My career began in Taiwan as an Environmental Waste Manager working to decommission and treat waste. Back in the 90’s waste management was considered a business cost and the principal aim was to dispose of the waste, with very little thought given to the possibility of reusing it. Nowadays, business recognises the damage waste is doing to the environment, forcing companies to look more carefully at their waste streams and think about how it can be remediated, with the possibility of changing it into a profit rather than it being a business cost. Thankfully businesses are also starting to looking at ways to produce less carbon dioxide.
The current catch-cry is that it should no longer be free to emit CO2 gas. Payments for these emissions, could take the form of a tax levy imposed on business unable to show a reduction in CO2 emissions. It could also mean some businesses will no longer be able operate as consumers become more critical of the effect they have on the environment. There is a substitute for everything and price is no longer the only measure of value.
EcoMag is in the enviable position of relying solely on waste streams for our processes. Our source is a solar salt waste stream that has been produced by solar thermal evaporation. There is minimal CO2 produced by our process when we make high purity Mg products from this Mg waste stream. This compares favourably to other magnesium companies that either source their Mg from mined ores or by boiling seawater generating CO2 in the process. Our company is a prime example of waste to resource with the added benefit of having the lowest CO2 footprint. Our future production plans are to further reduce our CO2 footprint, by producing a product that locks away CO2, in other words a viable carbon sequestration method. Companies internationally are becoming interested in EcoMag as we offer them the right to tag themselves as our “environmental” partner and promote their purchasing of our material to their customers. It’s a chain reaction that will become more and more apparent as social media and life ambassadors give shout-outs to those who are actively and deliberately moving towards decarbonisation. Our distribution partner in Europe is IMagine, one of Germany’s main distributors of magnesium. IMagine understands that COP26 will bring low carbon materials to the forefront, so that businesses such as EcoMag become the new mainstream suppliers. Andreas Pabst of IMagine says “there is both a push from government and massive demand from end user customers for environmentally sound materials. EcoMag not only offers the lowest carbon footprint for super high grade MgO, but it can also supply consistently high quality at a fair and acceptable price. We work with EcoMag as the future is in top quality and sustainable materials”. Having the trust of a partner like IMagine to provide materials to their customers shows international understanding of the volatile magnesium supply market.
“It is easy to understand that the speed of change will come swiftly” says CEO Tony Crimmins ”EcoMag has timed its entry into the market correctly with the right product for the right times”. The change for suppliers can be seen in charts and demonstrates what consumers are demanding. The issue of CO2 footprint has risen in importance in the past few months as people start to understand that this footprint is what we need to measure when assessing impact on climate change. It has jumped from 30th to 12th on consumers purchasing priorities in Range-Me, the USA’s largest product distribution and promotion platform.
Tony Crimmins CEO EcoMag
