In Brazil, deforestation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country, and illegal logging for firewood is a key component of this issue. The Balsas Renewable Energy Project combats deforestation and climate change by replacing a Brazilian factory’s primary fuel source, deforested wood, with renewable energy.

For decades, the Balsas factory used deforested native wood to fire its kilns. Today, 100% of its fuel comes from local agricultural waste: rice husks. The project transforms this biomass, which would have been inappropriately discarded otherwise, into usable fuel.

The fuel switch also benefits the employee’s health and working conditions in a number of ways. Workers are no longer subjected to carrying heavy wood to the factory, nor the major physical exhaustion associated with this task. Before, employees were exposed to extreme heat when firing up the kilns with wood. With this project, the rice husks are placed into furnaces through an automated biomass feeding system instead. Furthermore, ceramic houses were built for employees and their families, which now bears all of their utility costs.