Business View Oceania | March 2020

71 72 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA MARCH 2020 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA MARCH 2020 AZWOOD ENERGY fossil fuels in large energy systems; reducing the carbon footprint for organisations and lowering overall emissions of carbon and particulates to improve the local community’s air quality. The 100 percent wood ash from the burning of that energy (which contains great trace elements and nutrients) is mixed with other forestry residues like barks and composted plant matter and used to blend a growing medium that can be reapplied to enrich the soil, improving productivity for horticulturalists, agriculture and helping the nation produce food and other resources. It’s a full circular economy using residues. Azwood only deals with high- rotation renewable and sustainable forests – all FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) approved. Making sure relationships are only in place with foresters who are making a renewable resource. An advantage for Azwood of producing the entire range of wood fuels is that some – namely wood pellet fuel – can be burned quite well in current coal systems. The infeed systems and the boiler itself will burn pellet fuel in a similar manner to the way it burns coal, and it travels through those same energy systems. In comparison to an entirely new system it is a very cost effective means of converting to a renewable low emissions fuel. “On the other hand,” says McKeown, “if a client wants to go to a fuel like hogs fuel, which is cost comparative to coal, they do need to make a capital investment. Recently, the New Zealand government has announced funding of $200 million to help transition large energy users away from the use of fossil fuels. So there will be incentives in place at a central government level but we’ve noticed that the consumer, our clients and the industry within NZ itself is actually very proactive at looking at means to reduce their carbon footprint. Being a small country, we’re often the test pot for a lot of initiatives like carbon reduction because we’re agile as a country and we can move quite quickly. The industry as a whole has moved rapidly, especially in the last year, to the point where our largest