We are people who are generating our own free energy out of trash, while also helping our climate. We are doing this at home, in our community centers, on our homesteads, in rural areas and in cities.
Basically, everywhere!
The "Succeed with Home-Scale Biogas" program is full of easily accessible and fun lessons, and live coaching that will show you all you need to know to design, build, and take care of your biogas system. Anyone can take this course.
If you get all fired up about biogas and want to teach my innovative curriculum in your community in a way that is engaging and relevant to your culture and context, The "Biogas Educator Certificate Program" is for you. You will learn my proven participatory design and teaching approach, and receive a license to use my "done for you" curriculum, so you can get right to teaching.
Other courses that deepen your knowledge and application of biogas will also be coming online.
People who enroll in courses become members of the Biogas Education Hub.
I'm all about accessible, practical applications of biogas.
I operate my own biogas system in my homestead. I cook with the gas, and I use fertilizer to grow vegetables hydroponically that I sell in a CSA.
I am a professional educator on a mission to take dry technical biogas trainings and make them engaging and relevant for your context, so that they become systems that work for you, and our living planet over the long-term.
I also present and consult about biogas, permaculture, and more. Learn more about me at kathypuffer.com.
Kathy has been recognized at the World Biogas Summit for bringing small-scale-biogas solutions to communities and women around the world. At the annual awards gala in Birmingham, UK, on March 29, 2023, Kathy received the Women in Biogas award, and this Biogas Education Hub was highly commended with second place in the Educational Campaign of the Year category.
We built out the first iteration of the Hub by creating “Succeed with Small-Scale Biogas” foundational course, which sold out! This class is now vetted, and ready to welcome the sixth cohort.
The course and community is the culmination of key insights from my many years of practical experience as a designer, user, and teacher of small-scale biogas solutions; so it's not theory, nor one-size fits all.
You work through the modules at your own pace, but you can also get LIVE answers to your questions so you feel confident applying what you learn. Kathy's "Office Hours" take place every two weeks on Wednesdays over three months, so that you have support and incentive to DO THIS, instead of shelving yet another online course.
To accommodate time differences, because our attendees are from all over the world, we will alternate evening and morning sessions. New content is presented in the evening office hours and will be repeated in the morning time slot so that everyone gets the full experience of the course, LIVE.
For example, in the 6th cohort, we met at 7:00pm EST on 8/28, 9/ll, 9/25, 10/9, 10/23, 11/6, 11/20, and 12/4. This time slot works well for people in the United States and Asia, Australia, etc.
We also met at 6:00am EST on 9/4, 9/18, 10/2, 10/16, 10/30, 11/13, 11/27, and 12/11. This time slot works well for early risers on the east coast of the United States and for Europe and Africa.
New dates and times for our live sessions for the 7th Cohort starting in January 2025 will be announced soon.
And yes, sessions are recorded and posted for you to watch if you can't join us.
The program includes a year of membership in the Hub Network where you get 24/7 access to a community of other small-scale biogas enthusiasts and special events.
You will also have a 30+ page workbook to guide you through the design process for creating the biogas project of your dreams.
Class bundles are reasonably priced:
Click on the course description at the bottom of this page read all more details and sign up.
Other courses are overly technical. The goal of this course is for you to feel confident in designing, building, operating, and maintaining a small-scale biogas system.
Other courses require you to pass a test, but we don't. Because I generate and uses biogas daily, I know that success = a working system that works for you.
Other courses are tied to a particular biogas system; I help you evaluate systems so you can choose the system that works best for your unique situation.
Other courses sell you the technological know-how about a biogas system. Instead, as a permaculture teacher and designer, I show you how to design your biogas system for your unique context, and integrate it into other Whole Systems design.
Other courses treat all end-users the same. In my field experience, I’ve seen systems designed so they are too tall for the petite person feeding the system, or built without adequate training for long-term success. As a woman, mother, and busy professional who uses biogas in my daily life, and as an educator who specializes in designing hacks for folks who are differently abled, I help you design your system with ergonomics, lifestyle, and local resources in mind.
The course is designed to teach you the foundations of biogas, whether you
If you want to build a small-scale system for your home, homestead, or community, you will feel well-resourced in this community and course.
If you want to build an industrial-scale biogas system, this isn't the course for you. I believe that the many benefits from small-scale biogas multiplied in many homes and communities become a powerful virtual feedback loop that leads towards resilience, while also addressing large-scale issues, like climate mitigation and adaptation, so that's my focus.
Here's an overview of the info-packed, engaging modules in the syllabus:
Click on the plan below for even more details.
Pro-tip... payments on iPhones are higher, so that's the price difference you will see below. You might want to enroll when you are on your computer.
If you live in New York state, please use the "NY State" payment option, which includes sales tax.
Also, regardless of the smartphone you use, it works best to first set up your account and password via a browser, then text yourself the app.
How I generate income — through selling vegetables that I grow in a hydroponics system using bioslurry from my biodigester.
Buying / Building stoves — There are many "hacks" for biogas stoves that I couldn't fit into the already packed "Foundations" course, but in this mini-course, I show you everything I've learned and used in many contexts in many countries.
Community-based solutions — I've worked in places where a biodigester makes the most sense as a community endeavor. Participatory design is a unique challenge, but if done well, creates fantastic outcomes. The skills developed also enable the community to best navigate operating a biogas system and its income-producing enterprises together. This course will be FREE to people in global majority nations with financial challenges, and/or people to whom reparations are owed in industrialized nations.
Biogas and sanitation for human health and wellbeing — Biogas can be generated from animal waste, so combining digesters with human toilet systems is a no-brainer. We talk about how this can be done in ways to prevent disease and increase the health of humans, our watersheds, our soil, and more.
Biogas Educator Certificate Program — Teach my innovative curriculum in your community in a way that is engaging and relevant to your culture and context. You will learn my proven participatory design and teaching approach, and receive a license to use my "done for you" curriculum, so you can get right to teaching.