Hogback NeighborWood

Heating Cooperative

Overview, Charette Findings, Action Plan, and Follow-up

This project was made possible by funding

from the Northeastern States Research

Cooperative.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Logs on the landing in Lincoln, Vermont, ready for fire-

wood processing during the 2009 NeighborWood Project.

Page

Preface 3

Introduction: A Vision of Sustainability 4

Map: Forestlands Suitable for Sustainable Biomass Harvesting in the Five-town Region 5

NeighborWood Heating Cooperative Model 7

Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative Action Plan 10

Appendix A: Compiled feedback from NeighborWood Heating Charette 21

Bibliography 36

All photographs of the NeighborWood Heating Charette by Jonathan Blake, East Middlebury, VT.

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PREFACE

I heated with firewood for the first time in the fall of 1973. My brother Ed had purchased an old farmhouse in South Washington, Vermont, and I was a cash-strapped forestry student commuting—hitchhiking actually—to UVM four days per week. Ed’s place had a snazzy new Franklin stove complete with screen and brass knobs. There were 55 acres of land—much of it forested—and I was anxious to manage it. Heating with wood seemed logical, frugal, and romantic. I purchased a used McCullough 5-10 in Tunbridge and set to work.

It was September and I needed dry wood. There were dead elms hovering over the chicken house, and they seemed like very logical candidates. So that is where I started my firewood harvesting career. To make a very long story short, there were lots of buried wedges, smoky fires, cold nights, close calls, and mistakes.

Thank goodness that a neighbor stopped by one day to introduce himself. His name was Walter Carlson. Wal-ter and his wife Alma lived up on the hill behind us. I later learned that Walter knew how to do just about everything that was useful exceptionally well. He was the working forest guru of gurus. Walter introduced me to linseed oil, the right tools and processes, and a gazillion other things. He probably saved my life and my brother a small fortune by showing me how to sharpen and operate my 5-10! Walter showed me how to split and dry wood, how to clean a chimney, and which trees could be burned green in a pinch. In short, Wal-ter Carlson taught me more important things than any other person on the face of this green earth.

There is so much to know in order to have a relationship with forests that is restorative, sustainable, efficient, local, and fair (R-SELF)! There are fewer and fewer Walters around, but each of us has at least a little Walter in us to share. Hopefully the Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative will one day be our community’s Walter: a source of great information and a place to exchange wood stories, share key equipment, and build a healthy community around heating well with wood.

We appreciate all of the information, enthusiasm, and energy that community members shared in the devel-opment of this report. This report is the result of that group. It was also made possible by a generous grant through the Northern States Research Cooperative. Thanks to Dr. Cecilia Danks, Principal Investigator of the Community Biomass Project. Special thanks to Sandra Murphy for shepherding all phases of this report and for creating order and information out of a wild yet collaborative process.

May the forest be with us.

David Brynn, Founding Forester

Vermont Family Forests

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HOGBACK NEIGHBORWOOD HEATING COOPERATIVE:

Overview, Charette Findings, Action Plan, and Follow-up

Introduction

A Vision of Sustainability

“There’s a tendency when we get involved in the problems…to go immediately to implementation, and talk first and primarily in that arena. … But before that we need to be sure that our models are clear, that our information is accurate, and above all we need to be sure that we know where we’re going.

“My experience in having, now many times, created a vision and then actually brought it, in some form, into be-ing, is that I never know at the beginning how to get there but, as I articulate the vision, put it out, share it with people, it gets more polished, and the path reveals itself. And it would have never revealed itself if I were not putting out the vision of what I really wanted and finding that other people really want it, too. Holding on to the vision reveals the path and there’s no need to judge the vision by whether the path is apparent.”

–Donella Meadows, pioneering environmental scientist and author (Limits of Growth), from a talk given to the International Society for Ecological Economics, 1994

The Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative (HNHC) is a shared vision of community energy sus-tainability. The setting for this vision is a portion of Addison County, Vermont, known as the five-town region, which encompasses the towns of Bristol, Lin-coln, Starksboro, Monkton, and New Haven (Figure 1). Hogback Ridge runs north-south, like a backbone, through the center of this landscape.

In the words of architect and author William McDonough (Cradle to Cradle, 2003), “All sustainabil-ity is local.” The best sustainable design solutions draw from and fit with local natural systems. Commu-nity members within the five-town region have a long history of conceiving and acting upon visions of local sustainability, exploring and expanding opportunities for locally produced food, energy, education, enter-tainment, and financing. Vermont Family Forests, a small forestry education non-profit in Bristol, has par-ticipated in this process since the organization’s incep-tion in 1995.

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Because the five-town region is extensively forested, wood fuel naturally rises to the forefront of potential sources for local, renewable, sustainable energy. To assess the extent of the sustainable supply of wood biomass for local energy use, ecologist Marc Lapin (Middlebury College) teamed with GIS mapping special-ist Christopher Rodgers and VFF founder and forester David Brynn to research and write the Assessment of the Sustainable Landbase for Forest Biomass Harvest and the Wood Biomass Resource Supply, Addison County Five Towns and Mad River Valley Towns (2009).

In a nutshell, the report finds that 14,948 cords/year of low-quality timber are available on 37,903 acres of suitable and available land in the five-town area. That’s equal to .39 cords of biomass (firewood)/acre per year, or 1.5 cords of firewood per resident/year.

These findings suggest that, while firewood is available as a local source of sustainable energy, its supply is finite. Tapping into that supply without compromising forest health requires careful planning and attentive-ness to all stakeholders in the wood energy cycle, from landowners and loggers to sugar maples and fungi.

In 2009, Vermont Family Forests initiated a research and demonstration project to develop, document, and enhance a model for community-supported firewood procurement. Known as NeighborWood, this project involved the harvest of 40.4 MBF of timber and 106 cords of firewood on 25 acres of a 177-acre private, family forest in Lincoln, Vermont. The project tested the feasibility of implementing practices that enhance forest restoration, ecological sustainability, energy efficiency, localness, and fairness (R-SELF) for all stake-holders in the process.

Specifically, these R-SELF practices included adherence to VFF’s Forest Health Conservation Checklist of forest management practices; a competitively priced timber sale in which the logger worked for the landowner; in-creased stumpage to the landowner; increased pay for the logging operator; the use of a log forwarding trailer to protect forest soil and keep wood clean; on-site pro-cessing of fuelwood; fuelwood grading; customer-direct shipping, and a mechanism for obtaining cus-tomer feedback.

Analysis of the outcomes from the NeighborWood pi-lot project yielded important information for future community-based, cooperative wood energy projects. The project attained substantial compliance with eco-logically sustainable forestry practices. It successfully ran a competitive timber sale that differentiated be-tween timber and fuelwood values.

However, the NeighborWood pilot project also high-lighted significant economic issues. The economic re-turn on firewood to the landowner equaled an annual return of less than $6 per acre per year. It was also less than 20% of the value received for an equivalent tonnage of fair-to-moderate grade timber. The pro-

R-SELF Principles

Restorative In 1949, Aldo Leopold defined land health as “the capacity of the land for self-renewal.” Much of the forest’s capacity for self-renewal depends on the health of its soil structure, chemistry, nutrients, and organisms. Processes that are restorative go beyond mere forest reclamation for a partic-ular use to improve and enhance the forest’s capacity for self-renewal.

Ecologically Sustainable Ecologically sustainable forest practices conserve water quality, soil productivity, carbon storage, native biodiversi-ty, and forest vitality.

Energy Efficient Energy efficiency needs to be a priority for every stage of the firewood production process—logging, processing, delivery, storage, and burning. Additionally the buildings that utilize firewood must be as energy efficient as possible to minimize the waste of BTUs released during burning.

Local In the case of the HNHC, “local” means the five towns of Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton, New Haven, and Starksboro, plus the headwaters of Lewis Creek, Little Otter Creek, the New Haven River, and the Huntington River. A locally sourced project involves local land, local labor, and local capital.

Fair Fairness includes both the economic relationships among human participants in the firewood system (compensation to landowners and woods workers, economic accessibility to firewood customers of all incomes), as well as fairness to other-than-human forest community members.

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ject’s final report concluded that, “If fuelwood harvesting, processing, and use are to be ecologically sustaina-ble, energy efficient, local, fair to all of the players, and not highly subsidized by timber, then the ‘community-supported’ aspect of NeighborWood will need to be much more highly developed and the price paid for fuelwood will likely need to increase very significantly.”

With these findings in hand, Vermont Family Forests continued to explore the vision of local wood energy sustainability, drawing upon the well-established model of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement. Just as a CSA offers a local, community-based source of food that exists concurrently with the conventional agricultural system, so a heating cooperative could offer a source of local, community-based wood heat, concurrent with conventional firewood procurement systems.

The conventional model for firewood production hinges on competition among suppliers to provide firewood in exchange for money (“greenbacks”). The HNHC offers a model based on cooperation among all sharehold-ers to produce R-SELF heating, which includes but goes beyond firewood into the realm of energy efficiency, alternative wood heating systems, and so on. The HNHC system would accommodate different forms of cur-rency, beyond traditional greenbacks (including barter/exchange of goods and services, with “Hogbacks” as currency), giving economic recognition to R-SELF values.

Vermont Family Forests brought the above model for a NeighborWood Heating Cooperative to a community charette in November, 2012, and

asked participants to help flesh out the vision for this community-based energy initiative.

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NeighborWood Heating Charette

In the autumn of 2012, Vermont Family Forests turned to local community members to help flesh out this vision of the Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative, inviting them to participate in a collaborative gathering, or charette, to identify characteristics of the heating cooperative, as well as tangible actions that will help manifest this vision.

On November 19, 2012, VFF hosted the NeighborWood Heating Charette in Bristol, Vermont, at the Bristol Elementary School. Forty community members took part. Following an introductory session, participants attended and contributed to one of three break-out sessions, exploring key parts of the firewood heating co-operative process: In the Forest (how to identify and sustainably manage the inventory of firewood-producing trees), In Transition (logging, firewood processing, and delivery), and In the Home (energy efficien-cy in firewood storage and burning, as well as in building construction).

Charette participants generated extensive, creative ideas. A complete compilation of their feedback is includ-ed in Appendix A (page 21). Vermont Family Forests has distilled that feedback into an action plan, which be-gins on page 10. Vermont Family Forests circulated the action plan to charette participants to solicit their feedback. One early message seems clear—participants felt that the vision and the action plan were crea-tive, exciting, and somewhat daunting, with many moving parts and unknown variables. Given this feedback, it appears that the best course of action is for this cooperative venture to start small, with just a few moving

Photos (clockwise from top left): David Brynn introduces the charette; During break-out sessions, participants generated ideas to

envision and manifest the heating cooperative; Monkton resident John McNerney (center) makes a point during the introductory

session; each participant received a journal in which to record their ideas for the heating cooperative.

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parts, and test the feasibility of the process, with the understanding that the cooperative can build upon these preliminary investigations as community interest, engagement, and buy-in allow.

HNHC Forum

Following the NeighborWood Heating Charette, Vermont Family Forests created an on-line forum to facilitate sharing and tracking of ideas related to the HNHC, at www.familyforests.messageboardchat.com/ . VFF invit-ed 75 people to join the forum—those who had participated in the charette or who have been engaged in the conversation about local wood energy production. To date, participation in the forum has been limited, but momentum for this communication medium may build over time as the idea of the HNHC gains traction.

HNHC Pilot Project

To explore the potential for the HNHC in a limited, manageable way, VFF developed a pilot project for the HNHC—a mini-venture that will express and test the larger vision for the cooperative. The pilot project will involve every part of the cooperative as envisioned in the action plan, field-testing the notion of an economi-cally viable cooperative process that includes cutting trees without compromising forest health, processing those logs into firewood, delivering them to a homeowner via an efficient system that minimizes handling and involves well-designed storage, and conducting an audit of the home and combustion system.

As with the charette, VFF will shepherd the pilot project process. The project will take place at the Water-works property, a 664-acre, community-owned parcel of land in Bristol. David Brynn, VFF’s founding execu-tive director and conservation forester has completed the first step of the process, carefully assessing the firewood that the Waterworks forest is willing to yield. In late May or early June, woodsworker Bill Torrey will log and process roughly 100 cords of firewood. VFF will carefully track the production, delivery, storage, and utilization of this firewood during the coming months.

The HNHC Pilot Project directly addresses several specific actions from the HNHC Action Plan, including 2.1.A, 2.1.B, 3.1.A, 3.1.D, 3.1.F, 4.1.A, 4.1.B, and 4.1.D.

HNHC Seminar

In September, 2013, Vermont Family Forests will host a 16-hour seminar, “Producing and Using Firewood Sustainably in the Hogback EcoRegion” to continue community-based conversations and idea-sharing related to the Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative. In the seminar, participants will explore restorative, sustainable, efficient, local, and fair ways to produce and use firewood as a heating source. The seminar will meet six times in several near-Bristol locations over the course of September and October. It will start in the forest, work through the log forwarding, produce the firewood, evaluate home energy efficiency, and exam-ine ways to dry and burn wood well.

Building on the results of the NeighborWood Charette, the seminar will be a hands-on and collaborative ex-perience, drawing on the knowledge of all of the participants while tapping local experts like Matt Sharpe, Roger Wallace, Bill Torrey and others. In the final session, participants will discuss how their findings during this seminar fit into the notion of a community-based wood heat cooperative. A full description of the semi-nar is available on the VFF website, www.familyforests.org/public-education/events.shtml.

The HNHC Seminar will directly address several specific actions from the HNHC Action Plan, including 2.1.A, 2.2.A, 2.3, 3.1.A, 3.1.D, 3.1.F, 3.3, 4.1.A, 4.1.B, 4.1.D, and 4.3.A.

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HOGBACK NEIGHBORWOOD HEATING COOPERATIVE ACTION PLAN

Mission Statement: The mission of the Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative is to provide reliable access to high quality, durable, and affordable firewood-based heating systems that are restorative, ecologically sustainable, energy-efficient, local, and fair while serving the needs of a diverse, informed, engaged, and evolving membership through cooperative and mutually beneficial relationships over time.

1. Cooperative Structure as a Whole

Actions:

1.1 Create a comprehensive, creative, flexible, and cooperative (mutually beneficial) firewood heating system from the living trees in the forest to hearth and home.

1.2 Identify means of managing the Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative (HNHC), include ing oversight for ecological and production standards, R-SELF performance monitoring, equip ment, coordination of supply and demand, and resolution of disputes and failures.

1.3 Identify existing legal framework/documentation to guide the process of forming the coopera

tive, so we’re not reinventing the wheel.

1.4 Recognize that the cooperative does not need to limit itself to finding one system/solution

that works for everyone, when in fact several solutions may be appropriate.

1.5 Be sure the cooperative is inclusive, with membership available and accessible to all who are aligned with the R-SELF Principles.

1.6 Offer various levels of involvement or “buy in” for co-op members.

1.7 Identify incentives for participation among forests, landowners, loggers, customers, and other potential coop members.

1.8 Utilize local labor and resources whenever possible and take good care of all of the players.

1.9 Employ full life-cycle analyses when evaluating compliance with R-SELF principles.

1.10 Longer-term action: Recognize that “forest products” include forest ecosystem services such as high quality water supplies, non-wood forest products, and wood products.

1.11 Longer-term action: Celebrate cooperative forestry through community-building events.

1.12 Longer-term action: Figure out who’s part of “the cooperative system” and invite them to

participate.

2. In the Forest

Givens:

Any actions must contribute to a design that is Restorative, Sustainable, Efficient, Local, and Fair (R-SELF) when viewed across the full life cycle.

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The portfolio/forest inventory will be the key to identifying the wood available for cooperative firewood production.

The cooperative model is an essential part of this firewood-based heating network, resulting in forest

management focused more on people and principle and less on profits. Sustainable practices benefit

the entire forest community, rather than extracting a profit no matter the environmental costs.

Assumptions for sustainability:

No loss of forest.

No increase in population.

No increase in per-capita needs.

Current assumptions of sustainable removal and impact on healthy ecosystems are correct.

We are not trying to divorce fuelwood production from timber harvest, but we are interested in

understanding the ecological, economic, and social implications of each.

Firewood procurement should be part of a holistic, regenerative process.

System should strive for a balance between supply and demand.

All firewood production must strive to meet forest management standards set by the cooperative.

2.1 Firewood Portfolio/database

2.1.A Action 1: Develop a portfolio of available trees for firewood.

2.1.A1 Identify a forest firewood data collection and management system that is easy to use and administer, cost-effective, and sufficiently accurate for creating a reliable inventory, and which supports associated accounting.

2.1.A2 Involve co-op members of diverse ages in inventory/forest management process to

encourage transference of forest knowledge across generations.

2.1.A3 Address the challenges of how to manage the portfolio of member forests and available firewood.

2.1.A4 Find a way to capture even the smallest contributions to the overall forest firewood inventory (for example, individual trees on a small parcel).

2.1.A5 Design co-op to include parcels under 25 acres.

2.1.A6 Utilize non-traditional fuel tree species when ecologically appropriate.

2.1.A7 Establish “fallow mosaic” for the forested landscape.

2.1.A8 Create a supply agreement with landowners that ensures that the customer has

assured access to a sustainable supply but allows the landowners flexibility to accommodate unexpected life events and conditions that might compromise forest

health (for example, a mild winter that precludes frozen winter conditions for tree

harvest).

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2.1.B Action 2: Identify and adopt forest management standards.

2.1.B1 Utilize forest management standards that can be updated with new information over time.

2.1.B2 Set standards for best practices for species management and low-impact harvest (e.g.

equipment specs, use of horses, etc.) to protect biodiversity, such as Vermont Family Forests’ Forest Health Conservation Checklist.

2.1.B3 Develop a simple yet credible monitoring protocol for insuring that forest health standards are upheld in member forests. This protocol will identify the level of compliance of participating forests and seek improved compliance over time.

2.1.C Action 3: Create a searchable database of the HNHC’s firewood producers. This will allow

customers to connect with nearby landowners/loggers. Web database can include

interactive forest maps, so customers can see exactly where the wood is coming from.

2.1.C1 Longer-term action: Within the database, list co-op members and the skills they have to offer for barter.

2.2 Marketing Outreach

2.2.A Marketing outreach should address the following topics:

2.2.A1 Benefits of joining the Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative. These include:

Connection with forests.

Community-building that cultivates a shared sense of place and celebrates our

woods and wood producers.

High-quality, reliably supplied, R-SELF firewood.

2.2.A2 What is R-SELF firewood?

What does a sustainably managed forest look like?

Explain VFF management standards.

2.2.A3 How does my purchase of NeighborWood help to ensure a healthy forest for the future?

Why does the co-op’s approach matter?

2.2.A4 Explain how the HNHC manifests ideas presented in Vermont’s Comprehensive Energy

Plan, Volume 2 (Facts, Analysis and Recommendations), page 90, which discusses the

value of sustainable forestry management and its implications for carbon storage.

2.2.A5 Where is your woodshed? Help people understand and connect with where their firewood comes from (provenance) and how those woods are cared for.

How much fuel is available from this woodshed?

Get people to start thinking in terms of "how many acres does it take to provide heat for me/my family?”

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Longer-term action: Tell the stories of individual forests and landowners within the cooperative.

Longer-term action: Utilize interactive web-based maps as tools to tell the story and help people connect with local forests and each other.

2.2.A6 Longer-term action: Generate a sense of place within the Hogback Eco-region.

2.3 Training for Member Woods Workers

2.3.A Action 1. Offer Master Logger course or similar baseline skill-building experience for

participating firewood harvesters, loggers, and other coop members.

2.3.B Action 2. Provide training programs for those collecting data for the firewood portfolio to ensure consistency in inventory standards.

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3. In Transition: Logging, Firewood Processing, and Delivery

Givens:

Any actions must contribute to a design that is Restorative, Sustainable, Efficient, Local, and Fair (R-SELF) when viewed across the full life cycle.

Top quality is essential for building the co-op’s reputation and buy-in.

Best practices should encourage smaller operators and good forestry. Specific management practice lists are helpful, but should not be overly restrictive as long as results meet goals. Accurate assessment of compliance levels with these practices should be feasible.

Value quality over quantity at all times.

Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative membership should include landowners, loggers, firewood producers, efficiency and combustion experts, and firewood-based heating customers.

Avoid exclusivity by ensuring that firewood is available to all customers, not only those able to pay more for the added values of forest health, energy efficiency, local supply, and fairness.

Seek to optimize the use of local land, labor and capital.

Proper equipment is essential to achieve efficient production and project success.

All members, from landowners to end customers, should be encouraged to work as they are able as part of their membership.

Firewood costs should be determined independently and not ‘carried’ or subsidized by higher value sawlogs.

3.1 Structure of Firewood Procurement/Processing/Delivery System

3.1.A Action 1: Identify the equipment needed for firewood production

3.1.A1 Identify the appropriate scale for firewood production. (Market information can inform this process, including how much NeighborWood will be burned in the area, range of per-dwelling demand, potential for increased demand, etc.).

3.1.A2 Identify appropriate model for equipment ownership (own, lease, and /or rent). Who owns the equipment—the co-op or individuals?

3.1.A3 Identify the equipment needed to start the co-op at a reasonable level and what it will cost (e.g. forwarders, firewood processors, and delivery trucks).

3.1.A4 Address issues with cooperatively owned equipment:

Who gets to run the various pieces of the coop’s equipment? What are their minimum qualifications?

Safety

Training

Liability/ insurance

Maintenance: doing maintenance, paying for it, what if one of the users breaks the

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equipment through negligence?

3.1.A5 Longer-term action: Lower costs through bulk ordering of supplies (bio-based hydraulic fluid, chain saw oil, saw chains, axe handles, fuel.)

3.1.A6 Longer-term action: Explore barter options (e.g. trade labor for wood), with value including cash money, equipment hours, logger time, or future volume.

3.1.A7 Longer-term action: Encourage local community equipment parts salvaging and stocking.

3.1.A8 Longer-term action: Minimize debt.

3.1.A9 Longer-term action: Determine full costs and benefits of investments within the R-SELF criteria.

3.1.B Action 2: Identify funding sources for equipment

3.1.B1 Crowd-source financing, with return on investment paid in something other than dollars.

3.1.B2 Forest futures.

3.1.C Action 3: Address the needs of woods workers (loggers, firewood processors).

3.1.C1 How can we structure the cooperative so that it doesn’t take business away from aligned loggers and firewood processors? Can the co-op be organized in a way that supports them?

3.1.C2 Develop compensation to loggers that allows for a reasonable pace of logging (that which best ensures worker safety, as clarified in Game of Logging).

3.1.C3 Create a production model in which a logger does not need to sacrifice financially to take part (one that offers adequate compensation).

3.1.C4 Investigate insurance and benefits for member-operators (woods workers).

3.1.C5 Identify how the operators will be paid. A per-hour payment for loggers puts incentive in the right place, encouraging attentiveness to forest health.

3.1.C6 Develop a price-per-BTU approach as part of the cooperative’s price/compensation model.

3.1.C7 Longer-term action: Encourage more young people to enter welding, diesel mechanics, and logging trades.

3.1.D Action 4: Identify the system for firewood production.

3.1.D1 Develop a system of quality control so firewood is consistently clean, dry, delivered on- time, etc.

3.1.D2 Develop a scaling and grading system for firewood.

What lengths and species of firewood will be offered and sold?

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Develop unique names for various firewood grades.

Identify levels of need and service among customers and offer various products that align with those needs.

Will co-op offer green wood and/or dry wood? One option is to encourage customers to buy dry wood (and educate as to why it’s important to burn dry wood), but develop different pricing levels for different levels of dryness.

Consider processing wood for gasifier operations (briquette size chunks, rather than stove-length).

Promote firewood over pellets (because pellet stoves use electricity, pellets use more energy to create energy than does chunk firewood, etc.).

3.1.D3 Determine location of firewood production operations.

Should the co-op create and utilize a center of operations (firewood processing/aggregation yard), or will processing and delivery be based at individual landings, or some combination of the two?

If processing is dispersed at member-landowner forests, is there a single wood-processing rig that moves from job to job?

3.1.D4 Longer-term action: If the coop uses a centralized firewood processing yard , consider including an open-sided, or partially open-sided, roofed building for seasoning wood prior to pick up or delivery. This building could possibly double as community space.

3.1.D5 Longer-term action: Consider creating a firewood version of apple picking and Christmas tree harvesting—firewood picking. Customers could "pick" a cord or a crate to fill their own vehicle or perhaps even pick a pre-marked standing tree, which would then be felled and split for them.

3.1.E Action 5: Identify customer base and services.

3.1.E1 Identify who the HNHC customers are.

3.1.E2 Develop a customer base looking for a long-term, yearly supply of firewood-based heating; relationship with supplier; high quality; ecological accountability, etc.

3.1.E3 Require customer commitment to the cooperative firewood-based heating supply, to create predictability for production. Perhaps require a 3-year purchase contract.

3.1.E4 Open up the currency to make room for barter.

3.1.E5 Address the top concerns of residential firewood purchasers, including:

Consistent, reliable access to firewood

Quality of wood

Flexible delivery

Harvesting quality (sustainability)

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3.1.F Action 6: Identify delivery mechanism.

3.1.F1 Ensure timely, reliable, energy-efficient delivery of wood.

3.1.F2 Utilize orchard crates for storing and delivering firewood. These can be refilled/reused, like a beer growler. Orchard crates don’t require stacking, and so save time and energy.

Or, utilize pallets for storage, which require stacking.

Deliver crates or pallets with truck equipped with forklift, and take away empties.

3.1.F3 Help customers create storage units for wood (provide design, help build, etc.) that work well with delivery system.

3.1.F4 Optimize efficiency in delivery and use (don’t put more energy into wood than necessary).

3.1.F5 Provide help to older customers in stacking/managing wood on a regular basis (could involve vocational education students for credit).

3.1.F6 Longer-term action: Identify and monitor “choke points” in the workflow of co-op operation from forest to end user to improve its structure and deliverables.

3.2 Marketing Outreach

3.2.A Marketing outreach should address the following topics:

3.2.A1 Why am I paying more than for conventional firewood? Values of the co-op’s approach/ services.

3.2.A2 Firewood grading: Explain the system, how it works, what the grades are and how they’re determined.

3.2.B Longer-term action: Promote the health and fitness values of heating with wood.

3.3 Training

3.3.A Workshops and Hogback Community College courses in:

Chainsaw use

Logging and transportation techniques

Worker’s Compensation

3.3.B Longer-term action: Create internet forum to post videos of harvesting methods, inventions, how-to videos, general resources for local loggers, etc.

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4. In the Home—Energy Efficiency in Wood Burning and Building Design

Givens:

Any actions must contribute to a design that is Restorative, Sustainable, Efficient, Local, and Fair (R-SELF) when viewed across the full life cycle.

The co-op needs to be concerned as much with optimizing the efficiency of BTUs in service as with how they are harvested and delivered.

Co-op should serve as “efficient heating supplier,” rather than just “firewood supplier,” bundling efficiency services (audits, connecting customers with resources for improving home energy efficiency, etc.) and firewood supply.

Cooperative must be accessible for people across the income spectrum.

Efficiency Vermont-style consultation and assistance (e.g. design assistance, technical know-how, best practices for building contractors) is crucial to developing the local wood-heating market.

Cooperative should promote and help increase energy efficiency on the purchasing side, so that customers end up burning less wood.

We have the knowledge to build new buildings to be very efficient, to the point at which a single-

home wood-heating unit would be oversized, increasing the benefits of multi-house units or a mass storage element (water, stone).

4.1 Structure of System for Optimizing Energy Efficiency in Wood Burning and Building Design

4.1.A Action 1: Promote efficiency first to limit the number of BTUs needed for home heating.

4.1.A1 Partner with Efficiency Vermont.

4.1.A2 Provide access to information about efficient building design in new and retrofitted

construction.

4.1.A3 Identify the many excellent existing resources available (don’t reinvent the wheel). Leverage these existing resources to reach a large number of customers.

4.1.A4 Investigate including access to home energy audit as part of cooperative membership.

4.1.A5 Longer-term action: Explore local, natural, low-embodied-energy materials for super- insulating buildings.

4.1.A6 Longer-term action: Develop a firewood-based heating version of the “localvore challenge”—an “energy efficiency challenge.”

4.1.B Action 2: Promote excellent fuel storage so firewood is optimally dry when burned.

4.1.B1 Develop NeighborWood firewood storage sheds and handling systems and assemble a

team for building effective, economical, esthetically pleasing woodsheds and firewood handling systems for co-op members (dry fuel = higher efficiency).

4.1.B2 Develop a wood-drying standard and involve customers in ensuring that this standard is met.

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4.1.B3 Focus efforts on convenience to the customer to build demand.

4.1.B4 Longer-term action: Promote or require proper air drying of firewood before burning.

4.1.C Action 3: Investigate funding sources to help co-op members pay for energy efficiency measures.

4.1.C1 Create local revolving loan fund to pay for energy audit and efficiency improvements.

4.1.C2 Identify potential cost reductions so the efficiency process becomes economically feasible.

4.1.C3 Identify existing funding sources for increasing efficiency (for example, PACE financing).

4.1.C4 Investigate opportunities to add value to the NeighborWood firewood (increase cost) and use that added fee to subsidize energy audit costs for co-op members.

4.1.C5 Develop a time bank (service exchange, VFF’s Old Farts Conservation Corps) for weatherization projects, with Hogbacks as currency.

4.1.D Action 4: Promote optimal wood burning efficiency.

4.1.D1 Develop cooperatively owned and operated district heating system that sells BTUs

(Denmark and Sweden can serve as models for this).

4.1.D2 Explore group purchase of equipment, including wood stoves, boilers, etc.

4.1.D3 Explore centralized heating plants for neighbors.

4.1.D4 One issue will be the labor aspect of managing cordwood in shared or non-single family buildings. We need to develop business models that compensate tenants or

maintenance people to feed shared or central chunk wood systems and replace the

higher cost of oil or pellets with lower-cost chunk wood and local labor.

4.1.D5 Investigate ways to “bank” heat once BTUs are released from wood, so it can be utilized as efficiently as possible.

4.1.D6 Longer-term action: Promote or require efficient heat sources, including high-efficiency wood stoves and wood boilers (including masonry heaters and rocket stoves).

4.1.D7 Longer-term action: Change wood burning practices (efficiency and technology) to

allow use of non-traditional fuel tree species.

4.2 Marketing Outreach

4.2.A Action 1. Explore the best ways to solicit input/feedback from fuelwood users (written surveys, online surveys, phone call, etc.), to create an easy and effective data collection/ quality feedback system.

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4.3 Training for Firewood-based Heating Customers

4.3.A Action 1: Offer workshops and information about:

Wood stove selection, installation and maintenance

Drying and storing firewood correctly

Woodshed design and construction

Firewood handling methods and equipment

Weatherization (retrofitting old buildings with energy-efficient features, as well as energy-

efficient materials and techniques for new buildings.)

Optimized energy financing within the context of R-SELF values.

4.3.B Longer-term action: Develop a pilot energy-efficiency retrofit with a few homes in the 5-towns

area to show the process (energy audit, economical retrofits, funding sources).

4.3.C Longer-term action: Encourage/develop training in technical schools.

4.3.D Longer-term action: Work with local schools to add energy efficiency ideas into science curriculum.

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Appendix A

Compiled feedback from NeighborWood Heating Charette

November 19, 2012

In the Forest

Focus Question: How do we cultivate and maintain a wood energy inventory (forest fuel portfolio) among cooperative members over time? What does that portfolio look like, how is it maintained, how do we ensure

forest health…? How could it be used to benefit landowners, aligned loggers and firewood producers, and

customers?

Given: Any actions must contribute to a design that is Restorative, Sustainable, Efficient, Local, and Fair (R-SELF) when viewed across the full life cycle.

Structure of system

The portfolio/forest inventory will be the key to identifying what firewood is available (see “Forest Management” below for details).

Cooperative could encompass many non-timber values in addition to firewood, for example: mush-

rooms, recreational access, medicinal herbs, wood for local woodworkers and crafters, fruit, nuts, ma-ple syrup, meat (game, fish, livestock).

Explore the potential of including these value-added products with coop membership, so that, in addi-tion to firewood, membership might include a share of maple syrup, nuts, a storybook about the co-op, newsletter, tips for efficiency, etc.

Coop can create a NOFAVT-style searchable database of producers, allowing customers to connect

with nearby landowners/loggers. Web database can include interactive forest maps, so customers can

see exactly where the wood is coming from.

Database could include a list of coop members and the skills they have to offer for barter.

Forestry should involve coop members of diverse ages, to encourage transference of forest knowledge.

Cooperative model is an essential part of the firewood system. Be sure that the cooperative feels in-clusive, not exclusive.

Offer various levels of involvement, or “buy in,” for coop members.

Identify incentives for participation among landowners and loggers.

Celebrate cooperative forestry through community-building events.

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Rally around town forest.

Manage biomass locally so we don’t get pulled into a global market.

Create an official connection with similar existing cooperatives (Denmark Sweden, etc). Or cultivate a connection between the Hogback Ecoregion and a sister ecoregion somewhere else in the country or world where these concepts could be concurrently played out. This will create a horizontal transfer of information from one region to another. If not sister ecoregion, then sister city relationships could be good candidates.

Much wood will be harvested outside the guidelines that this group or VFF would support, by local

landowners and managers outside the circle. It will be important to reach these folks with infor-

mation. Our tendencies toward neatness, cleanliness, and order in our woods are very strong and out

of synch with maintenance of biodiversity.

There is a need for habitat/forest conservation efforts and conservation easements within which this

firewood procurement system can be embedded.

There is a need for property tax systems that recognize the value to the community of conserved

land, even small parcels (Use value taxation).

Need a supply agreement with landowner that ensures that the customer has a sustainable supply

but allows the landowner flexibility to accommodate unexpected life events and conditions that

might compromise forest health (mild winter, etc).

There is a real opportunity to connect with sugarmakers, who want to have their sugarbushes thinned. Collaboration could generate lower-cost firewood.

Figure out who’s part of “the system” and invite them to participate.

Education

Education is key, helping people understand why the coop’s approach matters and how to care for the forest. Teach people about:

Where’s your woodshed? Help people understand and connect with where their firewood comes from and how those woods are cared for. Tell the story of the woodshed and the contributing landowners and forests within it. How much fuel is available from this woodshed?

What does a sustainably managed forest look like? There is much value in dead, hollow, old,

coarse woody debris, vines, food sources, for biodiversity, ecosystem services and ecosystem

function. Explain VFF management standards.

What R-SELF firewood is.

Benefits of joining coop. These include:

Connection with forest

Community-building: cultivate a shared spirit of place, celebrate our woods and wood produc-

ers.

High-quality, reliably supplied, R-SELF wood.

Provenance (source of wood), to build recognition of the ecological value of the land.

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How does my purchase of NeighborWood ensure a healthy forest for the future? Answers may vary depending audience (adult, child, forester, etc) and can include diagrams, storytelling, but al-so the most direct connecting of the economic-ecological "dots" as possible.

Why does the coop’s approach matter?

Logging “waste” products as important parts of forest health.

Master Logger course, or similar baseline skill-building experience necessary for participating log-

gers.

Note that Vermont’s Comprehensive Energy Plan, Volume 2 (Facts, Analysis and Recommenda-

tions), page 90, mentions the value of sustainable forestry management and its implications for

carbon storage.

Tell the stories of the individual forests and landowners.

Provide training programs to ensure consistency in inventory standards.

Create a storybook or video illustrating the value of the coop’s approach to forestry and firewood pro-curement and utilization.

Cultivate points of pride in "local as possible" and "efficient as possible". Imagine an appropriate-for-all-ages VFF public access 1/2 hour (think Sesame Street meets Marty Stoufers' Wild America) that introduces concepts, players, inspiration, even song and celebration of such a wonderful ecoregional project. “It's a beautiful day in the neighbors’ woods, a beautiful day and I wish that you would...”

Provide experiential opportunities to see and learn about forests and forest health and the assem-blage of plants and wildlife that are part of the system, for landowners, resource managers, and cus-

tomers.

Get people to start thinking about "how many acres does it take to provide heat for me/my family?

Utilize interactive web-based maps as tools to tell the story, to help people understand and connect.

Generate a sense of place within the Hogback Ecoregion, build community. These connections make a difference.

Education outreach can help to justify higher cost of coop firewood.

Forest Management

Cooperative nature makes forest management based on people and principles, rather than profits. Everyone benefits from sustainable practices rather than extracting profit no matter the environmen-

tal costs.

Assumptions for sustainability:

No loss of forest

No increase in population

No increase in per capita needs

Current assumptions of sustainable removal and impact on healthy ecosystems are correct.

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Utilize local labor and resources whenever possible.

All participating forests should utilize the same forest inventory system, including harvest forecasting

(see Redstart Consulting for example). Find appropriate/agreed-upon levels of transparency in term

of forest(s) inventory

what would it look like?

how would it be viewable to curious co-op members?

What is the species composition of the inventory?

Would the inventory of a particular woodlot be viewable?

Reject thinning of “low grade” as motive.

Establish fallow mosaic for landscape.

Are we trying to divorce timber harvest from fuelwood production? If so, can that be economical?

Design coop to include small Current Use parcels or maybe more importantly with those under 25 acres that are not in Current Use.

Utilize non-traditional fuel tree species.

All production meets forest management standards set by the cooperative.

Figure out how to maintain and oversee ecological and production standards.

Identify forests in need of management to improve forest health, which could include firewood har-vesting.

Utilize forest management standards that can be adapted over time with new information.

Set standards for best practices for species management and low-impact harvest (ie, equipment specs, use of horses, etc) to protect biodiversity.

Explore phased use of the forest; for example, first cut firewood, then grow forest crop, then graze,

etc.

Use coppicing to help forests regenerate.

Management needs to look at whole system (input/output analysis).

There’s an opportunity, in the case of forests that are in poor health due to past management practic-

es, to combine restorative treatments with firewood harvesting.

Create forest firewood data collection system that is easy to use and provides accurate inventory and accounting.

Address the challenges of how to manage the portfolio of member forests and available firewood. Figure out how to be as inclusive as possible.

Implement phased/rotational extraction (firewood, forest crops, grazing) as part of a larger produc-tion system.

Firewood procurement should be part of a holistic, regenerative process.

In order to be sustainable, we must realize and communicate “No loss of forest.”

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Find a way to capture even the smallest (ie individual trees on a small parcel) contributions to the overall forest firewood inventory.

Strive for balance between supply and demand.

Develop a system for insuring that forest health standards are being upheld.

Investigate potential of public land for plantation fuelwood production.

In Transition: Logging, Firewood Processing, and Delivery

Focus Question: How do we effectively secure the most suitable equipment and practices for logging, con-

verting logs to firewood, and delivering firewood to customers, while taking care of woods workers (through

adequate compensation, attracting the next generation of woods workers, etc.)?

Given: Any actions must contribute to a design that is Restorative, Sustainable, Efficient, Local, and Fair (R-SELF) when viewed across the full life cycle.

Structure of system

Create a coordinated system of cooperation on three levels:

Shared equipment (forwarders, firewood processors) that would protect the health of the forest and also increase efficiency and profit for the logger. This equipment could also perhaps be usable

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by individual landowners.

System of distribution in which wood providers have a network of local customers who deal with them annually, as they would with an oil or electric company, and who know that they would re-ceive high-quality, clean, dry wood of the right size.

Related system of services, including building convenient storage units and helping older custom-ers to stack their firewood and bring it into the house.

Identify means of managing the cooperative, including oversight for R-SELF performance, equipment, coordination of supply and demand, resolution of disputes and failures.

The coop should not take a one-size-fits-all approach. There is room in this coop system for a diversity of approaches, from the one guy with a chainsaw in his backyard cutting for personal use to the full-time processor with some expensive, dedicated equipment. The methods and scale used can vary from person to person, parcel to parcel, and over time.

Example: Little Hogback Community Forest

Currently there is a lot of individual work and some cooperation in firewood processing.

We may get to a point where some of the harvesting is beyond us and want to look at some-one to cut and deliver logs to the landing or leave logs trailside.

Some members do not have the time, skills, equipment, and/or ability to do some or all of the steps of the processing, but would like firewood from LHCF.

At LHCP, shared equipment is a concept that has interested members, but they may not have the scale to justify it. Can they band together with others? Or look into some sort of deal with someone doing this professionally?

Best practices should encourage smaller operators and good forestry. Specific management practice lists are helpful, but should not be overly restrictive as long as results meet goals.

Can the cooperative connect customers with wood from small jobs? If so, we can turn situations where the landowner might otherwise pay to get rid of a tree into an opportunity to harvest fire-wood.

Look around for existing legal documents to guide cooperative process, so we’re not reinventing the wheel.

Value quality over quantity at all times.

Identify whether this will be a producer or consumer coop, or a blend of the two. Blend is key.

How can we sell at higher prices per cord than other available firewood sources, which seems neces-sary? Are we too exclusive if wood is only available to those able to pay more for the “added values” of forest health?

Lower costs through bulk ordering of supplies (bio-based hydraulic fluid, chain saw oil, saw chains, axe handles, fuel.)

Explore bartering options (ie, trade labor for wood), with value including cash money, equipment hours, logger time, or future volume.

Create internet forum to convey information. Can be used to “sell” quality logging through education, announce demonstrations and tours, workshops, wood salvaging opportunities, etc.

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Identify and monitor “choke points” in the workflow of coop operation from forest to end user, to im-prove its structure and deliverables.

Consider encompassing a larger region populated by local-focus “chapters,” which allows for econo-mies of scale from aggregate for some things, but local control.

Woods workers (loggers, firewood processors)

How can we do a cooperative in a way that doesn’t take business away from a good logger or fire-wood processor? Can the coop be organized in a way that supports them? We need to assure that what we are doing supports the forest professionals and the health of these professions, while recog-nizing that some of us enjoy the “hobby” level of woods work and/or may never buy firewood as long as we are able to do it ourselves.

Develop compensation to loggers that allows for a reasonable pace for logging (that which best en-sures worker safety, as clarified in Game of Logging). Secondary benefit of this is reduced logging damage to residual stand.

We do not want to create a production model in which a logger must sacrifice financially to take part. He/she must have adequate compensation.

Investigate insurance and benefits for member-operators (woods workers).

Identify how the operators will be paid. A per-hour payment for loggers puts incentive in the right place (encourages attentiveness to forest health).

Develop a price-per-BTU approach as one part of building the price/compensation model.

Encourage more young people to enter welding, diesel mechanics, and logging trades.

Equipment

Proper equipment is essential to achieve efficient production (and, in turn, achieve for project suc-cess). Potential equipment includes forwarder (which protects forest soil and keeps logs clean, im-proving combustion and reducing ash volume), kiln, tractor, winch, conveyer, delivery truck, etc.

Need to identify the appropriate scale for the cooperative operations. We can use market information to assess appropriate scale: how much wood is burned in the area, range of per structure demand, potential for increased demand, etc.

What is the list of equipment to start coop at a reasonable level and what would it cost?

Identify appropriate model of equipment ownership (own, lease, and/or rent). Who owns the equip-ment—the coop or individuals?

Utilize a solar kiln for drying firewood. There is a SMALL one at Marsh-Billings-Rockerfeller NHS (see www.nps.gov/mabi/parknews/gpm-intern-blog-summer-2011.htm), which utilizes passive drying but also solar-activated fans. The kiln is on large skids so it can in theory be moved from place to place (Perhaps a solar kiln could also be built on a trailer).

A drawback of kilns is that a kiln uses energy to dry the wood when, given time, customers could dry the wood on their own.

It will be important to care for equipment well and to encourage local community parts salvaging and stocking.

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Issues with cooperatively owned equipment:

Who gets to run the equipment? What are their minimum qualifications?

Safety

Training course

Liability/ insurance

Maintenance: doing maintenance, paying for it, what if one of the users breaks the equipment through negligence?

Funding for Equipment

Conventional economic models don’t work, a widespread problem in financing renewable energy, particularly in capitalizing equipment.

Identify funding sources for purchasing equipment

Crowd-source financing, with return on investment paid in something other than dollars.

Forest futures

Firewood production

Top quality is essential for building the coop’s reputation and buy-in.

Develop system of quality control so firewood is consistently clean, dry, delivered on-time, etc).

Develop scaling and grading system for firewood.

What lengths, species of firewood will be offered and sold?

Develop unique names for various firewood grades.

Identify levels of need and service among customers and offer various products that align with these needs.

Green wood and/or dry wood? We could encourage customers to buy dry wood (and educate as to why it’s important to burn dry wood), but develop different pricing levels for different levels of dryness

Is stove-length wood the only product?

Consider processing wood for gasifier operations (briquette size chunks, rather than stove-length)

Chunk wood will be inconvenient for some customers—what about pellets or woodchips?

Promote firewood over pellets, because:

Pellet stoves use electricity

Pellets come from global market. Hard to keep it local and sustainable.

Pellets use more energy than firewood to create energy.

Firewood should be decoupled from saw timber harvesting to some extent.

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Use local liquid fuels for harvesting and production.

Lower costs by bulk ordering supplies: bio-based hydraulic fluid, bar oil, synthetic engine oil, axe han-dles, chain saw chains.

If there is a good way to move the crates around & deliver, the use of orchard crates for firewood could be a winning idea. In order to reduce the labor and energy of handling the product multiple times, perhaps the loaded orchard crates could be dried in the kiln?

To overcome global competition in pellet production, promote legislation that requires sourcing with-in a certain geographical radius.

Could process tree tops or smaller, fast-growing, lower-quality trees into wood pellets. Pellets offer easier product to use for multi-family/commercial buildings, as well as a local product for those who already use pellets.

Is there an opportunity for “backyard pelletizers” to keep pellet production local? Might need legisla-tive action that offers incentives to keep it local.

Location

Should the coop create and utilize a center of operations (firewood processing/aggregation yard) or is all processing and delivery based at individual landings?

If processing is dispersed at member-landowner forests, is there a single wood-processing rig that moves from job to job?

A firewood processing yard could include an open-sided, or partially open-sided, roofed building for seasoning wood prior to pick up or delivery (heavy, timber-framed structure with solid floor and roof). Could possibly double as community space.

People love to go apple picking and Christmas tree harvesting. Why not firewood picking? They could either "pick" a cord or a crate to fill their own vehicle or perhaps even "pick" a pre-marked standing tree, which would then be felled and split for them (this would entail thinking a year or more ahead since it will still need to dry/season.)

Customers

Who are the customers? Concerned, engaged, CSA members.

Develop a customer base looking for long-term, yearly supply of wood, relationship with supplier, high quality.

Customers should work as they are able, as part of their membership.

Open up the currency to make room for barter.

Fairness: make cooperative available and accessible to all.

Require customer commitment to the cooperative firewood supply, to create predictability for pro-duction. Perhaps require a 3-year purchase contract.

Top concerns of residential firewood purchaser:

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Consistent, reliable access to firewood

Quality of wood

Flexible delivery

Harvesting quality (sustainability)

Delivery

Ensure timely, reliable delivery of wood.

Utilize boxes, orchard crates, for storing and delivering firewood. These can be refilled/reused, like a beer growler. Doesn’t require stacking, so saves time/energy.

Or, could utilize pallets for storage (this requires stacking).

Deliver crates or pallets with truck equipped with forklift. Take away empties. Could combine this with the “coop shed”, the design for which is also supplied by the coop, designed to house the crates/pallets.

Help customers create storage units for wood (provide design, help build, etc) that work well with de-livery system.

Goal is to optimize efficiency in delivery and use (don’t put more energy into wood than necessary—decreasing energy output is important).

Older customers can get help in stacking/managing wood on a regular basis (could involve vocational education students for credit).

Education

Education is key, and should cover:

Why am I paying more than for conventional firewood? Values of the coop’s approach.

Demonstration of optimal equipment, practices, and management. Show the impacts of poor past practices, so participants know what to look for, what to avoid, and how to avoid it. Landowners will then ask for and expect that kind of practice and equipment when they hire loggers for their management work.

Workshops and Hogback Community College courses:

Chainsaw use

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logging & transportation techniques

Worker’s Compensation

Firewood grading: Explain the system, how it works, what the grades are and how they’re deter-mined.

Promote the exercise (health and fitness) value of heating with wood.

Must train the next generation of woods workers. Develop mentorships.

Create internet forum to post videos of harvesting methods, inventions, how-to videos, general re-

sources for local loggers, etc. Post wood salvaging opportunities (storm clean-up, sugarbush thinning).

Create equipment forums, equipment exchange.

In the Home—Energy Efficiency in Wood Burning and Building Design

Focus Question: To efficiently and economically utilize wood energy in a dispersed rural setting, how do we

increase the energy efficiency of our buildings, optimize wood burning efficiency within these buildings, de-

velop centralized heating for clustered buildings, manage on-site firewood inventory, and maintain air quali-ty?

Given: Any actions must contribute to a design that is Restorative, Sustainable, Efficient, Local, and Fair (R-SELF) when viewed across the full life cycle.

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Structure of System

The coop needs to be concerned as much with how wood BTUs are utilized as with how they are har-vested and delivered. (One participant notes, “We're not in Britain any more! HTUs (Hogback Thermal Units) are the new BTUs. Conversion ratio 1:1.)

Firewood cannot meet our heating needs sustainably without additional energy conservation and oth-

er sources of energy taking the lead.

Develop cooperatively owned and operated district heating system that sells BTUs (Denmark and Sweden can serve as models for this).

Design the coop to work for people across the income spectrum.

Develop a time bank, with Hogbacks as currency.

Coop should serve as “heating supplier,” rather than just “firewood supplier,” bundling efficiency ser-vices (audits, connecting customers with resources for improving home energy efficiency, etc) and firewood supply.

Coop could even expand to be “energy supplier”, inclusive of geothermal and solar water.

Change wood burning practices (efficiency and technology) to allow use of non-traditional fuel tree

species.

Promoting Energy Efficiency

Limit the number of BTUs needed for home heating by promoting efficiency first.

Improve building design (new or retrofitted construction)

Design for smaller homes/smaller living spaces, which require less energy to heat.

Encourage creative use of space.

Model excellent storage of wood to keep it dry and maximize BTUs.

If coop promotes and helps increase efficiency on the purchasing side, customers end up burn-ing less wood.

Explore local, natural, low-embodied energy materials for super-insulating buildings.

Facilitate access to design templates for energy efficient new building construction and retro-

fits.

Store fuel well so it is optimally dry when burned for maximum BTU output.

Require efficient heat sources, including high-efficiency wood stoves and wood boilers (including ma-sonry heaters and rocket stoves).

Efficiency Vermont-style consultation and assistance is crucial to developing the local wood-heating market: design assistance, technical know-how, best practices for building contractors.

Partner with Efficiency Vermont.

Create an energy-efficiency parallel to land trusts (On the state level, we have Vermont Land Trust and Efficiency Vermont. On the local level, we have MALT/The Watershed Center and could have

33

something like “Hogback Energy”.).

Develop a fuelwood version of the “localvore challenge”—an “energy efficiency challenge.”

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHS has implemented efficiency upgrades, as well as chunk wood gasifica-tion system. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u1xBc19qsI , timecode 1:00 onward, for description of their energy efficiency measures.)

Encourage legislation that stipulates that any new building (or energy efficient retro-fitting) must

meet certain energy efficient standards.

Education

Coop can be a storehouse for ideas and technical information, identifying and recognizing the many

excellent existing resources available to members (don’t reinvent the wheel). Leverage these existing

resources to reach a large number of customers.

Offer workshops and information about:

Wood stove selection

Drying and storing firewood correctly

Woodshed construction

Weatherization

Energy financing

Offer demonstrations of and information about retrofitting old buildings with energy-efficient fea-tures, as well as energy-efficient materials and techniques for new buildings.

Develop a pilot energy-efficiency retrofit with a few homes in the 5-towns area to show the process (energy audit, economical retrofits, funding sources).

Encourage/develop training in technical schools. Work with local elementary schools to add energy efficiency ideas into science curriculum.

Explore the best ways to solicit input/feedback from fuelwood users (written surveys, online surveys, phone call, etc), to create an easy and effective data collection/quality feedback system.

Funding

Bringing existing structures up to top efficiency standards is often quite expensive. Where does the funding come from to help homeowners do this? That’s especially important when efficiency projects of $10,000+ are competing with other demands, such as existing mortgage, paying for college, etc.

Create local revolving loan fund to pay for energy audit and efficiency improvements.

Reduce costs so the efficiency process becomes economically feasible.

Identify existing funding sources for increasing efficiency:

PACE financing

Bristol energy committee could put forward a ballot initiative to promote efficiency funding.

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Create a time bank (service exchange) for weatherization projects.

Is there an opportunity to add value to the wood (increase cost) and use that to subsidize energy au-

dit costs?

Create “green” firewood district that taxes non-BMP firewood and uses the income from this tax to support education and infrastructure of the cooperative, or subsidize the cost of “green” wood. Fire-

wood dealers in the “green” district would have to be licensed in order to sell within the district.

Wood storage

Dry the wood prior to selling it to the customer to insure good combustion.

Dry wood to 12-20% water content. Energy input to achieve <12% is high compared to the 12-20%

range, which can be met with air drying.

Develop a wood-drying standard, and involve the customer in ensuring that this standard is met.

Require 2 years of air drying before burning (rule is in place in Austria)

Explore possibility of drying wood with heat from compost.

Coop should have a shed design and a team for building woodsheds cheaply for coop members (dry

fuel = higher efficiency).

Focus efforts on convenience to the customer to build demand.

Wood burning

How do we “bank” heat once BTUs are released from wood, so it can be utilized as efficiently as possi-ble?

Explore group purchase of equipment, including wood stoves, boilers, etc.

Explore centralized heating plants for neighbors.

We have the knowledge to build new buildings to be very efficient, even to the point at which a single

-home wood heating unit would be oversized, increasing the benefits of multi-house units or a mass

storage element (water, stone).

Burning cord-wood in multi-family units or businesses can be challenging. Can we locally produce pel-

lets?

Zoning should encourage cluster development so that neighbors can take advantage of district

heating.

One issue will be the labor aspect of managing cordwood in shared or non-single family buildings. We

need to develop business models that compensate tenants or maintenance people to feed shared or

central chunk wood systems and replace the higher cost of oil or pellets with lower cost chunk wood

and local labor.

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Overview of Charette Dialogue

Hogback NeighborWood Heating Cooperative is a good idea.

Provides jobs

Increases public awareness

Builds sustainable lifestyles and community

Maintains environment

Need to connect all the pieces together in a package from supply in the forest all the way to the homeowner as a comprehensive service to coop members.

Reach out to diverse audience: coop members should be as diverse as the species membership of a healthy forest.

Education should be a key part of every aspect of the NeighborWood Cooperative—from forest to wood stove. Firewood customers will be paying for quality, and telling our story will be part of that quality.

Conduct education outreach through VFF (HCC and other workshops) and other local organiza-tions (TWC, LCA, etc).

Connect people with the forest.

Foster inclusivity.

Need to identify ways to finance equipment and adequate compensation for woods workers.

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Bibliography

All sources listed below are available for reading on the Vermont Family Forests website,

www.familyforests.org/goods-services/NeighborWoodHeatingCharette.shtml, as well as on the source web-

sites below.

Buchholz, T., C. Canham, and S. Hamburg (2011). Forest biomass and bioenergy: Opportunities and con-

straints in the northeastern United States. Report from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Avail-

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