This is how we
interpreted your RFP.
What would you change
to make it your dream?

ABI team — thank you for the opportunity to respond to the RFP for Phase 1 of the Biochar Atlas. We're submitting because the work fits us exactly: a long-term, public-facing, scientifically grounded decision support tool for NRCS staff, conservation districts, extension professionals, agronomists, and farmers, built to absorb four follow-on modules without re-platforming.

SunshineHouse is a small consulting practice focused on building maintainable, owner-controlled web applications for non-profit and federally-funded clients in agriculture, climate, and the built environment. We work the way the science works: ground-truthed, peer-reviewable, and careful with what we ship.

We have read the RFP carefully — including the federal procurement requirements under 2 CFR 200 — and are prepared to perform under the resulting fixed-fee, milestone-paid contract. This proposal addresses each item in §8 of the RFP in the order ABI requested.

Our relevant experience clusters in three areas Phase 1 depends on:

Short bios for key personnel are in §08; they do not count toward the 10-page narrative limit per the RFP.

The prototype submitted alongside this proposal is the literal answer to "what would Phase 1 look like." What follows describes the approach we carry into the funded engagement.

The Atlas Tool's primary journey is exposed as a stepper at all times so NRCS staff can see where they are and what's left. The map is always present; it shows the site, then later the nearest 5 producers, so it serves both site selection and sourcing context within one view.

The visual language is taken from biochar.org: deep aubergine (#45173D) as primary, amber (#FFC160) as accent, soft mint (#BAE8C2) for affirmative states, dark olive (#364500) for ecological signals. Typography is Crimson Pro for display and Inter for body — exactly the pairing on the ABI site. The result reads as familiar to an ABI evaluator on first load: this is your brand, not ours.

Accessibility. Color contrast tested to WCAG AA. Keyboard navigation across every interactive surface. Form labels and live regions for scoring updates. All chart and badge information available in plain text. Independent accessibility audit included in the Phase 1 fee.

The home page's five-module roadmap is the architecture's contract with itself. The /producers page is a working Phase 2 preview built from the Phase 1 data layer — proof the architecture absorbs the next phase without rework.

• Phase 2 — Sourcing Module. Public supplier directory with structured analytical data per material, location-aware search, ABI's validation workflow. Free core; optional paid marketplace on a separate domain per RFP §7.
• Phase 3 — Learning Center. Public fact sheets, longer publications, videos, and gated CEU experiences. MDX with versioned editorial workflow; gated content via single sign-on tied to ABI's chosen identity provider.
• Phase 4 — NRCS Implementation Module. Plan and price applications under NRCS CPS 336. Cost estimates compared to EQIP / CSP / RCPP incentive rates. Phase 1 outputs feed directly into the implementation worksheet.
• Phase 5 — Deployment Database. Long-term field-trial tracking with public summary views and secure detailed-data access. Same PostgreSQL backbone, row-level security, audit logging.

ABI's option to award subsequent phases via sole-source justification or separate procurement (RFP §2) is fully respected.

• Production hosting. Vercel under an ABI-controlled account, on biocharatlas.com or other ABI-controlled domain. DNS, environment variables, analytics keys owned by ABI from day one. Atomic deploys, instant rollback.
• Staging / beta. Preview deployments per Pull Request automatically; stable staging URL for ABI / ARS review at each milestone.
• Source control. GitHub organization owned by ABI; contractor commits to that organization. All access revocable at handoff with no loss of continuity.
• Analytics. Privacy-preserving (no PII, no third-party trackers).
• Documentation. README, architecture doc, admin workflow guide, methodology doc tying scoring functions to scientific sources.
• Training. Two recorded walkthroughs (developer onboarding + admin workflows) plus one live training session with ABI staff before post-launch maintenance opens.
• Post-launch maintenance / bug-fix window. 90 days included in Phase 1.

Phase 1 uses no proprietary components owned by SunshineHouse. Every piece of the funded core — application source code, ABI/ARS algorithm implementations, infrastructure configuration, designs, documentation — is delivered as work-for-hire and owned outright by ABI per RFP §7.

Third-party open-source dependencies are MIT or compatible licenses (Next.js, React, MapLibre GL JS, Tailwind CSS). A complete dependency manifest is delivered with the codebase.

The Biochar Atlas engagement is delivered by a three-person Sunshine House team across technical build, strategy and monetization, and design and content operations. Ren is the named principal and the named contact for ABI and USDA ARS throughout the engagement.

Principal & named key person

Ren Elliot Lovejoy

they / them · founder, Sunshine House

Ren is the principal and named key person on this engagement. They lead all client-facing work, architecture decisions, and the day-to-day build, and will be the named contact for ABI and USDA ARS throughout.

Ren has spent the last decade as an independent consultant building public-facing digital tools, decision-support platforms, and AI-driven workflows for clients in agriculture, civic technology, and community development. Sunshine House is the studio they founded in 2016 to do that work under one roof. Through Sunshine House, Ren architects and ships Next.js applications focused on public-facing decision-support tooling, first-party data architecture, and AI automation that connects research, CRM, and reporting systems.

Ren's biochar credentials are both industry and scientific. They previously served as Marketing Coordinator and IT Support at the U.S. Biochar Initiative — predecessor to ABI — and currently serve as Marketing & Technology Officer for Atlantic Biocarbons (ABC), a small East Coast biochar consulting firm. They hold a Permaculture Design Certification from the Permaculture Institute of Australia.

From 2016 to 2020, Ren worked as an Environmental Scientist at Skelly and Loy, leading TMDL stream restoration, wetland delineation, and geomorphic survey projects across Maryland for state agencies and private engineering firms. They built sUAS-based delineation workflows and automated reporting pipelines that reduced analysis time by more than eight hours per stream mile — direct experience translating federally regulated environmental science into clear, field-usable digital outputs for NRCS and conservation- district audiences.

Education · B.A. Anthropology & Geography · Permaculture Design Certification, Permaculture Institute of Australia

Strategy, Marketing & Monetization Consultant

Sean Adams

Sunshine House · Founder, Hustle & Grow

Sean Adams brings two decades of brand building, digital growth leadership, and small-business entrepreneurship to the Sunshine House team for the Biochar Atlas engagement.

Most recently, Sean served as Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing & eCommerce at Utz Brands, where he led a newly created digital function across omnichannel, DTC, retail media, social, design, and B2B marketing for one of the largest snack portfolios in North America. He built the role from a clean sheet — joining as Vice President in 2019, promoted to SVP in 2022 — and his prior Utz tenure spanned Trade Marketing and Revenue Management, Business Transformation, and Human Resources & Strategic Initiatives, giving him an unusually broad operational view of how growth functions sit inside a mid-cap public company. Earlier in his career, Sean founded Rising Sun Snacks, Inc., with direct hands-on experience launching and operating a small brand.

Sean is founder and president of Hustle & Grow, which builds AI Operating Systems for growing businesses — installing automated lead capture, instant response, follow-up sequences, and pipeline dashboards that increase revenue efficiency without expanding headcount. The agency operates on a "Software With A Service" model: systems are not just sold, but installed, configured, supported, and staff are trained to operate them reliably over time. The emphasis on durable infrastructure over one-off engagements maps cleanly to the long-term maintenance posture the Biochar Atlas requires.

On the Biochar AtlasSean will advise on launch positioning to the NRCS and agricultural-professional audience, user-acquisition and engagement strategy across the proposed module phases, and the optional paid-tier and marketplace monetization concepts that could support long-term platform sustainability while preserving the free public core envisioned in this RFP.

Education · B.S. Management, Penn State University · MBA, Indiana University Southeast

Principal Designer

Julia Reese

Sunshine House · Chicago, IL

Julia Reese is a multidisciplinary designer and content strategist. Her practice spans visual and brand design, web design, motion graphics and photography, digital content strategy, SEO, and the structured-content operations that keep large public-facing platforms accurate and discoverable over time.

As a designer, Julia's portfolio includes end-to-end brand website builds, digital asset library architecture, motion graphics, photography, and creative across email, SMS, social, and long-form video. She has led DAM integration rollouts for multi-brand teams and built creative production pipelines that take concepts from storyboard through delivery while staying disciplined to brand systems.

On the content operations side, Julia has managed digital shelf programs at the scale of hundreds of SKUs across multiple brands and retailers — work that demands rigorous metadata governance, SEO-aware authoring, compliance checks, and structured data refresh workflows. She currently leads digital shelf eCommerce marketing at Conagra Brands, with prior multi-disciplinary digital experience at Utz Brands and earlier editorial work covering organic farming and food systems for The Odyssey Online.

On the Biochar AtlasJulia will contribute visual and UX design across the Atlas's public-facing presence, digital content strategy and SEO, content operations and DAM architecture for the Learning Center, and structured-content workflows for the Sourcing Module and Deployment Database as those phases come online.

For Phase 1, additional independent specialists may be engaged for the accessibility audit (WCAG AA review prior to public launch) and optional facilitation of NRCS staff beta sessions. All subcontractors will be disclosed and approved by ABI before engagement, consistent with 2 CFR 200.

Seven months of build through January 2027 production launch, plus a 90-day post-launch maintenance window. Each milestone gates a payment percentage (see §10).

Principal allocation: ~50–60% time July through December, tapering to 10–20% during post-launch. Independent UX and accessibility reviews scheduled around staging and pre-launch milestones.

Inclusive of all labor, subcontracted support, third-party software for SunshineHouse's use, and the 90-day post-launch maintenance window. Hosting fees on ABI's preferred provider are paid directly by ABI on ABI-controlled accounts.

The fixed fee covers everything itemized in RFP §5 (kickoff/discovery, IA/UX, the desktop-first public tool, ABI/USDA data integration, suitability logic implementation, scenario comparison, staging/beta, analytics, admin workflow, documentation, training, and the post-launch window).

Per RFP §7, the core Atlas must remain free; paid tiers must be additive and on separate domains. The strongest candidates for future paid layers we would design in close coordination with ABI:

• Sourcing marketplace add-on. Paid quote-request and purchase-orchestration layer built atop the free Sourcing Module. Suppliers pay a transaction fee; buyers pay nothing.
• NRCS proposal assistant. Premium tool that walks producers and TSPs through preparing CPS 336 applications, with cost vs. payment-rate optimization. Subscription priced for service providers, not farmers.
• Enhanced decision-support. Crop-and-season-specific scenario tooling for high-value applications (specialty crops, premium horticulture, carbon project planning).

None of these are part of Phase 1. Noted only because the RFP invited the discussion.

• Open and fair competition. No proposer-side restrictions. No geographic or other preferences requested.
• Small / minority / women-owned business participation. [REPLACE: status as applicable.] Subcontracted support will favor qualified small, minority-owned, and women-owned firms where competitive on quality and price.
• Conflict of interest. Per 2 CFR 200.318(c), Sunshine House discloses two items for ABI's consideration. First, Sunshine House principal Ren Elliot Lovejoy previously served as Marketing Coordinator and IT Support at the U.S. Biochar Initiative — ABI's predecessor organization — from [DATE RANGE]. Ren has no current employment, compensation, or governance relationship with ABI. Sunshine House does not view this prior tenure as impairing the integrity of this procurement; we disclose it in the interest of transparency and leave the determination to ABI. Second, Ren currently serves as Marketing & Technology Officer for Atlantic Biocarbons, a small East Coast biochar consulting firm. ABC is not a biochar producer and is not a proposed beneficiary of any Phase 1 deliverable. Population of the Phase 2 Sourcing Module's public producer directory will be the responsibility of ABI staff, not Sunshine House — providing a clean structural separation from any future supplier-data curation decisions. Sunshine House discloses no other current or recent business relationships with ABI, USDA ARS, or USDA NRCS that could affect this procurement.
• Debarment / EEO / Byrd / telecom. SunshineHouse confirms it is not debarred, suspended, or excluded from federal awards under 2 CFR Part 180. Compliance with EO 11246, 31 U.S.C. 1352, and 2 CFR 200.216. Required certifications executed at contracting.
• Records, audit, acknowledgment. Records maintained per 2 CFR 200.334; reasonable access to ABI, USDA, federal auditors. All deliverables and publications acknowledge USDA NRCS funding.

We built a working concept because ABI deserves to see, not just read, what we propose to deliver. Every page of the prototype maps to a part of this proposal. The Atlas Tool clicks real SSURGO data. The Methodology page makes the science boundary explicit. The Producers page is a working preview of Phase 2. This proposal narrative is itself a print-styled web page in the live application.

We would be delighted to deepen any of it in interviews the week of June 1 — and just as glad to be told what to change.