Modern Mill: Turning Rice Husks Into a Sustainable Wood Alternative
Every rice harvest leaves behind a husk for every grain. While the rice grows, that husk protects it from moisture, pests, and mold. Once the grain is milled, almost none of those husks get used. Most are landfilled or burned.
Modern Mill turns that waste stream into lumber's replacement. The company, which manufactures in Pike County, Mississippi, makes ACRE, a rice hull wood alternative used for siding, decking, trim, porch boards, sheet goods, and millwork.
Founder and CEO Chris Guimond, a plastics engineer by training, spent years working with fillers and polymer blends for composite building products before Modern Mill patented and developed the rice husk technology behind ACRE.
The more useful story is the strategy underneath. ACRE does not ask buyers to accept a tradeoff in exchange for sustainability. It competes on durability, workability, and appearance first.
- Founder and CEO: Chris Guimond, who holds a bachelor's and master's in plastics engineering from UMass Lowell
- Manufacturing: Pike County, Mississippi
- Product: ACRE, a tree-free composite made from upcycled rice hulls blended with polymers
- Applications: Siding, decking, trim, porch boards, sheet goods, and millwork
- Production start: 2021
- Distribution: Two-step channel (manufacturer to distributor to dealer) across New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, the mountain states, and the Pacific Northwest
- Company-reported impact since 2021: 20.5 million pounds of rice husks diverted from landfills, 101,000 softwood trees saved, and 69,000 acres of tropical rainforest preserved
- Recent news: A September 2026 partnership with GameTime to use ACRE in its EverForms playground line
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