ekō Solutions and Its Eco-Friendly Structures

ekō Solutions is a sustainable brand that upcycles used steel shipping containers to create new living, working, commercial and utility spaces, and is addressing a whole host of problems with one interchangeable, mobile solution.

Sounds like a lot, right? That’s because it is.

As part of Land Betterment’s family, ekō Solutions understands that there are a myriad of challenges in the United States, ranging from natural disasters to economic and geographic isolation. To solve them, ekō provides a customizable and relatively more affordable, sustainable, and durable structure than traditional construction.

Essentially, whatever the end use may be, ekō is likely a solution. But it’s also more than that – it’s just one piece of the complete circle of environmental and economic renewal solutions that Land Betterment offers.

The Many Problems Solved by ekō Solutions

ekō currently builds customizable structures for residential, commercial and agriculture purposes. Yet, by building modularly, the base ingredient for each is the same (steel shipping containers) creating a homogeneous manufacturing process, with some customization along the way. The results can be put to all kinds of creative uses.

These uses have so far included, but are not been limited to:

• Temporary disaster relief housing called Villages of Hope, which has delivered over 50 emergency housing units to tornado and flood-impacted communities;
   
• Permanent housing villages in economically strained areas;
   
• Vertical agricultural farming for year-round sustainable agriculture;
   
• On-site office space for construction and relief projects, including units with individual office space, meeting space and kitchenettes;
   
• Rural health clinics to extend medical care to geographically isolated individuals;
   
• Mobile restroom units for events, parks and other public areas lacking underground plumbing.

While the benefits of rapidly deployable office and residential spaces are likely obvious as they are essential, eko’s container-based vertical agriculture pods should not be overlooked.

Think about it: ekō Solutions has taken a steel container and upcycled it into an indoor, temperature-controlled, full-spectrum LED lit growing spaces for year-round sustainable agriculture. And the pods can be put anywhere—a parking lot behind a restaurant looking to source quality ingredients more sustainably, a field next to a school looking to add nutrition to its meals and teach children about plant life, a private lot for a family to grow year-round produce. The possibilities are endless.

Land Betterment and ekō Solutions

The grow pods also show the close ties between ekō Solutions and the other Land Betterment business pillars, all of which work in harmony to accelerate environmental improvement, help sustain rural communities, and to find sustainable means of doing both.

Under Land Betterment’s umbrella, Land Betterment Exchange (LBX) harnesses the power of carbon offsets to encourage land remediation, pairing environmental specialists with corporate sponsors who receive verifiable, U.S.-based carbon offset credits. Remediating blighted land from fossil fuel extraction and utility helps mitigate climate change while also providing organizations with a reliable, verifiable, and scalable source of carbon offsets, and new green jobs for local communities.

Yet, Land Betterment doesn’t stop when remediation is complete. Instead, it builds a stable of sustainable brands and industries atop portions of that restored land. These include apiaries under the Pollinate brand, which accelerate the natural environmental restoration while producing wax and honey for commercial products. And it also includes Betterment Harvests, a controlled, sustainable agricultural brand that utilizes (you guessed it!) ekō grow pods and other repurposed industrial structures.

Brands like ekō, Pollinate, and Betterment Harvest provide employment opportunities in communities where they are increasingly hard to find and as they transition away from fossil fuel-related employment. By taking impacted land, incentivizing its restoration, and breathing new economic opportunity into America, Land Betterment has built an ecosystem of sustainable brands that restore the environment and communities alike.

ekō Solutions in the News

When you have a green, novel, and rapid solution to so many regional issues, well, people are going to notice, so it is no wonder that ekō Solutions has been in the news of late.

First, ekō immediately responded and deployed 20 single-family, modular container homes in the wake of the devastating December 2021 tornados that hit western Kentucky. Working with the city, local contractors, and utility companies, ekō got families into comfortable, clean, and safe housing, which is notoriously difficult to accomplish amidst the intersecting and conflicting disaster relief responses from various organizations. As one new home recipient said upon moving in, “It means the world that we finally have a place to stay, to be comfortable at. We’ve been bouncing around a little bit since the tornado and stuff and it feels good to know we can stay here and be comfortable and unpack.”

Yet, providing housing is only one part of a disaster response as mobile command centers, sanitary facilities, and even health centers also must be dispatched. This is why ekō Solutions also recently expanded its product offerings to include further commercial developments in August. For Pete Rodriquez, President of ekō Solutions, the move represented ”a major milestone.” "Indeed, it brings actionable solutions to our commercial customers. The demand for on-site offices, mobile health clinics and commercial-grade restrooms has never been higher and we are thrilled to be able to meet all of our customers’ needs in an economical and sustainable way.”

And since things move quickly at the cutting edge, it shouldn’t be surprising that less than one week later, ekō was again in the news, this time for a major acquisition when it acquired CSI Equipment Sales, LLC. The Company specializes in fabricated metal structures for industrial, military, and first-responder use, obviously harmonizing with ekō’s goals and scalability plans. Mark Jensen, Executive Chairman of Land Betterment explained the move, saying, “Controlling your supply chain has never been more important than today. Our ekō Solutions company is seeing unprecedented demand for disaster relief temporary homes, permanent housing villages and commercial applications.”

One of Many Sustainable Solutions in Land Betterment’s Portfolio

ekō’s “Small Footprint, Big Impact” goes a long way in explaining the appeal - a novel, environmentally-friendly solution to the many disparate challenges facing impacted communities.

Some of these challenges are relatively easy to predict. The environmental and economic impact of the transition away from fossil fuels, for example, is something experts long saw coming. To address this challenge, Land Betterment has developed a win-win-win land remediation solution for all parties involved, one that rewards and indeed accelerates environmental action, while also supporting the community around it.

But some challenges, on the other hand, are incredibly difficult to predict – natural disasters for example. They can occur without much warning and while we can plan for them eventuality, we cannot make plans around their arrival.

Yet, through ekō Solutions, Land Betterment has found a way to do as much preparation as possible, building temporary residential, commercial, and agricultural structures that can be rapidly deployed where they are needed, when they are needed.

In an emergency, sure, but also just because it’s often the most practical solution available.
 

About Land Betterment Exchange - LBX
The Land Betterment Exchange (LBX) is a carbon offset exchange that creates a market to pull forward voluntary environmental cleanup and transition away from fossil fuels while providing sustainable jobs for the local community. The LBX process enables companies and sponsors wanting carbon offsets to work toward achieving their sustainability objectives while simultaneously supporting American communities. The LBX issues highly valuable, traceable, and verifiable carbon offsets. LBX will work with sponsors to match them with projects that will be tracked using the LBX blockchain technology while also providing time-elapsed documentation, imagery, and videos of the property being remediated and revegetated. The Land Betterment Exchange's mission is to create workable solutions for the remediation of environmentally impacted areas while rebuilding and restoring communities. For more information visit www.thisislbx.com or connect with the Company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About ekō Solutions
ekō Solutions, a Land Betterment Company, uses innovative ecological structures to replace legacy inefficient and ineffective methods of living, growing and working. We provide durable structures which are affordable to operate, inhabit while also maintaining the ability to be utilized in a mobile environment. ekō homes are designed to be high quality, durable and affordable to live in from 1- 10 years. The sustainable craftsmanship of our structures is what separates us from the alternatives. For more information visit ekosolutionsllc.com and connect with ekō Solutions on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Land Betterment Corporation
Land Betterment Corporation, an Indiana Benefit Corporation and Pending B-Corp, is an environmental solutions company focused on fostering a positive impact through upcycling former coal mining sites to create sustainable community development and job creation. The Company utilizes a complete solution-based lifecycle program to restore and rehabilitate the environment and revitalize communities in need of change and opportunity. Land Betterment accomplishes this by identifying un-reclaimed, run-down and neglected coal mining sites, fixing the environment through reclamation and remediation, and then repurposing the land to support a sustainable business that serves the community. Land Betterment firmly believes that with real solutions it is possible for restoration of impacted areas to live side-by-side long term employment, while building sustainable and safe surroundings for communities and our planet. For more information visit landbetterment.com or connect with the Company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause the Company’s actual results, performance, or achievements or industry results to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Land Betterment Corporation’s control. The words “believes”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “would”, “could”, “continue”, “seeks”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “expects”, “intends”, “estimates”, or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. Any forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this release. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. The Company cannot assure you that the projected results or events will be achieved.

Company Contacts:
Mark LaVerghetta
317.537.0492 ext. 0
Chief Governance Officer, Corporate Finance
info@landbetterment.com

Stephanie Conzelman
207.205.0790
Stakeholder Engagement Director
info@landbetterment.com