Ecology and environmental sustainability is one of our core values at Soiland Company. We strongly believe that environmentally conscious businesses can help provide a more sustainable future, and we are always striving to reduce the footprint we leave behind.
All of our efforts have one goal in mind: to integrate sustainable, environmentally responsible practices company-wide so that we may have a positive effect on our local environment.
Recycling
Recycling is an integral part of our business. In the last five years, Stony Point Rock Quarry and Soils Plus have diverted over 500,000 tons of recyclable rubble materials from landfills, and Grab N’ Grow has recycled over 180,000 cubic yards of brush and yard waste.
Stony Point Rock Quarry and Soils Plus accept concrete, brick, tile, porcelain, and asphalt roof shingles from homeowners and professional contractors. We use various techniques to separate, screen, and process the material into our 3/4″ Class 2 Recycle Aggregate Base. This product is made to meet city, county, and state specifications for aggregate base rock used under road surfaces. This high-quality product can also be used for the top of an unpaved road surface and requires no mining to produce.
In Santa Rosa, our Grab N’ Grow facility has a similar process for taking in and upcycling local green and tree waste from homeowners and professional landscape contractors. After this material is inspected upon arrival, we grind, screen and compost it into two of our most popular product, Clean Green Organic Compost and Organic Arbor Mulch.
The recycling efforts at all our locations have two goals: divert unnecessary waste from our local community landfill and provide Sonoma County residents and construction companies with high-quality recycled aggregate, compost, and mulch options. We’re proud to say we have successfully been doing both for the last decade.
Solar
We are constantly working to increase our sustainable efforts company-wide and improve our relationship with the surrounding environment. This is why we first made the decision to start harnessing solar power in 2007 to help power our headquarters office building at Stony Point Rock Quarry.
After experiencing the energy and costs savings from the small solar system, we began looking for ways to expand the benefits of solar energy to power our quarry plant operations as well. Through working with local solar installer, North Coast Solar Resources, we installed a 202 kW, 33 dual-axis solar tracker system.
This innovative system has solar trackers that use GPS technology to accurately follow the sun from rise to set, producing up to 40% more energy than traditional fixed rooftop or ground mounted systems. Overall, our solar system will generate more than 400,000 kilowatt-hours per year of renewable energy. The system installed at Stony Point Rock Quarry was named one of the “Top 10 Green Product of the Year” by BuildingGreen magazine and we project it will financially pay for itself in just seven years. Our solar field, installed in 2014, allows us to consume less, save more, and remain good stewards of our natural resources.
Water Conservation and Storm Water Control
Water is a precious resource, especially here in California, and we have made significant efforts at all three of our sites to conserve, recycle, and store water appropriately. All three of our locations use significant amounts of water to run equipment, control dust, and produce great materials, so we make it a top priority to be as sustainable as possible with our usage. In addition to water conservation efforts, all of our locations also follow strict storm water control procedures.
Storm water runoff is generated when precipitation from rain and snowmelt events flows over land or impervious surfaces and does not percolate into the ground. All three of our sites use a combination of retention ponds, bioswales, infiltration trenches, and sustainable pavements to reduce storm water runoff.
Our Grab N’ Grow site uses reclaimed water for all of its processing needs, and does not use any municipal water supplies for production. In addition, we recycle our retention pond water during compost production. This allows us to sustainably filter storm water, recycle nutrients, and maintain appropriate moisture levels in our compost piles.
Both Stony Point Rock Quarry and Soils Plus have a recycled water system where we capture ground water and storm water and we recycle it for dust control and plant process water, minimizing the detrimental downstream effects and allowing us to only use well water when absolutely necessary.
These various procedures help us slow down and clean surface runoff water during storms, and provide natural ways for a portion of this volume to be absorbed into our soil, compost, and aggregate productions.
Quarry Reclamation
We have developed plans well in advanced for a sustainable reclamation of the land at our quarry facility. Years from now, when we are finished producing aggregates at Stony Point Rock Quarry, the land will be reclaimed as a quality wildlife habitat. Our reclamation plan is designed to far exceed the standards of Sonoma County’s Aggregate Resource Management Plan and will consist of a small lake with a riparian edge, marsh and wetland areas planted with selected vegetation to optimize habitats for amphibians and other wildlife that do not currently occupy our quarry area, and large benches on perimeter the that will be planted with clusters of trees and shrubs for birds and other wildlife to inhabit.
Based on all of our biological studies, the quarry’s reclamation plan will result in an environment that is superior to that which existed prior to our quarry and any other land in the area. We are proud of our plan that combines wildlife habitat and ecologically valuable environments in the land that will results in an overall positive and beneficial environmental impact.
Our goal is to leave the land in better condition than when we starting mining it, and we strongly believe this plan goes above and beyond in making that a reality.
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