As you barbeque with charcoal, give thanks to Henry Ford and his desire to reduce waste – as well as make a profit. Mr. Ford embraced “sustainability” practices long before the word became commonly used, thereby helping us to grill many a steak, hamburger, pear and much bacon.

In 2003, after reading a short paragraph on a Kingsford charcoal bag that mentioned Henry Ford, I wrote the company for more information about the product’s origin. Below is part of the response I received:

The modern charcoal briquet was invented by automaker Henry Ford. Ford operated a sawmill in the forests around Iron Mountain, Michigan, in the years prior to 1920 to make wooden parts for his Model T. As the piles of wood scraps began to grow, so did Ford's eagerness to find an efficient way of using them. He learned of a process developed and patented by an Orin F. Stafford. The process involved chipping wood into small pieces, converting it into charcoal, grinding the charcoal into powder, adding a binder and compressing the mix into the now-familiar, pillow-shaped briquet. By 1921, a charcoal-making plant was in full operation.

The Kingsford website offers a more truncated version of the above story. All the same, the point remains: People and businesses have long adopted waste-reduction practices in the effort to reduce household or company expenses, thereby providing more income or revenue. This has been done privately, voluntarily, before public servants and environmentalists began running the word up their flagpoles. The history of Kingsford charcoal is but one example.