As most products that Americans use for cars, homes and businesses are derived from Petro chemicals, concerns by many over climate change and lowering the carbon foot are causing many local companies to switch to the use of renewable bio-base materials that can be derived from forests and farms. The materials can then be used for the production of services or energy, thus creating a new market emerging called the bio-economy.
Executive Vice President of FP Innovations Trevor Stuthridge spoke at the bio-economy conference at Grand Valley State University. He says that West Michigan could learn a lot from how Canada is doing things, where a booming economy is being generated from its forest’s resources, while simultanesouly sustaining its integrity.
“I think there is a careful balance around forest management, between obviously harvesting the trees, maintaining bio-diversity and other social values, at the same time, if we are going to take the trees down, I think it’s really behooving to us to really maximize the added value of those resources,” Stuthridge says.
Moving away from our dependency on fossil fuels and integrating more bio base materials derived from our forests would also create thousands of new jobs says Michigan Forest Bio-materials Institute Board Chair David DeYoe.
“Michigan has a lot of forest, but even more so if you look at the Great Lakes Basin, you’re now dealing with eight states, one province, as a market--so all those resources from forest, farm and city can be focused on those market opportunities.”
While former president Barack Obama supported the bio-economy, President Donald Trump dismissed climate change as a “Chinese hoax” during his campaign. However, DeYoe thinks it is in the new administration’s best interests to keep pursuing bio-mass materials.
“I think that the new administration has indicated that they are interested in creating jobs, they’re interested in building industry, and this is a brand new industrial opportunity that offers lots of jobs to rural and urban areas, so there is huge potential to that, it is just a matter of educating those politicians about the value of bio-mass versus petro chemicals.”
A group of Scientists critical of President Donald Trump’s climate change position announced on Wednesday that on Earth Day, April 22, they will lead a march in Washington DC.
