In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

IN BUSINESS WORLD

In Business, January-February, 2006, Vol. 28, No. 1, p. 4

SOLAR-POWERED SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY TO
SUPPLY 30 PERCENT OF ELECTRICAL NEEDS
A new residential solar-powered community for the U.S. Army on Oahu, Hawaii wi1l provide about 30 percent of its electrical needs through seven megawatts of photovoltaic paneling. This 1,702-acre community transformation - a project of Actus Lend Lease, a public/private community developer - will

integrate renewable energy sources and sustainable design solutions. The U.S. Army Hawaii initiative marks the first time a grid-connected project will be profitable enough to install PV solar panels without subsidies. Actus Lend Lease's project will replace traditional fossil fuel generation - saving approximately 18,000 barrels of oil each year. Roughly 65 percent of the demolition waste will be reused in the form of asphalt or other building materials. No old appliance, door or window will be landfilled before first being offered to low-income residents in surrounding neighborhoods.

HOME CONSTRUCTION RECYCLING PROJECT
TEAMS UP WITH HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
A Solid Waste Management District program is involving the Fort Wayne, Indiana Habitat for Humanity and a local firm, Construction Recycling Solutions, in a three-phase strategy that involves: Recycling the framing package (mostly wood); Collection and recycling of drywall; and Recycling most everything else that includes plastics, cardboard, steel and shingles. It's estimated that the largest C&D component will be wood (approximately 40 percent) with drywall (25 percent). Local contractors were invited to see a demonstration of grinding equipment that turned lumber into mulch and drywall into a soil additive. Construction Recycling Solutions will do the recycling for 13 homes that Habitat for Humanity plans to build this year. The company calculates that between 40 and 60 tons of material have already been diverted from landfills. Wood chips are being marketed to farmers for animal bedding.

BUILDING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES AND CITIES A FEATURE
AT BIOCYCLE WEST COAST CONFERENCE
BioCycle, a sister publication of In Business, has married the themes of both magazines at its upcoming West Coast Conference in Portland, Oregon, March 20-22, 2006. The focus of this year's gathering: Composting, Organics Recycling and Renewable Energy … Building Sustainable Cities and Communities. A broad spectrum of organizations are cosponsoring this event, including the Energy Trust Of Oregon, the Portland Office Of Sustainable Development, Metro regional government, the Oregon Departments of Energy and Environmental Quality, the Washington Organic Recycling Council, the Northwest Biosolids Management Association, Norcal Waste Systems and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Most sessions make the critical social, economic, environmental and natural resource connections between sustainable energy, resource recovery, hunger and food loss, and healthy soils and clean water.
As part of the conference, the Portland Office of Sustainable Development has put together a self-guided walking/light rail tour that includes green buildings, innovative storm water capture and water conservation designs, and restaurants and grocery stores participating in the region's food scrap composting program. This takes place on Wednesday, March 22nd. (Tour guides will be available at some sites.) For example, Tanner Spring Park features a “biotope,” a combination of plants and sands that naturally cleanse the roughly one million gallons of rain that falls on the site in an average year. The Ecotrust Building, a 1999 LEED Gold restoration, has an eco (vegetated) roof and native plantings in bioswales, along with extensive use of salvaged building materials including lumber, flooring, doors and paint - and a 98 percent recycling rate. There are several stops on the campus of Portland State University, including The Broadway Building, with the largest ecoroof in Portland and a variety of water conservation installations, and Hamilton West Apartments, which also has an ecoroof. Also on the tour are community gardens, and various restaurants that feature locally grown foods (and food scrap diversion). Conference details are available at www.biocycle.net, or call 610-967-4135, ext. 21.

SUN GRANT INITIATIVE HELPS BUILD STEPS
TO BIOBASED ECONOMY
The Sun Grant Initiative was funded in 2005 through the Department of Transportation for approximately $12 million per year over the next four years. It's a national program coordinated through the land grant universities and organized as a network of five regional centers plus the National Biodiesel Board. Sun Grant is charged with making significant advances toward building a biobased economy. The Western Region includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and the U.S. Pacific Island commonwealth. The Western Region expects to release its first Request for Proposals by spring of 2006.
The mission of the Sun Grant Initiative is to: 1) Enhance national energy security through development, distribution and implementation of biobased energy technologies; 2) Promote diversification in and the environmental sustainability of, agricultural production in the United States through biobased energy and products technologies; 3) Promote economic diversification in rural areas of the United States through biobased energy and product technologies; and 4) Enhance the efficiency of bioenergy and biomass research and development programs through improved coordination and collaboration between government agencies, federal laboratories and colleges and universities.

NORTH CAROLINA OFFERS RECYCLING
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT GRANTS
The North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance (DPPEA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources, is accepting proposals for its 2006 Recycling Business Development Grants. The Department is seeking viable, well-planned and effective proposals from recycling businesses in North Carolina that want to start up or expand their recovery efforts. DPPEA has committed $300,000 from the Solid Waste Management Trust Fund for this grant cycle. Applicants may request any amount of funding up to a maximum of $30,000. Private sector and nonprofit organization applicants are eligible for funding. Any material that can currently be disposed in a municipal solid waste landfill, construction and demolition debris landfill or land-clearing and inert debris is eligible for consideration; projects that involve the collection, processing or end use of materials in the solid waste stream can be included. Generally, the grant money is intended to fund sustainable investments in equipment and buildings necessary for increasing the capacity of a recycling business to divert more materials from disposal and into economic use. Applicants must provide a cash match equivalent to 50 percent of their grant request. Proposals are due April 7, 2006. More information about the 2006 Recycling Business Development Grant Cycle is available by clicking on the following link: http://www.p2pays.org/ref/34/ 33904.pdf.

TREE-FRIENDLY PAPER POLICY
The city of Eugene, Oregon recently adopted a policy requiring that all white copier and printer paper used by the city must contain 100 percent postconsumer waste recycled content, up from the previous 30 percent. According to officials, Eugene is one of just a few cities, joining Palo Alto, California and Seattle, in mandating the use of 100 percent recycled paper. The new policy also mandates double-sided printing on most City documents. It is estimated the move will conserve 123,000 kW of energy and 210,000 gallons of water annually.
Eugene has taken a number of steps to decrease its overall environmental impact. In addition to using alternative fuels, the City's fleet has invested in efficient hybrid vehicles that saved approximately 13,000 gallons of fuel in 2005. It also has incorporated the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) concepts into new facilities such as the Eugene Public Library, new fire stations, and into the operation of existing buildings.

FOREST AND AGRICULTURAL RESIDUALS ARE
ANALYZED FOR CONVERSION INTO BIOFUELS
A diversified forest products company with timberlands in Arkansas and the Midwest totaling more than 1.5 million acres is exploring the launch of a biorefinery that would turn wood and agricultural residuals into fuels. The company - Potlatch Corp. based in Spokane, Washington - is considering establishment of a plant at a pulp and paperboard mill it owns in Arkansas on the Cypress Bend of the Mississippi River. By using a thermochemical method, a synthetic gas is produced which will be converted into a liquid called “syncrude”. The bulk of the “syncrude” would be sold to a petroleum refinery for conversion into such fuels as diesel, ethanol and other chemicals. Potlatch would utilize the waste heat generated during gasification in its pulping and paper-making processes or to generate electricity. Potlatch estimates that its Cypress Bend mill could reduce its natural gas usage by roughly 1.6 billion cubic feet per year (80 percent) and its purchased electricity by 80,000 megawatt hours annually (60 percent).
“The implications of this project could be just incredible in terms of job creation and net growth in the Delta,” observed an analyst with Winrock International. Jim Wimberly, a Fayetteville consultant working on the feasibility study, believes eastern Arkansas could support up to 50 large-scale bioenergy production and processing facilities. Winrock began working in December with the Arkansas Energy Office, the University of Arkansas, several consultants and staff from Potlatch on an economic and technical feasibility study of the proposed biorefinery.

2,000 BUSINESSES RECYCLE FOOD SCRAPS IN SAN FRANCISCO
Almost 2,000 restaurants, coffee shops, markets and other food establishments are diverting food residuals and food contaminated cardboard and paper to composting as part of a citywide program in San Francisco. “We have separate containers for compostables in our customer area,” says Betsy Holwitz, owner of the Arizmendi Bakery, “plus six different compost bins in the work area.” Twice named Commercial Recycler of the Year, the bakery also provides customers with compostable forks, knives and spoons. “We also give folks a 20-cent discount if they bring in their own coffee mug,” adds Horwitz. The city program is actively supported by Sunset Scavenger Company which can be contacted at www.sunsetscavenger.com or www.goldengatedisposal.com.