EDMONTON, Alberta — Agri-food traceability firm TrustBIX will use its BIX platform in a commercial pilot programme to track biomass and waste streams to divert material from landfill and create new products for agricultural and industrial markets. TrustBIX has entered into a $300,000 contract with All West Demolition (AWD), one the largest regional demolition companies in Edmonton, Canada, and Innovation Reduction Strategies (IRSI), an ‘early innovator’ in biomass-to-biochar production. …BIX will be enhanced and used to track the waste inputs… to quantify the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. …Chris Olson, president at IRSI, said: “We are converting 75% of all AWD’s wood waste into valuable biochar… to be sold into other applications for green houses, activated carbon markets, and other materials.” …The commercial pilot project will continue through to 1 February 2022.

Huge swaths of northeast B.C. forests could be chopped down and ground up to make wood pellets to send overseas if the province approves a proposed logging licence transfer in Fort Nelson, B.C. Over one million cubic metres of intact forest every year could be logged for export, according to a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report published on Wednesday. Last November, B.C.’s largest forestry company, Canfor, quietly announced an agreementwith Peak Renewables to sell its forest tenure in northeast B.C., pending approval from the province. Canfor held onto the tenure since closing its two Fort Nelson mills 13 years ago, putting around 600 people out of work. If the licence transfer is approved, Peak Renewables would build the largest pellet plant in the province. Ben Parfitt, resource policy analyst for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said the plant would, at best, employ around 60 people, while logging roughly the same amount Canfor logged when it employed 600 people.

The residents of Fort Nelson know better than most rural British Columbians about the harsh economic realities of resource dependency. It is now 13 years since the forest industry ditched the community in dramatic fashion when Canfor Corp. ceased all its local operations in the region and closed its plywood and oriented strand board (OSB) mills on the outskirts of town. …The community then enjoyed a brief economic resurgence as fossil fuel companies swept into the region during a short-lived natural gas industry fracking frenzy. Many laid-off forestry workers found new jobs and the community’s service sector took off. …But as detailed in a previous CCPA brief, the bust that followed was devastating. …Yet, once again, forces are aligning to push for another major resource industry play in the Fort Nelson region.