Mason Greenstar

6/13/12 UPDATE:
This article was posted on the Mason Greenstar website!! :D
Link here: http://masongreenstar.com/content/heather-l-hill-graduate-student-university-texas-austin-shares-her-recent-visit-mason

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Their concrete masonry blocks are so light they can be tossed through the air with the flick of a wrist.  While the dimensions are a bit different than the traditional CMU, there is nothing traditional about this BLOX.  In this new technology, the concrete mix design consists of cement, water, recycled paper fibers, and eco-friendly additives.  Yep, the aggregate has been replaced with recycled paper fibers.  That is the whole motivation for this company, Mason Greenstar: making a building material that is innovative, competitively priced, and environmentally friendly.

More than a decade ago, Zach Rabon happened to see barges of recycled paper fibers floating down the river toward their final destination ... the landfill.  The passion to divert this enormous amount of waste from clogging the earth in landfills has led Zach on a 10 year journey of developing a mix design, securing patents on the technology, and undergoing extensive material and product testing.

Zach, now the founder and president of Mason Greenstar, the sole manufacturer of Greenstar BLOX, was well positioned to experiment with this new recycled paper fiber thing.  The owner of a ready mixed concrete plant in Mason, TX, he had the perfect testing ground to try out mix designs.  In 2005, Mason Greenstar was officially incorporated, cementing the idea into a viable venture.  Four years later, Mason Greenstar (now with Zach’s good friend Josh Hargrove, Josh's brother Matt, Zach's dad, Kent, and a handful of consulting engineers, lawyers, and small business advisors) was successful in securing patents for their mix design, their additives, and the process of making the BLOX.

In one day, they could manually make about 1,900 BLOXs.  This would equate to roughly one (2,000 sq ft) house's worth of material in two days time - assuming that the house was built in an area with no building codes.  One aspect to the method of all their madness is the fact that Mason Greenstar lives in Mason, TX.  In the heart of hill country, in the heart of TX, and in the heart of the US, the building codes are probably some of the most lax you'll find anywhere in the country.  Acting like a domino effect, the codes and regulations get more stringent as you head out towards the east and west coast.  Being in Mason (with no building codes) has allowed Zach and his team to fine tune their mix design and BLOX production.  They've built a group of family houses not too far from the plant (nothing is really 'far away' within Mason), and Zach's house was the first house to be built with the BLOX.  Through experimenting on their own homes, they've learned quite a bit about construction practices when working with their material.  Now, they have a handful of custom-built homes scattered throughout Texas and, most recently, Colorado. 

1,900 BLOX a day can only get you so far, and soon Mason Greenstar realized automated production was the key to their success in the future.  Automating their production process is beneficial for several reasons.  First and foremost - production capacity... pretty self-explanatory.  Second is the ability to get building code certification.  As they expand into the home construction market in all directions, they will run up against stiffer code regulations.  As you can image, bricks made by hand (each one unique and relying on a number of variables) simply won't get code approval.  Automation will allow for a standard, consistent product to be produced.  And third is the ability to place their focus on licensing rather than brute force manufacturing.  When they establish relationships with contractors who believe in their product and recognize that it is the next generation of green building product, Mason Greenstar can license the mix design and automated production process to them.  Mason Greenstar would get royalties for every cubic yard of material produced, the licensed contractor would get work in producing BLOX, and the area would get a green building alternative that diverts waste from the landfill.  That's a win-win-win relationship all around.

So currently, in June 2012, they are in the transition stage of going from manual production of BLOX to automated production.  Within the next several months, a small-scale production line will be produced and delivered by a Canadian company.  They specialize in making automated machines for exactly what Mason Greenstar does - making blocks in a wet-slurry process - and the process line will be designed specifically for production of Greenstar BLOX.  There is a massive, empty steel structure in Mason, TX that awaits this automation capacity.  And this massive, (pretty much) empty steel structure is where I found myself standing last week.

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Mason, TX is smack dab in the middle of Texas hill country.  Coming from Austin means a two-hour drive west through fields of gorgeous wildflowers, breathtaking views of the hills, and well-kept ranches and farms.   The directions are super simple: take Mopac south to 71.  Go west on 71 till it merges with 29.  Keep going west. Turn left just before getting to Mason, where you see a Mason Greenstar sign.  There you go.  The drive is less on GPS following and more on enjoying TX hill country scenery.  Once the dust settles from driving down the dirt road, I'm ready to meet up with Matt and Zach.

Instead of an outstretched hand, I get wrapped into a hug by Zach upon my arrival.  Immediately it feels more as if I'm visiting a family as opposed to a big, stiff corporation.  Their office is so cool.  Literally.  Made of the BLOX, a small AC unit and several fans are all that's needed to keep the place cool.  There's hardly a 90-degree angle anywhere in the place, and as I'll tend to find all the structures made out of BLOX, it has an adobe/Southwestern style architecture to it.  Usually the office to a couple of people, today animals outnumber people in the office.  A dwarf caiman serves as the office greeter - he lives in a large, open-air tank/pond right as you come in the door.  Appropriately, he’s been named Greenstar.  There's also the iguana and bearded dragon that take up residence in Zach's office.

Matt is so generous with his time in showing me around the place.  On the site is the office, the ready mixed concrete facility, that big, (pretty much) empty metal structure, the area where they manually make and dry the BLOX, and stockpiles of raw material (sand, aggregate, etc).  As you'd expect, the area's kinda dusty, but, in a good way only civil engineers and construction contractors can get excited about.  Going back inside the office is a break from the sun and heat, and is where I get to meet the 2012 Distinguished Woman of Central Texas, Mrs. Peggy Rosser, who has just arrived on site for a meeting with Matt.  

Peggy works with the Small Business Development Center, with her official title looking something like: Rural Small Business Advisor for the Small Business Development Center at San Angelo State University.  In other words, Peggy is a helper, advisor, consultant, advocate, visionary, sounding board, and support system for young companies trying to get off and running.  She is a wonderful, warm lady, and getting to sit in on a meeting between Matt and Peggy is just icing on the cake to a wonderful day of seeing the facilities and visiting Mason.  Today, they are talking about details of a small business loan they are applying for to support the purchase of the automation equipment.  In the past, she has uncovered grants and award recognition that Mason Greenstar has won and she has been a very valuable consultant for Mason Greenstar as they move into the future of their company.  

It is easy to understand why Zach thinks this technology and product are about to really explode into the market.  His brainchild for the past ten years, he'll be the first to tell you there have been plenty of downs complementing their successes.  From constantly have to seek out grants and funding and new opportunities, to navigating the ropes of patents and business lingo, to defending their patent, this company has already been tested.  

So what does the future hold?  As we stand in the massive, (pretty much) empty steel structure on their site, Matt tells me how Mason Greenstar is currently conducting research and development toward working on a project with the Kimberly Clark Corporation.  The Kimberly Clark Corporation (KCC) is an international company that produces paper products common to us all - Huggies, Kleenex, Kotex, Pull-Ups, Scott paper towels, and more.  As a result of their manufacturing process, they produce a by-product of residual short fiber that, as a waste that can't be reused by Kimberly Clark, goes directly to the landfill.  KCC's plant in Loudon, Tennessee would be the first in the country to become a primary production facility for Mason Greenstar.  Once the automation line has been fine-tuned in Mason, the technology would then be able to be set up at Kimberly Clark's plant in TN to accept their residual short fiber for use in producing the Greenstar BLOX – an extraordinary example of collaboration between two very different companies working toward a more sustainable world.   

Seeing how Matt and Zach interact with the community around them and how passionate they are about diverting waste from landfills for use in building products, it's easy to get excited yourself.  As business partners and close friends, their small team has worked tirelessly on developing their product.  As a result, their company is now poised to really gain a footing in the green building product market.  As we stand in the massive, (pretty much) empty steel structure, imagining the automated production lines that will soon fill the space, it's hard not to get excited for the Mason Greenstar team, their product, and the future of green building materials.