Landmark Construction was selected by California Safe Soil (CSS) to remodel a new 80,000-square foot space into a sustainable production plant at McClellan Business Park near Sacramento that will turn organic fruit and vegetable waste into fertilizer. CSS’s expansion into the new facility will enable the company to add additional equipment and expand capacity to recycle up to 32,000 tons of organics per year.
California Safe Soil developed an aerobic, enzymatic digestion technology that is uniquely different from existing organic composting techniques and alternative digestive processes and 720 times more efficient. The Sacramento-based sustainable agriculture company assists supermarkets in recycling their organics and helps agricultural customers by producing a safe, low cost, high volume and high quality liquid fertilizer product, Harvest-to-Harvest™. CSS has won recognition for improving the air, water and soil environment, while employing safe, efficient and effective solutions that meet the needs of the agriculture industry.
According to Aaron Quintanar, Project Manager, Landmark Construction, the builder will be remodeling a warehouse facility and setting it up for manufacturing. “We just started a few weeks ago,” said Quintanar. “The project includes relocating walls, preparing the facility for manufacturing equipment such as grinders and boilers, reconfiguring and modernizing bathrooms, sheeting rocking walls, updating doors and hardware, and installing new plumbing, heating and cooling systems.” Landmark Construction will be collaborating with Perryman Mechanical PMI on plumbing, mechanical and other aspects of the project.
Modernizing the former military base building for sophisticated biotechnology processing requires significant changes, explained Quintanar. “The building has a concrete roof and walls,” said Quintanar. “The plans call for sawing through the roof to install new fans. Demolition of some walls and parts of the foundation will make room for an underground filtration system and other manufacturing equipment.”
One unusual aspect of the project, noted Quintanar, is the addition of a gigantic plastic wall. “It will be similar to what you’d see in a walk-in refrigerator except that it is 25 feet tall and 180 feet long,” said Quintanar. “We will install the curtain to the roof structure and in-wall structural steel openings for a man door and fork lift access door that will have their own curtains installed in the door openings. This curtain will separate the clean side of the manufacturing area from the dirty side. The specialized curtain is designed to help contain odors and particles from transferring from the clean side to the dirty side of the manufacturing area.”
Landmark Construction has built many LEED certified projects and follows green building practices. “It is exciting to work on a project for a company that is 100% green,” said Quintanar. “I understand that CSS takes food that would be thrown away and turns it into fertilizer. Everything is biodegradable; even the ‘waste’ is turned into pig feed.” California Safe Soil was selected as a 2015 winner of Thrive Accelerator, an international business program for promising start-ups in the areas of Food and AgTech.
About Landmark Construction
Since 1998, Landmark Construction has successfully managed renovation, site-improvement and new construction projects for corporations, public agencies, universities and K12 schools in California. Through collaborative project management, Landmark Construction has achieved a track record of 100% on-time project delivery within budget and without problems. The company is currently hiring employees with an adventurous spirit who want to be part of an award winning construction team that successfully collaborates to build unique facilities and enjoy challenging themselves with high intensity sports and activities after work.
(Photos courtesy of California Safe Soil.)