In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

In Business, January-February, 2006, Vol. 28, No. 1, p. 8

STUDY SHOWS FOUR OUT OF FIVE CONSUMERS WILL PAY MORE FOR PUBLICATIONS USING RECYCLED PAPER
According to a new study, 80 percent of book and magazine buyers would pay more if they're printed on recycled paper. Results showed the following percentage of consumers who said they are willing to

pay: $1 more per book - 42 percent; 75 cents more - 4 percent; 50 cents more - 14 percent; 25 cents more - 19 percent. For magazines, findings ranged from 23 percent for 75 cents more; 24 percent for 50 cents more; and 16 percent for 10 cents more. “While price premiums don't always exist, higher prices for recycled and (Forest Stewardship Council-certified) paper is the most common hurdle,” noted Tyson Miller of the Green Press Initiative that cosponsored the study which was reported by GreenBiz.com.

USDA SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH
SUPPORTS BIODIESEL PROJECTS
The U.S. Department of Agriculture last month awarded more than $18 million in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants, which included funding for biodiesel projects. The primary objectives of the SBIR program are to stimulate technological innovations in the private sector and to strengthen the role of small businesses in meeting federal research and development needs.
The SBIR grants that deal with renewable energy total more than $1.2 million; biodiesel projects are as follows:
“A New Process for Biodiesel Production Based on Waste Cooking Oils and Heterogeneous Catalysts,” United Environment & Energy, LLC, Orchard Park, New York;
“Improved Quality Soy-Oil Based Biodiesel Fuel,” Bioplastic Polymers & Composites, LLC, Midland, Michigan;
“Camelina sativa: A Multiuse Oil Crop for Biofuel, Omega-3 Cooking Oil, and Protein/Oil Source for Animal Feed,” Great Northern Growers Cooperative, Sunburst, Montana; and
“High Yield, High Efficiency BioRefining,” Advanced Materials and Processes, San Marcos, Texas.

BIODIESEL INTERNSHIP TAKES STUDENT INTO
WASTE VEGETABLE OIL PROJECT
Joe Beavers grabbed the opportunity to do biodiesel research as an undergraduate at the University of Idaho. For his first experience, Beavers was assigned to the Albertson's Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) to fuel project. Research specs called for direct burning of a 10 percent blend of WVO and No. 2 diesel in an Isuzu engine which powered a refrigeration unit on an Albertson's trailer. His daily task was to maintain the engine and keep it supplied with blended fuel. With his engine experience, Beavers was recruited to maintain motor pool vehicles, which included the 2002 VW Biobug and Dodge Truck, both running on 100 percent biodiesel. Beavers feels that he will be leaving the University with two degrees - one in ag systems management and one in real life experience, and both equally as valuable.
ADVANCING THE COMMERCE IN WORM BREEDING
“Our business, Wriggler Wranch, promotes the indoor breeding of worms for composting and fishing,” writes Terrill Rankin from Winnipeg, Canada. “Our local landfill has given us a vermicomposting spot at the disposal site where 1,000 metric tons of organics can be composted instead of buried. For the warmer months, I will be windrow composting - “lasagna style.” I lay landscaping fabric on the ground, then worms and castings, precomposted organics and leaves. I keep layering until it is about two feet deep. For winter, I have a few different plans for composting in trailers using solar power.”
Wriggler Wranch has been raising worms since 1997 - started as an outgrowth of Rankin's raising rabbits. After selling his rabbit herd, the worms became even more important as Rankin collected waste from grocery stores and restaurants. Over the last few years, he has introduced worm kits with about 1,000 worms that can compost 3.5 to 7 pounds of kitchen scraps per week.
At this time, his worms are housed in a heated facility in the country. “I breed two species of worms - the red wriggler and the European night crawler which are a good fishing worm but overran my space. Since then, half of my composting worms have been moved to the landfill where they will have the chance to grow. With the other half, the worms will be marketed for next fishing season.” Visit www.wrigglerwranch.com.

WHOLE FOODS MAKES LANDMARK
PURCHASE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY CREDITS
Whole Foods Market, the world's largest natural foods grocery chain, has made a landmark purchase of renewable energy credits from wind farms to offset 100 percent of the electricity used in all of its stores, facilities, bake houses, distribution centers, regional offices and national headquarters in the United States and Canada. This is the largest wind energy credit purchase in the history of the United States and Canada and makes Whole Foods Market the only Fortune 500 Company purchasing wind energy credits to offset all of its electricity use. “In the corporate world, this is huge,” says Kurt Johnson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership. “When a market leader does something like this, others will emulate.”
Like most businesses, Whole Foods can't get its power directly from renewable energy sources. Instead, it is contracting to purchase 458,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of the renewable energy credits. One credit represents one megawatt-hour of electricity from renewable sources. Whole Foods has chosen Boulder, Colorado-based Renewable Choice Energy as its exclusive supplier of renewable energy credits after an extensive search process. Renewable Choice Energy is a leading national provider building the market for clean and renewable sources of energy.
To help evaluate options and facilitate the purchasing process, Whole Foods Market involved the Washington, DC-based nonprofit environmental think tank World Resources Institute (WRI). Since 2000, WRI has been working with a number of Fortune 500 companies to increase their use of renewable energy. “By making this purchase, Whole Foods Market is taking a huge step toward advancing corporate renewable energy purchases,” said Jonathan Lash, WRI president. “Corporate leadership is essential to the growth of wind power and Whole Foods Market's historic purchase has set a new benchmark for the industry.”
GM FORMS CONSORTIUM TO PROMOTE
ETHANOL AS ALTERNATIVE, RENEWABLE FUEL
Earlier this month, General Motors (GM) announced it will lead a project with the state of California, Chevron Technology Ventures and Pacific Ethanol to get more information on consumer acceptance of E85 as a fuel in GM flexible-fuel vehicles. GM plans to offer up to 100 E85-capable Chevrolet Impala passenger cars and Silverado pickup trucks to be used by the California Department of Transportation in Northern and Central California. E85 is a blend of 85 percent ethyl alcohol and 15 percent gasoline. Currently, there are more than 400 public E85 fueling sites in operation across the nation.

CROP COPRODUCTS FROM STALKS, HULLS,
CHAFF AND MANURE CREATE VALUED ASSETS
Forget the waste category, says the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI) based in Crookston, Minnesota, which sees it as “coproducts” for making valuable assets. Emerging uses for crop residues, animal waste and other materials include biofuels, feeds and polymers, says Al Doering, manager of the AURI coproducts lab. “There are very few facilities like ours around the country where entrepreneurs can do experimental work on coproducts,” says Doering.
For ethanol production, the desired corn component is starch, which is converted to sugar, then fermented to produce grain alcohol. The leftovers - dried distiller's grains - can be used in swine, poultry and cattle rations or as a biomass energy source.
In biodiesel refining, soybean oil goes through a transesterification process that yields soy methyl esters (otherwise known as biodiesel). A by-product is glycerin, which is used in soap and toothpaste. Manure provides these coproducts: A Benson, Minnesota company is building a power plant that will generate 50 megawatts of renewable energy from turkey litter beginning in 2007 - expecting to use 500,000 tons of turkey manure/year. Methane from dairy manure through anaerobic digestion is being used on livestock farms to make electricity, while at least two Minnesota cities want to produce biogas from manure or food waste.
An Alexandria, Minnesota company is making phosphorus-free turf grass fertilizer from liquidfied fish and distillers grains. A commercial tilapia farm in Renville, Minnesota composts dead fish for fertilizer. And whey from cheese making is being made into protein concentrate and added to bakery products and infant formulas. And two partners in Green Range Renewable Energy in Ironton, Minnesota plan to sell soybean-based biodiesel directly to truckers and motorists from their 250,000 gallons/year facility, serving a market between Brainerd and Duluth. “Energy in any form is saleable in this day and age,” adds co-owner Jay Idzorek, “particularly one that flows right into the infrastructure that's already in place.”