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Combining artistry with technology to craft architectural woodwork

Sustainability

Woodworking fueled by wind, biomass, and solar.

Photos by Mark Richey

turbine center turbine spinning turbine shadow background

Wind

North West

1.79 mph North West

Current Output 0 kWh

Solar

Overcast Clouds

29° Overcast Clouds

Current Output 3.8 kWh

10:06 am

Wind Feed

Total Today 0

Total This Month 0 kWh

Total This Year 0 kWh

Solar Feed

Total Today 22.1 kWh

Total This Month 7.2 mWh

Total This Year 479.3 mWh

Total Lifetime 8923 mWh

This month, Our wind energy produced is equal to removing 0 Cars from the road

So far this month, we’ve generated the solar equivalent of planting 436 trees ( That’s about 5,000 annually )

371 tons of c02 is prevented from entering our atmosphere every year at Mark Richey.


In one year, our solar panels and wind turbine generate enough energy to power 50 homes


133 Million phones could be charged from a year of our generated solar and wind energy.

Biomass Furnace

Operating at a temperature of 1600 degrees F, the furnace heats 85,000 square feet of our manufacturing facility.

Typical
Hourly Output
2.5M BTU


Yearly, our furnace produces enough energy to heat 180 homes


This avoids the use of roughly 10,800,000 Cubic Ft of Natural gas per year.

By understanding that long-term cost savings will offset the installation and capital costs of equipment, Mark Richey Woodworking sets an example for how Massachusetts businesses can successfully incorporate energy efficiency and renewable energy into their business model.

Matthew Beaton Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs

Wind Turbine

Our 600KW wind turbine generates 60% of the total electricity needed to power our operation.

The turbine is 292 feet tall, with a blade span of 158 feet and pivots into the wind, rotating its blades for maximum wind resistance.

Enough electricity is generated by the turbine to power 150 average American homes.

Using our wind turbine to generate power has an environmental benefit comparable to removing 150-200 cars from the road each year.

Mark Richey cleaning the turbine

Solar

In 2016, we installed a 500-kw rooftop solar array—the last piece of our alternative-energy complex—which boosted our onsite renewable energy production to nearly 100 percent. Our 80,000-square-foot array is expected to produce 630 megawatt hours of electricity per year.

Biomass Furnace

In 2007, we installed the industry's first clean burning biomass furnace in MA. Sawdust and woodchips are captured by our vacuum system and stored to then be fed to the furnace during the heating season. This unique heating system nearly eliminates the consumption of fossil fuels in our facility. In addition, all the companies wood waste is used as fuel onsite, saving on trucking and landfill impacts.

Operating at a temperature of 1600 degrees F, the furnace heats 85,000 square feet of our manufacturing facility.

The biomass furnace burns cleaner than a gas or oil burning furnace.

Wood

When properly managed and responsibly purchased, wood is a clean, renewable resource. Using wood for building also produces less air and water pollution and uses fewer ecological resources than other building materials, making wood a great choice for green building.

Photo: Mark and Teresa sourcing Alaskan yellow cedar for the facade of the new addition to the Harvard Art Museums designed by Renzo Piano.

70% less energy is required in the use of wood compared with any other building material.