Development group to invest a cool billion to support North America’s bioeconomy expansion

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In North America, a coalition of biobased investors and capital market participants has announced it will deploy $1 billion in capital to support infrastructure and manufacturing within designated Bioeconomy Development Opportunity Zones. 

BDO zones are located in areas of the United States and Canada that have access to large amounts of surplus biomass and infrastructure to support new manufacturing sites. US sites also include economically distressed regions providing tax incentives to create jobs.

“BDO Zones undergo rigorous and extensive due diligence using a framework of over 100 standardized, transparent and validated risk indicators developed by Idaho National Labs and supported by the U.S. Dept. of Energy (BETO) and Natural Resources Canada,” the BDO Zone Investment Coalition says in a statement. “’AA’ or ‘A’ BDO Zone ratings create a powerful signal to investors and developers that these economically disadvantaged zones are primed for biobased investment and low risk deployment of clean energy infrastructure.” 

The initiative plans to create 1,000 such zones in 4 years to catalyze biobased investment and infrastructure development, strengthen energy independence efforts, create jobs, and contribute to long term prosperity.