How We Exceed the Standards of Carbon Neutral and Net Zero Operations

Part of the fabric of our company DNA is a deep commitment to the environment, both locally and globally.

Cascade Pacific Woodworks is a small veteran owned business.  We focus on custom pieces, and our primary medium is wood.  We have only one full-time employee, and we maintain a small footprint of a shop and office that is co-located on our home property. 

We cherish our environment, and we make sure to do our part to preserve its health, beauty, and sustainability. Like many businesses, we have facilities, equipment, and materials to help our business run. Before we began with building out our actual business, we needed to have an aspiration for what we stood for, and what was important to us. Having a carbon neutral and net zero company was one of the founding pillars of our business. Knowing that was an important priority, we could then start putting deliberate actions into place to build out the business and how we could achieve that goal from day one. It all came together here on our property in Connecticut.

While our shop is only a small part of our property, we utilize much of our 6-acres to leverage a sustainable enterprise that is a net energy producer, not consumer.  We also aim to remove more greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere than we contribute.  We do this in several ways – (1) capturing the energy of the sun, and (2) converting material bound for a landfill into a usable resource for heating, (3) cultivating a healthy and thriving forest, and (4) minimizing fuel use.

Now, it's probably worth a small discussion on exactly what is carbon neutrality and net zero emissions.

What Is It?

Being carbon neutral means having a balance between carbon emissions and carbon absorption from the atmosphere.  The two human activities that have contributed most to greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.  Here at Cascade Pacific, we’ve made sure that our model is to do the exact opposite: use a minimal amount of fossil fuels and cultivate a healthy forest around us. We also make sure to procure our woods from companies that are compliant with a sustainable forest plan.

Being net-zero is like being carbon neutral but larger in scale. It goes beyond carbon to include all greenhouse gasses to a standard of emitting less than is absorbed.  This expanded definition includes gasses like methane, nitrous oxide, and other hydrofluorocarbons.

At Cascade Pacific, we have built our business to exceed BOTH the carbon neutral and net-zero standards.

Our Journey

Energy efficiency:  Before opening our business, we invested in a 58-panel solar array on our property. We sized the array to not only cover our current usage, but also to cover future expansions in the shop.  Our system is configured to push all generated power directly to the grid.  Our power then comes into our property from the grid. Both outgoing and incoming power are metered. Every year of our operation, we have created a net surplus of energy – meaning we’ve contributed more power to the grid from our arrays than we have consumed.  For a shop running lots of equipment, we are very proud of this.

Heating: we’ve developed a novel and responsible system for heating our shop during the cold months of the year here in Connecticut.  We again decided to make an investment upfront to demonstrate our commitment to the environment.  We outfitted our facilities with the most energy efficient wood-burning appliances available.  Yes, we heat our entire facility exclusively with wood.  Our stoves are EPA rated to be the cleanest burning stoves available.  Not only do our stoves burn wood, but they also burn the smoke from the initial fire with re-burning process.  If you walked by our facility, you would have no idea we were heating with wood, we never have any visible emissions coming out of our chimneys.  Another important consideration is the source of our firewood.  It would be counterproductive if we were cutting down healthy thriving trees to heat our spaces. That is why we have developed partnerships with local tree services.  Most local tree services are left with no option but to dispose of downed trees at the local landfills.  At the landfill, trees will rot and emit CO2 and methane.  Our partnership diverts these trees from landfills and brings them to our property where we have a dedicated footprint to receive and store the wood until it is dry and ready to burn cleanly, usually about 2-3 years.  This means we never have to turn on our furnace or space heaters – we are essentially heating our facilities with material once bound for a landfill.

Sustainable materials:  we are diligent about sourcing woods for our projects.  We have partnerships with several local small sawmills.  These sawmills also get most of their trees from tree service companies – again redirecting wood from a landfill to a useful purpose.  We sometimes do projects that involve species of woods that are not local. When we need to source wood from other areas of the country, or the world, we only purchase wood from certified sustainable companies who can demonstrate prudence and care in how they harvest their lumber. Also, since our home is co-located with our shop, we do not incur transportation and commuting costs every day.  In fact, we only accumulate about 5,000 miles a year of driving.

Carbon offsetting:  This is very important to our model.  Our property is 6 acres, and we have ensured that the property remains wooded, and nothing is cleared.  With about 5 acres of forest, we are offsetting over 10 metric tons of CO2 per year, and producing 20 tons of oxygen per year, according to a study by Penn State University.  This is enough to offset driving 100,000 miles in our car per year (but we only drive 5,000 miles!) We are very diligent about being diligent stewards of our forest. We’ve brought in several experts in forestry care and arborists to regularly check on the health of our wooded ecosystem, and take measures, when necessary, to keep things vibrant and thriving.  We have also worked to make the property an arboretum, by planting dozens of beautiful and unusual specimens of trees, like rare japanese maples, ginkgo, and other beautiful species. 

Challenges and Rewards

One of the critical parts of bringing this all together was having a vision in the beginning of where we wanted to be. This allowed for financial planning, and the great logistical planning needed to get all these systems, processes, and relationships in place.  If we were to try to implement these things after the fact, it would have been more difficult, and likely more expensive.

There was a definitive up-front cost needed to make this happen.  Costs for the electrical infrastructure, costs for the heating systems and associated equipment, and costs to set up a wood splitting and drying solution.  Much of these costs have been offset by tax deductions, which helps. Also, annual costs are now much lower.  Essentially, we pay much less for electricity, and the only thing we pay for heating is maintenance to the stoves and chimney, and sweat equity in splitting, stacking, and storing firewood for each season.  This physical activity is a welcome break from the shop that serves a great purpose.

Looking Ahead

We have built a sustainable system that will likely be in place without major overhaul until I retire.  More importantly, we hope to showcase the model we have built to help inspire other businesses, big and small, to follow our lead.  The science of our climate and the direction we are headed isn’t up for much debate; we hope to help bring wider awareness of climate change, and how everyone, even at the smallest level, like our small business, can make a big difference. We also hope that by spreading the word, we can actively encourage consumers to bias their tendencies to supporting businesses like ours, who have made a direct and concrete commitment to helping stem the tide of climate change.

Harnessing the Wonder of Trees

As the owner of a business based in Connecticut, people are often puzzled about the name of our company: CASCADE PACIFIC WOODWORKS. People will say: ‘You sure are a long way from home’, or ‘Why would you name your company that?’ The name of our company was deliberate; this is a brief look at how we got here. 

Although a native of Connecticut, I have spent a good portion of my adult life living, working, and exploring areas of the West Coast, from the Bay Area of California to the Puget Sound of Washington. Every chance we had, I would take my son and daughter to seek out new places and adventures…from the majestic beaches to the snow-covered mountains. The geography, flora and fauna, and the culture are so different from anywhere else. The more we explored, the more inspired we became. 

The Fabric of Cascade Pacific Woodworks

Some adjectives that describe the beautiful people and places where these mountains and ocean meet have cemented themselves in my mind: rugged, graceful, diverse, innovative, and caring. These feelings, or descriptors, have woven their way into the fabric of Cascade Pacific Woodworks. We remain closely tied to the west coast; my daughter and several siblings who help comprise the company’s core guidance group live there. My son and I go there as often as we can and we continue to spend time together exploring new areas of the region. 

Although officially founded in 2014, CPW’s roots of craftsmanship go back generations. Construction of coastal lighthouses and piers can be traced back to original ancestors from Scandinavia. Family skills in boatbuilding and furniture making can also be traced back to our ancestors from Czechoslovakia and Norway. This passion and skill to build has passed through all generations, and continues to be passed to our family’s youngest. 

Made to Last

Much like the majestic and rugged Cascade Mountains, the things we design and build are strong and made to withstand the test of time. Our materials are selected with thought and purpose to ensure generational longevity. Our wood goes through a meticulous yearlong process of preparation to ensure it will survive and thrive the elements of a new life. Our design and construction techniques ensure the joinery and mating of all the components seamlessly work and perform together. We make every piece with the anticipation that the original owner’s great-grandchildren will one day have the piece in their home. 

Like the towering coastal redwood tree, our pieces are not only powerful but graceful and refined. Our vision statement, Harnessing the Wonder of Trees, guides our creative conceptualization of each piece. We spend a great deal of time seeking out stunning wood from specimens of trees, knowing that one day it will become a perfect selection for someone’s dream. Oftentimes, we will take in a piece of wood from a client; wood that has historic and nostalgic connections to their family.  These hidden gems are all artifacts of the tree's history that can be curated into the piece and showcased for years to come, much like the many hidden gems of the Pacific Northwest.

inspired by Diversity

The confluence of the powerful northern Pacific Ocean with the breathtaking shorelines has been a driving force cultivating the vast diversities of the region, not only the natural flora and fauna diversity but the cultural and socio-diversities of its people as well. Our diverse line of products, services, and capabilities is similarly inspired.

The Cascade Pacific region has a vast history of innovators: going back to the skilled Chinook people who mastered life along the powerful coast. Inspired by the early inhabitants of the area, Cascade Pacific Woodworks subscribes to a growth mindset: that we are lifelong learners who will always seek to learn, grow, and find new and better ways to serve our customers and the community. We employ traditional tools and techniques, but we also regularly are experimenting with innovating new tools and techniques to bring better value to what we make. This is why we often describe our company as a ‘fusion of traditional craft and high-tech production.’

Net Zero Facility

Cascade Pacific Woodworks is a net zero facility: all the energy we use to run our business is renewable energy produced locally on our property. Also, over 90% of the wood we use in our work comes from trees that were felled for reasons such as disease, or storm damage. We do not support supply chains that derive their wood from unsustainable sources such as deforestation or community exploitation. This important company value stems from the most inspiring attributes of people from the Cascade Pacific region is their collective compassion, ownership and care for the place in which they live. They go to great lengths to preserve, to ensure the beauty of the region remains vibrant and thriving in the face of competing pressures. At Cascade Pacific, we proactively take that same philosophy.

Cascade Pacific Woodworks

As you can see, our namesake isn’t just a catchy label. It has deep and deliberate origins that constantly remind us of the immutable character and values we strive for in our mission to Harness the Wonder of Trees.