Our mission is simple, make the world a better place and have a positive impact in the fight against climate change. We are doing this in several ways, but are overarching method is through repurposing waste sawdust into usable items, removing them from the existing cycle that would have seen the sawdust burned and ending up in the atmosphere.
Wood is made up of more than just carbon, there are other organic compounds that are within it, that when they are burned, can be harmful to human health. The EU recognises these as PM 2.5 particles, which are Particulate Matter that is less than 2.5mm in diameter. These particles can travel large distances, are generally what you see in smoke from a wood burning fire. These are not good to be inhaled, and also play a part in the 1,000 premature deaths in Ireland every year due to air pollution.
So naturally, we want to see biomass such as this removed from the renewable energy list, when there is plenty more sustainable options out there. To make matters worse, 80% of the world’s forests are gone. This is what drives our mission towards using as much of the tree as possible, extending its lifecycle and reducing the amount of CO2 that is ending up in the atmosphere unnecessarily.
While looking to see what we could make with this new material, we wanted to have an impact here too, instead of just making something generic that doesn’t need to be changed. After much searching and conversations with people from many different industries, we found that promotional materials often highlight ‘eco friendly’ options that are far from it. There are very few if any options for a company that wants sustainable branded merchandise that they would be proud to stand behind. Our product solves this, having a traceable supply chain for each individual product linked to it with an embedded QR code, so the user can get access to the type of sawdust that was used, when it was made, and what joinery the sawdust was produced in.
This differs from existing ‘eco friendly’ products within this space, as they often have to travel over long distances, are often produced using bamboo (which can lead to deforestation if planted in monocultures), and are made in low income countries where wages are not paid fairly.
