IN BUSINESS WORLD

In Business, January-February, Vol. 29, No. 1, p. 4

GREENER BUSINESS NETWORK GROWS IN WISCONSIN
Josie Pradella of the Wisconsin Partners for SustainAbility in Madison sends this information about the statewide Greener Business Network - www.wiscpsa.org/grnbus/: “We have 120 listings currently and

expect that to grow at least 25 percent this year. We've just conducted a survey among these green businesses and will adjust our website functions and promotions to reflect the comments received.” Pradella also suggests a future story for In Business that would develop the ways in which green firms are coalescing across the country for more visibility and impact. She can be contacted at info@wiscpsa.org.

RECYCLING IS GOOD BUSINESS
A recent announcement from Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania continues to confirm the long-proven fact that recycling is as much a job creation and economic development tool as it is a landfill “diverter.” In announcing that 171 Pennsylvania communities will share grants totaling more than $5.5 million for their recycling efforts in 2004, Rendell cited some encouraging statistics borne from recycling initiatives. According to the governor, more than 3,200 recycling and reuse businesses and organizations in the state generate more than $18 billion in gross annual sales and provide jobs for more than 81,000 employees at an annual payroll of approximately $2.9 billion. These businesses add more than $305 million in taxes to the state treasury. In 2004, nearly 4.8 million tons of recyclable materials were recovered. The economic value of remaking those materials into new and useful products exceeded $113 million. Communities avoided some $260 million in disposal costs based on the estimated statewide average disposal cost of $54 per ton.
The recycling grants are awarded to communities based on their performance. “These grants give Pennsylvania communities a direct incentive to recycle,” Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty says. “The more they recycle, the more they receive in recycling performance grants. I encourage local officials to use this money to support even stronger municipal recycling programs, which play an essential role in environmental protection and economic growth in communities across the state.” The recycling efforts also save energy, reduce air and water pollution, and limit the need for virgin materials in manufacturing. According to the commonwealth's statistics, recycling saved almost 66 trillion British thermal units (BTUs) of energy, enough to power 643,000 homes for one year in Pennsylvania or the equivalent of conserving 531 million gallons of gasoline.

METHANE FROM TWO DELAWARE LANDFILLS WILL POWER 4,500 HOMES
Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DSWA) officials announced a deal whereby methane from its landfills in Kent and Sussex counties will be used to produce 7.4 megawatts of electricity or enough to power 4,500 homes. The gas will be converted to electricity via seven generators to be operated by Framingham, Massachusetts-based Ameresco. Constellation Energy will purchase the electricity under a 10-year agreement. Under Delaware law, power providers are required to have 10 percent of their energy portfolio from renewable resources by 2019. DSWA Chairman Richard Pryor noted that producing that amount of electricity at a power plant would use more than 1,500 rail cars of coal and create about 60,000 tons a year of greenhouse gases.

SOLAR POWER GETS EXTRA HEAT IN CALIFORNIA
There are now 434 companies registered to install solar systems by the California Energy Commission, which installed just under 50 megawatts of solar electric generating capacity in 2006 (the most in a single year.) As reported in a January, 2007 article in The New York Times, the shift began in earnest a year ago, when the state legislature approved the California Solar Initiative, one of the world's most ambitious solar programs. The law offers homeowners a rebate on top of the federal tax credit of up to $2,000 that has been available nationwide since 2006. The theory is that the 10-year, $3.2 billion program of rebates would stimulate development of solar installations. As planned, the program will stimulate installation of 3,000 megawatts of solar electrical generating capacity in the state over the next decade - equivalent to 30 natural gas fired power plants. According to The Times, other states are watching California's program closely with plans to modify their support.
Unlike the do-it-yourself tinkerers who once comprised much of the home photovoltaic market, current buyers are interested in basic service from companies like NextEnergy. This firm supplies homeowners with a package that includes system design, permit applications, rebate processing, installation, maintenance and warranty. Power companies are legally required to credit their customers for the excess power they produce. At the end of the year, credits for solar power added to the grid are applied against charges for power taken from it, “helping homeowners zero out their electricity bills,” adds The Times.

GREEN POWER PARTNERSHIP LEADS COMPANIES TO REDUCE CLIMATE CHANGE RISK
The EPA Green Power Partnership is pushing U.S. organizations and firms to purchase green power as a way to reduce risk of climate change and the environmental impacts that go with conventional electricity use. Currently, says EPA staff, hundreds are voluntarily participating by purchasing billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually. “Our team is available to help you identify green power products that meet your goals. Please contact James Critchfield of the EPA staff at: critchfield.james@epa.gov.”
Renewable energy resources include wind, solar, geothermal, low impact hydropower, biomass and biogas. Following is a list of some EPA Fortune 500 Green Power Partners as of Dec. 4, 2006:
Wells Fargo - Wind; Whole Foods Market - Biomass, Geothermal, Small hydro, Solar, Wind; Johnson & Johnson - Biomass, Small hydro, Solar, Wind; Starbucks - Wind; DuPont Co. - Biogas, Wind; Staples - Biogas, Biomass, Solar, Wind; IBM - Solar, Wind; Cisco Systems - Various; Sprint Nextel - Wind; Safeway Inc. - Wind.
Critchfield and other contacts can be reached at Green Power Partnership, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Mail Code 6202J, Washington, DC 20460 Phone (202) 343-9442.

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY JOINS CHICAGO CLIMATE EXCHANGE
As part of its steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Michigan State University (MSU) has joined the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), North America's only emission registry. Imbalances - such as too much carbon gas released into the air - result in global warming. Members of the CCX seek to reduce direct emissions by conserving energy and to provide opportunities to offset emissions such as no-till farming, tree farming or other carbon credits. MSU will work to achieve the prescribed six percent reduction goal. “We have 10,000 graduates each year,” explains Fred Poston, vice president of operations at MSU. “We want to send them off equipped to be environmentally responsible. MSU's strength is that the integration of students speeds the translation to behavioral change.” Membership in CCX will also position the state's bioeconomy base, helping to move farming toward solutions in renewable fuels and environmentally sound practices (like composting). MSU will be the fifth university to join CCX - along with Tufts, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota and University of Oklahoma.

MAKE ROOM FOR ALGAE TO PRODUCE GREATER RATES OF BIOENERGY
Organic Matters, the annual publication of the Ecological Farming Association, sheds some new light on the power of algae. “While most current research is focused on terrestrial plants, algae produces substantially greater rates of bioenergy. The per unit yield of oil from algae is seven to 31 times greater than the next best crop, palm oil!” Michael Briggs of the University of New Hampshire Biodiesel Group calls algae one of the most photosynthetically efficient plants that can use human or animal waste as a food source and grow in a wide range of conditions. Both the Universities of New Hampshire and Hawaii have programs that see promise in algae. Ecogenics - a small research nonprofit in Tennessee - has created a closed loop ecosystem that uses animal waste to create methane, which fuels an algae culture greenhouse. The algae is fermented to create biodiesel, writes Organic Matters, and the solids are used as animal and fish feed. Visit www.eco-farm.org.

MAKING FUEL-GRADE ETHANOL “GOOD ENOUGH TO DRINK”
Fuel ethanol could be cheaply and quickly converted into the purer, cleaner alcohol that goes into alcoholic drinks, cough medicines and mouth washes, announced Iowa State University researchers in the October 2006 issue of Resource magazine. Jacek Koziel of the ISU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department is studying two technologies to purify and remove bad-tasting components from fuel ethanol. He is working with Hans van Leeuwen, vice president of a Cedar Rapids firm called Mell03z. The Iowa Corn Promotion Board says the state has 25 plants capable of producing 1.5 billion gallons of fuel ethanol. Multiple distillations required to make food-grade alcohol raise costs to about 50 cents per gallon more. The goal is to drop that amount to less than a penny per gallon.
One technology would be solid phase microextraction to collect samples of compounds in the alcohols. Another is gas chromatography - mass spectrometry to identify and quantify all compounds in the samples. Koziel would use his lab's olfactometry equipment to separate and analyze smells created by various compounds. He can be contacted at koziel@iastate.edu.

RECYCLED RUBBER SIDEWALKS SHOW VERSATILITY OF SCRAP TIRES
A California firm that recycles scrap tires and rubber into sidewalks will partner with an East Coast company that shares their environmental vision. The latest issue of Scrap Tire News explains how a Gardens, California firm called Rubbersidewalks Inc. has supplied special panels to more than 60 municipalities since 2004. To defray shipping costs and increase availability, RubberForm Recycled Products LLC will produce rubber panels at its 16,100 sq ft facility in Lockport, New York. Founded in 2001, Rubbersidewalks kept testing the concept and in 2005 began seeking an East Coast partner. Explains the firm: “Sidewalks made of rubber, recycled shredded tires, hold up longer than concrete because they bend, instead of breaking from weather extremes and tree roots.” STN also reports that the Boston City Council is proposing to install sidewalks made from recycled tires and that “repairs would be quieter because jackhammers would not be needed.”

FOOD RECYCLING LAW REVS UP REUSE RATE
In Japan, roughly 19.4 million tons of food residuals were generated in 1996. Only about nine percent (1.68 million tons) were recovered, with most incinerated or landfilled - contributing to Japan's growing shortages of disposal sites. Aware of the problems, the Japanese government in 2001 enacted the Food Recycling Law, requiring that all food-related businesses increase reuse rates by 20 percent by the end of 2007. Four recovery methods are recommended in the Law: Composting; Producing livestock fodder; Manufacturing oil and fat products such as biodiesel and printing inks; and Utilizing methane from fermentation.
In Aya Town of Miyazaki Prefecture, reports the newsletter Japan for Sustainability, organic waste is collected and turned into compost, then sold to local farmers as “Aya's Natural Fertilizer.” In Kyoto City, officials promote waste oil recycling by processing 5,000 liters of cooking oil into biodiesel as part of its biomass utilization strategy.

FISH FARMS AND GREEN FIELDS FLOURISH ON ARID GROUND IN ISRAEL
“Fish farming in the desert may at first sound like an anomaly, but in Israel over the last decade, a scientific hunch has turned into a bustling business.” That quote is contained in an article in The New York Times which reports how fertile enterprises have grown on desert farms. Explains Prof. Samuel Appelbaum of Ben-Gurion University: “We should consider arid land where subsurface water exists as land that has great opportunities, especially in food production because of the low level of competition on the land itself and because it gives opportunities to its inhabitants.” In the past 10 years, about 15 fish farms have started successfully - producing both edible and ornamental fish in the Negev and Arava Deserts. On Kibbutz Mashabbe Sade, Amit Ziv runs a fish farm, raising about 15,000 fish at a time. Up to 500,000 cubic meters of water from the ponds are recycled for irrigation every year.

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.