NADO & Ecostrat Webinar: Unlock Funding & Investment for Rural Bioeconomy Development
NADO & Ecostrat Webinar: Unlock Funding & Investment for Rural Bioeconomy Development
February 18, 2026 – Ecostrat Inc. and the BDO Zone Initiative, in collaboration with the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO), hosted a joint webinar titled “Unlock Funding & Investment for Rural Bioeconomy Development.”
The session outlined how BDO Zone Ratings serve as a proven economic development and project de-risking framework to accelerate biomanufacturing investment across rural regions, demonstrating how communities can attract private capital and advanced manufacturing projects, reduce development risk through standardized, third-party data, and strengthen regional readiness for biomanufacturing.
The BDO Zone Initiative is a data-driven economic development tool that evaluates more than 100 transparent risk indicators across three core pillars: feedstock availability, supply chain strength, and infrastructure readiness. Through its standardized ratings framework, the program provides credible, third-party intelligence that supports informed site selection and investment decisions by developers and capital providers. Today, the BDO Zone Initiative includes more than 61 active Zones across North America and has helped catalyze over $10 billion in private investment.
The session featured insights from regional development organizations, community leaders, and project developers actively leveraging BDO Zone Ratings to advance rural bioeconomy projects, including USA BioEnergy’s Bon Wier, Texas biorefinery, currently raising more than $2 billion in project financing.
“Rural regions have the feedstock, workforce, and infrastructure potential to power the next generation of biomanufacturing,” said Jordan Solomon, Chairman of the BDO Zone Initiative. “BDO Zone Ratings provide communities with the credible, standardized data needed to reduce investor uncertainty, unlock funding, and accelerate private capital deployment into high-impact rural projects.”
For more information on how BDO Zone Ratings can support bioeconomy development in your region, and to discuss current funding opportunities, please visit www.bdozone.org.
To view the webinar, please click below:
Summary of Presenter Remarks
“After almost three years, we now have the data to understand what the average annual economic impact is of an announced BDO Zone project, and that figure is $423 million per project.”
— Jordan Solomon, Chairman, BDO Zone Initiative
“We’re talking about biofuel and biobased economic development, BDO Zones, and grant-funded opportunities that communities can leverage to support growth and drive job creation.”
— Jack Morgan, Associate Director, National Association of Development Organizations (NADO)
“We can’t solve today’s challenges with yesterday’s thinking, and Ecostrat’s framework keeps us focused on what truly moves new markets forward.”
— Robert Venables, Executive Director, Southeast Conference, AK
— BDO Zone: Prince of Wales Island, AK | BB Rating | Woody Biomass
“When our local governments made BDO Zones a priority, it turned them into a real opportunity for our region.”
— Laura Lewis Marchino, Executive Director, Region 9 EDD, CO
— BDO Zone: Southwest Colorado | BBB Rating | Woody Biomass
“The BDO Zone Initiative and Ecostrat bring credibility to local data, turning it from our word into trusted, investment-ready validation.”
— Andrew Harmon, Deputy Director, Deep East Texas Council of Governments
— BDO Zone: Bon Wier, TX | AA Rating | Woody Biomass
“Lenders want investment-grade certainty across feedstock, offtake, and technology, and that’s exactly what a BDO Zone delivers.”
— Nick Andrews, CEO, USA BioEnergy
— BDO Zone: Bon Wier, TX | AA Rating | Woody Biomass
About the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO)
The National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) is a 501c4 membership association that represents the interests of regional community and economic development practitioners. Established in 1967, NADO advocates for federal policies and programs that promote equitable community development, economic competitiveness, rural development, economic mobility, and quality of place. NADO represents a national network of more than 500 Regional Development Organizations (RDOs) across the country. Learn more: www.nado.org.
About The BDO Zone Initiative
The Biofuel Development Opportunity (BDO) Zone Initiative certifies ‘regional readiness’ for bio-manufacturing, creates global connections and ignites an influx of new energy opportunities for farmers, economic developers, and rural businesses. A BDO Zone rating is an internationally recognized, standards-based technical risk assessment of a region’s feedstock, supply chain, and infrastructure risk with respect to the development potential for new biofuel plants. BDO Zone ratings are site location bullseyes for bio-project development. Investment grade ratings are force-multipliers for attracting new manufacturing plants to the areas where they are most likely to succeed, drive investment and create jobs.
For more information on the BDO Zone Initiative, contact info@bdozone.org. To view all BDO Zone ratings, visit www.bdozone.org. Check out the BDO Zone LinkedIn page for news and updates.
Ecostrat is the North American leader in biomass due diligence for biofuels, renewable chemicals, biogas, and bio-product project development and finance. Jordan Solomon (jordan.solomon@ecostrat.com) is Chairman of the BDO Zone Initiative and President of Ecostrat (www.ecostrat.com).
Originally published at bdozone.org.