Irving Green Industrial Park will be a North American first
It was once the birthplace of some the most sophisticated military vessels in the world. Soon, however, the venerable Saint John Shipyard will serve an entirely different purpose as the first ‘Green-certified’ industrial park in North America.
The ambitious transformation over the next year will cost upwards of $70 million to complete. But, according to Wayne Power, vice-president of J.D. Irving Ltd., which owns the property, it’s a small price to pay for progress. “We are certainly very excited about the business model,” he says. “The focus will be on producing green or environmentally friendly goods for local, regional and export markets. Once the conversion is done, this will be nothing less than a manufacturing center of excellence.” Specifically, he says, the park will adhere to three guiding principles – reduce, reuse and recycle – in all aspects if its function, as by-products from one operation become the resource for another.
Central to the plan, of course, is a ready supply of inexpensive, reliable and clean energy. “Initially, we were hoping to use biomass,” Power says. “But given the very large volume we would need, we decided to go with natural gas.”
The park’s first ‘tenant’ will be a gypsum wallboard manufacturing facility, owned and operated by JDI. The plant will use synthetic gypsum, generated as an energy byproduct at NB Power’s nearby Coleson Cove power station, as the main raw material. The operation will also use recycled paper from Irving feedstock as board coverings. “These are green principles in action,” Power says. “We’re basically sourcing waste products that would otherwise end up in a landfill somewhere.”
In addition, the manufacturing process, itself, will employ clean technologies. Natural gas burners will be employed to dry the raw gypsum and to produce the finished wallboard. Conditions within the plant will be kept as pristine as possible. “There will be small sources of dust,” Power says. “But, we’re going to address this with dust collectors.”
Once operational, the plant will be capable of producing upwards of 350 million square feet of wallboard panels a year. As for markets, Power isn’t worried.
“The market for so-called green building materials is one of the fastest-growing in North America,” he says. “The wallboard market, alone, hit an all-time high in 2004, with 37 billion square feet sold. This is all being driven by demand for new construction, 30 per cent of which is on the commercial side. Also, there’s been a 12.5 per cent increase in demand for wallboard in new home construction as a result of the move from eight-foot to 12-foot standard ceilings. So, I think we are in very good shape, indeed.”
Beyond this, the direct economic benefits of the conversion will be substantial, including 150 construction jobs and a payroll of close to $15 million. Once completed, the plant is expected to employ 85 people full time.
Still, Power says, the gypsum plant is only the beginning. “We’re creating a model for the future. We want to look at many other opportunities in the field of green manufacturing.”
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