Clear Water adopt a multifaceted approach to reduce climate impact – working to reduce wood waste, conserve watershed water quality; and creating, using, and helping others sell biochar. Their operations are guided by standards from the Environmental Protection Agency, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Pollution Control Agency.
Innovating Material Repurposing
The EPA defines Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) as a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively. By looking at a product’s entire lifecycle, new opportunities can be found to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources, and reduce costs.
In order to innovate material repurposing and introduce waste-saving practices, companies should assess their current situation – where they’re at today and how they could move forward. To do this, they can conduct an in-depth, fact-based analysis of all aspects of their current wood waste operation (Source, Production, and Use) from operations, financial, and environmental perspectives. Projections based on data sources (tree canopy and other regional metrics) can be helpful but should not be the primary analysis tool. Information on actual wood waste Source, Production, and Use is best. While not always readily available, an accurate situation profile can be compiled through investigative work. In addition to helping program planning and next steps, this process finds easy-to-implement operation improvement and cost reduction opportunities in the current operation.
Wood Waste Reduction
Wood waste contains tons of carbon that can biologically reduce agriculture fertilizer runoff. Clear Water reuses wood waste for conservation practices that have a high-demand for carbon sources. Whether it is constructing wetlands, adding containers of wood chips, or padding feedlots with wood waste, they store carbon to avoid emissions while reducing water pollution.
Biochar Use
Biochar, a low-oxygen burning technology, has emerged as a technique that can take multiple types of feedstocks (urban wood waste, farm field waste, invasive tree removal) and create a co-product that can be used as a soil conditioner, carbon storage, and water filtration from contaminants. Many of the techniques used to create biochar demonstrate the ability to use feedstocks from various sources, however, the type of feedstock plays a major role in the characteristics of the biochar and the use of the biochar. Clear Water makes careful consideration of the techniques they use to create biochar and what they recommend to others.
Combined Approach
By combining the different practice areas they have, Clear Water aims to create a full-cycle reuse of waste products to benefit people, planet, and economic gains. Emissions and smoke particulates are reduced from the source and production of wood waste, and water pollution from fertilizers are reduced by adding the wood waste as a filter. To complete the cycle, the final product is a compost created from the fertilizers trapped in the woody filter that can be reapplied to forestry ecosystems, gardens, and farms.
