In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

In Business, March-April, Vol. 29, No. 2, p. 8

ECOFRIENDLY TIRE CUTS PETROLEUM USE BY 80 PERCENT IN JAPAN
Change is happening across the globe. The Yokohama Tire Corp. (YRC) has developed a process that combines citrus oil with natural rubber to form a new compound called “Super Nanopower Rubber (SNR),” reports the March 2007 issue of Scrap Tire News. It reduces the use of petroleum products in tires by 80 percent and is part of YRC's global EcoMotion environmental program. The first SNR

product is the Decibel Super E-Spec, an all new consumer passenger tire. The fuel-saving E-Spec tire features an air permeation suppression film, a new polymer inner lining designed to reduce air from seeping out of the tire, which helps maintain appropriate inflation levels, YRC said. The E-Spec is also a lot lighter and conserves fuel by reducing rolling resistance by 18 percent, the company said. The new tire will be available in Japan later this year. No date has been determined for release in the U.S. market.

AS COST OF BEVERAGES SOARS, SO DOES BEVERAGE CONTAINER WASTE
American consumers spent more than $270 billion on beverages consumed in 2005 (excluding milk) - 29 percent more than they spent in 2002 - even though consumption remained unchanged at 121.5 gallons per capita. According to Water, Water Everywhere by the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), sales of plastic water bottles one liter and less increased more than 100 percent from 2002 to 2005, and there was a 900 percent increase in 10-12 ounce plastic water bottles - from 1.9 billion to 18.9 billion units. “Beverage producers are pushing the small, single-serve containers consumed on the go, and more and more are ending up in landfills or as litter,” says Pat Franklin, CRI executive director. In 2005, manufacturing 144 billion new beverage containers from raw materials - to replace those wasted - consumed the energy equivalent of 53.5 million barrels of crude oil and produced approximately 4.8 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Notes Franklin: “Consumers are spending more on packaged beverages and getting less for their money, so it would seem that adding a small, fully refundable deposit of a nickel or a dime to bottled water and other noncarbonated drinks would not pose a hardship” - a nickel or a dime is a good incentive to recycle.

STATE SETS GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION GOALS
On February 7, 2007, Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington signed an executive order setting specific goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions - reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, cutting another 25 percent by 2035, and a 50 percent drop by 2050. The Governor also set a target of increasing the number of clean energy sector jobs to 25,000 from the 2004 level of 8,400 jobs. Her order also directs two agencies - the Ecology Department and the Community, Trade and Economic Development staff to meet with business and environmental leaders to review strategies. “Washington is uniquely vulnerable to the changing climate, but we also are positioned to succeed in the clean energy economy,” summed up Gregoire.

CREATING COLOR EFFECTS FOR GREEN BUILDING
Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, the 3-Form Company uses Ecoresin to infuse decorative interlayers within environmentally preferred resin in its Varia collection. Emerging as a comprehensive system of colors, textures and patterns within its trademarked Ecoresin, Varia catapulted to strong recognition within the first year of its launch. Ecoresin is described as a postindustrial recycled material, to encapsulate textiles, organic materials, textures and custom images in translucent panels, using founder Ray Goodson's technology.
Building on the popular Furniture, Strata and Hardware collections, new additions include Struttura, an exterior collection, and 3-Form Digital, a process where digital image or Pantone color match may be encapsulated. The company's manufacturing headquarters in Salt Lake City is home to a research and development lab, design studio and customer service center. Talley and Ray Goodson oversee daily operations. For more information, contact Jen Voros, Marketing Coordinator at 3-Form.com at (801) 649-2592; email Jen.Voros@3-form.com.

SALVAGING THE TREASURES OF UNWANTED BUILDINGS
In their new book called Unbuilding, Bob Falk and Brad Guy describe many examples of “practicing deconstructors” - how these enterprises started, examples of their successful methods to tear down and build up again. Unbuilding can be thought of as reverse construction and is generally perceived as manual disassembly of a building
with various combinations of manual and mechanical methods used to improve cost and performance. Unbuilding can be viewed as the ultimate green endeavor - the first step in preserving resources and avoiding waste.
Included in the text (published by Taunton Press) is a report on Max Taubert who founded the Duluth (Minnesota) Timber Company. In the last two decades. Taubert estimates that he has salvaged or bought and sold about 40 million board feet of timber. He got into deconstruction contracts in a big way when he won a contract for a giant grain elevator in Superior, Wisconsin. A wooden trestle and steel drawbridge followed. By the early 1980s, the market for reclaimed lumber started to gain momentum, so Max started buying, regionally and then nationally. In 1990 Taubert met the person who is now his general manager, Peter Krieger.
Explains Krieger, who began his work with reclaimed timbers as a daydream in Minnesota's Twin Cities' suburbia: “I was working as an overeducated, underskilled carpenter, and building houses wrapped in plastic. … I came to appreciate the huge amount of history embedded in each piece of wood. …We're honoring not only the tree and the resource, but all the human labor that went into it.”
Today, Taubert and Krieger still buy and sell big timbers, but also vast quantities of smaller stock along with bleacher seats and gymnasium flooring. “It's satisfying when you get to match up one person's abandoned material with another's newly discovered need,” sums up Krieger.

WORLDWIDE VIEW OF THE GREEN CORPORATION
Unilever provides a fine example of a corporation that features green methods, reports a recent issue of BusinessWeek. In Brazil, the company operates a free community laundry in a Sao Paulo slum; provides financing to help tomato growers convert to ecofriendly drip irrigation; and recycles 17 tons of waste annually at a toothpaste factory. Unilever funds a floating hospital that offers free medical care in Bangladesh, a nation with just 20 doctors for every 10,000 people, notes BusinessWeek. In Ghana, it teaches palm oil producers to reuse plant waste while providing potable water to deprived communities. Responding to green activists, the company discloses how much carbon dioxide and hazardous waste its factories turn out around the world. Notes McKinsey Global Institute Chairman Lenny Nendonca: Sustainability is “right at the top of the agendas” for more U.S. CEOs, especially young ones.
In a section headlined: “Who's Doing Well by Doing Good,” the editors at BusinessWeek offer these examples: Quest Diagnostics - Has diversity program promoting businesses owned by minorities, women and veterans; SONY - Ahead on green issues and ensuring quality, safety and labor standards of global suppliers; Royal Dutch Shell - Since Nigerian human rights woes in the 90s, leads in community relations. Invests in wind and solar; Marks & Spencer - Buys local products to cut transit costs and fuel use. Good wages and benefits help retain staff; Roche - Committed to improving access to medicine in poor nations. Invests in drug research for Third World; FPL - Largest U.S. solar generator. Has 40 percent wind power capacity. Some “laggards” noted in the magazine include: Wal-Mart - Company's image remains tarnished by criticisms of labor and offshore sourcing practices; and Nintendo - slow to grapple with how emerging environmental safety and labor standards will affect offshore suppliers.