In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

In Business, January-February, Vol. 29, No. 1, p. 8

LARGEST CONTRACTOR BECOMES LARGEST GREEN BUILDER
Speaking at the Greenbuild International Expo in Denver recently, Thomas Leppert - CEO of Turner Construction Co. - told the audience that he regards green building as a profit center as well as the right

thing to do. Turner Construction did $7.4 billion in green building work last year, and “it has become a very, very important component of the way we do business. We are seeing customers who are demanding it.”
In the U.S., building construction is one-third of our total energy, two-thirds of our electricity, and responsible for one-third of our greenhouse gas emissions, notes Peter Davoren, the new CEO of Turner Corporation effective Jan. 1, 2007. Turner has joined the U.S. EPA Climate Leaders program and is pledging to reduce company-wide greenhouse gas emissions. Turner is also providing technical expertise to the Clinton Climate Initiative to help reduce emissions in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Turner has also made a decision to make 50 percent waste diversion at job sites a standard practice.

PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC MAKES GREEN POWER
FROM DIGESTION PROCESS
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has teamed up with Joseph Gallo Farms and Microgy, Inc. to provide clean, renewable manure digester biogas. PG&E will also be using biodiesel made from soybean oil, solar energy and purchasing carbon credits. Says Tom King, CEO of PG&E: “Use of biogas, biodiesel and solar energy is more than symbolic: It is a real-life demonstration of available renewable energy sources that can aid in addressing climate change challenges.”
The biogas for a 60-kilowatt generator to help power the inaugural celebration for the Governor was created from cow manure at Joseph Gallo Farms in Atwater, California. The biogas process uses natural microbial action to convert nutrients in the manure into a renewable energy source. Using the gas to create electricity also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. “My family and I have had a strong commitment to the California environment for generations now. I am pleased that our Governor shares this emphasis with us, and am happy to work with him to help keep our state great,” said Mike Gallo, CEO of Joseph Gallo Farms.
“California's dairy industry represents a valuable, renewable energy source that offers our state a wide variety of economic and environmental benefits,” added Jeff Dasovich, senior vice president of Microgy, Inc. “Our company is aggressively partnering with innovative dairy producers like Mike Gallo, recent recipient of the International Dairy Foods Association's Innovative Farmer of the Year Award, and leading utilities like PG&E to develop our state-of-the art digester systems and bring the benefits of cow power to California.”
PG&E first contacted Gallo just before Christmas about obtaining biogas to power the inauguration. “PG&E was referred to us by Microgy, Inc., our partner in additional digester projects, because we have a successful manure digester generation system that has been operating for over two years,” said Carl Morris, Gallo's General Manager.
In December, one of Gallo's biogas generators was disconnected and PG&E gas compression equipment was connected to collect the gas and store it in a compressed gas tube trailer being used to fuel the 60-kilowatt biogas generator providing electricity for the inaugural event. PG&E is also using a 60-kilowatt biodiesel-fueled generator, which uses commercially available biodiesel that is a mixture of regular diesel and biodiesel made from soybean oil. In addition, PG&E worked with Akeena Solar to provide a 3-kilowatt solar installation, which can generate enough electricity to power a typical California home.
In addition to connecting biogas-fueled generation to its electric grid, PG&E is partnering with Joseph Gallo Farms, Microgy, Inc. and other digester companies on a program that will result in gas produced from dairy manure being processed and delivered into PG&E's gas transmission pipelines for delivery to power generators as a renewable energy resource.

CUBANS BECOME MASTERS IN RECYCLING ENTERPRISES
As reported in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (1/11/07), just about everything in Cuba seems to be reused. A plastic CD cover doubles as a picture frame. Drinking glasses are cut down Havana Club rum bottles. Ariel Rodriguez makes new keys from old ones, shaping them on a key-copying machine bought broken and fixed with parts from a grain mill. “Cave men figured out how to cook with fire. We invent ways to get by,” says 34-year-old Rodriguez. Fernando Alberto Delgado makes his living refilling disposable lighters, charging clients a fraction of what it would cost for new ones. Delgado, 37, claims to make more money in the lighter-refill business then in his plumbing job.
In 1961, Che Guevera led a state company to recover metals from waste. The objective: To save on imports, boost exports, expand industry and create jobs. Recycling on this Caribbean island has become an art. Craftsmen turn coconuts into decorative boats and cigar labels into coasters for sale to tourists. Barbaro Bernardo Osuna, 35, incorporates Cuban newspapers into colorful, acrylic paintings. Labels from Bucanero beer and Havana Club rum are used in collages to identify the works as Cuban.
In a nation where salaries average $15/month, necessity motivates. “Sure, I'd like to use new supplies,” says an eyeglass repairman. “But used ones are cheaper, and I can't charge too much. They can't afford it.”

PROVIDING TOTALLY SUSTAINABLE RETAIL STORES
Founder of suburban Chicago-based Total Resource Group (TRG), Bruce Olans has worked with retailers large and small, for more than two decades. With its turnkey “Store-in-a-Box” program, TRG assumes responsibility for literally every aspect of a store-opening process from the design, engineering, manufacturing and installation of custom store fixtures, made from wood, laminate, acrylic and metal, to graphics, exterior signage, floor coverings, wall coverings, computer installations and every other imaginable detail. Kelly Templer of the Sanderson Company has supplied this background information. For additional information, Templer can be e-mailed at: kelly@sandersonpr.com.
Olans, who logs tens of thousands of miles on the road each year, was recently visiting retailers in New York City where he noticed piles of construction residue materials in dumpsters that would eventually be sent to landfills. TRG has provided some sustainable products over the past five years to customers but it represented only a small percentage of business. Olans began researching sustainable products in the construction industry and found that everything going into construction dumpsters today could be saved and recycled. He recently made the decision to make TRG and the products the company offers completely sustainable by June 2007. This includes everything from floors to office chairs. TRG will be the first company of its kind to be providing totally sustainable retail stores.

COMPANY'S PROJECT CONVERTS CULINARY GREASE INTO BIODIESEL
Founded in 2004, Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel LLC was granted $369,696 under the Pennsylvania Energy Harvest program to partially fund a project converting restaurant trap grease to heating oil and biodiesel. “Once the bio-diesel and bioburner fuel meet our specifications, we will make about 1,200 gallons of biodiesel and 3,000 gallons of burner fuel to satisfy requirements of our PA DEP Energy Harvest grant,” say Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel officials. The company's long-term goal is commercial production that is financially competitive with petroleum-based products. PFoD will leverage the project to attract funds to build a plant that would produce three million gallons/year of B100, using trap grease and yellow grease.
Once product quality is assured, PFoD has arranged with the Abington School District to test a B20 blend in its school buses. It also is working with Atlantic Coast Energy, a local heating oil distributor, to identify a suitable test bed for burner fuel.