By The BDO Zone Initiative
Picture this: A multinational company announces plans for a $2.5 billion biofuels facility. Their team reviews dozens of potential sites across North America—each one offering the promise of hundreds of millions in local economic impact, thousands of construction jobs, and hundreds of permanent positions.
The challenge? How can they quickly identify which communities actually have the biomass, infrastructure, and supply chain strength to support an investment of this scale?
Whether it’s a $2.5 billion biofuels plant, a $200 million renewable chemical facility, or a $10 million biogas site, developers face the same problem: how can communities signal that they’re more than just a dot on the map—they’re a shovel-ready destination for biomanufacturing success?
The Hidden Goldmine in America’s Backyard
Across North America, thousands of rural communities are sitting on untapped economic goldmines. They have surpluses of sustainable biomass, strong infrastructure, and dependable logistics—key ingredients for attracting biomanufacturing projects that can drive new investment, boost job creation, and reinvigorate local economies.
The feedstock is there: corn stover, wheat straw, forest thinnings, food processing waste. So is the infrastructure: rail spurs, highways, gas pipelines, electric grid capacity, and workforces with manufacturing experience.
But here’s the problem: most communities don’t realize they have what project developers are searching for. A region in Kansas might not recognize its wheat straw as the feedstock for renewable diesel. A county in Alabama might overlook its forest residues and rail lines as assets for SAF production. And even if they do realize it, they often have no way of credibly communicating this to– and connecting with– bio-project developers around the world.
The Disconnect
This creates a massive gap. On one side, developers and investors are hunting for credible, shovel-ready communities with proven biomass and infrastructure capacity. On the other, many high-potential regions remain invisible—simply because they lack a way to credibly demonstrate their competitive strengths.
The result? Billions in economic opportunity left on the table. Developers struggle to identify qualified sites. Communities miss out on high-impact investments, new plants, and good-paying jobs.
This isn’t just a missed opportunity—it’s a missed future.
Enter the BDO Zone Solution
The Biofuel Development Opportunity (BDO) Zone Initiative was built to close this gap.
BDO Zone ratings are independent technical assessments that measure a region’s biomass supply, supply chain capabilities, and infrastructure readiness for biomanufacturing. They’re not marketing slicks. They’re data-driven, expert-led evaluations based on what developers actually look for when siting facilities.
Communities that earn a BDO Zone rating—‘AAA,’ ‘AA,’ ‘A,’ or ‘BBB’—gain more than a certificate. They gain a globally recognized signal that speaks the language of investors and developers alike.
What sets BDO Zone ratings apart is their credibility. Every rating follows the U.S. Standards for Biomass Supply Chain Risk (BSCR)—a framework developed under the U.S. Department of Energy by Ecostrat and Idaho National Labs. That means third-party validation. That means trust
Instead of vague claims—“we have biomass”—a rating says: “We have 250,000 tons of verified, sustainable woody biomass within a 50-mile radius, backed by reliable local infrastructure and supply chains” with another 50 pages of detailed technical analysis.
Real Communities. Real Results.
The proof is in the numbers. As of July 2025, 62 BDO Zone ratings have been issued across North America, creating a project pipeline of over $30 billion in potential capital investment with over $4 billion of capital being raised right now for BDO Zone project. And the Project Developer Network? It’s 350+ strong—and growing.
From Natchez, MS, leveraging its woody biomass, to Sarnia-Lambton, ON, capitalizing on agricultural residues, rated communities are now on the radar of major biobased developers.
To hear what kinds of projects these communities are attracting, check out the BDO Zone Summit.
Your Community’s Hidden Potential
Ask yourself: What biomass resources in your region aren’t being leveraged?
Agricultural residues. Forest biomass. Food waste. MSW. Manure. These aren’t waste streams. They’re opportunities. And developers are actively looking for them to create high value biofuels, renewable chemicals, biogas and bio-products.
A BDO Zone rating doesn’t just identify your region’s assets—it quantifies, verifies, and presents them in a developer-friendly format that cuts through the noise and gets attention.
The Path Forward
If you’re an economic developer looking to attract next-generation bio-based industry, the next step is clear:
✔️ Understand your biomass assets.
✔️ Leverage a BDO Zone rating to validate them.
✔️ Position your community as a credible site for new biomanufacturing investment.
The goldmine may already be in your backyard. The only question is—are you ready to help developers find it?
Learn more at www.bdozone.org, or contact Aryn Garswood, Head of the BDO Zone Initiative, at aryn@ecostrat.com.
Try out our free BDO Zone Self-Assessment Tool for a high-level ratings opinion to determine if a BDO Zone is the right fit for your community.
