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First Bioplastic Manufacturing Plant Planned

Cargill Dow Polymers, a joint venture between Cargill Inc. and the Dow Chemical Company, will build the first large-scale bioplastic plant in Blair, Nebraska. It will produce raw material for plastic cups, packaging, and fabric from corn, replacing common petroleum plastics like polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene. The bioplastic products are expected to compete with oil-based products on price and performance. The 140,000 metric ton plant will be completed late next year at a cost of $300 million. The technology, called “NatureWorks”, makes polyactide polymers (chains of lactic acid) by converting starch into sugar and then fermenting it to yield lactic acid. Water is removed to form lactide, which is made into a resin using solvent-free polymerization. The material composts into carbon dioxide and water. Agricultural waste from rice and wheat may also be used in the future. Cargill expects to begin construction of a large European plant in two years. [sorry this link is no longer available]

Help to Tighten Your Business's Wasteline

Durable, repairable or reusable, remanufactured, concentrated, unpackaged – these are the attributes of less wasteful products. A new free report from INFORM, Inc., “Waste at Work: Prevention Strategies for the Bottom Line”, brings together simple, yet significant strategies for reducing waste at the workplace. It includes dozens of brief success stories that show how buying durable and reusable products can save millions of dollars in avoided replacement, disposal, and shipping costs. The appendices list products for office areas, shipping, food service, landscaping, and building, along with a model procurement policy. The Alliance for Environmental Innovation recently published two reports on business use of paper. The first, “Greening Catalogs” examines ways catalog companies can reduce environmental impacts of paper use. The second, “Leading By Example: How Businesses are Expanding the Market for Environmentally Preferable Paper,” describes changes five major U.S. companies have made in how they buy and use paper, benefiting the environment and their business. – McDonald’s: eliminated 27,000 tons of packaging material, saving over $12 million over 7 years. The company uses recycled paper in half its food packaging. – United Parcel Service: its 2-way envelope cuts the amount of packaging material the company uses in HALF per shipment. […]

Sustainable Forestry Management Accreditation in Canada

A new sustainable forest management standard in Canada was developed by a consensus of stakeholders, including the forest industry, woodlot owners, governments, academics, scientists, and environmental groups. Forest companies can now certify their environmental management systems with the Standards Council of Canada if they conform to the new published standard (CAN/CSA Z809-96). http://www.scc.ca

Energy Efficiency Made Easy

Pacific Northwest National Lab has developed “Facility Energy Decision System Screening (FEDS) Software.” The user-friendly Windows-based software quickly assesses the potential for cost-effective energy-efficiency projects at a single building or at sites with numerous facilities that have limited, metered, energy-use data. It enables decision-makers to prioritize the most promising investments; it estimates capital investment requirements, and determines potential energy and cost savings. The U.S. DOE is funding it for use in federal and state projects; they are interested in licensing the software to a commercial partner for use by private companies. Contact William F. Sandusky.

New York Certifies its Forests & Promotes Green Building

New York is the first state to certify its forest lands – over 700,000 acres – by SmartWood, a Forest Stewardship Council certifier. The FSC label can now be stamped on products from NY’s $2 billion wood products industry. It looks like New York State’s Green Buildings Tax Credit is moving closer to reality. In his State of the State address this month, Governor Pataki announced the measure as part of his fiscal year 2001 budget. Buildings larger than 20,000 square feet would be awarded tax credits when renovated or constructed using a qualified list of green building technologies.

Companies Voluntarily Reduce Greenhouse Emissions

According to an Energy Information Administration (EIA) study, “Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases 1998,” 187 U.S. companies and other organizations reported 1,500 greenhouse gas emissions projects in 1998. They claimed reductions or offsets of 210 metric tons of CO2, the equivalent of 3.2 percent of total U.S. emissions for the year. This is three times the amount reported in 1994 when the program began as part of the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Greenhouse Gas Performance Software, developed by GreenWare Environmental Systems Inc., helps businesses measure, monitor and report emissions. As company divisions enter data it is seamlessly integrated for the parent company. Companies can determine their current performance by using the database of greenhouse gas performance indicators, as well as set targets for improvement in energy use and environmental performance. Best practices and benchmarking can be easily achieved across facilities. It works for companies of all sizes. Sustainability Report-building software will be available soon. Contact: greeninfo@greenware.com http://www.greenware.com

World Bank Launches Carbon Fund

A controversial carbon fund by the World Bank will open for business in April 2000, the “Prototype Carbon Fund.” With the U.S. notably absent, the fund is being supported by four countries, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, and electric power/trading companies in Japan and Belgium. Under the plan, each country invests up to $10 million and each company, up to $5 million. The money goes toward clean technology projects in developing countries and transition economies in eastern and central Europe in exchange for emissions credits which can be used to meet Kyoto Protocol obligations. The World Bank acts as intermediary and negotiates the prices between the country or company and the recipient entity. The Bank hopes to fund 20 renewable energy projects over the next three years and to withdraw as intermediary once the private sector begins to play a significant role through the open market. So far, four governments and nine companies have agreed to participate, a total of US$85 million. The Fund is capped US$150 million and is scheduled to terminate in 2012. A solid waste management project in Latvia is the first recipient. Investors will finance sanitary landfills with methane catchment, an improvement over the country’s […]

Exchange Your Waste Online

Do a search for “waste exchange” and you may well find a way to buy and sell surplus recyclable waste, equipment, air emissions credits, water effluent credits, sulfur and greenhouse gas emission credits on the Web. Many of the services are just getting off the ground. GreenOnline.com, EnviroXchange and Recycler’s World offer their services internationally, but there are also national, regional, and local exchanges. In the UK, a nonprofit, Tipton Community Enterprise Limited runs an online waste exchange in partnership with the European Regional Development Fund and a local council (Sandwell Metropolitan Borough). In addition to reducing solid waste, which is not meeting EU targets, the website operators hope to encourage the development of new businesses that use waste as a raw material. Contact Dave Thomas or visit: [sorry this link is no longer available]. There is also a Dutch Waste Exchange and an Australian exchange run by the Department of Environmental Protection, called Industrial Waste Exchange. In the U.S., Waste Management Inc. runs an online Recycling Trading Center for scrap materials including building and construction, electronics, wood, and plastic. There are numerous state, regional, and local exchanges such as the Ontario Waste Materials Exchange, South Dayton, Ohio, NY Wastematch, […]

U.S. Company Environmental Reports at All-Time High

The Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) reports that half of U.S. Fortune 500 companies produce stand-alone environmental reports. Seven companies including Atlantic Richfield Company, Caterpillar, Inc., and Delta Air Lines, Inc. released their first environmental report in 1999. The quality of the environmental reports is also improving, presenting more useful and in depth information.

Connect With Canadian Environmental Companies

You can find out about new environmental technologies in Canada and the companies that produce them through the Ontario Centre for Environmental Technology Advancement (OCETA). The Center has profiles of almost 100 companies with technologies from remediation to software and modeling. Contact Jeff Getty Profiles Coordinator to purchase a package or to request a profile on your company. To view a profile: [sorry this link is no longer available] OCETA also offers an eco-efficiency program to small and medium-sized business in the chemical, plastic manufacturing and processing, food and beverage and automotive parts industries. Companies can receive an audit to identify process and equipment improvement projects for half the cost as well as credit to help pay for modifications recommended as a result of the audit. Contact Arnold Silver or Kevin Jones 400 Ontario environmental companies are in the Ontario Environment Business Directory, produced by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and the Canadian Environment Industry Association/Ontario Chapter. You can source environmental goods and services by company, firm type, market sector, client markets, or location. Contact Enrico Di Nino for the print version.

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