Environmental & Socio-Economic Benefits
Environmental Benefits
The benefit of our REEF faclities on the environment are far reaching by creating positive impact locally and globally. These benefits include:
- Very small land use footprint with vertical design
- Carbon negative footprint on world’s climate
- Negative seafood print on world’s oceans
- Shrinks land use footprint
- Minimal inputs of water, energy with high efficiency
- Zero discharge of wastes
- Assured production not impacted by weather or availability of water or fertilizers
- Offers superior food quality and safety
- No contamination from E-coli or other diseases/contaminates
- No use of GMO’s, petroleum based fertilizers or chemical pesticides
Socio-Economic Benefit
Ecoponex’s REEF Facilities create a number of significant socio-economic benefits for local communities. These include:
- Creates jobs and sustainable economic development in rural and urban areas with significant multiplier impacts with direct, indirect and induced benefits
- Offers educational and job training opportunities
- Promotes local economic, food and energy self-reliance, security and independence
- Local food and energy production keeps money in economy
- Provides local healthy food choices to reduce heath care medical costs and improved quality of life while improving diet and reducing obesity, diabetes, heart disease
- Helps address overpopulation, hunger and malnutrition in developed and developing regions
- Greater crop yields than conventional farming means lower cost, higher profitability
Overview of Model REEFs
URBAN REEF MODEL
- 1.0 acre footprint for Inner City
- Produces enough fresh food to feed 86,600 peoplefor one year.
- with vegetables (leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers) and fish (salmon).
- Generates enough energy for 366 families for a year.
- Saves enough water to supply 581 peoplefor a year.
RURAL REEF MODEL
- 4.0 acre footprint for large Dairy Farm
- Produces 50% of the fresh animal feed for 2,000 dairy cattle.
- Saves enough water to supply 18,932 people annually.
- Generates enough energy to run entire dairy farm and REEF.
- Produces enough biogas to fuel 7 milk trucks or farm vehicles.
Potential Impact of Urban REEFs
If We Built 100 URBAN REEFs (for Inner Cities/Communities)
- Supply 33 million pounds of fresh vegetables for 2.53 million People
- Produce 20 million pounds of fresh fish for 5.6 million People
- Save 2,121 acre feet of Water for 36,600 People
- Generate 34 MW’s of Green Power
- Create 2,300+ Jobs
- Conserve 2,790 acres of Farmland
- Cut 1.19 million tons of CO2 per year
- Reduce Seafood Print impact by 4.6 million ton/yr
Potential Impact of Rural REEFs
If We Built 200 RURAL REEFs (for Dairy Farms)
- Save 308,000 acre feet of Water for 2.98 million People (NOTE: population of Los Angeles is 3.86 million)
- Generate 168 MW’s of Green Power
- Produce clean Biogas to fuel 1,400 Vehicles
- Output of Animal Feed to 400,000 Dairy Cattle
- Create 7,800+ Jobs
- Conserve 169,200 Acres of Farmland
- Cut 2.23 million Tons of CO2 per year (NOTE: mainly from methane gas that is 21 times more potent than CO2)
Land-Water-Carbon Footprint Impact
ANIMAL FEED PRODUCTION for a: 5-acre Rural REEF Facility verses a conventional 2,000 head Dairy Farm
SAVINGS IMPACT:
- LAND 846 ACRES
- CARBON 11,918 tonnes/yr
- WATER 450.2 million gal/yr or 1,540 acre feet/yr
- Domestic WATER supply for 12,334 people
VEGETABLE PRODUCTION for a: 1-acre Urban REEF Facility verses a conventional 29-acre farm (growing tomatoes)
SAVINGS IMPACT:
- LAND 27.9 ACRES
- CARBON 95.4 tonnes
- WATER 21.2 million gal/yr or 65.1 acre feet
- Domestic WATER supply for 1581 people
Ocean Seafood Print
- To raise 1.0 lb of predator fish (e.g. salmon, tuna, cod, etc.) in the ocean requires 1,110 lbs of biomass in the lower food chain
- Cultivating 1.0 lb of predator fish (e.g. salmon, tuna, cod, etc.) in a land-based Ecoponex RAS aquaculture system saves 1,110 lbs of biomass in ocean
- This is defined as “OCEAN SEAFOOD PRINT” (this term was first defined in 2009 by the university of British Columbia, CA and used by National Geographic magazine)
