January 6th, 2009
Dear colleagues:
Though other matters have attracted media attention, the fact is that California’s state government is in a green building boom. The number of buildings in renovation and construction, and planned for construction, is in the hundreds.
Here are some of the details:
In the category of over 50,000 sq ft; 25 buildings were renovated last year and 18 more are underway. Buildings seeking LEED certification (over 50,000 sq ft) are numbered at 6 buildings up for LEED-EB (existing buildings) Certification: 2 LEED-EB Platinum, 4 LEED-EB Gold. Sixty DGS owned and/or operated buildings were registered with USGBC in January 2008.
Current plans call for 107 existing buildings to be certified by the end of 2009. Click here to view a summary of green building highlights published by the DGS.
New construction has risen as well; 13 buildings have been LEED-NC (new construction) certified: 3-Gold, 6-Silver, 4-Certified. The Franchise Tax Board, Sacramento received notice of LEED-NC certification in February 2008 222 buildings are actively pursuing LEED standards (24 buildings under 10K sq. ft. being designed to LEED standards). The DGS and Caltrans were awarded the State’s first LEED-CI Silver award for its build-out of 17,000 square ft of 11th floor office space in the District 07 Headquarter Building.
In the alternative energy arena 8 Solar PV projects were completed - 4.2 MW are now on-line. As of October 21, 2008, Phase II Solar RFP III, 16 CSU solar projects awarded for a total of 8 megawatts. Building on this momentum, the state has initiated discussions with the Procurement Division regarding creating a Master Services Agreement for the pursuit of additional solar PV installations at State facilities. Beyond this, they have begun development of next RFP for additional large solar PV projects at State facilities.
2009 is likely to be the biggest year growth in the green sector that we have seen yet. At the federal level there have been promises to rebound the economy through alternative, sustainable solutions. And at the state level we will continue to see growth in this area. Companies that are interfacing with the State and Local government are and will continue to reap the benefits of this thriving economy.
For all these reasons, and more, it is more important than ever for your company to be represented at the Green California Summit, coming March 16-18 to the Sacramento Convention Center. This is the event for companies offering green products and services to the state and local government market in California - and those in the private sector who are working in partnership with government.
Click here for information about exhibiting, or click here to find out about sponsorship opportunities.
Last year more than 5,000 delegates, double the previous year’s total, filled the exhibit hall, workshops, general sessions, special events and breakout sessions. Representatives of 38 California counties, 94 cities and 30 states were present. We expect the 2009 event to be even larger - and remember, there is no charge to attendees to visit the exhibit hall.
The State Treasurer, will be delivering a keynote a themed “Green Solutions for Tough Economic Times,” we are ensuring that the Summit continues to reflect the priorities of state and local officials - and their partners in the private sector who are supporting the state’s green initiatives.
Click here if you want to find out more about what happened last year. Then give me call and let me help you make the most of this important opportunity!
I look forward to hearing from you!
Warm Regards,
Nancy Miller,
National Sales Director
626-577-5700
nmiller@green-technology.org
Tags: green
One of the great things about the web is finding a treasure that otherwise you would have missed.
This is the case with BioBased USA. Anyone involved involved in the agriculture business really needs to have the site bookmarked.
Take a look at their mission statement:
From the Biobased USA website:
Our Mission at Biobased US:
Consumer Safety Farmer Safety; Environmental Safety
In 2009, Americans will spend more than $2.7 trillion on medical costs. That’s more than 17% of U.S. gross domestic product, and rising 7% per year. Yet, our life expectancy lags 44 other countries that spend far less per person on medical care.
The National Coalition on Health Care points out the obvious: “If all Americans adopted healthy lifestyles, health care costs would decrease.” However, there’s no easy escape from the two major causes of America’s costly and chronic health threats: Environmental pollution and food with poor nutritional quality.
These core issues are being obscured by political battles over who controls the money for drugs, doctors and hospitals - the public versus private sector. Millions of tons of chemical fertilizers, toxic pesticides and antibiotics are used in producing your food. They find their way into the water you drink, the food you eat, and into the cells of your body.
Populations that adopt chemical agriculture see their peoples’ health degrade like America’s, battling cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other killers.
We have yet to find a university, health association, government agency or major media outlet that will study and encourage our efforts for more nutritious food, raised with environmentally safe technology. However, farmers are telling their neighbors about their success with us. Their grassroots networks, multiplied through the Internet, will soon become too powerful for sellers of toxic technologies to ignore.
Ag innovators face interlocking barriers: Advertising-dependent ag publications don’t want to upset their agricultural chemical clients. Universities need research funding from firms selling patented chemistry and genetically modified seed. Government regulators focus most of their effort on heading off problems from toxic crop technologies, not on eliminating them.
The Problem: Conventional ag pesticide technologies depend on killing something with a patented, toxic molecule. This approach is rapidly becoming outmoded and dangerous to our population’s health.
However, U.S. patent laws provide a huge incentive for prolonging the patented-molecule or patented-gene worldview. Patent laws shelter from competition the companies who develop and sell a patented product. In the pesticide business, patents are available only to synthetic molecules. In a destructive irony, the law leads to environmental pollution to get product protection. If our law would give companies another path, they would find many products to solve many problems.
The Solution: We have found such a path. Biobased US focuses on safe, effective technology based on quantum physics: sub-molecular energy of particles smaller than nano size.
That says a lot about the company and what they do.
Visit them at: Biobased USA
Tags: agriculture, green
Donald E. Cregger - Norfolk Southern Railway Soy Beans Improve Track Lubrication Efficiency
Grease is used to lubricate the rails in curves to control rail and wheel wear associated with passing trains. Trackside lubrication equipment, actuated by train wheels, pump the grease to applicator bars fastened to the rails. The grease is transferred to the flanges of passing wheels and is applied to the gauge face of the rail when flange contact occurs.
Track lubrication grease has traditionally been petroleum-based. However, an environmentally friendly, soybean oil-based grease has recently been developed. This product, called SoyTrak, is manufactured by Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing (ELM) and was developed via the cooperative efforts of Ag-Based Industrial Lubricants (a research group of University of Northern Iowa), Portec Rail Products, Inc and Norfolk Southern. This grease is at least equal to petroleum greases with respect to track lubrication performance, and it is superior to the petroleum greases with respect to some physical performance and environmental characteristics. The most notable efficiency improvement concerns the rapid decomposition of the SoyTrak product after it has served its purpose in lubricating the gauge face of the rail. The residuals decompose in a matter of weeks unlike petroleum greases that do not readily decompose, but continue to build-up within the track structure. This accumulation of wasted grease becomes significant considering that some railroads purchase more than a million pounds of grease annually. The soy grease also has a lower coefficient of friction as compared with petroleum grease, and it is more durable at higher temperatures. These characteristics produce greater performance efficiencies in terms of increased durability and decreased coefficient of friction in the high pressure and temperature environment of wheel to rail contact. Lower friction translates into reduced curve resistance and greater energy efficiency.
REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR, JIM LANE
Here are some notes on the selections for the Hottest 50 Companies in Bioenergy.
The qualifying criteria was making at least one appearance in the Digest over the past 12 months, or a nomination from the readership. About 500 companies qualified via the first route, from the 3,000 stories published this year, and about 20 additional companies were nominated by readers.
The most important measure was the quality of the intellectual property owned or developed by the company. The more unique, the more compelling, and more talked-about, the better. Companies that hid their IP in the cellar (nothing wrong with that - Coke has done it for years), had a tougher time getting into the rankings or getting a high position.
The second most important measure was the due diligence done on the company by public and private investors. A dollar invested in a company is a powerful form of voting one’s belief in the business model, the management, and the IP. Especially if those dollars are personal dollars. So investments by VC - especially those who are known to do very good due diligence, were valued highly. Corporate dollars too, although they don;t always represent a personal investment. Even public dollars are of immense value - all the four original recipients of DOE dollars for cellulosic demonstration-scale plants (well, originally there were six, but two dropped out) are highly ranked this year.
The third measure was measurable progress towards commercialization - although companies are at different stages in their evolution. Early-stage companies were measured against typical early-stage milestones, while later-stage companies had more overtly commercial benchmarks such as revenues and growth rates.
Some note on companies.
For Coskata, the march towards the first 100 Mgy cellulosic ethanol plant was a key factor. The $1 per gallon target for fuel production is a “hot” target for sure. Investments by GM and Khosla Ventures are a factor. Vinod’s group has thought through the space very intelligently, and GM doesn’t have cash to burn on follish exercises, so their investment speaks some volumes.
For Sapphire, the Continental Airlines test was a major factor, especially in the algae space where it is sometimes hard to find actual producers of material amounts of fuel. The Cascadia Investments and Venrock participation in the company were also key. Cascadia has been burned in the biofuels space before, with their investment in Pacific Ethanol. SO coming back in for a second dip says a lot.
For Virent, a “hot” technology that produces a “green gasoline” that is a drop-in replacement for current fuels is a compelling set of IP. The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer Award to Virent this year was a factor.
POET is a first-generation biofuels company that think like a next-gen company. A pilot scale cellulosic plant ready to go. A demonstration scale project in the build process. A unique corn processing technology that gets a higher yield than competitors. Not to mention that POET is out in front on lobbying and consumer education.
Range Fuels is likely to complete the first demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, larger in capacity than KL Energy’s current plant and thereby for a while the largest active plant in the world. That’s reason to pay attention right there. Add in a unique gasification technology that uses wood waste from the forest-rich US Southeast.
Solazyme has been getting it done all year. A unique fermentation approach to algae production - growing algae in the dark and feeding it sugar. That’s a compelling idea - and steps around problems of scale that have been experienced with photo bioreactors. Add in real progress towards making and distributing fuel - they have their own brand and provided fuel for a demo algae car at Sundance when “FUEL, the film” was making its celebrated debut.
Amyris is another company with a drop-in fuel solution - that’s compelling. But also, a remarkable bug-based approach that uses sugar cane as a feedstock. The company produces a renewable diesel, and thereby targets a market that is holding up much better on price than the gasoline or ethanol markets.
UOP has been making algae biodiesel for most of the airline tests that are using it, as well as jatropha biodiesel. A company that is wired in with fuel customers and can make fuels seamlessly from a variety of hot feedstocks is hot itself, indeed.
Mascoma has been making terrific progress towards cellulosic ethanol with a small-scale plant in development in upstate New York. They pulled out of the Tennessee biofuels project because they had outgrown the scope of the heavily-subsidized project. That’s a sign of real confidence.
DuPont Danisco slipped into Mascoma’s position with the University of Tennessee project, and is well advanced in its plans for cellulosic ethanol. A combination of two giants compels attention, for sure.
Overall, the top ten has the right combination of IP, allies, dollars and progress that set them apart not only from the other 40 distinguished honorees, but also from the 1,000+ companies who did not make the rankings this time around.
This is a great article on the use of spent coffe grounds as a biofuel!
America’s Addiction Fuels Desire For Coffee Ground Biodiesel
An interesting mix for those who want to get involved:
http://www.ecogreensites.com/index.html
A green directory full of great and timely information and companies
http://www.vivagreen.com/channels/cleaning-supplies
The Biosoy Announcement!
http://www.cns.uni.edu/CONNECTIONS/FALL97/page1.html
The National Parks Service has got their green act together:
http://www.nps.gov/piro/parkmgmt/biosoy.htm
Chicago is using hybrid busses!
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/12/cta-rolls-out-hybrid-buses.html
Tags: green sites