In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

In Business, May-June, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 3, p. 8

MOHAWK PAPER MILL BECOMES SECOND LARGEST WIND POWER USER
On June 1, 2005, Mohawk Paper Mills of Cohoes, New York began using 45 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of wind power annually to run its two mills in New York and one in Ohio. That usage makes Mohawk second only to Johnson & Johnson.

Over the past two years, Mohawk Paper has taken a leading role in producing environmental papers - developing a line of process-chlorine free 100 percent recycled paper that will now be made with energy from wind farms in upstate New York and Pennsylvania.
Mohawk first purchased a turbine's worth of wind power in 2004 for its Cohoes, New York plant increasing that amount in 2005 to the output of 2.5 turbines. Then, on April 30, 2005, when Mohawk announced its acquisition of the Fine Papers group from International Paper Company, it began negotiating a new contract to provide wind power to its newly acquired Beckett Mill in Hamilton, Ohio. On June 1, Mohawk will begin taking an additional 35,000 kWh of power for the Beckett Mill. The third in two years, this commitment allowed Mohawk to join the highest level EPA Green Power Partnership Leadership Club.
According to George Milner, Mohawk's Senior Vice President for Energy, Environmental and Governmental Affairs, wind energy now provides 21 percent of the total power for its two mills in upstate New York and 50 percent of the annual power required for the Beckett Mill in Ohio. "There is a misconception that choosing the environmentally correct path costs a lot more,” notes Milner, “but with the technological advances in windmills, the cost of wind power is within range of traditional energy sources. And our customers find it a tangible way to express their own commitment to sustainability.” For more information, visit www.mohawkpaper.com.

LATCHING ON TO RENEWABLE POWER, STARBUCKS USES WIND FOR 5 PERCENT
“By supporting renewable energy sources,” says Sandra Taylor, senior vice president of corporate social responsibility for Starbucks Coffee Co., “we are taking a step in the right direction. The shift to wind power will cut emissions associated with Starbucks' operations by an estimated two percent and will put the company among the top 25 buyers of renewable energy in North America. Observes Jonathan Lash, head of World Resources Institute: “It is critical that U.S. businesses aggressively take action if the serious effects of climate change are to be averted. A successful climate future is simply not possible without immediate participation.” The move by Starbucks will help coffee growers as well since climate change impacts the quality of life in coffee growing communities.

GENERAL ELECTRIC CHIEF SEES BIG MARKET FOR BIOENERGY PRODUCTS
The Chief Executive of General Electric last month urged the U.S. government to develop a clear energy policy, and impose controls on carbon emissions to fight global warming. Jeffrey Immelt announced his company's new corporate strategy, increasing the number of products marketed to an environmentally conscious world marketplace following a year's planning on its “ecomagination” initiative. GE intends to double its research budget for energy and environmental technologies to $1.5 billion, forecasting revenues of $20 billion by 2010.
Over the next seven years, Immelt pledged that the company's energy efficiency would improve by 30 percent and its worldwide greenhouse emissions would decrease by one percent - noting that they would have increased by 40 percent otherwise. Based on information in a New York Times article, the ecomagination initiative comprises 17 technologies, that include developments like its H System: gas turbine, and hybrid railroad locomotive .
Another breakthrough stressed is a cleaner coal-burning system with gasification that produces more electricity and allows much easier cleanup of sulfur, mercury and particulates. “If you look to the future, there is going to be a day when we have standards of some kind pertaining to carbon,” Immelt declared. “I think most business people are planning for that implicitly, even without anything that's overt.” Immelt pledged to work with General Electric's customers and provide “the financing that supports development and application of new technologies.”
Immelt runs the biggest company in America, leading some activists in the global warming debate to view his comments as a major turning point on climate change. He believes mandatory controls on emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, are inevitable. He would double GE investments in energy and environmental technologies to reach a global market for products that help other companies reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
“We plan to make money doing this,” Immelt stressed. “Increasingly, for business, green is green. ... We will establish partnerships with our customers to tackle their most pressing environmental challenges, while developing products and services they need. These technologies will be used to improve our own energy efficiency and environmental performance.”
Summed up Jonathan Lash of the World Resources Institute: “This is a hugely important step by one of the world's most important companies.”

REGIONAL BIODIESEL PRODUCERS FIND PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MARKETS
Three Washington firms have joined Sustainable Systems based in Missoula, Montana as pioneer biodiesel producers in the Northwest, reports the May 2005 electronic newsletter, Harvesting Clean Energy. The companies are Sound Biodiesel of Port Townsend; Whole Energy of Bellingham; and Seattle Biodiesel - all providing ASTM-certified fuel to a variety of public and private fleets, as well as retail customers. Continues the newsletter:
Long-time retailer Sound Biodiesel began producing its own fuel this past winter using waste vegetable oil gathered from around the north Olympic Peninsula community. Whole Energy, which is also using waste vegetable oil as its primary feedstock, is now providing the biodiesel used in a B20 blend by all 60 trucks in Sanitary Service Company's fleet, Whatcom County's largest full-service recycling and waste collection company. Meanwhile, Seattle Biodiesel is in the process of ramping up production to 200,000 gallons/month by July.
After pulling out of a brief alliance with Chinese industrial conglomerate YaSheng Group, Sustainable Systems has refocused its efforts on possible regional and national expansion. Sustainable Systems is considering the purchase of Montola Growers, an oilseed processing plant in Culbertson. It's now anticipated the sale will close in August. The company is looking to process safflower, canola and flaxseed and is actively contracting for safflower acres in northeastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota.
Sustainable Systems currently supplies federal, state and local governments as well as transit authorities in the region with two branded fuels - PacBio for fuel made from Washington, Idaho, and Oregon grown oilseed crops, and Montana Biodiesel for fuel derived from Montana crops.

MAKING LOTSA ROOM FOR CERTIFIED ORGANIC GRANOLA
The folks at GrandyOats are so very happy as sales this year are reported to be up 85 percent ... and “the low-carb diet fad that had threatened grain-based foods has fizzled.” Explains Aaron Anker, Chief Granola Officer (CGO) for the company: “The new FDA guidelines confirm what we have been touting - servings of whole grains like our nutritious granola are essential for a healthy diet. “ According to Anker (age 33) and his partner Nat Peirce (age 34), it took them four years to complete conversion of their entire line to all-organic.
Operating from a restored 100-year-old dairy barn in Brownfield, Maine, GrandyOats set up cooperative purchasing partnerships with other small businesses (also acquiring a competing brand, thereby increasing purchasing power and gaining economies of scale.) They have also diversified to offer sales of bulk items to retailers, essentially the individual components of their granola blends sold in bulk bins. “We get our products to the stores often within 24 hours mostly using vacuum sealing to maintain quality,” adds Peirce. The firm has also introduced an Organic Trails line of trail mixes, and now has 10 employees. For more information, visit www.grandyoats.com.

BIOWILLIE (NELSON) BIODIESEL BRAND AT MORE FUEL STATIONS
“By working with innovative retailers like Stewart Spinks, we plan to establish a chain of BioWillie Refueling stations throughout the southeastern U.S.,” says legendary musician and biodiesel company owner Willie Nelson. The first truck stop on the Eastern Seaboard to carry a 20 percent biodiesel blend (B20) opened in early June. Willie Nelson Biodiesel Co., founded in December 2004, is owned by Nelson and three partners. BioWillie fuel is currently available at truck stops throughout Texas and will soon be available from Miami up to Rochester, New York. Biodiesel is available at more than 450 retail pumps and by more than 1,400 U.S. petroleum distributors.
As explained by the National Biodiesel Board, this is a clean-burning renewable alternative to diesel fuel. It can be made from various domestically produced feedstocks such as soybean oil or even used cooking grease. It can be blended with petroleum diesel fuel at any level or used by itself in the pure form of B100 and is applicable in any diesel engine with few or no modifications. Says Willie Nelson:
“Biodiesel is the future. All major automotive and truck manufacturers are struggling to find new ways to meet fuel emissions standards, and biodiesel is the most practical. We have it here at home. We have the product, and farmers can grow it.” And there are lots more sustainable companies like BioWillie ready to enter the marketplace.

PURDUE UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS USE PLANTS TO CLEAN UP CONTAMINANTS IN SOILS
Paul Schwab and Kathy Banks, Purdue University agronomy and civil engineering professors, are experts in remediating field sites contaminated with organic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs - by-products of oil refining or gasoline combustion). Purdue science writer Jennifer Cutraro explains that their combined expertise in fields like microbial degradation of organic compounds has led to successful cleanup of sites all over the U.S.
Their latest project uses plants to decontaminate dredged sediments - that have been removed from Wisconsin's Milwaukee Harbor. Schwab and Banks - along with a Purdue plant molecular physiologist named David Salt - use plants known as metal hyperaccumulators, which take up and store amounts of metals in their shoots and leaves. These plants are ideal for phytoremediation.
About start-up ventures using the phytoremediation research that replaces less eco-sensitive methods, Dr. Schwab e-mails: “I've been involved with two of the most successful in the phyto game. One is called Edenspace; the other is called Ecolotree.” More information on these companies and methods used will be published in a future In Business issue.