Even mid-pandemic, professional haulage has held the fabric of North American trade together by delivering essential goods from one side of the continent to another. With over 300 state-of-the-art trucks and trailers and around the same number of expert employees, this tightly-knit family firm, headquartered in Stoney Creek, Ontario, delivers when clients’ timelines and budgets matter.

Keeping ahead of trends and ensuring that its clients’ logistics are optimized according to the latest standards and technology are only two of the complications that this company navigates with ease. “I don’t like comfort zones, which is why, as a company, we like taking on new challenges,” says President Geoff Joseph. As one of Canada’s 500 fastest-growing companies for four consecutive years, the firm proves that this attitude provides a sweet spot where prosperity and innovation balance.

At the heart of its drive for perpetual improvement is a commitment to serve its clients well and be accountable. Its employees have access to the best technology available to the industry, making Joseph Haulage a leader in its field. This is important as haulage is not simply about moving goods from point A to point B and beyond; instead, the quality and efficiency of its behind-the-scenes processes set this company apart from its competitors.

It is well known for moving soil, waste materials, and heavy and light oils throughout Ontario, the Great Lakes, the New York to Pennsylvania corridor, and further afield. February 1st, 2021, welcomes another new location in London, Ontario. When asked what makes the company so successful, Joseph is candid about the importance of getting the basics right. “We are big at showing up on time, with a professionally trained, uniformed driver in a clean truck. [This includes] achieving budgets and timelines to ensure our customers don’t face unforeseeable penalties and delays,” he says.

The company had strong growth in 2020, despite the difficulties many businesses faced. Its recent acquisition of Bergland Transport, a company perfectly united with Joseph Haulage’s values, has allowed it to move into the agricultural bulk transport sector. The company also secured a five-year waste haulage contract with Waste Management, Inc., the parent company of Waste Management of Canada.

Joseph Haulage has invested in a staggering 27 new custom trucks in collaboration with Paccar Peterbilt for drivers who were not able to invest in their own new vehicles. The purchase includes trailers from Titan Sales, and drivers could select options for their vehicles according to their needs and tastes. Titan Sales President Rob Ganiec and Joseph have worked together for over 25 years, and this project was a continuation of this longstanding relationship.

Changing economic situations and many issues have been overcome or adapted to by the firm through a careful balance of old and new. Tough times have given the management team the wisdom to grant employees the space needed to excel and the freedom in which to explore new technology that can enhance service.

Part of the company’s approach to recession-proofing the business is to focus on moving materials and substances that are always available for transportation and to ensure that its clients’ values always match its own. This tactic has seen the company flourish in even the hardest market drops. “We always make sure that we align ourselves with customers who share our values,” says Joseph.

The company’s divisions are structured to give clients access to all of its multi-modal transport services without having to jump through office bureaucracy. To ease flow between divisions, each department is staffed by a manager and logistics team, supported by a finance department and administrative team.

The company has several divisions, each of which focuses on a unique sector. The dumping division deals with sand, gravel, aggregates, soil, salt, compost, and hazardous waste. Its waste division deals with garbage, construction debris, and other waste. Heavy-duty cargo like machinery, roofing products, pre-cast products, lumber, and steel is moved by its flatbed transportation division. The tanker department takes care of liquids like oils, asphalt cement used in road surfaces, petroleum lubricants, and caustic chemicals. It also offers specialized tanker trailers that keep liquids at predetermined temperatures.

Joseph Haulage is a great place to work, and its people are considered its greatest asset. As a result, the company was chosen three years in a row as a ‘Top Fleet Employer’ by industry non-profit group Trucking HR Canada, and it has been on Canada’s list of 500 fastest-growing firms for four years running.

Despite the uncertainty that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, Joseph Haulage merged with Bergland while retaining more than 99 percent of all its staff and making safety a top concern throughout the year. “We make it a priority to adhere to our customers’ safety practices and policies, which are always in line with our safety culture. They also know that we’re reliable, so they’ll often approach one or more of our other divisions as well,” says Joseph.

The company also invests in its people’s futures by providing training and development programs as well as enough space for its managers to develop their skills and talents; there is no micromanagement here. Creativity and contributing ideas are encouraged so one can see why the company’s leadership insists that everyone is on board with the plans for its future development.

This company genuinely cares about its people, and staff members are encouraged to build their relationships independently of the office. Joseph Haulage highlights the importance of a healthy lifestyle for its employees, even renting a basketball court biweekly at a local gym where staff can play together.

There the list of charitable organizations supported by the company is also rather sizeable. Apart from donating over $100,000 to good causes annually, team members receive forty hours of paid volunteer time dedicated to good community causes. “[The paid volunteer time] totals roughly $150,000 in wages,” says Joseph.

“We give our people a lot of opportunity for career advancement. That includes any additional training they want. We always support them financially when it comes to learning,” Josef says. Other benefits include a profit-sharing pension plan.

Alongside great perks, there have been many great projects. These include several of the biggest soil projects around Ontario that moved up to one million loads of earth in very short timeframes. One of its best-known projects happened in preparation for the Pan Am Games of 2015 in Toronto, Canada. This project was so complex that the work was declined by several competitors, but Joseph Haulage made a great success of the contract.

Moving ahead, the company’s growth strategy comprises becoming a nation-wide carrier offering a range of dynamic carrier options including rail, vessel, and traditional methods. Between one to three annual mergers will continue to grow its reach and capabilities. Then, of course, the matter of COVID-19 appears to remain centre stage for the foreseeable future.

To this, Joseph’s response is pragmatic when he quotes motivational public speaker and self-development author Brian Tracy: “The true test of leadership is how you function in a crisis.” What is clear in our conversation is that, for now, the company will continue to put its people before profit. “Our team will remember us for making these tough decisions. We knew we were going to lose millions of dollars [by putting people first] but we were okay with that,” he adds.

Joseph Haulage has seen tremendous growth over the past few years, reaching fourth place in 2018 on the Canadian Business Growth 500 list with an 817 percent growth rate from 2012 to 2017. Through meticulous planning and tenacity, 2020 presented Joseph Haulage with 18 percent growth, despite its acquisitions and not laying off any staff. “We truly believe in the value of our people, and we will never lose sight of that,” says Joseph. For this reason, the company will continue to provide its staff with top-of-the-range tools and equipment.

The post Always on the Move<p class="company">Joseph Haulage Canada</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

“In the last two or three years, we’ve purchased four or five new machines,” says President Craig Bolton. “Every time I bought a new machine, we needed more people because we run 24/7… We had our best year ever… We were growing and still are.”

Originally founded as a custom injection moulding firm, Peninsula has become a one-stop shop offering a comprehensive package of services including consultation, part and mould design, manufacturing, packaging, warehousing, and shipping.

A division called Nova Products makes goods such as pest control devices, spools, hydro components, glass case inserts, recycling containers, and advertising items. Of these, recycling products bring in the most revenue. Nova Products specializes in ‘blue bins’ for paper and plastic recyclables and ‘green bins’ for organic waste and kitchen scraps. These recycling containers are sold to municipalities and other clients across Canada and into the United States.

The Nova Products division is currently working on new wares including a smaller version of its organic green bin and a stackable blue bin. When possible, Nova Products uses recycled plastic for its products.

Like all other North American businesses, Peninsula had to reckon with the advent of COVID earlier this year, followed by lockdown orders. “We didn’t realize at first what category we were going to be classified in, in terms of staying open. It ended up we fit into several categories. We make food packaging products and waste control products. [So, we are] considered an essential service,” notes Bolton.

The virus didn’t hurt business, and company officials were determined not to let it affect staff. To keep everyone safe, a wide-ranging health regime was instituted. “We’re doing the full gamut; there’s a sign-in, health questions, temperature check, distance control, mask-wearing, signage for washing hands. We do as much as we can in the plant. We bought a line of masks and gave them to the employees – masks with our logo on them,” he says.

Peninsula Plastics has a decades-old lineage. A Bolton family friend who ran a small injection shop in Georgetown, Ontario decided to retire and offered the shop to Bolton’s father, who bought the business in 1976. Along the way, the company moved to Fort Erie and the corporate name was changed to Peninsula Plastics to reflect Fort Erie’s location on the Niagara Peninsula.

The fledgling firm had three small machines, while staff consisted of “my father and maybe one other person,” Bolton recalls.

Initially, the company focused only on custom injection moulding. “In injection moulding, there are people who just won’t take the small jobs. We were the opposite. We took every small job that just came up and I think we built our business on that. No job was too small,” he states.

Over the years, the firm’s reputation grew and so did the business. Bolton took over in 1989 following his father’s retirement. It continued to expand, adding the Nova Products division in 2010. Bolton, who is currently Peninsula’s sole owner, has two sons who work for the business. For now, the plan is to maintain its status as a family-run business.

The company treats its employees well, which encourages loyalty and hard work. “We offer full benefits, including dental. We have an RSP program. You can join, and [we] match the money you put into it. We have a bonus program. During COVID, at the beginning of the lockdown, we offered all our employees COVID pay for a few months. We promote from within; we use a seniority system and try to keep things as fair as possible. We also try to have a pizza day every other month, and if there’s a special occasion, we celebrate it. We also just put in all-new washrooms and a big, beautiful cafeteria with comfy chairs,” he says.

Since employees tend to stick around, Peninsula boasts a great deal of workforce wisdom when it comes to injection moulding and plastic part manufacturing.

“There’s a lot of knowledge here now. When my dad had his shop, I worked there after school. I joined in 1989 and learned the industry very well. A lot of people appreciate the help that we give. We really bend over backwards for a lot of people,” he says.

Peninsula’s popularity has also been enhanced by its strategy of offering start-to-finish services. The company will consult with customers about products they have in mind and then develop a design using three-dimensional computer-aided design (3D CAD) software.

“People that have an idea to make a product call us. They want to make a plastic part, but there’s a lot more than just wanting to make a part. You have to come up with a CAD design. You have to direct [clients] in the right way to produce a part so it can be made easily as an injection-moulded part,” says Bolton.

The firm currently has thirty-four injection moulding machines – some of them behemoths over 1,500 tons in size – based in a 65,000-square-foot facility. Once a product is created, the company’s packaging options including clamshell, blister, heat sealing, and polyethylene bag packaging, plus labelling.

“We do a lot of custom packaging. I would say most of my custom injection moulding includes [packaging],” he says.

Peninsula also offers logistics services from a 30,000-square-foot warehouse where it stores products and does distribution and pickup. From here, it can take care of brokerage arrangements for customers who want to ship items to American destinations.

To ensure it stays on top of the curve, the company utilizes a comprehensive quality management system that involves frequent audits, extensive documentation, and constant monitoring. It has ISO 9001:2015 and NSF product certification and has employed the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) program. The latter covers everything from equipment maintenance to sanitation and materials storage to ensure that Peninsula produces safe, high-quality food packaging products. The company also implemented the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system to further maintain high-level food packaging safety.

In addition to these measures, the firm recently installed a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system in its offices. “Our ERP system has the quality control aspects built-in,” states Bolton. “Everything about the job is already built into the system.”

The company has embraced other advanced tools as well. Roughly a decade ago, it introduced robotics in its operations. Instead of using human operators to take parts out of machines, the company now relies on robotic arms.

The switch improved worker safety while producing consistent cycle times. “In injection moulding, cycle time is everything,” notes Bolton.

Clearly, all these efforts have paid off, given the sheer scale of the company’s operations. It currently uses over fifty kinds of resins and plastics and hundreds of colours. “We buy railcars full of polypropylene and polyethylene. We’re always three months ahead on purchasing materials,” he says. Moulding materials are kept in silos then piped into the plant when needed.

While business is booming, the pandemic has had a negative impact in other ways. The company used to attend trade shows, for example, to promote the Nova Products division. Company representatives once participated in up to thirty trade shows a year, but since the lockdown, all in-person trade shows have been cancelled.

Most of the company’s promotional efforts are designed to get Nova Product wares “in front of people,” says Bolton. Peninsula does not do much to promote its injection moulding services because there is no need. “I probably haven’t done a trade show on the injection moulding side for at least three or four or five years now. We’re too busy. I’m saying no to work. We’ve been around so long, people know about us,” he explains.

Given how well things are going, he has high hopes for the future. “I think we’re going to probably branch into another product line… [maybe] home organization products. That’s kind of a big thing going on these days. We’re looking at a few other little things. I think that we will also be doing more of our own proprietary line, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to continue with the custom injection moulding. I think we’ll probably look at more options, maybe more machinery, more space, more warehousing,” he states.

The post Keeping Workers Safe and Business Booming<p class="company">Peninsula Plastics</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Founded in 1918, Timber Products not only manufactures a diverse range of wood products — including its signature hardwood plywood — but also owns its own forestland, operates nine manufacturing facilities, and boasts both an international and a nationwide transportation division.

Poised to become a leader in the 10-foot hardwood plywood market in North America with its recent year-long installation of a Meinan lathe at its Yreka, California, facility, Timber Products looks to advance veneer and plywood production through modernization and forward thinking. The lathe investment will help provide the company’s mills with high-quality veneer in the 10-foot line, which translates to more outstanding options for its loyal customers.

“We learned several years ago the importance of the oversized panel, meaning something larger than four by eight has become more critical as kitchens have gotten smaller and taller,” says Doug Clark, Hardwood Sales Manager. “We have the ability to make 10-foot panels at several locations now. It’s an important panel to a lot of our OEM customers that carries a lot of other business along with it.”

The 10-foot press is unique in itself, he adds, and with not many companies offering it, Timber Products stands out a little bit more within the industry. “We’re also getting a 10-foot hardwood plywood manufacturing equipment installed at our Corinth location as well, so we’ll have one on the west and then also on the east for customers,” says Sara Anderson, Sales Manager, West U.S.

The new lathe, a huge, one-of-a-kind project, was manufactured in Japan and is the only one in North America that will peel 10-foot veneer. The Meinan Company — founded more than 60 years ago in Japan — was the first to develop an automated veneer lathe line, and Timber Products will proudly house the first 10-foot lathe line in the world with inline green veneer composing, which eliminates manual stacking of random width veneer.

The installation took close to a year and will soon be operational. “We’ve already manufactured some veneer, just learning a bit how it works, and we should be up and producing veneer for consumption within a couple of weeks,” shares Chris Knowles, Director of Marketing.

Along with continually embracing innovation and technology, Timber Products also focuses on providing stellar customer service, adding value to pieces through the work of skilled engineers and craftspeople dedicated to quality merchandise. With its extensive resources and unique manufacturing capabilities, the company performs all its own lay-ups, sanding, laminating and finishing, employing state-of-the-art equipment. Products are engineered in-house, allowing attention and care to be given from beginning to end.

“Instead of just making plywood panels and shipping them on rail cars or trucks, if there are other things that we can do to get that panel one step closer to either a kitchen cabinet or whatever it is that our customers are building, those are other areas we’re focusing on now,” says Clark. “It might be a cut-to-size part or edge banding for shelving or something along those lines. At several of our facilities we have the ability to take the panel and add some additional value to it. It might be just pre-finishing, but it’s something that makes it a little bit quicker for them to turn that into a receivable.”

The company also places a focus on responsible manufacturing. All the company’s products are created with environmental care at the forefront, working to reduce waste and using no-added formaldehyde (NAF) based resins or ultra-low-emitting formaldehyde (ULEF) resins to reduce emissions. Its award-winning GreenT hardwood plywood is responsibly engineered with an environmentally friendly adhesive, guaranteed to meet the strictest emission regulations in the world.

Timber Products also embraces the conservation of wildlife habitation, striving to develop the quality of wildlife habitat by promoting biodiversity in plant and animal populations. As a major purchaser of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management timber, the company works diligently to promote forest health and also reduces fuels that can cause wildfires. Additionally, Timber Products purchases large quantities of fire-killed timber from U.S. Forest Service lands and removes dead fuels in preparation for new forest growth.

“About 50 percent of the volume that comes into our software veneer mill in Yreka comes off of our own timberland that we own there,” says Knowles. “The other 50 percent comes from the open market. We’re in the unique position that California has the strictest environmental regulations in the United States, and of course we comply with all of those and go above those in some instances to ensure we have sustainability in our supply chain.”

Timber Products is one of the few vertically integrated companies out there that still remains, he adds. Historically, if you look in the wood products sector, vertical integration was the way of the industry, but over time a lot of companies have sold off their timberlands to other organizations. Timber Products still controls a large volume of timberlands, growing trees on its own land from seedlings, managing the timber responsibly, harvesting it and then bringing it to its mills. This vertical integration results in cost savings for clients.

“We also have manufacturing capabilities, and we go all the way through the supply chain to the trucking and logistics,” says Knowles. “We’re pretty uniquely positioned in the industry.”

For a company that has been around for more than 100 years, employees still consider it a “family” run business. The addition of Steve Killgore as the new CEO and Mark Avery as COO means it’s a little bit different than when the longstanding Gonyea family ran it, although they’re still very much involved, says Clark.

“The positive attitude and what Steve Killgore brings every day to the company is amazing, along with his experience not only in hardwood plywood but also in the commodity market, softwood and composite. He’s very valuable to the company, and he’s just a team player.”

Although the past year has been uniquely difficult for companies around the world, the issues Timber Products has faced have not only been pandemic-related, but environmentally challenging as well with the onset of the devastating California wildfires.

“They shut down a significant amount of the supply of softwood veneer to make panels and put pressure on that market, and now prices have increased in everything, partly as a result of that,” says Clark, who adds that dealing with various import obstacles from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia is also extremely tough.

“COVID has definitely also had some negative impacts on us, affecting the way that we do business in general, with limited travel and face-to-face interaction within our own company and with customers,” says Anderson. “It’s just been challenging across the board.”

Personal interactions have been sorely missed during this difficult time, as this century-old company has always relied on building and maintaining relationships, says Clark – something he doesn’t envision changing.

“We go through strong markets and weak markets, and it’s the relationship that we have with our customers that’s the most important,” he says. “We’re not the biggest in any of the categories that we participate in, but to our customers it feels like one-stop shopping, through the relationship that they have with our territory sales managers, with our inside sales folk and with our mill men. We think it’s critically important to get our customers to visit our facilities and really get to know our people.”

In the hardwood plywood business, that part of the business is complex, he adds. With more than 30,000 different SKUs for panels and configurations that can be built, it’s very different than a commodity type market.

“Knowing that a customer is getting the right spec and the right panel and having our folks at the mill getting to know our customers, too, is important. So it really is all about relationships,” says Clark.

Shifting from a family-run business to bringing in professional management has also meant a shift to instilling a different outlook within the company; in the past there was a mentality of sales people focusing specifically on one product line, explains Knowles. One of the things the management team has now done is to have sales people focus more broadly on everything the company does, ensuring that all customers are aware that the company manufactures beyond the one product line.

“We can be, in many ways, that one-stop shop,” he says. “This is particularly something that our distribution customers find of value, because they can come to us and get hardwood plywood, they can get softwood plywood, they can get particle board, or they can get lumber.”

Timber Products also offers an import/wholesale division, so customers can also get their hands on products that Timber doesn’t manufacture. “I think that’s been a really valuable thing for us to adopt over the last couple of years,” Knowles adds.

Looking forward to the coming year and beyond, Timber Products’ manufacturing business is striving to be nimble, says Clark. “Being able to adapt and adjust depending upon market conditions and being able to build the unique panels, such as the 10-foot, or the oddball panels that the large plywood manufacturers don’t want to build is vital. The word nimble comes to mind as we look forward as a company – being able to adapt to different market conditions and changing markets. That’s definitely going to be important.”

The post One-Stop Shopping for One-of-a-Kind Product<p class="company">Timber Products Company</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

It’s true that current economic indicators show fossil fuel and its related industries to be enjoying a probably limited and temporary recovery, but this is but a small blip in a larger trend of shifting away from fossil fuels to renewables.

It is also true that COVID-19 has accelerated this, and, along with governmental actions both large and small, is leading our planet further away from dependency on fossil fuels.

So more than ever, the time has come for businesses to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and energy efficiency, for the betterment of world economies and for our planet’s very survival.

Related to this, an idea that must be immediately put to rest is the mistaken belief that COVID-19 has halted climate change.

The United Nations has concluded that, while there was a momentary slump in global emissions, climate change has not abated. Similar to a single unseasonably cool day in summer, the dip in emissions hardly constitutes a larger trend.

At every level, there is agreement. “Even if we stopped all greenhouse gas emissions today, climate change would continue,” reports an official from Environment Nova Scotia, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The air travel effect
This momentary slump in emissions was the result of decreased travel, as well as lower industrial and commercial power consumption due to lockdowns. Commercial air travel is a heavy user of fossil fuels, and statistics reflect this drop in usage.

November statistics from the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) show that, while air travel dropped dramatically early in the year (from 70,000 daily flights in January to fewer than 25,000 in April) the industry is beginning a recovery, albeit a slow and disjointed one.

This recovery is further supported by recovering stocks in aviation fuel providers such as CVR Energy, which is beginning to rebound from a share price nadir of $10.05 in late October to just over $15 at the time of this writing, according to the NYSE.

Still fueling the world
For companies seeking to do business in the developing world, particularly Asia, fossil fuels continue to drive economic recovery and growth for the present. The continent imports 69 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas exports, a 45 percent increase since 2015 according to an EIA study.

China became the region’s largest importer in 2018, with gas fueling its manufacturing and heavy industry.

Coal is also a readily available source across the continent, with China and Indonesia leading production.

The EIA study also concluded that, if energy needs continue to rise according to current rates (the study makes a projection of a 50 percent increase above current usage by 2050) fossil fuels will likely remain a necessity, with renewables only slightly overtaking them.

Therefore it may be useful for businesses involved in fossil fuel infrastructure, extraction and storage to increasingly focus their marketing activities outside North America, as future opportunities abroad will likely eclipse those at home.

However, financial recovery in fossil fuel stocks and industries may very likely be the result of artificial government intervention and not natural recovery.

The government factor
While governments around the world have engaged and are continuing to engage in financial assistance programs, some more readily than others, these measures appear to be merely propping up the 2019 economy rather than building a post-COVID world. The non-profit Energy Policy Tracker has found that 53 percent of government recovery funds in G20 countries are going towards fossil fuels, an investment of over $240 billion.

By contrast, less than $150 billion has been allocated toward renewables and clean energy. This measure appears to be a stopgap to keep workers employed throughout the ongoing crisis, and neither can nor will continue to prop up the fossil fuel energy sector indefinitely.

With a majority of employees working from home for at least a few days of the working week, we may expect a continuous decline in fossil fuel usage in gasoline, despite it being counterbalanced by more workers using private vehicles as opposed to potentially unsafe public transport.

Enter the EV
While an increasing number of countries are banning the sale of traditional gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles after 2030, the pandemic also appears to be accelerating the proliferation of electric vehicles (EVs).

Electric car manufacturer Tesla’s stock price skyrocketed by over 600 percent last year, though the company was also a heavy recipient of government subsidies. It is therefore possible that investors may see Tesla as a ‘safe harbour’ during economic uncertainty. Still, Tesla is well on track to continue rolling out electrical recharging stations across the United States, as well as newly developed home batteries and capacitors.

A 2019 report from Allied Market Research anticipates the global EV market can grow by almost 23 percent annually through 2027. This would translate to more than $800 billion in annual worldwide EV sales by 2027, with Tesla likely leading the charge.

But while Tesla might currently dominate the market in electric vehicles thanks to pandemic-related recovery funds, other manufacturers are hot on its heels. Ford has pledged $11 billion for EV investments, with General Motors setting aside an even larger $27 billion for electric and autonomous vehicles through 2025. GM anticipates releasing 30 EV variants globally within the next five years.

With this competition accelerating thanks to Tesla’s increased capital, this will equally accelerate the transition from combustion engines to newer electric and hybrid technologies sooner than anticipated.

Cost cutting
Outside of the traditional energy market competitors, cheaper renewable alternatives are continuing to grow during the pandemic as a result of lower demands in terms of manpower and maintenance.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that bioenergy is leading the way, thanks to new technological breakthroughs, and that renewables will account for 40 percent of new energy development over the next five years.

But solar power remains the most effective renewable, both in terms of cost and output; the energy market research firm Wood Mackenzie has concluded solar module prices have dropped by 90 percent over the past ten years, while the cost of building a new conventional plant has increased by 11 percent.

So, blessed with free fuel and cheap hardware the average solar farm is now intentionally designed to produce some 130 percent more power than it can deliver to the grid, with new battery technologies allowing excess power to be stored for peak usage times, or for other uses.

With very few workers required, solar power remains the ideal power source in a world that will likely continue social distancing for the foreseeable future.

Green gets the green light
Finally, the pandemic’s ‘pause’ on global economies requires faster development, as many nations remain committed to net-zero carbon emissions policies. China, for instance, has pledged to reach its CO₂ peak by 2030 and reduce emissions moving forward, as part of the Paris Climate Change Conference.

With China setting an example for its Asian neighbours, it is equally likely that the temporary reliance on fossil fuel will rapidly be replaced with renewable infrastructure and cannot be considered a long-term trend.

Canada has famously declared it a national goal to have net-zero emissions by 2050, and the introduction of nuclear reactors are a part of that plan.

In the United States, meanwhile, the incoming Biden Administration’s elaborate climate plan furthers the ‘Green New Deal,’ promising a revolution in renewable energy.

While it may be easy to dismiss these national aims as empty political promises, policies on a smaller scale are producing more tangible results. Nova Scotia’s Sustainable Development Goals Act, Canada’s most ambitious in this area, promises to lower the province’s emissions by 53 percent below 2005 levels.

Government and industry are working together to meet this goal by investing heavily in tidal, solar, and wind power to further the province’s transition to renewable energy. “In 2021, more than 60 percent of our electricity will come from clean, renewable sources,” says Rachel Boomer, Communications Director for Environment Nova Scotia.

In addition to combating climate change, the downturn resulting from the pandemic is giving new opportunities for economic progression into new industries. “Nova Scotian companies are actively involved in the supply chain for renewable energy,” Ms. Boomer says. “We need this to continue so we [can] build capacity here, and create jobs in our communities.”

The all-change challenge
With governments across the developed and developing world recognizing the rising danger of climate change – made all the more imperative thanks to the time lost to the pandemic – more economies will likely see restrictions to phase out fossil fuels in favour of a long-term transition to renewables.

It is tempting, now more than ever, to be conservative and cling to the familiar – traditional attitudes, traditional infrastructure, traditional industries. But to truly move forward in energy output in a post-COVID world, the time has arrived to move beyond fossil fuels into a new era.

Although current indicators do show small signs of recovery in the fossil fuel sector, these are just islands of “normalcy” in an ocean of change and the message remains clear.

While the economy may have slowed thanks to the pandemic, climate change has not. If our species intends to remain committed to adapting to its effects and continuing to meet rising energy needs, we must adopt renewable energy in lieu of fossil fuels on a completely new scale.

It is now up to us to meet this challenge.

The post From ‘Back to Normal’ to a New Frontier<p class="company">How COVID-19 is Accelerating the Decline of Fossil Fuels</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

“People often ask, how long before we go back? But the only answer is, longer than I thought,” spokesman for the air-system manufacturer Bruce Wendel says. “But the U.S. was a big growth area; it was so good to reach that goal, then [the pandemic] happened and we got locked out.”

Allied Blower has been providing services in the areas of dust control, industrial ventilation, and pneumatic conveyance since 1974. The company also supplies filter bags and parts, gas cleaning and volatile organic compound (VOC) control. The company deals in combustible dust removal, wood pellets and biomass and spark detection and arrest.

It’s an impressive list of services and features. As well, Wendel says, Allied’s management have done everything that could be done to minimize economic effects of the coronavirus. The result is that Allied was in the fortunate position to do more for employees than some other companies.

“When the pandemic was becoming an issue in March, we were proactive about it,” Wendel says. “We had people tracking themselves, we quickly downsized, had people working at home – some on reduced salary – rather than put them on layoff. Our goal was to balance Allied’s financial viability with people’s needs as individuals – we didn’t want to lay everyone off, but it was tough.”

And, several months later?

“We’re hanging on. Business isn’t really coming back fully yet and the business that is coming back is being run in a way that you can tell – people aren’t really certain about how COVID will impact it.”

Help by strategic partnership
“You have to assume there’s going to be some type of pent-up demand, or a surge, but it is difficult to tell,” Wendel says. “We’re in a position that no one has been in, so it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen. When there’s a vaccine, it’ll come back to normal, and I think that’s what has to happen, but normal won’t be normal for a long time!”

When industry does open up some more, Allied Blower intends to follow the success formula it created through strategic partnerships, which have been an important part of operations. The company is partnered with other companies, such as Air Cure Incorporated, to complement its own products and services.

Air Cure is a baghouse filter technology company that supplies proprietary parts for baghouses. Then there are others, such as Albarrie, which manufactures non-woven filter fabrics and bags used in baghouse filters, and Fargus GreCon, which supplies spark detection and extinguishing systems used to prevent silo dust explosions and fires.

Strategic partnerships are very important to Allied, according to Wendel. “We wanted to make it better for us and for our clients, and some things you can’t do in-house,” he says. “We found quality, reliable partners, and we developed relationships with those partners.”

Steadying the revenue stream
These partnerships go a long way toward providing a steady and more substantial revenue stream, as well as ensuring the success of the other companies.

In deciding which ones to partner with, Allied looks at which companies it already works with in some capacity, whether in providing services or purchasing products. Wendel says that if Allied only deals with a company once a year, there’s no point.

“But if we use them more frequently, or a vendor’s goods are mission critical we recognize the opportunity and we’ll approach them,” he says. “There are actually one or two we’re looking at now, but we haven’t really made a decision. I don’t think we’ll get there soon – because right now everyone is hunkered down – but we have hope for the future.”

Allied also operates a number of service centres, which Wendel says are an important aspect of business.

“The idea is to be close to our customers and to support those service centres with a larger manufacturing centre,” he says. “The centres provide a high level of customer service and they can support larger projects with manpower and manufacturing resources.”

Building on training
A big part of looking to the future is the training and facilitation of the workforce. Allied outsources a lot of its training – whether for apprenticeships or management positions – to local educational facilities. To encourage personal growth, the company shoulders the cost of training when employees want to further their careers.

Wendel and the rest of the Allied Blower team are noticeably proud that a would-be tradesperson can join the staff as a 20-year-old apprentice and work up to a management position in his or her 30s or 40s, with company-provided help along the way.

“It’s important to us to make sure there are career paths for our people,” he says. “We want people to find a way to stay within the organization and fulfill their career goals. Some end up being a foreman, some might move into the office, but with different training programs.”

Wendel explains the different training paths and programs for different positions. This is a direct result of the company developing specific training programs for each specific skill, tool, software, or estimating technique. And employees who are ear-marked for management positions are sent to a university for leadership courses and project management training.

It’s all about attracting and keeping good people who will guide Allied Blower into the future.

Super safety
And of course, safety is paramount. Allied Blower trains all employees in the relevant safety protocols and environments, like working underground, at height, or working with chemicals. It keeps track of safety statistics and near misses. Wendel said it’s more than just dropping a book of safe practices in front of a worker and expecting him or her to read it.

“We all need to have the same mindset. No one is in too big a hurry, or no job is too skinny on margin, to be safe. It effects how we view owning this business, no one in management wants to send someone home with injuries.”

Situated in British Columbia, Allied is well able to attract workers in the field. Gone are the days when education meant university-only to young people just starting out. Thanks to a fair proportion of the economy in Western Canada relying on resource extraction, Western Canadian governments have developed the education systems for those who wish to become skilled tradespersons – it hasn’t been uncool to seek work in the trades for a number of years, and companies like Allied are able to reap the benefits.

Wendel said operations relating to pneumatic conveyance are probably busiest because so many industries make use pneumatic conveyance. As a result of that, dust control gets busy as well.

“Those two go together like toast and butter. What happens is a company’s process will generate dust or residual material, it is collected and pneumatically conveyed to a dust collector – and then have to convey it somewhere else,” Wendel says. “Filter bags support dust collection; each thing we do makes the next thing we do busier. It works well.”

To the future
But that’s when times are normal. And just as when times are normal, Allied has some long-term goals.

“I think we’ll double our size by replicating our Canadian footprint in the U.S.,” he says.

But moving forward with everyone healthy, physically and financially, is the ultimate goal given what’s happening right now, Wendel says in conclusion.

For more information, visit Allied Blower at its web page, Alliedblower.com.

The post Looking Boldly Beyond<p class="company">Allied Blower</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

National Waste Partners continues to grow and evolve as Bestige Holdings LLC shepherds it to greater success. In 2017, J-Mec, the premier waste and recycling equipment provider in the Midwest, joined the family and its founder, Jim Mechler, stayed on and is currently Senior Vice President of Operations for all companies.

“J-Mec has always been about customer service, innovation, and growth. The vision of Bestige and National Waste Partners was the perfect fit for us,” he said. “Leveraging the resources of Bestige, we are able to expand our wealth of knowledge and experience to other parts of the country. Our national coverage is definitely what sets us apart.”

Most recently, the company acquired GK Industrial Refuse Systems (GKI) to expand its already strong portfolio. A market leader in the Pacific Northwest and a natural fit for National Waste Partners, Tacoma-based GKI specializes in waste equipment sales, rentals, and service.

Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, National Waste Partners has branch locations in Chicago, Wisconsin, Alabama, and Washington, DC to provide instillation, refurbishment, and repair services. “We have coverage across the U.S.,” says Vice President of Sales, Gary Brooks. The company’s current subsidiaries – CRA, ACS, J-Mec, and GKI – boast extensive reach, but they can’t service all customers, so National Waste Partners has teamed up with other service providers to handle regions beyond the company’s geographical footprint. “We’ve got close to 200 service provider partners that we work with to cover the areas that aren’t densely populated for us,” Brooks says.

Wherever the location or whatever the situation, the team makes it a priority to give customers the individualized care they deserve. This means paying attention to what the customer is saying, rather than slapping a one-size-fits-all answer onto each problem. “One of the big things that sets us apart is we listen to what the customer needs,” Brooks says. “It’s more of a consultative approach. We don’t necessarily come in saying we have all the answers. Our first step is to listen and to see what the customer’s situation is so we can bring them a solution.”

The individualized service doesn’t stop there. “We also offer custom solutions,” says Brooks. “The applications are so unique.” The uninitiated may think all compactors are the same, but this simply is not true. Each customer has a specific need that needs a specific solution. “A compactor is not a compactor is not a compactor,” Brooks explains. “They start out the same, but how you apply them and install them is a completely different discussion. And with our in-house fabrication capability we can fabricate just about anything you can dream up to fit or work with your application.”

How does the customer know what they are getting? How can they judge the quality and reliability of a National Waste Partners’ product or service? The team recognized that customers deserve to be fully informed so they developed a system of measurement. “From my experience this is a very informal industry,” says CEO David Myles. “There’s a lot of discussion around certain things, but most of the industry relies on just talking about it and not really on a lot of numbers. So one of the first things we tried to do was say, ‘what is the uptime and what is the lifecycle of some of the equipment?’ Just to understand what the bar is.” The team has been working with manufacturers to get the answers and has “started measuring almost everything that we do,” Myles says. “And that’s been very insightful for us as an organization.”

The team measures everything, from how many times they make service visits and how often a specific model breaks down, to their service response time and whether or not the problem is resolved on the first service visit. “I think we are pioneering that effort,” Brooks says.

This is important information because reliability is crucial in the waste management industry. “When a compactor is down it’s usually down at the wrong time – like at a hotel, when they’re having a huge event,” Myles says. “Once it breaks down bad things happen as far as garbage everywhere and also odor and pest control issues.” Having clear data to back the company’s promises gives customers peace of mind. “That’s been an important distinction in growth for us as a company,” he says. “When we say something we want to be able to back it up with numbers.”

Another way the team builds trust is by readily admitting when they miss the mark during a service call. “It’s not always evident what’s broken, so people make mistakes,” Myles says. “Everybody makes mistakes.” The key is to address the error right away and focus on a speedy resolution. “You’ve got to make sure that you trust employees to admit they made a mistake. Mistakes don’t get cheaper over time; they get more expensive. So the earlier you admit a mistake the cheaper it is to resolve.” And the team is confident they can resolve whatever mistake has been made. “Everything in my mind is fixable,” says Myles.

The team is also transparent about their capabilities – they only promise what they know they can deliver. “We try not to overcommit,” Myles explains. “We aren’t all things to all people. We can’t do everything. We can’t get a compactor to Durango Colorado in twelve hours. We can’t go to remote areas and do certain things, but we can service almost anything within our service area. So the trust comes in knowing your capabilities, letting your employees tell you when something is wrong, and then, with the customers, admitting when you make a mistake.”

National Waste Partners owns its equipment, which helps the company deliver consistently reliable service. “Our approach on that is different than most in that, when we go to install a machine, we don’t send a guy and rent a forklift,” Brooks says. “There’s nothing wrong with that business model, but that’s just not us. We own our own equipment so we will show up with a semi, a forklift, the appropriate welders, supplies – everything to fabricate and install a unit. And it’s so much more efficient. We are in control. We don’t have to wait for things to be delivered; we can prefabricate things in the shop.”

This efficiency allows the team to complete more jobs in less time. “We can do in one day what it would take another company two or three days onsite, just because of the equipment and the tools we provide the team with.”

Getting the job done efficiently doesn’t just save time and money; it also cuts back on potential mishaps. “The longer that you are onsite, the more things can go wrong,” Myles says. Another way to avoid onsite complications is to do as much work in a controlled environment as possible – this also ensures a higher quality product overall. “We think we are unique in that we try to do as much offsite as we can. You are more accurate in the shop than you are out in the field.”

National Waste Partners has managed to weather the COVID-19 storm, but the team certainly felt the effects alongside the rest of the world. “It sort of threw you off the tempo,” Myles shares. “It threw our company off, it threw everybody off. It was a very sad, disturbing thing that’s happened.”

National Waste Partners took the threat seriously and immediately put safety measures in place when the pandemic hit. The team closed the offices right away. “We shut that down very quickly and had them working from home very quickly,” Myles says. The service team could not work from home of course, so the company launched new safety training for employees who work onsite. “We always stress safety, but it’s not just their own safety [now], it’s other people’s safety. We want to make sure they are distancing, washing their hands, having protective gloves and masks.” Any employee who had concerns working in the field despite these measures was encouraged to stay home and stay safe.

The waste industry was not as affected as many other industries, since people continued to produce waste throughout the quarantine. But, because National Waste Partners services commercial and industrial customers, the company did feel an impact. “All the hotels, and movie theaters, and restaurants – their waste has cut down quite a bit, especially at the start,” says Myles. “So our service went down dramatically.”

Some of this waste shifted to other areas that still needed servicing. With people staying at home and cooking at home, multifamily housing and grocery stores saw an uptick in waste. “It was an interesting experience – that sort of volume shift, which I don’t think anybody’s ever experienced,” Brooks says.

Another factor that impacted business is that customers decided to wait to make major purchases. “People’s decision model changed instantly,” Myles says. “People that were going to invest in new equipment decided to hold off until we see through this.” By mid-April the team noticed customers were starting “to make decisions again to move forward,” so the future looks optimistic.

Times remain uncertain as we adjust to the new normal, but “people still have to carry on,” Myles points out. “There’s still waste. It still makes sense to compact and bale.” And as long as there is waste to be compacted and baled, National Waste Partners is committed to providing the most efficient, reliable, and quality solutions through good times and bad.

The post A Partner You Can Count On<p class="company">National Waste Partners</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Established in 1961, the group was led by various municipal managers and supervisors in southern California who were already focused on sanitation and waste collection worker safety. Originally, it was named the Governmental Refuse Collection and Disposal Association (GRCDA) and it directed most of its attention toward training and information sharing. Today, SWANA has approximately 11,000 members in 47 chapters throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Basin.

Membership in SWANA comes with a diverse range of benefits for various companies and agencies affiliated with the solid waste industry. “One of the primary benefits is being part of the large SWANA community, which provides networking and information-sharing opportunities at state and provincial chapter meetings and events, national conferences such as WASTECON, and digitally through our webinars and on-line forum,” explained Biderman.

Another advantage of SWANA membership is education through industry-leading certification programs. The organization certifies more than 500 people each year and the most popular certification is the Manager of Landfill Operations (MOLO) program.

In the United States, SWANA has recently expanded its advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C. with Congress and federal agencies. Its objective is to address a wide variety of important topics impacting solid waste employers and employees, and one of the most notable of these is safety.

SWANA’s website states that solid waste collection employees have the fifth highest fatality rate in the United States. There are numerous safety hazards associated with solid waste collection, processing, and disposal such as vehicular accidents and exposure to medical waste and dangerous materials. SWANA is committed to improving safety and has developed various programs and initiatives to protect employees in the field of solid waste collection. “SWANA believes that every solid waste worker should be able to go home at the end of his or her shift safely, and that every solid waste employer has a responsibility to provide the tools and resources to help make that happen,” said Biderman.

The national epidemic of distracted driving as a result of the widespread use of cellphones has worsened the hazardous conditions for waste collectors. Over the past several decades, there has been a significant increase in the number of times a garbage collector was hit by another vehicle and that number has continued to rise. With a substantial number of collectors on the street all over the country, there is a high risk of injury or death with distracted drivers on the road. SWANA is helping to mitigate this problem through advocacy. It is pushing for states to increase the penalties against drivers who drive into collection workers or garbage trucks, similar to the heightened penalties for accidents involving emergency responders. The initiative has been successful in much of the U.S., with 30 states giving special protection to solid waste workers. These laws are known as “Slow Down to Get Around” laws, and additional information can be found on SWANA’s website: swana.org.

Other examples of SWANA’s dedication to improving safety in the solid waste industry include: providing state-of-the-art safety training at its national conferences and through its state chapters; establishing a Safety Ambassador program several years ago that appoints a safety ambassador in each SWANA chapter as a principal resource for members at the local level; hosting Hauler Safety Outreach events at disposal facilities, beginning in 2018, which provide an opportunity to reach many front-line drivers and helpers who are not SWANA members; and asking solid waste employers to take a Safety Pledge declaring they agree not to work in an unsafe manner. As of March 1, 2020, more than 3,500 people had taken the Safety Pledge. SWANA will continue to provide valuable information and resources that help to reduce fatalities, accidents, and injuries – though this goal comes with its fair share of hurdles.

One of the principal challenges facing the solid waste collection industry is that, even though it is recognized as an essential service, it is not compensated as such. If the cost of garbage collection is compared to any other utility service including electricity, cable TV, or water, garbage collection costs significantly less. For approximately 15 to 25 dollars a month, $300,000 trucks are sent to people’s homes each week to pick up and transport their waste and recycling.

COVID-19 is the latest example demonstrating how essential solid waste collection is to the public. As people quarantined themselves, garbage collection continued because otherwise it would lead to adverse public health threats. People are accustomed to paying very little for such an important service, and hopefully one silver lining to the pandemic will be an increased appreciation for the essential service of garbage collection. The maker of Glad garbage bags teamed with SWANA to develop a “Sanitation Workers Support Fund” to recognize waste collection workers and provide money to those workers who tested positive for COVID-19 or to their family if they died.

Notwithstanding COVID-19, the solid waste industry requires collectors to work in a very unpredictable environment. They work in all types of weather conditions and have no control over what is put into the trash. This is a work setting that can be challenging on a daily basis, which makes it difficult to attract and retain workers. “Although many six-year-olds are fascinated by garbage trucks, not a lot of people grow up wanting to be in the solid waste industry, so we have difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified workers, particularly as drivers or mechanics,” shared Biderman. To overcome this challenge, SWANA supports efforts in the industry to expand the use of social media to recruit younger workers. It also encourages reaching out to veterans coming out of the military who have the technical skills to operate heavy equipment.

SWANA also recently began a Young Professionals program to recruit younger employees aged 22 to 35 into the association. The concept is to make it easier for these new generations of employees to participate in the organization and give them the opportunity to network with each other. The program has grown rather rapidly and now has nearly 1000 young professionals, also known as YPs. The YPs make up nearly ten percent of the association and they are a welcome source of energy and new ideas. SWANA has also made its membership free for any full-time college student. “We want to try to attract students into our industry because it’s a terrific industry to be part of. The people are great, it’s very recession-resistant, and there’s opportunity for professional growth and success,” explained Biderman.

The International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) connects solid waste management companies and organizations around the world to resources and to each other. SWANA is the U.S. and Canadian representative for the IWSA. Outside of North America, Australia, and Europe, solid waste management is often found to be lacking in rigorous environmental, health and safety regulation. SWANA has been working closely with other members of the ISWA to implement more effective safety standards around the world.

“It’s a long-term goal of ISWA to make safety a higher profile activity of the organization and I expect that SWANA will play a leading role in helping to make that happen,” said Biderman.

Toward this goal, in early 2019 the organization applied for and was awarded a U.S. State Department grant to conduct landfill training and capacity building in Colombia. Through this effort SWANA aims to help that region bring a strong, safe regulatory structure to solid waste management. SWANA sent a team of experts to a number of Colombian landfills to assess the current operations and met with regulatory officials from all of the agencies that regulate various aspects of landfill operations in that region. A specialist was brought on to analyze the gap between Colombian and U.S. regulatory standards, and Colombian landfill operators came to the United States in November 2019 for a tour of modern American landfills and to meet with government officials. A week-long classroom training program in Bogota was scheduled to take place in June, and that will be replaced by a virtual educational program likely to occur later this summer. SWANA expects more than one hundred participants from throughout Latin America in this program, which will be free.

In December 2020, SWANA will begin to develop a new five-year strategic plan and hopes that it will be as successful as its 2015 strategic plan, which helped the organization grow from 8,200 to more than 11,000 members over five years. “The solid waste industry is always changing and SWANA continues to change as well. We are diversifying our educational offerings to provide more digital training opportunities, and updating MOLO to incorporate the latest technological and other operational innovations,” said Biderman.

The solid waste industry is often overlooked, but it should be appreciated as a critical service that is essential to the quality of life within every community all over North America. SWANA has established itself as a leader in safety and advocacy for this critical industry. As its chapters continue to expand, and its leaders fight for its members’ interests, SWANA is helping to make solid waste collection a safer and more efficient process.

“SWANA is an essential resource for the solid waste industry. Regardless of whether you work for a governmental agency, small hauler, big company, or a company that sells to the industry, you should be an active member of SWANA.”

The post Advocating for Safety in the Solid Waste Industry<p class="company">The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA)</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

For decades we have heard about the danger of deforestation to the planet from experts, activists, environmental groups and celebrities. Worldwide, actors and musicians including Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Vanessa Hudgens harness their powerful social media status, reaching millions of followers and boosting awareness about the risks to forests, wildlife, water supplies, and Indigenous persons. Musician and actor Sting has championed the world’s rainforests for over 30 years through the Rainforest Fund. Founded by the former Police band member, his wife Trudie Styler, and Dr. Franca Sciuto in 1989, the Rainforest Fund has expanded its initial focus on the Amazon to encompass Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Papua New Guinea and other countries facing deforestation.

Along with protecting the rights of Indigenous persons and safeguarding land “against the destructiveness of resource exploitation,” the Rainforest Fund has backed over 300 projects on issues ranging from land rights to environmental monitoring and clean water, issues affecting forests not only in Brazil, but worldwide.

The roots of forest sustainability
Globally, sustainable forest practices are growing thanks to initiatives from responsible and forward-thinking forestry companies, governments, and environmental associations. It has been almost three decades since Forest Principles were adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Known as the Earth Summit, the 1992 event saw the release of Forest Principles addressing key sustainability issues “in a holistic and balanced manner,” and managing these areas “to meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations.”

Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) – also known as sustainable forestry – is about balancing environmental concerns and the need for forest-related products used to create lumber for construction, fuel, medicine and more. Home to countless plants and wildlife, forests serve as an oasis of tranquility for hikers and campers, and provide a valuable source of employment for lumber companies.

Covered in 347 million hectares (ha) of forest, Canada comes in third worldwide after Russia and Brazil for most forests by area, but leads the way in third-party forest certification. According to the Canada Council of Forest Ministers, the nation is an SFM pioneer not only at home but also globally, benefitting other nations by increasing their forest knowledge and bringing in improved practices.

In Canada, there are multiple systems governing sustainable forestry. These include the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the Forest Stewardship Council Standards (FSC) and the Canadian Standards Association’s Sustainable Forest Management Standards (CSA). Standards set forth by the CSA and SFI are internationally recognized by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the PEFC is a leading global alliance of over 70 members ranging from businesses and trade associations to individuals, labour unions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As of the beginning of 2018, Canada has about 170 million hectares certified by at least one of these bodies, the FSC, the CSA, or the SFI.

Putting practices into place
On a worldwide scale, Sustainable Forest Management is on the rise because of concerns over dwindling resources. Much like systems used to manage the world’s oceans, policies governing SFM are changing and evolving, depending on the location and type of forest – tropical, temperate, or boreal.

A precisely managed system, sustainable forestry requires felled trees to be replaced with new trees (seedlings). After allowing these seedlings to mature, the new trees are then harvested and the cycle of planting and growth continues. The decisions we make today to protect forests and working forests from over-foresting, fire, and climate change will have environment, economic, and social implications in the future.

Much more than just replacing harvested trees, forestry practices require considerable planning, taking not only the forest and types of timber into consideration, but also an assessment of wildlife, watersheds, and more before a single tree is cut down. In some cases – depending on location – sections of forests are deliberately burned to foster regeneration. Until the 1970s, many believed it was important to always put out forest fires, which is not necessarily the case. According to Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), the benefits of controlled fires enable the release of nutrients into the forest floor, and allow for more sunlight and growth.

Fires also afford certain trees like Jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and Lodgepole (Pinus contorta) the ability to reproduce. While trees are destroyed by fire, they are also reborn – specifically, the Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine. Like other pine trees, seeds are contained within their cones; however, these cones are serotinous. Coated with a strong resin, intense heat – like that from a forest fire – is needed to melt the resin, allowing the cones to open. Once the cones open, powerful winds disperse them across the forest floor, allowing new trees to germinate and grow.

Balancing needs
Sustainable Forestry Management is not new, but it is growing. Canada in particular has taken a sensible approach to SFM, one that works for the environment and business alike. Contributing almost $20 billion annually to Canada’s real gross domestic product (GDP), forests and forestry continue to provide many social, economic and environmental benefits. NRCAN says the three industry subsectors include solid wood product manufacturing, pulp and paper product manufacturing, and forestry and logging, all significant contributors to Canada’s economic growth.

Employing approximately 210,600 men and women nationwide (including almost 12,000 Indigenous persons), “the forest industry represents a smaller percentage of Canada’s economy than other resource sectors, but it creates more jobs and contributes more to the balance of trade for every dollar of value added than do other major sectors.” This is especially the case in the forest-rich provinces of British Columbia and New Brunswick, which account for about 2.9 percent of the provincial GDP and approximately 4.5 percent of the provincial GDP respectively.

With forests disappearing for reasons including atmospheric change, desertification and others, Sustainable Forest Management is now more important than ever. One of the greatest factors remains the planet’s growing numbers. With a current population of 7.574 billion (as of 2018), numbers are expected to reach about 10.9 billion by the year 2050, according to data from the United Nations’ 2019 Revision of World Population Prospects https://population.un.org/wpp/. With more people and decreasing resources, we have no option except to maintain our existing forests for future generations.

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“We are at a crossroads and are redefining the company as we move forward into the new realm. There will be no more Feed-in Tariff program. Solar has been pushed into the market by the market drivers, as opposed to a policy with respect to a standardized offer program, so it’s going to be very interesting as solar needs to stand more and more on its own,” says Azeem.

The microFIT program for installations of fewer than forty solar panels was put in place by the Ontario provincial government to promote the generation of electricity from renewable sources. Many people are in favour of adopting clean energy like solar but are unable to afford to invest in a system. Ontario’s program helped with that.

“Every year, there is a digression in the feed-in tariff rates; the rate the government offers has lowered each year. When that happens, people have no incentive financially to participate in the program as it is not as lucrative. We will keep the numbers at the same rate as last year through some creative processes,” says Azeem.

Now that the government program is ending, Grasshopper has developed its own: the Grasshopper Guaranteed Funding Program.

The Guaranteed Funding Program offers up to $30,000 toward installing a solar power system to homeowners with a qualified roof. Grasshopper Solar pays for installing the system as well as its maintenance. It will hopefully enable more people to qualify for solar power and is a noteworthy change for the company this year.

The educational campaign taken on by Grasshopper has been difficult. People are still uninformed about solar power options, and some still believe that solar may decrease property values.

“We have to continue our efforts by tirelessly educating customers through different channels. Yvonne (Yvonne Villeneuve, marketing), has been championing that with various videos, and reaching out to a host of realtors, helping them to understand the value of solar,” says Azeem.

Ontario’s not-for-profit Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is an independent corporation that assesses the value of all properties in the province for tax purposes. MPAC will be examining all property transfers that have a Grasshopper solar energy system to see if the system affects property values. So far, about two hundred such properties have been sold.

“We rarely had a situation where the sale is incomplete or something happened as a result of solar. In fact, that never happened,” says Azeem.

MPAC’s current stance is that rooftop solar panels do not affect the assessed value of a property or its taxes. In the future, Grasshopper hopes that MPAC will see that solar adds a specific value to the property. It will take time to implement this as enough data and analysis must be performed.

“The short-term goal is with MPAC validating the fact that solar has a value. The impact of this is long-term because we are in twenty-year contracts,” says Azeem.

When we last spoke, the company was planning a solar program to be made available to commercial and industrial properties in which Grasshopper would own, install and maintain the infrastructure. Properties that sign up would see the benefits of solar power without any of the risks of investing in it. The project is now operational, and Grasshopper has been installing quite a few commercial projects. By the second quarter of 2018, there should be an estimated $250 million in operating assets, making this the largest project of its kind in Canada.

Throughout the summer, Grasshopper is preparing to go on the road with barbecues and parties to attract whole neighbourhoods and educate residents on the merits of solar power. The hope is to get mayors and city representatives invested in face to face conversations.

“It’s a very real thing we are doing. We are the largest residential company in Canada. We want to have real conversations and talk to people about their concerns. We want people to build a better life by helping them save money on their hydro bills. We are currently planning that road show,” says Azeem.

Grasshopper is actively looking to expand into the Northeastern U.S. as well as California, and Azeem believes that Grasshopper can bring a lot of value to these areas. The solar energy sales model is certainly going to change because now it will be financed via consumer credit rather than government incentives. There are no standard programs, but rather power purchase agreements (PPAs) and lease contracts between electricity sellers and buyers.

“The value of operating it from the engineering procurement construction (EPC), with asset management on the back end, will remain fairly consistent. But, the way we originate and develop projects will be different and somewhat of a logistical nightmare,” says Azeem.

The challenges may vary, but they have not increased. The main thing to note is that the market in the U.S. is significantly larger and energy prices are also higher than in Ontario. This translates into more motivation in particular areas to explore alternative energy options, with the expectation that the U.S. will move quickly on solar.

In the past year, there has been a substantial price drop in the cost of solar panels. “When we spoke last year, panels were going for seventy cents per watt. Today we are able to get a similar panel for forty-five cents per watt, which is about a thirty-five percent to forty percent decrease in pricing of the solar panels. It’s tremendous to see this happen,” says Azeem.

New policy is currently being discussed, especially in Ontario and the U.S., that should make solar more accessible. In fact, Azeem is in talks with the Ministry of Energy about what is known as community solar or virtual net metering. This involves generating electricity on commercial rooftops, near a community of people who can sign up for shares of solar power without the panels being mounted on their homes. Subscribers receive credits on their energy bills of the amount generated by their share of the installation.

“There is a lot of work going into crafting that policy, as it essentially allows anybody to participate and brings in economies of scale. This will further reduce the cost of solar with that policy construct,” says Azeem.

For the future of the industry, the community solar idea shows tremendous promise because many energy consumers who will be hardest hit by rising energy costs live in condominiums, smaller homes or townhomes, where solar power installation on the rooftops is not possible.

“By creating this construct with the community solar, that discrimination in the way that happens goes away. It’s a very important measure that the government needs to be looking at, and we need to be talking about as an industry. We want to try and bring this to fruition for everyone in Ontario,” says Azeem.

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