IN BUSINESS WORLD

In Business, November-December, Vol. 29, No. 6, p. 4

HOW ENERGY AND PRICES AFFECT THE ECONOMY OF MISSOURI
Since nearly 94 percent of Missouri's primary energy sources are imported from outside the state at a cost of more than $13 billion annually, there is much interest in finding ways to keep this money in-state. Ethanol production in the state expanded from approximately 50 million gallons in 2003 to

approximately 118 million gallons in 2005. More proposed ethanol production facilities are being readied.
Besides looking at ways to protect soil and water quality, the latest environmental report evaluates the economic impact of preservation efforts addressed by such challenges as ground-level ozone in St. Louis and Kansas City. For a copy of Environment 2007, call DNR at 1-800-361-4827.

LINKING HARVEST, COURAGE AND CELEBRATION
From Frances Moore Lappe - author of Getting A Grip and many other books - come these words from the latest issue of Yes! Winter 2008: “Each fall, the Center for Whole Communities puts on a Harvest and Courage Celebration. Our message might shift from 'simplify' to enrich and diversify as we make new connections in our heads and in our communities, as we learn new skills and ways of being. The challenge becomes less about restriction and more about trusting our common sense and curiosity.
“The Center for Whole Communities links 'harvest' with 'courage' with 'celebration.' For me the three words capture it all: We can harvest the abundance that is our home if we have the courage to break away from the dominant culture of waste and destruction and to walk with our fear of the unknown and of being different: These natural fears are the dark side of our beautifully social nature; but we can tame our fear of separation as we make new connections in communities of common purpose - instead of common purchases. Then we can celebrate. For - who knows - we may just be able to make this historic turn.”

ENERGY STAR HOMES PAY OFF FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
New York residents and builders have significantly reduced the state's energy use and greenhouse gas emissions over the last six years by investing in homes that have earned the Energy Star label. Since 2001, more than 10,800 New York Energy Star labeled homes have been built in the state, saving nearly 14 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and 603 billion BTUs of fossil fuel. Collective energy savings from these homes means that more than 44,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide is kept out of the atmosphere every year.
ORGANIC AS ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Organic companies are increasingly forging a path toward greener business practices. It's a natural progression, says Nancy Hirshberg of Natural Resources, a dairy producer at Stonyfield Farm. “If you think of sustainability as being about people, economics and the environment, then organic is the epitome of all those. Organic really is an environmental management system.” U.S. sales of organic food and beverages grew by 20.9 percent during 2006 to reach $16,718 billion, up from $13,831 billion in 2005. This represents approximately 2.8 percent of all U.S. retail sales of food and beverages.

GREEN HOME OWNERSHIP TO RISE IN NEXT FIVE YEARS
According to McGraw-Hill Construction and the National Association of Home Builders, the market for what they call “true green homes” will increase from $12 billion to $20 billion in the next five years. True green homes are defined as homes that have 3 of 5 environmental categories which include energy efficiency, indoor air quality, water efficiency, resource efficiency and site management. “People are spreading the word about their green homes, and the opportunities of being green,” says an official with McGraw-Hill.

TOWARD ZERO WASTE IN NATIONAL PARKS
International Paper, the National Park Foundation and the National Recycling Coalition launched a new pilot program in October to evaluate ways to limit the impact of foodservice products in America's national parks. The study, funded in part by a donation of up to $1 million by International Paper, will commence in the summer of 2008 and is aimed at moving toward “Zero Waste” across the park system by identifying best practices in foodservice waste reduction that can be transferred to national parks throughout the country.
Through an agreement with the National Park Foundation, International Paper will produce a customized cup for use by parks, concessionaires and others. The cup, International Paper's fully compostable, recyclable ecotainer, will display printed messages that will raise awareness about the National Park Centennial in 2016 and educate the public about conservation and environmental stewardship. International Paper will donate a penny for each commemorative cup sold (up to $1 million) back to the National Park Foundation to help fund a joint effort between IP, the National Park Foundation and the National Recycling Coalition to evaluate foodservice waste management practices and educate employees, concessionaires and visitors about ways to reduce waste in the parks.

USED COOKING OIL COLLECTED FOR BIODIESEL
The Doe Fund offers programs in New York City that help homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals gain employment and housing through a system of innovative business ventures. The Doe Fund is perhaps most famous for the Ready, Willing and Able (RWA) program, in which its “men in blue” clean the city's streets and sidewalks, learn to prepare food and conduct apartment repairs. Along the 160 miles of streets and sidewalks that RWA cleans are restaurants looking for clean and responsible ways to dispose of used cooking oil, which led to the creation of RWA-Resource Recovery, an oil collection service.
RWA-Resource Recovery, which started a year ago this December, currently services 350 collection locations. The program sends out eight employees to collect used cooking oil, which is then sold to various biodiesel refineries. Collection routes extend through all of the city's boroughs, but are primarily in Manhattan and Brooklyn, says Lee Alman, Director of Public Affairs at The Doe Fund. Collection trucks are outfitted with vacuum pumps that pull used oil directly out of the restaurants' containers, and into a 1,000-gallon tank on the truck (a new truck has a 2,000-gallon capacity).
Three graduates of The Doe Fund's RWA transitional work program were hired as staff for the Resource Recovery program. “They're doing great,” says Alman. “At the core of Ready, Willing & Able is paid work, which has helped more than 3,000 individuals leave behind lives of homelessness, addiction and incarceration to become productive members of society.”

RENEWABLE ENERGY STRATEGIES FROM SOLAR REVOLUTION IN NAPA VALLEY
More than seven percent of wineries in Napa County are now solar-powered - an adoption rate 42 times greater than California businesses in general and nearly double that of wineries statewide. Predicts Sunlight Electric: By the end of 2010, one in five wineries in Napa County - nearly triple the current number - will be solar-powered. “What's especially significant is that most businesses in the U.S. can learn from what's going on here,” says Rob Erlichman, CEO of Sunlight Electric.
Beyond wineries, the clean energy explosion in Napa is a learning opportunity for firms looking to gain insulation from energy costs. Sixteen states, representing nearly half of the population, have already initiated solar subsidy programs.

SPINNING IN AND OUT OF CONTROL
Illustrating that the news is “how we spin it,” the national energy bill that Congress passed before the holiday recess shows how interest groups on all sides of the issues were busy spinning the consequences. An example is a series of press releases sent out by PR Newswire. Everything in the headlines was identical except the name of the state. At 11:45 am, the headline read: “Study Estimates Energy Legislation Will Cost Mississippi More Than 56,000 Jobs.” At 11:54 am, the same headline, different state - Arizona to lose nearly 93,000 jobs. At 12:08 pm, it was Colorado with nearly 58,000 jobs lost.
The statistics were from a report commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute (API) that claimed the energy bill would erect new barriers to domestic oil and gas production, while supporting renewable energy. It was hard to take this complaint seriously when just a year or so ago, this same industry was recording record profits.
What also was hard to take seriously in the spinning of the 2007 energy bill was resistance to a requirement for utilities to generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources. That stipulation didn't survive the final version of the bill signed by President Bush. About half the states in the U.S. - representing more than half of the country's total electricity sales - already have some sort of Renewable Portfolio Standard on the books. At this point, adopting a national standard would be more symbolic - that our national government recognizes the role of renewable resources in the 21st century.
All spinning aside, what was most insulting about this recent debate is the fact that it overlooked the hard work, significant capital investments and plain old fashioned success of existing renewable energy and biofuels projects. Just ask the Maker's Mark Distillery, which recently invested in an anaerobic wastewater treatment system that enables the company to expand its production capacity - and replace natural gas for its boilers with biogas generated by the treatment system. The Master Distiller told us that when the first batch of bourbon whiskey comes out of the warehouse in six years, the $8 million system will have paid for itself due to the expanded capacity - and energy savings. No job losses and hardships there.

ENERGY PRODUCTION COSTS FOR FARM DIGESTERS
A technical report - “An Analysis of Energy Production Costs From Anaerobic Digestion Systems on U.S. Livestock Production Facilities” - was issued in October 2007 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The publication reviews the potential of using manure anaerobic digestion (AD) systems to produce electricity or biogas to supply farm energy needs. An in-depth biogas production cost analysis is provided to assess the feasibility. It is based on 38 installations in the U.S.
Both electricity and biogas costs from these systems were compared to the current U.S. cost of electricity, natural gas and liquid propane (LP) in dollars/gigajoule of energy content. The analysis shows that AD system capital costs can be reduced by approximately 36 percent if no electrical generation system is installed.

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES THROUGH URBAN FARMING AND VERMICOMPOSTING
Growing Power, started by former professional basketball player Will Allen, is a nonprofit organization and land trust that seeks to build sustainable and equitable food systems. Allen gave up basketball for a marketing job at Proctor & Gamble, but then left the corporate world in 1982 and bought “the last working farm in Milwaukee.” After establishing the farm as a nonprofit, sustainable, equitable urban food source (currently producing 100,000 pounds of chemical-free vegetables per year), he merged it with Growing Power, a training center to reconnect people with the land. The organization teaches people from diverse backgrounds about community food systems through hands-on training and demonstrations.
Growing Power produces vermicompost for sale and hosts monthly workshops on the benefits of vermicomposting and intensive vegetable growing. Since 2000, they've been collecting food waste from grocery stores (Sendik's Food Market) and more recently from local coffee roasters (Alterra Coffee). They also compost meat and fish. There are several greenhouses on its two-acre plot, which among other things house an aquaculture project and the vermicomposting operations. Local students are involved with the vermicomposting. Food waste that cannot be handled by the worm boxes is composted in windrows, or taken to Allen's farm. Visitors and volunteers view and get involved with all aspects of the operations at Growing Power's learning center and farm. The organization is now in Chicago as well, with the possibility to expand to other cities. For more information, visit http://www.growingpower.org or call (414) 527-1546.

TAKING REAL STEPS TO COMBAT GLOBAL WARMING
This year, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) worked to create more momentum to reduce emission of heat-trapping gases while providing analysis on the science of global warming. UCS played a key role showing how investments in clean energy technologies like wind and solar plus more efficient vehicles would create thousands of American jobs. One report revealed how climate disinformation campaigns funded by ExxonMobil used the same tactics as those of the tobacco industry in denying dangers of smoking. The report showed that ExxonMobil funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.
Writes UCS: “In the upcoming year, we will work to ensure that final energy legislation contains both strong fuel economy and renewable electricity standards. We'll use our rigorous scientific analysis to show why mandatory deep cuts in global warming emissions simply can't be delayed any longer.”

NATURAL FOODS GROCER RECYCLES FOOD RESIDUALS WITH LOCAL COMPOSTER
On July 10, 2007, Whole Foods Market in Albuquerque, New Mexico began recycling its food waste and soiled cardboard with Soilutions, Inc. Soilutions, a green waste recycler and compost manufacturer in the south valley of Albuquerque, has been composting for over 10 years. It accepts material from residents, farmers, landscapers, as well as national and local governmental entities.
An agreement was reached for Soilutions to accept preconsumer cullings from all Whole Foods departments. The City of Albuquerque Solid Waste Department will haul the compostables. Employees of Whole Foods Market are eager to make the changes in operations necessary for a successful transition from landfilling to composting. Previously all waste from the store went into a 28-cubic yard compactor. After a quick study, it was determined that almost 90 percent of the waste was recyclable; 70 percent of that was organic material suitable for composting. By designating the compactor as “organics only,” Whole Foods Market hopes to cut its monthly solid waste expense in half, while minimizing its carbon footprint. To “close the loop,” the market will sell Soilution's bagged compost in the Albuquerque store.

ECOENGINEERING FOR A SUSTAINABLE, ORGANICS-RICH SOCIETY
Ann C. Wilkie of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida, has written extensively about managing organics in the farm economy. In Resource, she writes: “Urban farming benefits from access to an abundant source of free fertilizer in the form of compost and anaerobic digestion residues from the green fraction of municipal solid waste.” She stresses how farming in the city environs cuts down on packaging by providing fresh nutritious food from local sources. “To reduce our ecological footprint,” she says, “our cities must develop innovative and carbon-neutral solutions for transport, renewable energy and waste recycling systems. We must utilize digesters to convert organic wastes into biogas and produce biofertilizer. Dual water supply systems can be developed to conserve scarce water resources - one for drinking water and another gray water system to supply recycled rainwater for toilets and garden irrigation. The time is ripe to rethink energy and consumption strategies and embrace ecological sustainability. By supporting local agriculture, we can taste the food less traveled.”

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.