Freeport’s Laughing Stock Farm Accomplishes 31% Carbon Reduction
Another Maine small business is demonstrating their innovative abilities, reducing their use of petroleum fossil fuel and helping the environment. A four season organic produce farm in Freeport, Laughing Stock Farm has achieved a 31% reduction in carbon emissions while participating in the Governor’s Carbon Challenge. They are on their way to meet an aggressive goal of 85% carbon reduction by 2010. Laughing Stock Farm has also increased the size of their facilities and their gross revenues while reducing petroleum use—“Doing more with less.” Laughing Stock Farm serves the restaurant, retail, and consumer markets from Portland to Brunswick with fresh four-season local produce that is certified organic and provides farm shares for consumers through their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
Laughing Stock Farm also uses waste cooking oil (in place of traditional fossil fuel) for a more environmentally friendly energy source for fueling their greenhouse operations to grow produce. They collect used cooking oil from local food service establishments and heat 17,000 square feet of greenhouse area. They have successfully demonstrated the adaptation of commercially available multi-fuel waste oil burners for their farm greenhouses. And they are not stopping there. Co-owner Ralph Turner is also advancing their successful experimental use so that the heating option is more widely available. His leading efforts as a professional engineer, in conjunction with the waste oil burner manufacturer, insurance agency, and municipal officials, are ensuring that the alternative fuel use will be properly third-party certified for use with the appliance, and enable future more widespread agricultural and other commercial use.
Co-owner Ralph Turner says, “The wonderful thing about the Governor’s Carbon Challenge is that it provides a showcase for the wide variety of innovation being done by small businesses all over Maine. In times like these it is crucial that small businesses innovate in order to remain viable, and this program is an opportunity for these successful innovations to be shared with others who may also benefit.”
The Governor’s Carbon Challenge is operated from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Office of Innovation and Assistance. Nearly 80 businesses, municipalities and institutions participate in the program. For more information about this and other Environmental Leader programs, contact DEP’s Office of Innovation & Assistance toll-free at 1-800-789-9802 or by visiting our web site.
December, 2008
