Projects & Community Benefits

Arbor takes a holistic approach to project development. We proactively consider the environmental, economic, and community outcomes.

Projects

At Arbor, we are building projects and simultaneously building communities. This is at the forefront of our plans for deployment at scale. Our work will serve as a model for future projects in the region by demonstrating the social, environmental, and economic benefits of sustainable biomass utilization. Sourcing sustainable biomass is critical in ensuring the carbon removal pathways can be sustainably deployed, therefore, mitigating risk in carbon removal offtake agreements.

Arbor’s demonstration project

  • We are partnering with Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) to develop our 3 MW demonstration facility in Auburn, CA.

  • PCWA has been seeking resources to address the need for biomass utilization and for reliable backup power during periods of extended power loss. Our partnership with PCWA allows Arbor to address these issues, demonstrate the ability of our technology to safely and permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere, and maximize project co-benefits to surrounding communities.

Community Benefits

Arbor's approach to engagement is community-centric, seeks to empower local populations, and is grounded in a 'do no harm' philosophy. The co-benefits of Arbor’s approach address 7 of the 17 UN Sustainable Goals (UN SDGs). 

COMMUNITY-CENTRIC

Strategic Planning

Openness & Learning

Collaboration & Shared Vision

DO NO HARM

Transparency & Trust

Equity & Inclusion

Risk Prevention

EMPOWER

Capacity Building

Agency & Collective Action

Sustained Engagement & Participatory Culture

Wildfire Reduction & Forest Health

Commercial thinning operations, an essential component of hazardous fuels reduction operations and forest health, are very capital and labor intensive. In order to reduce the cost and increase the benefits of forest fuel reduction projects in California’s high fire-risk regions. 

Arbor’s Role

Arbor partners with local community-based organizations, workforce development agencies, labor unions, and community colleges to co-develop utilities to process and convert forest residues into value-added products. The monetary value generated from Arbor’s dual revenue streams can be re-invested in forest management projects that provide watershed health, wildfire reduction, and carbon drawdown benefits. By creating a reliable, market-based utilization for waste biomass, we can improve the financial sustainability of thinning operations, allowing for more treatment and helping to return forests to a fire resilient condition.

Economic Development & Job Creation

Unemployment in the forest and wood products sector in rural, natural resource-dependent communities has skyrocketed due to the collapse of the timber industry.

Arbor’s Role

Arbor partners with local community-based organizations, workforce development agencies, labor unions, and community colleges to ensure: meaningful community representation in employment opportunities, workforce training aligns with our hiring needs, and workforce development is tailored to the local context. Our facilities will create high-paying employment opportunities in rural communities across bioenergy and carbon management supply chains. At scale, our modular technology can be widely and rapidly deployed in California, allowing local energy resources to be harnessed by the wider community, diversifying rural economies, and creating additional long-term jobs in plant operations, maintenance, and manufacturing.

Air Quality Improvement & Emissions Reduction

In the absence of innovative biomass utilization mechanisms, most of the biomass generated from hazardous fuels reduction treatments is disposed of through open pile burning, as this has been the most economically viable option. Both wildfires and open burning result in substantial emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), criteria pollutants, and air toxics, all of which are associated with negative impacts on climate and human health, and disproportionately impact communities that are already socio-economically disadvantaged.

Arbor’s Role

By utilizing woody waste for energy and maximizing the carbon feedstock value through generation of high-value co-products, Arbor will divert substantial quantities of residual biomass from open burning and further restoration goals aimed at reducing the scale, intensity, and frequency of catastrophic wildfires. Both of these will improve local air quality and generate significant emissions reductions benefits for communities.

Renewable Energy Generation & Grid Resilience

Wind and solar are subject to weather variability that does not track with energy usage patterns, and power lines bringing non-localized energy to communities may be subject to extreme weather events or proactive de-energization due to wildfire risk.

Arbor’s Role

To offset these drawbacks, Arbor’s modular design allows for rapid deployment of local, scalable, and decentralized power assets, while simultaneously meeting needs for low-cost, baseload electrical power. Our biomass-derived electricity will help to improve grid resilience by reducing regional reliance on fossil fuels and by diversifying a region’s portfolio of renewable energy sources, an integral component of both emergency preparedness and decarbonization. Providing a reliable source of backup power for rural communities that are vulnerable to power loss will foster rural energy resilience, economic resilience, and environmental resilience.

Community and stakeholder engagement process

Environmental Justice Methodology

  • Interviews with local or Tribal leaders and representatives

    Literature Review - Forest management, land tenure, agricultural practices

  • Demographic & environmental data analysis; Interviews with targeted and disadvantaged communities

    Literature Review - Local economic conditions, air & water pollution, climate vulnerability, human health risks, clean energy access, energy burden

  • ↑ Clean energy jobs and job training

    ↑ Clean energy enterprise creation and contracting

    ↑ Distributed, renewable energy generation (energy democracy)

    ↓ Climate vulnerability (wildfire)

    ↓ Water supply vulnerability

    ↓ Environmental exposure and burdens (air quality)

    ↑ Energy reliability

  • Traffic, noise, air pollution, dust - operations & construction

    Mismanagement of geologic storage sites

    Upstream operations (unsustainable biomass sourcing)

  • Maximize co-benefits through MOUs, Community and Workforce Agreements

    Minimize negative impacts/concerns

    Traffic data mapping study and improved signage

    Soundproofing facility equipment

    Public workshops on EPA regulations for Class VI wells

    Community access to facility emissions data and facility site plan/layout

    Frequent site inspections

    Clear communication pathways between developers, residents, & facility operators

    Ensure suppliers adhere to state/federal responsible sourcing policy & reporting