Company working to improve air quality (Phoenix)

EnsSolutions Inc. is trying to clear up the way businesses in Maricopa County think about dust and the brown cloud that hangs over the Valley.

The Hamilton, Ontario-based company is pushing a pine tree processing by-product as a potential solution to the region’s air quality problems.

The company, which has U.S. manufacturing and sales operations in Glendale, uses a natural product — the residue from pine trees collected at pulping facilities in the state and across the country — to control dust and eliminate potential damage to the ecosystem, said Shannon Ford, an environmental engineer with EnsSolutions.

“You can address a problem and get things done, but in two, three, four years you can have a bigger problem,” she said.

Many companies apply chemical sealants to soil to keep dust and materials from blowing away or being disturbed by activities such as construction. Over time, however, the chemicals will run off. The challenge, industry experts say, is keeping them out of the ecosystem.

Read the full story in the Phoenix Business Journal.