IN BUSINESS WORLD

In Business, March-April, 2006, Vol. 28, No. 2, p. 4

HIGH SCHOOL GETS LEED CERTIFICATION FOR
GREEN BUILDING STANDARDS
Colorado is now home to one of the greenest schools in the nation when Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins was awarded the “Silver” standard under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED certification system. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.) “This building

sets a new standard,” notes Victor Olgyay of Rocky Mountain Institute's Built Environment Team which consulted on the project. “It uses only one ton of cooling for each 1,000 sq ft of floor space, approximately one-third the amount of energy used to cool a typical high school.”
More than 80 percent of the building's interior space is naturally lit while helping the school achieve a 50 percent reduction in energy usage. The school, which is a 288,685 sq ft facility with 1,800 students, includes irrigation systems that allow building site runoff stored for watering; use of natural swales (with contaminant-removing plants) to capture water draining off parking lots; dispersed parking lots with planted islands; and partial green roofing.

STUDENT COMPOSTING PROGRAMS
BUILD ON SUCCESS OF WORKING MODELS
“It's going to be important for the kids to learn about waste and where it goes,” comments Bellingham Schools Superintendent Dale Kinsey in a newspaper report on school food recycling. Students at Alderwood Elementary are separating food residuals as part of the project with Sanitary Service Company (SSC). Materials are collected by SSC, then turned into compost at Green Earth Technologies in nearby Lynden; three local elementary schools are participating. The district currently spends $185,000/year on trash removal. “Our goal is to shoot for 20 to 25 percent net savings for schools that are participating,” notes an SSC recycling manager. Explains a second-grader as she separates her lunch remainders: “I like recycling so I compost … because it could help the garden outside.” The Bellingham program is modeled after the “Food to Flower!” system developed by Tamar Hurwitz, Environmental Education Manager, for the San Francisco Department of the Environment. An estimated 500 tons of organic residuals are diverted there each school year from the landfill.

MAJOR FINANCIAL INVESTORS AND BIG
COMPANIES SEE PROFITS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY
For General Electric's Energy Financial Services, renewable energy projects already account for $1 billion of the unit's $11 billion portfolio and are its fastest growing niche. “I hope it will account for 20 or 30 percent of our investments in five years,” says the unit's president J. Alex Urquhart. Lorraine Bolsinger who directs G.E.'s Ecomagination program is running “financial projects through the scorecard process” to see which ones should be included in G.E.'s list of green products. Writes Claudia Deutsch of The New York Times (2/15/06) in an article, “Investors Are Tilting Toward Windmills”: “General Electric's Energy Financial Services division recently bought a wind farm in Germany and is installing new turbines there at a rapid pace. It has invested in solar energy farms in California and is in the end stage of negotiations for a large solar project in Europe.”
GE Energy Financial Services has been taking tentative steps toward biomass generation. It has a small investment in plants that burn woodchips for fuel. It is also seeking advice about potential biofuel investments from Jenbacher, an Austrian company that G.E. bought in 2003 that makes generators that run on methane gas emitted from landfills. And G.E. is also checking in Washington about what kind of rulemaking is “evolving around the biofuel idea.”
According to Deutsch, other financial institutions are investing in the U.S. renewable energy industry which for 2005 had $250 million targeting biofuels (like ethanol), biomass at $100 million, solar thermal-electric at $100 million, and wind power at $200 million. In November, Goldman Sachs committed to investing $1 billion in renewable energy; J.P. Morgan Chase will invest more than $250 million in wind energy projects. Overall, predicts the president of the nonprofit American Council on Renewable Energy, the $7 billion invested in renewable energy projects last year should increase by 25 percent a year over the next few years.

PRESIDENT SENDS “MIXED SIGNALS” ON RENEWABLE
ENERGY LABORATORY LAYOFFS
In his State of the Union address in January, President Bush called for new research into alternative energy to help get the nation off its petroleum dependency. But the next day, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado announced that a $28 million budget cut would force layoff of researchers of ethanol and wind technology, two areas cited in his address “as full of promise.”
The attitude shifted when Mr. Bush visited the Laboratory in February and the Energy Department announced it would transfer $5 million back into the Laboratory budget and 32 employees would be reinstated. However, none of the employees were back at work in time for the president's visit. And the Lab still faced a $23 million shortage for its 2006 fiscal year.
Mr. Bush's visit to the Lab came at the end of a three-state tour to help focus more attention on the alternative energy methods cited in the State of the Union address. Members of both parties generally praised the proposals, as reported in a New York Times article, although Democrats called them inadequate to change to nation's dependence on oil and Republicans were skeptical about the practicality of alternative fuels like ethanol made from biomass.
When the director of the Renewable Energy Laboratory talked about a new form of ethanol made from wood fiber, Mr. Bush interrupted: “I think what he's saying is one of these days, we're going to take woodchips, put them through the factory, and it's going to be fuel you can put in your car.” When the Lab Director agreed, the president responded: “That's the difference between a Ph.D. and a C student,” referring to his well-known grade average in college.

U.S. RIVERS AND STREAMS CONTAMINATED WITH PESTICIDES
A report just released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) identified pesticides in almost all U.S. rivers and streams between 1992 and 2001. Most waterways and the fish in them are contaminated with pesticides linked to cancer, birth defects and neurological disorders, but not at levels that can harm humans. Pesticide use “raises questions about possible effects on the environment, including water quality,” says Robert Hirsch, USGS associate director for water.
Most frequently detected in agricultural streams were three herbicides used mainly on farms: atrazine, metolachlor and cyanazine. The USGS report is based on an analysis of data from 51 major river basins and aquifer systems nationally, plus a study of aquifers that run through eight states from South Dakota to Texas.

JAPANESE CONVENIENCE STORES TEST
FOOD RESIDUALS COMPOSTING
According to a report in the newsletter, Japan for Sustainability, convenience stores in that country are selling produce grown from their own food residuals compost. Circle K Sunkus Co., a large Japanese food convenience store chain, has been conducting a series of tests on making compost from food waste to comply with a Food Recycling Law, which became effective in May 2001. The law obligates food businesses to raise their recycling rates for food residuals to more than 20 percent by fiscal 2006.
In related actions, the Study Group on Environmentally Friendly Products and Management Strategy released a report to promote future ecoproducts. The research was commissioned by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. And, since October 2005, some restaurants in Takamatsu City in western Japan have been offering free coffee refills and a free dish to customers who use their own reusable chopsticks instead of disposable wooden ones provided to customers for free at most restaurants in Japan.

CLIMATE CHANGE, WETLANDS
AND WATERFOWL
From the Minnesota Sustainable Communities Network comes this report that wetlands - home to most of North America's ducks and other waterfowl - could be lost to global warming in 50 years based on a study in BioScience. Carter Johnson, an ecology professor at South Dakota State University who specializes in climate change effects, found that the number of ducks could plummet by 50 percent as early as 2050 if global warming dries up their prairie pothole nesting grounds in the Dakotas, western Minnesota and Iowa, northeastern Montana and three Canadian provinces.

DOG FECES AND BIODEGRADABLE BAGS TO BECOME
FUEL FOR METHANE DIGESTERS IN INNOVATIVE PILOT
Based on San Francisco solid waste data, animal feces comprise nearly four percent of residential waste - approximately 6,500 tons/year. Within the next few months, Norcal Waste - a trash hauling company that is involved with food residuals composting programs - will begin a pilot which will use biodegradable bags and carts to collect droppings at a popular municipal dog park. Collected materials will become feedstock in what is considered a first-of-a-kind organic feedstock for a methane digester. Meanwhile, an Associated Press article notes that the city - named after Saint Francis, patron saint of animals - has an estimated 240,000 dogs and cats, all potential generators to supply the digester.

NETWORK FOR SUSTAINABILITY
The U.S.E.P.A. requests proposals for the Technology Network for Sustainability initiative which encourages practical applications of science and engineering for sustainability. Areas of interest include: Communities and the Built Environment, and Industrial Ecology and Organizational Behavior. Responses are due May 17, 2006; $2 million to be available via seven awards. Contact Diana Bauer at: bauer.diana@epa.gov.
Meanwhile E.P.A. also announces its proposals for the Small Business Innovation Research program that includes: Green Buildings, Innovations in Environmental Protection; Rural Community Improvement, Management of Animal Feeding Operations. Up to 40 contract awards anticipated. Contact Marsha Johnson at johnson.marsha@epa.gov by May 24, 2006.

CORRECTION/UPDATE
Due to a computer glitch, an out-of-date (10 year old) news item appeared in the last issue of In Business World - much to the dismay of our editorial staff. The item was about activities at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources program and led Monica Stone, Supervisor, Financial & Business Assistance, Iowa DNR, to write the following letter to the editor:
“Unfortunately, the information in this piece is very dated and as such, is inaccurate.” Ms. Stone notes specifically:
o In the mid-1990's the Landfill Alternatives Grants Program (LAG) has had two name and identity changes; since the late 1990's it has been known as the Solid Waste Alternatives Program (SWAP).
o Since the late-1990's, the program has changed from a grant program to a loan program and has funded in excess of $400 million in waste alternatives projects.
o Julie Kjolhede has not worked for the Department in nearly 12 years.
o The business that is highlighted closed in the mid-1990's.
An updated item about the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' programs will be published in the next issue.

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.