Welcome to World Tree One

In case you missed it, we’re hosting our first site tour of our pilot scale facility in Onalaska, WA – TODAY – between 10am-1pm and again at 5pm-7pm. 

Even cooler? The Washington Family Forest Association had the local newspaper run a feature article on the event. 

Don’t worry if you can’t make it in person today – I’ll be taking a LOT of pictures and videos to share in the next issue of Regenerative Industrialist. 

But until then, I wanted to share with you some major updates and milestones

It’s all happening on Tuesday September 16th from 10am-1pm. Click here to RSVP for the event

-Jake Hoffberg
CEO, Regenerative Industrial

World Tree One: The Countdown to Ragnarok Begins

When I first began shaping the brand mythology for Regenerative Industrial in early 2024, I knew it needed to be rooted in nature-based lore — Celtic, Druidic, Norse, and indigenous traditions.

Why? Because across cultures, these stories hold one common thread: reverence for the tree. In Norse mythology, that takes its most iconic form as Yggdrasil, the World Tree — a living structure that connects the nine realms.

At its roots lies a fire giant, bound in place. But in time, the bonds break, the giant rises, and Ragnarök — the “end of the world” — begins. It isn’t just an apocalypse; it’s a cleansing of fire and ice, a cycle that ends the old order and makes way for the new.

That’s the myth we are tapping into. Because the same cycle is playing out today: the old carbon economy is burning itself out, and in its place, a regenerative carbon economy is taking root.

For this reason, one of the original pitches I delivered was called “Project World Tree” – the general concept being that, in order to revitalize and regenerate a “forgotten world” (or contaminated industrial site), a seed must be planted to kick start the ecosystem. 

The logic was “if we can bring base load power to the site, turn waste into value, and potentially remediate the existing damage” it would solve the cold start problem plaguing so many industrial park concepts. 

It was a sexy idea that had some technical issues with it (i.e., biomass power generation isn’t very efficient), but it sparked a strategic direction we still carry with us today…

Look for legacy industrial sites that, if revitalized, could regenerate the rural town that depended on those jobs.

That’s exactly what we have the chance to do with Krume Lumber at the site of the previously failed Onalaska Wood Energy project.  – whose pyrolysis operations were shuttered due to improper disposal of the wood tar and wood vinegars (the “Liquids”).

That’s why our first site is called World Tree One – a seed planted to regenerate not just an industrial park, but the rural community around it. 

That's why the code name for our business model is Ragnarök – because it marks the end of the extractive industry and the beginning of a regenerative one. 

And now, with the completion of our H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. system, we blow the horn that signals this turning point – the rebirth of a failed wood energy site into a hub of advanced carbon manufacturing.

Introducing: The High-Efficiency Impact Milling, Dust-Aeration, and Layered Lattice (H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L.) system. 

In Norse mythology, Heimdall is the eternal watchman of the gods, stationed at the rainbow bridge, Bifröst. His senses were so sharp he could hear grass growing and see for hundreds of miles without ever sleeping. Heimdall carried the Gjallarhorn, the great horn he would sound at the dawn of Ragnarök — the end of the old world and the beginning of the new.

Why? Because this system gives us the ability to mill and classify our carbon material on site, to every specification we need for all of our R&D efforts (and short term production requirements).

In the same way, our H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. system is the horn we sound today. It marks the end of failed, extractive carbon projects at Onalaska and the rebirth of this site as World Tree One — a hub for advanced carbon manufacturing that regenerates both the land and the local economy.