In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

IN BUSINESS WORLD

In Business, November-December, 2004, Vol. 26, No. 6, p. 4

BUYING GREEN PRODUCTS IN EUROPE
Public authorities in the European Union (EU) have a considerable budget - 1,500 billion euros per year (16 percent of GDP in the EU) - and could be the “leading environmental ally if they bought green

goods and services,” notes Resource Recovery Forum. These goods and services could include energy efficient computers and designed vehicles, recycled and recyclable office equipment, etc. If all public authorities switched to green electricity, for example, production of 62 million metric tons of CO2 would be avoided. Other potential areas: By using ecoeffective sanitary systems, water consumption would be reduced by 200 million tons. Stresses the outgoing EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom: “Green public procurement enables environmental technologies to become established in the market through an increase in demand for production of environmentally friendly goods. The potential is therefore enormous in all respects!”

SELLING ALTERNATIVE ENERGY OUT OF A DORM ROOM IN COLORADO
Nineteen-year-old sophomore Adam Kremers of Colorado State University in Fort Collins has been selling wind power to his dormitory neighbors under an agreement between the university and the local utility. According to a New York Times article, Kremers - an environmental engineering major - gave out stickers shaped like turbines and threw a “wind power party.” He got 187 students - nearly four percent of the residence hall population - to sign up, paying an additional $17 to $52/year to buy green power. Planning for next year, Kremers plans to print advertising cards that could be put in every mailbox of the incoming freshman class (of 5,000). Meanwhile, at last month's election, Colorado voters approved a proposal mandating that 10 percent of the state's electricity must come from wind and solar power by 2015. That law was the first one to have bypassed the Legislature and put the rule into place through referendum. Earlier, Fort Collins had joined cities like Austin, Texas in creating its own wind power program in 1998. So sophomore Kremers has a hefty alternative energy niche to develop.

VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS ARE BACKING THE RENEWABLE ENERGY INNOVATORS
Recent reports show an increasing involvement of venture capital investors in entrepreneurial companies breaking new ground in renewable energy technologies. “We're one of a few investment banks in North America that has amassed substantial experience in the renewable energy industry sector,” writes CEO Bruce Woodry of the Sigma Capital Group in Harbor Springs, Michigan. “Our company is gearing up to meet the substantial demand which we see in renewable project finance. ... With oil in excess of $45/ barrel and upward pressure continuing, we believe that more of the alternative energy/renewable energy will become economically viable. There will be no single solution in the energy market. All options need to be considered and used.”
In related developments,the Minneapolis Star-Tribune recently reported how “venture capital investors are discovering clean tech companies.” This is a sector that, “if it isn't already exploding, it's about to explode,” observes Daryl Erdman of Aavin Venture Capital of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Adds Nick Parker, chairman of CleanTech: “When energy prices are as high and as volatile as they are now, you have to go hunting for alternatives. That benefits a whole range of companies that make products for the energy sector.”
Notes Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute: “The United States can get completely off oil and revitalize its economy led by business for profit .... The transition to a post-petroleum future will generate jobs, create industries, reduce greenhouse gases and improve national security. ... Right now, the world supply-demand balance for oil is so terribly tight that any little thing just throws the market into a tizzy. We're not going to drill our way out of this one. ... We're in that period where one idea is dying and another is struggling to born.”

COMPANIES IN AUSTRIA SET UP REPAIR/REUSE NETWORK FOR OLD APPLIANCES
In 1999, two companies led by a group of long-term unemployed workers founded a network which today includes 43 companies in the Vienna area that repair everything from leather gloves to dishwashers. This year, Wienerzeitun reports that 73,000 items were repaired for more than 4,400 customers. One executive told Resource Recovery Forum that, “We must move away from the monopolistic repair services of manufacturing companies who declare every appliance over five years old to be unrepairable. We employ old professionals from various different trades, and use them to train young people,” explains Seep Eisenriegler. The popularity of the Repair and Service Centre means that this workforce is currently inundated with work. The high number of obsolete appliances coming into the centre, means that there is a constant supply of replacement parts that are no longer produced.

BIOSOLIDS COMPOST FOR “PRESIDENTIAL PARK” AT WHITE HOUSE
Approximately 1,500 cu yds of biosolids compost from Baltimore's municipal facility have been used for the conversion of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House next to Lafayette Park into a pedestrian park. With the removal of this section of Pennsylvania Avenue, the north lawn of the White House becomes a contiguous planted area with that of Lafayette Park. The sales process for Orgro began in November of last year, when the Federal Highway Administration contacted the U.S. Composting Council for producers meeting STA testing standards. Selection criteria for compost included meeting performance specifications, product availability and consistency. Construction project is expected to be completed after the presidential inauguration.

POWER COOPERATIVE TO PRODUCE RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY
Dairyland Power Cooperative based in La Crosse, Wisconsin provides the wholesale electrical requirements and other services for 25 electric distribution cooperatives and 20 municipal utilities. Together they serve more than half a million people in four states (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois).
Dairyland was formed in 1941 and today has five generating stations with 1,066 megawatt capacity. Now Dairyland and Microgy, a subsidiary of Environmental Power, have formed a “green alliance” to produce renewable electricity at dairy and swine farms within the Dairyland system. Energy source will be manure, and the process is anaerobic digestion.
“Project goal is to create up to 25 MW of renewable electricity, fulfilling the energy needs of approximately 20,000 homes in our service area,” says Katie Thomson of Dairyland. A mini-power plant will be sited at each farm. After manure is collected, it will be heated in the digester tank at 135°F for approximately three weeks. “Methane gas that is the by-product of that process will be the fuel used to generate electricity. The digester will be owned by the farmer, and the generator will be owned by DPC,” adds Thomson.
Benefits are cited as follows: Clean air and water pollution issues associated with manure disposal are significantly reduced, as is the odor problem; Weed seeds and pathogens are killed during the heating process, and the fly count is reduced; Heated, dewatered by-product of the digestion process can be used as a natural bedding and fertilizer by the farmer, thus reducing dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides; Odor issues, an increasing problem for farmers, are reduced by 95 percent by the manure digesters.

INTERNSHIPS AND EXPERIENCE FLOURISH AT UNIVERSITY ORGANIC GARDEN FARM
The latest newsletter of the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership in Sustainability (NJHEPS) reports that an organic farm managed by university students at Rutgers Cook College provides students with paid summer internships and “hands-on experience in management of small organic farm enterprise.” The program - which also feeds 100 neighbors who are CSA subscribers generating $35,000 - is part of the state's effort “to ensure that New Jersey Communities are food secure.”
And a project at the New Jersey Institute of Technologies as set up emission-free photovoltaics and an energy-saving green roof on campus.

WHO GROWS YOUR FOOD? (WHY IT MATTERS)
An essay with the above title by Bob Schildgen, managing editor of Sierra magazine, profiles Annette and Ron Dubas and son Clint on their Lazy D Ranch outside Fullerton, Nebraska. Writes Schildgen: “The history of the Dubas family is one that has played out across rural America. Ron Dubas's father made a living on 200 to 300 acres. Today, the family runs 2,000 acres and struggles to keep afloat... The number of real producing farms nationwide has shrunk from 3.3 million in 1950 to 750,000 today. ... The biggest beneficiaries of the farmers' cornucopia are the agribusiness corporations that absorb the glut of cheap raw materials and turn it into our dazzlingly diverse (and dangerously unhealthy) supply of processed foods. ... The corn in a one-pound, $4 box of cornflakes costs about 4 cents. ... The average U.S. family spends only 10. 5 percent of its income on food. Environmentalists who are willing to pay more could lead the way to better agriculture practices. Organic or sustainable farming costs more than conventional. Conventional pork production, for example, costs around 40 cents a pound, whereas organic runs about 60 cents. ... But farmers who receive a fair return for their labor and investment can thrive with an organic or environmentally sustainable operation. ... If the rest of us are serious about changing the way land is used, we'll have to put our money where our mouths are. ... By paying a fair price to the farmer, we'd enjoy healthier meals and safer, cleaner air and water. A square deal all around, for rural America and the environment.”

UNIVERSITY WINS SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
Seattle University (SU) earned the 2004 Governor's Award for Pollution Prevention and Sustainability for minimizing waste and conserving resources. The Award notes that the University grounds are maintained 100 percent organically; biodiesel is used at the on-site compost facility; and SU employs measures to prevent storm water pollution.