BDO Zone Overview
– The BDO Zone Initiative is a certification and regional risk rating program that enables economic development agencies and communities to effectively and credibly disclose feedstock and infrastructure attributes and risks and promote biobased development opportunities to developers and investors around the world.
– A BDO Zone rating is a technical, standards-based assessment of regional manufacturing readiness with respect to local development potential for biofuels plants.
– BDO Zone Ratings send clear and powerful signals to biobased developers and investors worldwide that a specific region is “bio-manufacturing ready”. Ratings enable economic developers to credibly signal and promote key local bio-manufacturing “success characteristics” to biobased developers and investors around the world.
– ‘AAA’, ‘AA’, ‘A’ and ‘BBB’ ratings put an internationally recognized, credible “bulls-eye” on the best areas to build and operate biofuels manufacturing plants. They attract new manufacturing plants to the places where they are most likely to succeed– and create jobs.
BDO Zone Initiative issues an “A-rating” for Southwest Nova Scotia as a location to develop “Bioeconomy Projects” 4Feb2024
by David Patriquin on versicolor.ca/nstriad “This latest “Bioeconomy” initiative would involve use of 550,000 green metric tons per year of sawmill residuals and by-product wood fibre from the forest sector. In the formal BDO Zone Report, cautions are expressed that are not amongst the highlights cited in PR lit about the Bioeconomy prospects for SW Nova Scotia and presumably are amongst the reasons that a higher rating (AAA or AA versus the A-rating given) was not realized, e.g. related to nutrient limitations, uncertainty about buy-in of private woodlot owners, sustainability concerns and associated public opinion.”
View BDO Zone Rating for SW Nova Scotia Zone (Issued publicly Jan 26, 2024)
Bioeconomy Development Opportunity Zone Rating | BDO Zone Designation: Southwest Nova Scotia
Date of Issue: September 20, 2023
BDO Zone Rating: ‘A
View This Page for Overview (https://bdozone.org/rating_award/southwest-nova-scotia/)
Click on image to go tp the webinar
BDO ZoneCONNECT Webinar: SOUTHWEST NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA & RICHLAND PARISH, LOUISIANA
“On May 2nd, 2024, Ecostrat Inc., in collaboration with TheDigest, hosted the BDO ZoneCONNECT webinar, spotlighting two top BDO Zone communities in North America: Southwest Nova Scotia, Canada, and Richland Parish, Louisiana. This one-hour event provided an in-depth exploration of the biobased development potential of these BDO Zones, both of which have received an ‘A’ rating for Woody Biomass, highlighting them as prime locations for large-scale bioeconomy projects. The webinar, led by Jim Lane, Editor of TheDigest, and featuring key insights from Aryn Garswood, Head of the BDO Zone Initiative, focused on the regions’ feedstock availability, infrastructure strengths, and attractive local incentives. Participants, including Rod Badcock of Greenspring Bioinnovation Hub and Scott Franklin from the Richland Parish Chamber of Commerce, discussed their areas’ readiness for bio-based projects, underscoring their ample biomass resources, project-ready sites, strong infrastructure, and appealing tax benefits.
Summary of comments by Rod Badcock, Executive Director, Greenspring Bioinnovation Hub:
“There is a supportive Ecosystem and a number of engaged partners who are ready to host bioeconomy projects at their sites within the BDO Zone.”
“Southwest Nova Scotia has a long history of supporting forest product industries, Freeman Lumber (one of the industrial sites in the BDO Zone) has had a saw mill in operation for almost 200 years.”
“There are tax credits available from Atlantic Investment and the Nova Scotia Capital Investment Tax Credit, these tax credits work together to create a 32.5% tax credit on projects over $15 million.”
“The strength of the zone is the strong partners and the potential host sites we have. The Bridgewater Business Park which is currently undergoing a 125 acre expansion. The Kaizer Meadows Industrial Park is zoned for heavy industrial use which includes waste to energy operations. The Port Mersey Commercial Park, this was the home of a former newsprint mill. Finally, Freeman Lumber, which is the largest mill in Nova Scotia, has lands adjacent to the saw mill site which are under development by Freeman Lumber as a bioeconomy park; they are looking to host bioeconomy projects at this site.”
“The high performance logging program is an equipment operator training program that recruits forestry equipment operators, trains them and matches them with employers. We have a very skilled workforce and a number of targeted programs around bioeconomy projects.”