The donation to Ouachita Green will go towards funding a variety of community events, including the Forsythe Park Tree Planting Project that took place last month where Ouachita Green and volunteers planted 60 Live Oak trees to help replace trees that were damaged by recent hurricanes and tornadoes.
Other upcoming events include recycling days, litter clean-ups, a water sweep, and a community garden project. Drax will also award $1000 to the Intern of the Year as chosen from Ouachita Green’s ‘Love Where You Live’ internship program.
“Drax is committed to supporting our local communities, and we’re very pleased to partner with an organization such as Ouachita Green, which shares our values of protecting our natural environment and providing educational opportunities,” said Matt White, Executive Vice President of Drax’s Pellet Operations. “I hope that these efforts will help to preserve Ouachita’s areas of natural beauty for future generations as well as contributing to a larger statewide and national movement towards protecting our planet.”
Aundi Brown, Executive Director of Ouachita Green said:
“Our organization is made up of an active group of volunteers who have a huge sense of community spirit and want to make Louisiana a better place to live. We’re grateful for Drax’s contribution to these vital community efforts to protect and improve our local green spaces.”
Michelli Martin, Communications Director for the City of Monroe, says
“Mayor Friday Ellis and the City of Monroe are happy to sponsor Ouachita Green because they are at the frontline of the effort to improve our city. They work hard every day to make Monroe a more beautiful place to live, and they are excellent at engaging the community at large to help improve Monroe. We are pleased to join community sponsors, including Drax, to ensure the future of Ouachita Green’s initiatives.”
Drax is committed to supporting the communities local to its operations through a variety of measures that include sponsoring educational programs and providing support in times of crisis, including during the Covid-19 pandemic and natural disasters such as Hurricane Ida.
ENDS
Media contacts:
Megan Hopgood
Communications Officer
E: [email protected]
T: 07936 350 175
Annmarie Sartor
Drax Communications Officer
E: [email protected]
T: +1 318-801-0046
Editor’s Notes
Headquartered in Monroe, LA, with operations in the Southeastern U.S., Drax is committed to supporting the communities in which it operates by promoting sustainable forestry and investing in local economic development. It is part of British energy company Drax Group.
Drax produces sustainable compressed wood pellets, used by Drax Power Station in England to generate renewable electricity for millions of UK homes and businesses.
Around two thirds of the sustainable biomass Drax uses each year comes from the US, where Drax owns and operates four pellet plants producing compressed wood pellets sourced from sustainably managed working forests in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
The plants also deliver economic growth and jobs in the US south.
Ouachita Green is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to keeping Ouachita Parish beautiful by organizing and participating in community enhancement projects. They advocate for recycling, litter reduction, environmental education, and community beautification.
Ouachita Green is partnered with the City of Monroe, Keep Ouachita Parish Beautiful, Keep Monroe Beautiful, Keep West Monroe Beautiful, Keep Louisiana Beautiful, and Keep America Beautiful – all to support a greener, cleaner environment.
Ouachita Green holds 24 clean-up events per year to help beautify different parts of the community, anti-litter events, and recycle days, all done by volunteers.
About Drax
Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future and in 2019 announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030, using Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technology.
Its 3,400 employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production and supply to third parties. For more information visit www.drax.com
Power generation:
Drax owns and operates a portfolio of renewable electricity generation assets in England and Scotland. The assets include the UK’s largest power station, based at Selby, North Yorkshire, which supplies five percent of the country’s electricity needs.
Having converted Drax Power Station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal it has become the UK’s biggest renewable power generator and the largest decarbonisation project in Europe. It is also where Drax is piloting the groundbreaking negative emissions technology BECCS within its CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage) Incubation Area.
Its pumped storage, hydro and energy from waste assets in Scotland include Cruachan Power Station – a flexible pumped storage facility within the hollowed-out mountain Ben Cruachan.
The Group also aims to build on its BECCS innovation at Drax Power Station with a target to deliver 4Mt of negative CO2 emissions each year from new-build BECCS outside of the UK by 2030 and is currently developing models for North American and European markets.
Pellet production and supply:
The Group has 13 operational pellet plants with nameplate capacity of c.4Mt, plus a further two plants currently commissioning and other developments/expansions which will increase this to c.5Mt once complete.
Drax is targeting 8Mt of production capacity by 2030, which will require the development of over 3Mt of new biomass pellet production capacity. The pellets are produced using materials sourced from sustainably managed working forests and are supplied to third party customers in Europe and Asia for the generation of renewable power.
Drax’s pellet mills supply around 30% of the biomass used at its own power station in North Yorkshire, England to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.
Customers:
Drax is the largest supplier of renewable electricity to UK businesses, supplying 100% renewable electricity as standard to more than 370,000 sites through Drax and Opus Energy.
It offers a range of energy-related services including energy optimisation, as well as electric vehicle strategy and management.
To find out more go to the website www.energy.drax.com
