Northgate Ready Mix extends ‘green’ market with new plant, solar-powered quarry

Source: CP staff

About one year ago, Dean Soiland, the principal in Santa Rosa-based aggregates producer BoDean Company partnered with brother Troy to purchase the seven-year-old Northgate Ready Mix name and brand, and proceeded to use the still-struggling Northern California economy to its advantage by buying a new plant and 11 relatively new mixer trucks at reasonable prices.

Located at a prime location in Windor by a ramp coming off the Highway 101 corridor, Northgate is prepared to tap into the increasing amount of custom green homebuilding going on in the area, and “people doing that love that the raw materials for their concrete comes from a 100 percent, solar-powered aggregate plant,” Troy Soiland says about BoDean’s Mark West Quarry, which went online in May 2011 and is located about 11 miles from Northgate’s facility. According to BoDean, the electricity produced by its solar panels will offset the release of 1.8 million lbs. of carbon dioxide annually—enough energy to power 190 typical American homes for a full year.

“All things being equal, some customers are going with us because they value quality and a clean operation,” explains Soiland. “In terms of customer reaction, 90 percent couldn’t care less about the environmentally friendly part of our operation, but for the 10 percent who do, it makes a big difference and makes them feel good that they are buying from a green producer.”