amata Green’s projects will be located. 

This was small in comparison to my next project where I worked to answer the question, “How much revenue could the company earn in carbon credits from the carbon market?” Being able to make a case for biochar as a source of revenue from carbon markets is important because it will help prospective investors understand the many benefits to be realized from being a producer of biochar. 

In order to answer this question, I contacted professionals from Carbonfuture and Puro.earth to help me gain knowledge. I also consulted with two other Amata Green interns to help answer clarifying questions the two companies had asked me. A professional from Puro.earth asked me to share a Life Cycle Assessment of our biochar to see how much carbon was in it. After consulting with Ms. Martin, she informed me that we did not yet have one since we aren’t producing biochar yet, but that it would be a good project for me to investigate. 

I then met with Hannes Junginger, CEO of Carbonfuture, to further discuss how this company places value on biochar made from other companies. I then started gathering technical information with help from another intern, to estimate the carbon content of the biochar we will be making with our most probable feedstock. This finally allowed me to come up with an estimate of how much revenue we could make from our biochar on the carbon markets. 

As I begin to wrap up the first half of this internship, I am able to reflect on both the hard and soft skills I have gained. I am not only helping the company get one step closer to reaching their goals, but I have learned how to work with others as well as alone to meet my personal deadlines. By conducting research and reaching out to professionals in the field, I have gained insight about what it is like to work in the real world outside of my college career.  Stay tuned for an in-depth, technical synthesis from some of my other work at Amata Green dealing with specific materials as pyrolysis feedstock.  

To learn more about Amata Green’s European Biochar project, visit: www.amatagreen.com/investors 

To learn more about Puro Earth Carbon Removal visit them at: https://puro.earth/

To learn more about Carbon Future visit them at: https://www.carbonfuture.earth/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ms. Layla Horeff is a junior at Loyola University Maryland where she is pursuing a Business Management degree with a minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. Ms. Horeff’s interests with sustainability stem from volunteering with the Magothy River Association and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where she worked on oyster and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) restoration which fueled an interest in sustainable agriculture. The fall of her junior year was supported to be spent abroad in Berlin, Germany studying green business development, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Horeff’s international plans are now centered around interning with Amata Green and working on the company’s European project, remotely. As a part of her internship at Amata Green, Ms. Horeff will work on projects related to the company’s European-based sustainability venture and will be researching topics related to international business relations, climate change, carbon markets, and European agriculture. You can find Ms. Horeff on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/layla-horeff-3a7334172/