By transforming leftover food into low-emission energy, Eco Growth Environmental is helping businesses heat water, power equipment, and cut food waste in landfills — all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this episode, we explore how their made-in-Alberta technology works, the impact it’s having, and where it could take us next.
What’s in this episode:
03:36 - How Eco Growth Environmental’s system transforms food waste into a usable energy source
07:57 - Why methane reduction is critical to achieving net-zero goals
10:27 - The environmental and economic benefits of waste-to-energy technology
15:56 - How this innovation is reaching remote communities in the Arctic and beyond
The What On EARTH Can We Do? podcast is a program of the Alberta Emerald Foundation (AEF), a registered charity dedicated to accelerating environmental excellence across Alberta.
Capital Power, Government of Alberta, the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta, Pathways Alliance, City of Edmonton, TD Friends of the Environment, and City of Calgary
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed by our guests do not necessarily reflect those of the Alberta Emerald Foundation. As a non-partisan organization, we are committed to presenting diverse perspectives on environmental issues.
Transcripts
Bri: [:
Today's episode is all about turning food waste into energy, and I'm joined by Glen Smith and Kim Caron from Eco Growth Environmental, a Calgary based company that's developed a system to do just that.
Their technology is already being used in places like hotels, care homes, and industrial laundries to reduce landfill waste, cut emissions, and lower operating costs, all by transforming leftover food into a local low emission energy source.
It might sound futuristic, but as you'll hear, this solution is not only making a difference in Alberta, but across the world.
Glen and Kim, thank you so much for being here and joining me on the podcast.
Kim: Thank you for having us.
e idea of turning waste into [:
Kim: So turning waste into energy. One, you have to understand what is waste.
And waste is really things that no longer have a value. And once there's no value, we typically, uh, in Canada, we send it to the landfill. So waste to energy is really taking that waste and putting it through either a incineration, uh, with oxygen or gasification without oxygen and turning it into thermal energy.
So that really is what waste to energy is.
Bri: Can you guys tell me why Food Waste in particular is a good candidate for this kind of solution of waste to energy?
that material goes through a [:
Is such a good candidate for our technology. 'cause we actually remove the water through a, uh, a primary process and then turn the, uh, dehydrated material into energy and therefore it's much more efficient because the water's been removed.
Glen: It's like upcycling both streams.
So when we have the dry material, we can manipulate it into pellets or briquettes. And then the liquid material we found we could harvest. And this is after our first time meeting. We harvest the liquid and we use the liquid as a liquid nutrient. And um, and that can be used very locally and then we can, if you have to truck the dry material, it's 80 to 90% size and weight reduced already.
o you don't have to haul it. [:
Bri: So knowing that this is a very efficient way for you guys to, to turn, um, waste into energy using food waste because you're able to, to, to take that water out of it and it's a little bit more efficient for you guys to dehydrate it.
We've talked a little bit, and I can kind of get an idea of what this process looks like, but can you walk us through how your system handles food waste and how it eventually becomes energy?
Kim: So our, our technology involves a three step process. And we're looking for speed and, uh, efficiency in each step.
as we can very quickly. And [:
And that goes through our mechanical, uh, dehydrator where the water that's evaporated away is actually captured through a, uh, condensate system. And that actually forms part of the nutrient water, uh, collection. So what comes out at the back end is a very dried. Uh, fluffy material that, uh, has an extremely high calorific value.
at's different is the energy [:
It's extremely efficient way to remove moisture from food waste and then turn it into to thermal energy.
Bri: So now that we have a better idea of how this technology works, let's talk about who's using this technology, what types of businesses, and what does maybe that look like within their business models and, and what are they using the energy for?
Glen: Well, executive mat service is an industrial laundry in Calgary, and, uh, this is where the, the example was born. Um, we've, we use the thermal value in our laundry water to wash floor mats and.
sing it as a, a fuel source, [:
So this becomes a, a way to use that cost and. Point it somewhere else to benefit us. And while we're doing it, we can offset landfill methane. And that's typically what we've become, is a landfill methane avoidance company by not landfill anything.
Bri: That's incredible to hear that about that, that that amount of savings, a hundred thousand dollars.
Um, are [:
Kim: So the communities and industries that are most, um, interested in our technology have a strong ESG or net zero, uh, emissions commitment. And what we're doing is we're tackling one of the scopes of carbon emissions, which is, call it scope three.
is now telling us one of the [:
Is waste to landfill. And when, particularly food waste, when it goes into landfill, it undergoes what's called an anaerobic decomposition, which is really, it breaks down without oxygen and it creates two things. It creates foul odors, but more importantly, it creates methane gas. And the science is now telling us that methane gas, when it hits the atmosphere.
Is 87 times more potent than carbon dioxide. So we wanna stop, methane from occurring in landfills. And if you are a corporation or a community using landfill for your organic, uh. Waste, solution that becomes a huge part of your carbon footprint. And so if you're going to achieve your net zero commitments, you have to stop putting material in.
in particular, food waste or [:
Bri: So it sounds like this technology could, could technically be used by any type of business as, as long as you are, you know, creating a type of waste that would be going to the landfill.
Is that correct?
Kim: That is correct. And not every corporation or community have a net zero commitment. However, they're striving to reduce costs and as the cost of trucking and disposing in landfills keep rising, well, our technology actually becomes a cost effective alternative to trucking, particularly, uh, food waste.
'cause it's 80% water. So you're trucking water, which is extremely heavy, uh, long distances to landfill and it's very expensive. So by removing water from the waste at the source, it becomes much more efficient, uh, in terms of not trucking water.
w we know how the technology [:
I'd love to get into the impacts and the benefits a little bit more. Maybe let's start with the environmental impacts and then we can go into. The, the economic impacts, the, the, the benefits.
So I, I can give you another example. Um, there's a, there's an age care group in Calgary. they have, uh, extended care facilities across Canada.
Glen: they have, uh, a small dehydrator in, uh, a South Calgary operation, and they produce about 60 kilograms. A day of food waste and that got picked up twice per week. Um, they had about six or seven bins full, twice per week.
Bri: Wow. Picked
Glen: up. And so about 14 bins a week went away. Once we put our dehydrator in.
[:
Bri: Wow.
Glen: However, that dehydrator has, uh, a scale on it. We put load cell, we call 'em load cells, but it's a scale that measures the weight that goes into the dehydrator and that weight gets calculated, uh, before, so the wet weight going in and then the, and then the finished dry weight and that information goes directly to cloud.
potent, potentially sell it.[:
And, uh, this led us into getting our ISO standard. Um, we've had our ISO 9,001 for, I bet you 15 years now. We just finished off our ISO 14,001, 2015, and now we have the auditors for the ISOs coming. To see what questions they can get outta asking, because Kim has been asking himself those questions for 35 years.
nd of spearheaded that whole [:
And, uh. There was so much. There still is a lot of, whole bunch of smoke and mirrors going on about what is the correct thing to do and, and people playing in this space. But, um, the ISOs of the world are getting serious about it. And the people that are having ESG or an net zero claim, scope threes 80% of their carbon footprint and they have to address it even though a lot are not.
And, uh, that's where the opportunity lies. They look at it as, as an, eh, don't worry about 80% of our carbon footprint, just put that in the back burner. We look at it as 80% of the opportunity that they can address and they can get ahead of. Because bottom line is it's still our carbon footprint. Whether we think it's going to the right place and something doing, somebody's doing something good with it.
set out to prove that we're [:
Bri: That's really incredible to hear. And, and maybe just for the people that don't know these ISOs that you're talking about, can you just unpack that a little bit just for those who might not know what it is,
Kim: so ISO stands for International Standards Organization. And what it is, it's a series of management tools that, that you follow, through your certification process to properly record and plan, uh, improvement. And it's all done, uh, with third party consultants. That helps steer you through and certify that your, uh, your activities meet the international standards.
for every kilogram of waste [:
So, to give you an idea that care home producing 60 kilograms of food waste per day. Which used to go to landfill using the scientific method, they are reducing their Scope three carbon footprint by over 200,000 kilograms of CO2 equivalent per year. So even though they're saving money on hauling and whatnot, which is a primary driver, but they're also getting, uh, much closer to achieving their climate goals, uh, and their net zero uh, commitments.
Bri: So it sounds like this technology is, is a no brainer to be within every organization, every business, not across just Alberta, but North America and the world.
And I would love to know the current state of this technology. Where is it being implemented? Is it just within Alberta? Is this across North America? What is that looking like?
in a Department of National [:
So that was a five year, uh, process that started off with close to 200, consortium companies. and after five years, they narrowed it down to three. Uh, we were one of the three and we ended up winning the $2 million first prize. Uh, we were able to reduce the camps, uh, solid waste by over 92%. Wow. And we were able to cover 200% of their thermal loads.
opened up some opportunities [:
the Canadian military themselves. and, uh, Arctic regions. And the Arctic is a real sore spot in Canada. Uh, you know, high levels of poverty, energy is typically diesel fuel. It's very expensive. And because of permafrost, the waste is typically just burnt in the open, creating all sorts of, uh, health, health, uh, issues.
So we're in the process of deploying three of our systems to the high Arctic. And the idea there is to reduce their reliance on diesel fuel and, uh, improve the health outcomes from not burning waste on the, uh, tundra. and creating more of a employment driven, uh, solution for those remote communities.
to start in the most remote [:
Bri: Absolutely. Like I said, this is just, this is a no-brainer to me and it's so incredible to hear about the, the success you guys have had, um, that, that you just spoke to Kim.
And for, for someone who's listening to the podcast right now, whether they're in business government or, or maybe they're just a, a passionate, uh, person about sustainability. What should they know? If they want to explore this technology that you guys have, maybe they want to implement it. What are the first steps?
How do, how do they get started?
Glen: So, yeah, definitely go, go to the website and, uh, all our contact numbers, you can do a submission, uh, right on the website.
t to. Our, our new potential [:
So your plastics, your food waste, your, um, cardboard, paper, wood, uh, we wanna know everything because we can, we can shred in size, reduce most. Of those waste streams, including plastics.
Kim: Our vision at Eco Growth, is in the future there will be no landfills because waste is simply a resource that we haven't looked at properly. So there should be no waste, and everything has a value and a purpose if you, uh, look at it properly.
Bri: Absolutely. I, I couldn't agree more. And I'm so grateful to you both for being here and talking with me about this incredible technology.
u guys and to watch you guys [:
Kim: Thank you, Sabrina.
Bri: Thanks again to Kim and Glen from Eco Growth Environmental for showing us what's possible when we stop seeing waste as just waste and start treating it as a resource. You can learn more about eco-growth's work, or reach out to them to explore their systems by checking out the show notes.
If this episode sparked something for you, send it to a colleague, a friend, or maybe even your office's sustainability team. These are the kinds of ideas worth sharing.
