Canadian Biomass • Fall 2024 • Editorial

Anyone got a good wood pellet joke? Or for that matter, any corn, wheat straw, organic waste jokes?

What about anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis, ethanol, renewable natural gas, sustainable aviation fuel, carbon capture and storage, biogas, biofuels, biochar, biocarbon or biomass jokes?

I suppose it’s unlikely I’ll find one all-encompassing icebreaker that’ll resonate with each of you loyal Canadian Biomass Magazine readers.

Originally from Ontario, I took my first real journalism gig across the country in Northern Alberta. For those fimiliar with the area, it was a little newspaper in Bonnyville, about three hours north of Edmonton and four hours south of Fort McMurray.

I had already worked a TV internship in Calgary, so I thought, How cold could it really be?

Our team was shortstaffed — to put it mildly — and needed a municipal reporter. I took one too many philosophy classes while getting my journalism degree, and didn’t really have a choice, so started my foray into political journalism.

When the snow still wasn’t off the ground in June, I packed up my things and drove to an editor job in Bancroft, Ont.

Then came a few gigs in Peterbourgh, Ont., and then a chance to lead a City Hall desk in Nova Scotia. Over a decade I fell in love with discovering new people, sectors and telling their stories.

In the few short months since taking on this role — now back in Toronto — I’ve spoken with people from each of the aforementioned sectors.

There are folks just starting in the sector, excited about bold new ideas, such as Montreal, Que.-based carbon removal project developer, Deep Sky.

There are folks who’ve been in the sector for decades, trying to take an industry forever on the cusp of trillion-dollar greatness over the edge, such as Jeff Passmore, head of Ottawa, Ont.-based Passmore Group.

Don’t forget the folks and organizations who’ve been trying to get the word out that solutions for low-carbon energy, in a world desperate to stop climate change, already exist, such as Gordon Murray, executive director of the Revelstoke, B.C.- based Wood Pellet Association of Canada.

I attended my first WPAC conference last month and came home with a fist full of business cards from people who are working in this sector and have stories to tell.

You’ll find each of these stories in this issue, but I have an inkling I’ve just brushed the surface.

With that in mind, please reach out. I want to know why you’re in this sector, your challenges and opportunities, and dig into the stories that matter.