TimberHP by GO Lab marked an important milestone in late August when the first phase of renovations got underway at the mill in Madison. An initial two-and-a-half months of demolition will feature the removal of the buildings and structures adjacent to Pine Street and Main Street, including the boiler house, turbine room, specialty chemicals building, and several oil storage tanks. The demolition will also include the removal of foundations, which will then be backfilled with structural fill. 

Josh Henry, GO Lab’s president, gave recent testimony before the Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry of the House Agriculture Committee. In the hearing, Innovative Wood Products: Promoting Rural Economies and Health Forests, Josh told U.S. House members, including Maine’s own Chellie Pingree, why GO Lab’s wood fiber insulation products are poised to change the construction insulation market in the Northeast, and eventually, the entire country. 

Continue reading “Josh Henry Talks Wood Innovation Before Congress”

Maine broadcast and print media, including the Morning Sentinel, covered GO Lab’s purchase of the former UPM paper mill in Madison. Read the Sentinel story here.

The March issue of Decor Maine–the Eco Issue–includes several articles that will interest those following advancements in high performance building in Maine.

GO Lab co-founder Matthew O’Malia is the subject of an interview highlighting the retrofit of the Madison Mill in Madison, Maine, to manufacture a groundbreaking line of renewable, recyclable, carbon-sequestering building insulation made from sawmill residuals, a byproduct of Maine’s lumber industry. 

GO Lab is moving rapidly toward manufacturing and marketing its game-changing line of wood fiber-based building insulations. Statewide business magazine Mainebiz has published an excellent overview of the company—founded by OPAL executive partner Matthew O’Malia and chemist/materials scientist Joshua Henry—along with an update on its progress.

Continue reading “Mainebiz Catches up with GO Lab”

GO Lab co-founders Josh Henry and Matthew O’Malia were honored to stand with Governor Janet Mills yesterday, as she announced her plan to grow Maine’s economy over the next decade. Steadfast support from the governor and her administration has been a critical component of GO Lab’s growth and we looking forward to working together further in 2020! Read more in Bangor Daily News.

GO Lab President Josh Henry recently spoke with respected German trade publication EUWID, which covers the wood products and panels market in Europe. In the interview, Josh covered a wide range of topics including our purchases of the Madison mill and a production line from Germany and the buildout and production schedule in Madison.

GO Lab is a Maine-based R&D company that develops advanced building products for the high performance construction market. A partnership of chemist and materials engineer Joshua Henry and GO Logic co-founder Matthew O’Malia, GO Lab is currently working to establish the first North American production of wood fiber building insulation.

Available for decades in Europe, wood fiber insulation is a direct replacement for fiberglass and foam insulations, but with far lower environmental cost and greatly superior carbon performance. Its primary manufacturing input, a softwood lumber mill byproduct, is plentiful in Maine, especially since the steep decline in the state’s paper industry over the past decade. Those factors led us to target production here in our home state, and that initiative just got a $750,000 boost.

The funding comes in the form of a grant from Maine Technology Institute’s Emerging Technology Challenge for Maine’s Forest Resources program, a competitive grant program established in December of 2018. The grant represents a significant step toward our goal of purchasing and retrofitting the former UPM paper mill, in Madison, to manufacture renewable, recyclable, nontoxic building insulation from sustainably grown Maine wood fiber.

This a major vote of confidence, and from an important player in Maine’s advanced technology sector. Maine Technology Institute (MTI) is a private non-profit organization created and funded by the state of Maine to grow and diversify its economy and create high-quality jobs. In 2018, MTI invested $57 million in Maine companies, with an estimated economic impact of $1.4 billion and 5,350 new jobs over the next three years.

We are fortunate to live and work in a state—especially a largely rural state—that supports technological innovation as a means to build a thriving economy, create good jobs, and protect and restore the environment. GO Lab will play its part by reviving the now-shuttered Madison plant, employing 100 workers, and turning 180,000 tons of softwood sawmill residuals annually into a product with to potential to significantly improve the way buildings are made—here in Maine and across the country.