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Firefly Energy Closes $10M Financing

Firefly Energy Inc. a spin out of Caterpillar Inc. which is developing a carbon-graphite foam lead acid battery for commercial and military uses, has completed a $10 million Series B equity round of financing. Participating in this equity round is new investor Stark Investments, LP, as well as existing investors Caterpillar, KB Partners, the Illinois Finance Authority and the Tri-County Venture Capital Fund. Firefly Energy has developed a next generation lead acid battery technology which delivers to battery markets a performance associated with advanced battery chemistries (Nickel Metal Hydride and Lithium), but for one-fifth the cost. It can be manufactured and recycled in the existing lead acid battery infrastructure. Investors include Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), BAE Systems, KB Partners, the State of Illinois’ Illinois Finance Authority, and Husqvarna. In 2006, Firefly was named winner of both the Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Award and Frost’s Energy Storage Entrepreneurial Storage Company of the Year Award. Website: [sorry this link is no longer available]     

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GS AgriFuels Acquires Stake in ZeroPoint Clean Tech

GS AgriFuels Corp. (GSGF.OB) has taken a 10% stake in ZeroPoint Clean Tech, Inc. for $2.5 million. ZeroPoint is a development stage company commercializing patent-pending biomass gasification, gas-to-liquids and evaporation technologies. ZeroPoint’s Biomass Gasifier is designed to standardize variable cellulosic and other biomass feedstocks and optimize high yields of high-quality syngas in real-time with greatly increased capital and operating cost efficiencies at much smaller scales as compared to traditional gasification technologies. The syngas output of ZeroPoint’s gasifier can either be used to generate electricity in a standard gas-fired generator or catalyzed into liquid fuels such as ethanol, methanol or synthetic diesel with the Fischer-Tropsch process. ZeroPoint has successfully demonstrated the capabilities of its technologies in a small scale pilot processing plant and it is currently building a commercial scale pilot plant based on its technologies at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. GS AgriFuels’ sister company, GS CleanTech Corporation (GSCT.OB), recently entered into an agreement with ZeroPoint for the exclusive rights to distribute ZeroPoint’s technology in the North American corn ethanol production industry. To date, the most significant resistance to wide-scale use of biomass gasification has been the requirement to customize gasifiers for the specifics of each individual application. This […]

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Corporate Leaders in Sustainability Reporting Announced

Corporate leaders in sustainability reporting were announced today by SustainAbility, Inc., a leading global consulting firm and think tank. This biannual benchmarking survey, Tomorrow’s Value, marks BT as the global leader and ranks one American company – Nike, Inc. – in the top ten and four other US corporations in the top fifty. In addition to Nike, Inc. at #10, other US companies that were awarded were: Hewlett-Packard at #14, General Electric and Ford Motor Company tied at #22, and Gap Inc. at #34. The top ten are: BT (UK) Co-operative Financial Services (UK) BP (UK) Anglo Platinum (South Africa) Rabobank (Netherlands) Unilever (UK/Netherlands) MTR (Hong Kong) Vodafone (UK) Shell Group (UK/Netherlands) Nike (US) Novo Nordisk (Denmark) Tomorrow’s Value, published in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Standard & Poor’s, ranks the world’s leaders in sustainability reporting, transparency and disclosure. Strikingly, half of the Leading 50 companies are newcomers to the list, including five entrants from non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. “Since we began work in this area in 1992, we have seen dramatic progress,” commented John Elkington, Founder and Chief Entrepreneur at SustainAbility. “Our 2006 benchmark survey spotlights both a continuing improvement in […]

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Organic Farmer Elected to US Senate

Jon Tester, an organic farmer and leader in the organic movement since 1987, has been elected as a U.S. Senator from the state of Montana. A third generation farmer from Big Sandy, Montana, he has been farming organically for nearly twenty years. Their T-Bone Farms is a diversified organic operation with 1400 acres (567 hectares). Their crops this year included hard red wheat, hard white wheat, kamut, lentils, and purple barley. Tester served as the national treasurer for the Organic Crop Improvement Association International, and helped develop the Montana Organic Certification program. Bob Quinn, an organic farmer and President of Kamut International, said “We all started in organic farming nearly 20 years ago in north-central Montana, and since that time Jon Tester has been a great supporter of sustainable and Organic Agriculture – not only on his farm, but also while he was serving at the Montana State Senate. I’m sure he’ll be a strong voice for sustainable and Organic Agriculture in the U.S. Senate as well, as someone who has learned it by experience.” IFOAM Executive Director Angela B. Caudle said, “IFOAM looks forward to working with Senator Elect Tester to develop and promote Organic Agriculture both in the […]

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WBCSD Outlines Elements for Future Climate Framework

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) will present to the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 12) possible options for action within a revised international framework to urgently address energy and climate challenges. The WBCSD calls on governments to create the predictable long-term framework conditions required for business to invest in a sustainable energy future. “Before business invests, it evaluates the future. It gauges long-term supply and demand for its products, assesses the prevailing economic conditions including tax structures and policy frameworks and decides on an investment strategy,” the WBCSD reported. It cannot invest seriously in limiting greenhouse gas emissions unless governments “provide clear signals as to where we are headed long-term.” The options for action “within a flexible future international framework after 2012” include: – by 2010, establish a quantifiable, 50-year goal for the managing global GHG emissions. – Encourage the development and deployment of leading-edge technologies through partnerships and incentives and an approach to mitigate long-term market risk and deliver secure benefits for large-scale, low-carbon, new technology projects. – Modify the existing international framework so that it builds progressively (bottom up) from local, national, sector or regional programs that contribute to the […]

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