Marshall Erickson

1-27-2025

Here we introduce 5 keys to reusing a lot of wood waste in a way that makes operations, financial, and environmental sense.

1.         Think and act like a new venture.  A systemic approach to wood waste utilization is new and innovative. With unknowns and multiple considerations. It must be a scalable, sustainable model requiring little financial support.  Work it like a new venture. Do discovery to create/confirm a working model, gain traction, then scale.

2.         Multi-stakeholder engagement.  Success depends on aligning stakeholders to a common goal while respecting each party’s unique goals and risks.  Success depends on active engagement by key parties.  Passive acceptance does not work.  

3.         Establish a primary goal and project leader.  New initiatives require a primary goal and an assigned project leader to drive actions and outcomes.  Everything cascades from the goal.   If we want to maximize wood waste utilization, we focus on operational and cost efficiency throughout the utilization cycle enabling attractive pricing to drive large scale product use.  We work together to get community commitment to produce and use products.

4.         New Products.  We must think beyond chipping and grinding wood.  Eco-friendly, financially viable options to repurpose wood waste into heat, electricity, biochar, biogas, and biofuels exist today and are expanding.  Viable product uses that make financial sense exist as well.

5.         Use drives everything.  In the source, production, use cycle, use is the primary driver.  Establish a use/sales network, and sourcing and production follows. New wood waste products require education, promotion, and “real-world” pilot projects to build acceptance.   

Put it all together, and you eliminate your wood waste problem, reduce your carbon footprint, and benefit the community.