City of Melville, SK Awarded First BDO Zone Designation in North America

City of Melville, SK Awarded First BDO Zone Designation in North America

The City of Melville and Ecostrat are pleased to announce the issue of the first official Bioeconomy Development Opportunity Zone (BDO Zone) designation in Melville, Saskatchewan. The ‘A’ Rating for wheat straw supply is expected to drive new market development for projects that can utilize Melville’s over 300,000 tonnes of reliably produced wheat straw.

“The City of Melville approached the BDO Zone initiative because we are interested in attracting clean and green technology opportunities to Melville that can benefit from our abundant wheat straw, our efficient supply chain and our existing and updated infrastructure. Now, our “A” rated BDO Zone designation credibly signals to the world that Melville is a progressive community and investment ready”, says Ron McCullough, City Manager.

A BDO Zone rating signals that the region has undergone rigorous and extensive due diligence using over 100 standardized, transparent, and validated risk indicators based on the BSCR Standards for biobased investment. “A” and “AA” BDO Zone Ratings identify areas in the country best positioned for low-risk bioeconomy project development.

Like credit ratings, BDO Zone Ratings range from “AA” to “C”. Unlike credit ratings, however, BDO Zone Ratings score risks related to three attributes that are crucial for biobased development: 1) a surplus of biomass, 2) low-risk supply chains to deliver it, and 3) suitable infrastructure to support an operating plant.

“The BDO Zone Initiative can lead to increased market diversification opportunities and therefore new sources of income for our farmers and ranchers Saskatchewan farmers are ready to consider new markets based on sustainable products like biofuels, bio-products, and bio-chemicals. The standardization and certification process will help new ventures increase their innovation capacity and decrease the risk of bringing their innovations to market and help Melville and future designated communities to attract investment. Support of the BDO Zone Initiative by other communities and government will ensure as many BDO Zones are designated as possible in order to de-risk and promote investment in made-in-Canada green technologies.” says Todd Lewis, President of Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS)

“The BDO Zone designations are force-multipliers for attracting biobased investment to local communities: they enable communities to leverage biomass assets to serve as anchors for clean energy economic development. BDO Zone ratings create efficiencies and value for local communities, for project developers, and for investors and lenders looking to deploy capital in low-risk areas.” says Jordan Solomon, CEO of Ecostrat

Canadian biomass is an economic development engine with the potential to create 132,000 jobs and nearly $31 billion of economic benefit. The Bioeconomy Development Opportunity Zone Initiative can help Canada realize this potential by supporting new market development for Canadian bioenergy, advanced biofuels, biobased heat and power, bio-materials, and clean hydrogen.

For more information on the Melville, SK BDO Zone, or to read the full Risk Rating report, visit https://ecostrat.com/bdozone.

About City of Melville:

The City of Melville is located in South Eastern Saskatchewan along Highway #10. There are 3 provincial highways that pass through Melville (#10, #47 and #15) and CN Rail has one of its largest railyard investments in Saskatchewan located in Melville. Melville has an active Asset Management Plan that focuses on infrastructure investment and has the infrastructure necessary to support value added, agricultural industry. Agriculture is the city’s pioneer industry and the rich harvest of farm and ranch form the hard base of the economy. The City of Melville is a clean, safe and friendly community of approximately 4,500 residents which constitutes an excellent environment to live, work, play, raise a family and retire.

For more information, visit the City of Melville’s website at http://melville.ca/p/bdo-zone-designation. You can also directly email Ron McCullough, City Manager, at rmccullough@melville.ca.

About Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS):

APAS is the unified voice of Saskatchewan farmers and ranchers, representing over 16,000 farm operations. Our work, on behalf of our members, focuses on priority issues that impact the work and livelihood of the Saskatchewan agricultural community.

About Ecostrat:

Ecostrat’s Biomass Supply Group has over 20 years experience in sourcing and supplying over 5 million tons of biomass feedstock for bioenergy, biofuel, and biochemical projects across North America. Its Advisory Group combines the BSCR Standards with powerful predictive analytics to understand and minimize supply chain risk.

Jordan Solomon has led the NRCan and USDOE/BETO funded project to develop the new investment Standards and Ratings for Biomass Supply Chain Risk. He has overseen development and operation of biomass supply chains for over 5,000,000 tons of feedstock over two decades for bioenergy, biofuel, and biochemical projects. He can be reached at jordan.solomon@ecostrat.com

For more information visit the company’s website at www.ecostrat.com.

Originally published at bdozone.org.