Walden Industrial Park to get make-over

BY BILL BRADLEY

Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?

Walden Industrial Park is getting a remake into a green business cluster, said Tracy Casavant, a Vancouver based chemical engineering consultant to the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation.

She made a presentation on her work to city council March 26.

Casavant is president of Vancouver’s Eco-Industrial Solutions. The firm does environmental consulting work ranging from Kunshan in China, Portland in Oregon, to Fort McMurray in Alberta.

“I was asked to conduct interviews with several Walden businesses in the fall of 2006 — some were trucking firms, others were suppliers, and they expressed interest in a new greener concept for the site,” said Casavant.
Currently the site has some challenges.

The 140-acre park is zoned as an M-3 heavy industrial park with the price per  lot at $50,000 per-serviced-acre. This is higher than other parks which focus on lighter industrial activity, where the price per-serviced-acre is $20,000 for the Capreol Industrial Park, $30-40,000 for the private Radisson Industrial Park in Rayside-Balfour or $20,000 for the Valley East Industrial Park.

Many mining supply and service companies are located within the site.

Though the area located within the park that is open for industrial expansion is second after the Valley East Industrial Park (175 acres), it has the highest amount of vacant serviced acreage-40 acres.

Walden Industrial Park is ripe for a ‘retrofit’.

“The park has experienced a steady deterioration of road and general infrastructure over the past 25 years. Parcels along Fielding Road are not serviced. The time is right to examine the park’s servicing standards and perhaps revisit them to encourage green industrial development,” states Greater Sudbury’s Regional Eco-Industrial Strategy report.
Furthermore the report said, “the mix of new and existing development, the need for servicing infrastructure and the increased pool of businesses, are excellent elements supporting EIN (Eco-industrial networking).”

The eco-industrial approach is new in business development thinking, said Casavant. Not only is manufacturing green products emphasized, or using greening production processes that cut pollution and waste by better industrial design, but it looks at industrial sites a different way, she said. Business are encouraged to use their land base more efficiently, build smarter more efficient structures and site infrastructure, and co-operate with each other. In some sites around the world, some businesses utilize the waste heat from some adjacent operations as a valuable resource for other companies which have greenhouses growing crops. Other businesses network with others that are in different sites across an area by forging partnerships for the benefit of all-sharing information for example.

Council was told that the city’s interest in eco-industrial strategies has already influenced the thinking of other major cities such as Toronto.

Casavant said Walden Industrial Park would join an elite number of eco-industrial parks in Canada.

“There are two brand new eco-industrial parks being built in Canada this year — one in Hinton and (the other in) Fort McMurray Alberta. Lots in Hinton are being sold as we speak. Underground services (are) complete, including a new sanitary collection system. Solar hot water heating will be installed. All businesses are required to be 25 percent more energy efficient than the national building code. (A) public works building (should aim) to be up to 40 percent more efficient,” said Casavant.

The Fort McMurray eco-industrial park is within weeks of being under construction and 80 percent of the lots are pre-sold, said Casavant.

Ward 2 Councillor Jacques Barbeau said he was pleased the Walden site was going through a remake.
“Considering the make-up of the community, the natural beauty present and the large number of highly educated professionals who live and work nearby, I consider this eco-industrial concept a good fit for my ward,” said Barbeau.