Sustainability Emerges as a Business Model

These two entrepreneurs have learned the cost savings and competitive advantages of going green. Learn how you can be a green entrepreneur in your industry.

When pondering the question "how many ex-environmentalists do you know?" Village Associates real estate agent Ben Olsen's answer is immediate. "The answer is none--once your customers get it, they get it forever." That's why he's incorporating green strategies into his business plan.

Continue to read at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28196581/

Top 3 Sustainability Trends for 2009

This is great article on what trends will be hot in 2009.

Fast Company
Article location:
http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2008/12/top-sustainability-trends.html

December 5, 2008
Tags: Innovation, Technology, Leadership, Social Responsibility
2 Readers Recommended this Article
Top 3 Sustainability Trends for 2009
By Saabira Chaudhuri
Terry Tamminen, former chief policy advisor for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, sees three big sustainability trends coming down the pipe for 2009. The author of Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction [1], Tamminen is Operating Advisor to Pegasus Capital Advisors [2], which focuses on innovative clean-tech companies, and where he heads a team that works with states to develop and implement environmental policies. He's also the Cullman Senior Fellow with the New America Foundation, where he spends his time advising world leaders on how to design and implement climate-change solutions.

What are the biggest trends in sustainability that you see for 2009?

There are three big trends to watch out for: sustainability labels, virtual meetings, and zero waste.

What is a sustainability label?

Labels provide information about sustainability to consumers so they can make informed choices, but there's no standardization yet. Some companies, looking for a competitive edge, would do the labeling voluntarily. But retailers like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) [3] would standardize some of it, because they want to differentiate one type of product from the other.

The labels will break down into a few categories, with the first and most obvious being a carbon footprint. Secondly, retailers will always want a whole sustainability index measuring recycled content, what materials are used, how sustainable are the raw materials etc. Retailers like Wal-Mart are already devising these metrics – I've been working very closely with them on this. A third label is for food miles traveled- you're already seeing Tesco doing this. This leaves it to customers to decide whether, all things being equal, they really want to buy the pound of lamb from New Zealand when they could buy one from Idaho.

So there will be a lot of different types of labels. Some will be confusing but over time various regulatory agencies will get involved. That's where it helps to have this driven by retailers and not just companies.

Are consumers initially going to be able to -- and are they going to want to -- absorb all that information?

Absolutely not. But it's kind of like with nutritional information – that program is 20 years old now and it's only in the last few years that people have begun paying attention. If you don't have that type of information available to consumers, the opportunity to engage them is lost.

People do want to feel good about what they give their kids or what they use themselves, especially after all the horror stories coming out of China with melamine etc. Having these types of labels will also put consumers' minds at ease.

And what about virtual meetings, why are they on the rise?

Nowadays when it comes to travel, the conversation is not just about environmental impact and costs, but inconvenience, security lines, delayed flights and bad weather. All this will result in more video conferencing of meetings and even expos/conferences. The future consists of webinars instead of seminars.

How feasible is the implementation? Is the technology affordable and easy to use?

There are a lot of options available already and those products are getting better and better. There are web conferencing tools like GoToMeeting [4], where someone can walk you through a PowerPoint presentation just as if you were sitting in front of them. You can either see the other participants, you can press a button that's effectively raising your hand to get into the conversation – this circumvents the lack of body language that is sometimes a problem with virtual meetings.

Even the government is getting the idea - - Governor Schwarzenegger installed video terminals in many major state offices to cut down on travel by state employees.

As for usability -- my family and I were in London a while ago and my 14-year-old son video conferenced three of his friends in and gave them a tour of our hotel room. If he can do it, so can an executive.

And the third trend: zero waste. Why is 2009 the year to watch for it?

People are beginning to understand that CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions are a measurement of waste at their very core. Nobody wants to have waste in their business.

Procter & Gamble now makes Tide detergent in concentrated form to reduce the amount of packaging and filler. They found they were selling a gallon bottle of liquid detergent and two-thirds of that was water. So now they've reduced the packaging, the weight, the transportation, the size -- all of it. The driver again here is reducing your carbon footprint. If your product is being shipped with a lot of waste in it, that's adding to fuel and shipping costs, which adds to your carbon footprint.

Unless retailers can absorb the costs will people want to pay more for sustainable goods, particularly given the current economic climate?

Take the case of P&G – undoubtedly they saved money because initially they were paying for water and paying extra for shipping, but the underlying ingredients were the same. In this case, they could pass some of those savings on to the consumer if they want to be more competitive.

Secondly, if this does add some cost then you still have to look to early adopters. Tesla is selling $100,000 dollar electric sports cars to somebody. A new Whole Foods market just opened up near us -- we're in a very mixed income neighborhood here in west LA -- and it's packed. And they are not the low-price leader.

Besides, tough economic times don't last. As the economy recovers and people make more money they're going to want to feel good again about doing the right thing, and the companies that are well positioned to do that are going to make even more money.

Won't there be a large cost associated with the initial implementation of all these measures? Realistically, are companies going to be able to handle this?

I would analogize this with what many companies do with energy efficiency. First you're going to have to do an audit so that you can figure out what your company is likely to save.

These investments may have some costs up front. What smart business people realize is you get payback. Tough economic times are all the more reason why they wouldn't want to pay for excess packaging and the cost of fuel and potentially green house gas liabilities among other things.

Wal-Mart realized how much money they were spending on unnecessary packaging and the waste it created, so they put recycling centers in the back of each store. They've pushed back on suppliers to improve and reduce that packaging. The new result: they've gone from a huge liability of paying for waste hauling to a $100 million a year in net profit from these recycling centers.

What about companies who are only now thinking about going sustainable? Will they be able to afford to make changes?

Look at the Detroit car companies that recently flew to Washington in their three separate private jets with their tin cup in hand. Some companies realize that certain expenses go on -- if they can find money for personal jets they can find money for a corporate consultant who will help them through this. I don't mean to be flippant and I recognize that some companies will stall if they don't have capital up front, but planning to make changes doesn't take that much cost.

Is there a sustainability effort that needs to gain ground next year but won't?

Possibly the biggest one is green transportation. I was just at the LA auto show with Schwarzenegger to evaluate the green vehicles there. We all agree that an electric car, a car that runs on alternative fuel, or even one that gets 100 miles a gallon would be better. But it still costs so much money. For example, the premium payment for a Prius takes about five to seven years to pay back, and of course if gasoline comes down to where it is today, even longer. Because of the costs of retooling, production, and getting these things into consumers' hands, even if consumers desperately want these cars they may not have the money to buy them.

Britain Plans to Burn Your Trash

This is a great article from Guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/04/waste-alternative-energy/print

UK engineers call for green power from household wasteReport claims domestic rubbish could provide up to 20% of Britain's energy needsComments (…) Alok Jha, Green technology correspondent

Household rubbish should be used to produce green power rather than being sent for recycling, according to energy experts.

At a briefing today to launch a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on dealing with waste, the authors said that converting waste could provide up to a fifth of the UK's electricity needs in future and help the country meet its renewable energy targets.

But environmentalists have voiced concerns over the report, insisting that recycling rubbish is still the better option in terms of tackling climate change.

The UK produces more than 300m tonnes of waste every year, enough to fill the Albert Hall every two hours. Most of this is buried in landfill, though new EU legislation will require a 50% cut in the practice by 2013.

"We can't afford to do that any more, we're running out of space for landfills," said Ian Arbon, a visiting professor in energy systems at Newcastle University and author of the new report.

"We see energy from waste as being one of the brightest hopes for reaching our 2020 target to source 15% of our energy requirements from renewables.

"We will not meet those targets without energy from waste."

Energy can be harnessed from waste in several ways, depending on the type. The two proven methods are combustion, where waste is burned to produce electricity and heat, and anaerobic digestion, a biological process where waste is treated to produce methane, which can then be used for fuel. The former is most suitable for dry waste while the latter is best for wet or organic waste.

There are fewer than 50 small-scale energy-from-waste plants operating in the UK at the moment, a combination of combustion plants and anaerobic digesters. This compares to several thousand in countries such as Denmark and Germany.

In the past, burning waste in incinerators has been opposed by local residents worried about air pollution. But Arbon said that, using modern combustion methods which scrub out harmful particles from the gases vented by the power plant, every community in the UK could have a waste-processing facility on its doorstep.

"Then you're handling the community's waste locally and you're not having to transport waste large distances, which gets people upset."

Gaynor Hartnell, deputy director of the Renewable Energy Association, added that converting all the country's household and commercial waste, around 75m tonnes per year, could provide significant benefits. "If it all went into electricity, you could get about 17% of the UK's electricity demand from waste [by 2020]."

But Matthew Warhurst, senior resource and waste campaigner at Friends of the Earth, warned that building a new fleet of energy-from-waste plants would miss climate goals. "Household waste is a mixture of fossil-derived plastics and textiles and biologically-derived material, [burning it] you end up producing a lot of carbon dioxide."

Another way of dealing with waste is to recycle it but Arbon urged caution on assuming this was the best option "In this country we have very few recycling plants.

"We do reasonably well with metals and we can handle some paper but, because we've lost most of our manufacturing might in the UK, we ship our waste to china - that process absorbs a lot of energy."

Recycling is an energy-intensive process, said Arbon, the opposite of producing energy from waste. "The energy that we use to recycle mainly comes from our existing energy-production systems, which are 90% fossil fuels.

"Let's get honest about recycling, about how well we do at that. For some things, it's the right thing to do, for others it isn't."

However, FoE's Warhurst said that stepping up recycling facilities was an urgent priority, as was avoiding putting things into landfill that could go on to produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

"Rather than building huge plants to burn waste inefficiently, it is better for the climate to be building plants that compost the remains, remove further recyclables and then even if you end up putting what's left in landfill that is a better climate option."

Contact the Environment editor
environment@guardian.co.uk Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk
If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard:
+44 (0)20 7278 2332


Contact the Environment editor
environment@guardian.co.uk Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk
If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard:
+44 (0)20 7278 2332

Rubbish power, not recycling, is the future, claims the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk at 17.18 GMT on Thursday December 04 2008. It was last updated at 10.31 GMT on Friday December 05 2008. Green offers from GuardianEcostore


Solar light & charger

New multi-function solar rechargeable light and battery charger only £24.95


SIGG traveller bottle

The design classic that is the durable, unbreakable alternative to the plastic drinks bottle only £10.95
Cut down your gas & electricity bills


Energy bills too high?

Compare the best deals from gas and electricity suppliers


Compare broadband providers

Find the best deals for broadband internet providers
Free P&P at the Guardian bookshop

Weather
£12.99 with free UK delivery
Geochemistry, Groundwater and Pollution
£26.95 with free UK delivery Browse more nature and science books
Buy books from the Guardian Bookshop
Sponsored features

UK USA UK

Programme Manager
somerset county council. county hall, taunton. Up to a maximum of £45,000.

Assistant Chief Executive (Performance and Partner…
shropshire county council. shropshire. Up to £100k.

Senior/Principal Environment Policy Adviser
which?. london. £28,000 - £39,000/£30,000 - £43,000.

Browse environment jobs

USA

Environmental and Progressive Campaign Staff
jobs for the environment the organization... the... such as sierra club, human rights campaign, and environment america to win concrete victories for the... . fl.

Environmental and Progressive Campaign Staff - Phoenix
jobs for the environment the organization... the... such as sierra club, human rights campaign, and environment america to win concrete victories for the... . az.

Environmental and Progressive Campaign Staff
jobs for the environment the organization... the... such as sierra club, human rights campaign, and environment america to win concrete victories for the... . ca.

Browse environment jobs
Related information
Environment
Waste ·
Alternative energy ·
Energy ·
Recycling
UK news


Guardian Charity Awards 2008 Winner: Action for Sustainable Living

Dec 4 2008:

Action for Sustainable Living aims to engage people and communities to change their lifestyles in areas such as recycling, waste, energy and growing their own food


More video

Jul 30 2008
Britain moves to catch up in biogas field

May 30 2008
Shanks chief says it will recycle more rubbish as landfill costs rise

Dec 16 2007
Trendy trees add to waste mountain at Christmas

May 24 2007
Householders to face rubbish taxes



India recycled

May 23 2008: A new exhibition explores the journey of recycled clothing from charity shops, as well as the contrasting flow of recycled silk saris to the UK

More galleries

License/buy our content Privacy policy Terms & conditions Advertising guide Accessibility A-Z index Inside guardian.co.uk blog About guardian.co.uk Join our dating site today
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
Go to: guardian.co.uk home UK news World news Comment is free blog Newsblog Sport blog Arts & Entertainment blog In pictures Video Archive search Arts & entertainment Books Business EducationGuardian.co.uk Environment Film Football Jobs Katine appeal Life & style MediaGuardian.co.uk Money Music The Observer Politics Science Shopping SocietyGuardian.co.uk Sport Talk Technology Travel Been there Email services Special reports The Guardian The Northerner The Wrap Advertising guide Compare finance products Crossword Events / offers Feedback Garden centre GNM Press Office Graduate Bookshop Guardian Ecostore Guardian Films Headline service Help / contacts Information Living our values Newsroom Notes & Queries Reader Offers Readers' editor Soulmates dating Style guide Syndication services Travel offers TV listings Weather Web guides Working for us Guardian Weekly Public Learn Guardian back issues Observer back issues Guardian Professional

Going Green in Franchising

Going green
Sustainable building practices deliver savings
By Beth Mattson-TeigAs published in: Franchise Times - February 2007
What do waterless urinals, energy sensors and recycled carpet have in common? They are all elements commonly incorporated in green building.
The premise behind green or sustainable building is to minimize the environmental impact and reduce energy consumption. Green building also has proven to have a positive impact on lowering operating costs, and some studies even show that green buildings contribute to the health and productivity of its occupants.
Green building techniques have been in use since the 1980s, but practical applications are gaining momentum in large part due to rising energy and fuel costs, as well as mounting concerns about global warming. In fact, some industry observers believe that green building will become part of mainstream real estate construction within the next decade.
“We believe that sustainable business practices are the way of the future, and five to 10 years from now, sustainable business practices are going to be extremely important to be able to capture market share from the public,” says Phil Baugh, vice president of Chicago-based Baum Realty Group.
Just Fresh is among a growing number of national brands ranging from Target and Gap to Chipotle and Starbucks that are incorporating green building elements into its stores. Just Fresh began to utilize green building in 2004 with new restaurants such as its Just Fresh store in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
The restaurant includes green building elements that range from waterless urinals and energy-efficient lighting to the use of natural products such as wheat board in its millwork. Just Fresh also purchased materials from local suppliers to save on fuel consumption in the transportation of those building supplies.
Just Fresh plans to continue to incorporate green building into future stores wherever possible in both ground-up construction and improvements to existing stores. “It ties into our overall business philosophy. Our concept is really focused on being clean and green,” says Dana Sinkler, CEO of Charlotte-based JF Restaurants. Yet Just Fresh also was motivated by the cost savings of features such as automated HVAC and lighting controls.
“It’s really a win-win, because we also save on energy costs going forward,” Sinkler adds.
Exploring green options
Traditionally, the push for green building has been backed by a desire to create a healthier environment and a better planet, notes Taryn Holowka, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Green Building Council. “Now we’re seeing more companies going green because it’s a smart business move for them,” Holowka says.
Green building techniques produce tangible results in using less electricity, which translate to lower utility bills and water bills. In addition, some studies have shown that green building environments also have a positive impact on worker productivity, which in theory translates to fewer sick days and lower employee turnover.
Companies interested in adding green building elements to existing or new stores have a larger selection than ever before. The laundry list of green building products is growing to include everything from less toxic paint and varnishes to recycled steel, tile or carpeting. The top two features for most businesses interested in green building are to reduce the amount of toxins in their environment and reduce energy costs.
One popular product is paint with low levels of volatile organic chemicals (VOC). The low-VOC paint doesn’t produce as much off-gassing or paint fumes, which leads to a cleaner environment. In addition, there are more cabinetry and finished wood products, such as furniture, that are not finished with toxic lacquers and adhesives. Businesses also can reduce energy use with products such as energy sensors, solar heat panels and more efficient light bulbs.
Although the cost of green building materials varies depending on the specific product, many sustainable products are comparable in cost to traditional materials. Recycled drywall, for example, costs about the same as standard drywall. Other items might carry a higher upfront cost, such as energy-efficient light bulbs, but the overall cost is less considering total savings in energy use and the longer life of the bulbs. “Oftentimes you will pay a little more to make it happen, but in the long run I think it will come back to you in energy savings and efficiency,” Sinkler says.
Growing momentum
Other companies that are embracing green building products and design techniques include Rapid Refill, which has taken its corporate recycling philosophy and applied it to its own retail space. For example, the store’s trademark countertops are made from sunflower seed husks that are glued together to create a wood top that also has a distinctive look.
“We like that because it plays into the whole proposition of recycle and reuse,” says Steve Hockett, president of Rapid Refill Ink in Chanhassen, Minn. Rapid Refill reconditions, remanufactures and refills used inkjet and laser toner cartridges for printers, copiers and fax machines.
Total Resource Group is another firm that promotes green building efforts. The company has offered sustainable building materials in the turnkey stores it provided for the last five years. But the company recently decided to go exclusively in that direction and hopes to offer an entirely sustainable store within the next six months. Total Resource Group provides a complete “store-in-a-box”—basically outsourcing everything a franchise needs to create a store from carpeting to furniture.
“We made a corporate decision over the last few months that wherever we can, we are going to encourage our clients to allow us to build out their retail environment as a green store or a sustainable store,” says Bruce Olans, a principal at Total Resource Group in Lincolnwood, Ill. The list of sustainable products runs the gamut from floor to ceiling with items such as sheetrock, carpeting, laminates, paint, lighting, windows and furniture, among others.
“More than anything, we decided to take this particular direction because we feel this is the way of the future,” Olans says.

Francorp Expands Into India

PRESS RELEASE


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Francorp
(800) 372-6244

Francorp Expanding Into India


(Olympia Fields, IL) – Francorp Chairman Don Boroian announced today that Francorp has awarded Franchise India Holdings Limited the Francorp India franchise.

The contract was signed between Don Boroian, Francorp India U.S.A. Representative Atul Bhatara, and President of Franchise India Holdings Limited Guarav Marya.

“Franchise India Holdings Limited has already paved the way with franchise expos, franchise and business publications, and franchise consulting in India,” shares Boroian. “We are honored to have them as part of our team.”

Franchise India Holdings Limited has been Asia’s leading integrated franchise consulting company since 1999, with an authority on franchising, licensing, retailing, real estate, and marketing. With its strategically formed divisions, Franchise India Holdings Limited has created its own niche as the pioneers of the franchise industry and a small business authority in India.

According to Marya, “Francorp India will help boost investor confidence by providing professionally managed franchise consulting and development support, all under a common one-step gateway to facilitate entry into India and vice-versa.”

India is home to over a billion people, with a flourishing class of urban consumers possessing considerable amount of disposable income. With the continued growth of the economy, India has strengthened its claim to be a viable and beneficial destination for a foreign franchisor.

Since its beginning in the early 90s, the franchise industry has grown in leaps and bounds in the Indian sub-continent, and there is still much to explore. Based on the successful growth of many franchise brands in India, the future of franchising in India is highly promising.[1]

This promising future of the Indian franchising industry is backed up by an equally powerful market report that shows statistics of this thriving sector.
According to reports, for the past five years the Indian franchise market has recorded a steady growth of 30 to 35% per annum. Also, the annual turnover of the Indian franchise industry soared to 3.3 billion USD and is projected to soar higher in the coming years.[2] “We are very excited about the opportunity to enter the Indian market at a time when the concept of franchising is experiencing tremendous growth and acceptance,” noted Boroian.

For over 30 years, Francorp has been the leader in the franchise consulting industry. They have assembled a team of experts whose talents are coordinated seamlessly to create customized materials that fit the specific needs of their clients. As an international company, Francorp has the global reach to help clients expand their business, with a local presence to adjust their business to fit each country’s unique culture and laws. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, Francorp has assisted more than 10,000 companies for expansion, and has developed more than 2,000 franchise programs throughout the U.S., Japan, South Africa, Middle East, Central America, Malaysia, Philippines, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico.

For more information, visit www.francorp.com or call (800) 372-6244.

# # #
[1] Franchiseek, Indian Franchise Statistics and Information. November 17, 2008, available at www.franchiseek.com.
[2] Franchiseek, Indian Franchise Statistics and Information. November 17, 2008, available at www.franchiseek.com.

What Does it Take to be GREEN?

There are so many companies today who strive to be "green"....what exactly does this mean for a firm? At Francorp this means using less paper, carpooling, using resources longer within the office environment and overall conservation practices for Francorp employees at home.

It all starts at the top though, the leader Don Boroian has a vision to give back to our eco system and the environment which is ever important. The leader of any firm must have the goal and the purpose of truly being green. Trust me...people will follow and the company will profit.

www.francorp.com

Starbucks makes environmental pledges

Starbucks makes environmental pledges
http://www.nrn.com/breakingNews.aspx?id=359708&menu_id=1368

SEATTLE (Oct. 27, 2008) In a move to reduce its ecological footprint, Starbucks Corp. on Monday said all of its cups would be reusable or recyclable by 2015.

The goal is one of 13 environmentally focused initiatives under the “Shared Planet” program outlined by the coffeehouse giant as an expected 10,000 of the coffeehouse chain's employees gather in New Orleans this week for the annual Leadership Conference. As part of the conference, participants are scheduled to take part in community service projects to help rebuild areas hard hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“Starbucks’ Shared Planet is not just about how important it is to us that we’re a socially responsible company, it’s to reaffirm Starbucks’ leadership in the retail and coffee industries and the communities in which we are operating,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive. “While these goals are aspirational, we have set substantive measurements that will challenge us to be a better company.”

In addition to moving to reusable and recyclable cups, Starbucks has pledged to increase recycling in stores; to find renewable source for 50 percent of energy used by 2010; to make company-owned stores 25 percent more energy efficient; and to reduce water usage.

By 2010, Starbucks aims to achieve “certified green” status for all new company-owned stores, though it was unclear what standards would be used.

Starbucks also promised to champion protection of tropical forests, supporting coffee farmers and providing incentives to prevent deforestation.

The company also aims to purchase 100 percent of all coffee through ethical sourcing practices by 2015. Currently, about 65 percent of coffee purchased meets that standard.

Attack of the Green Tech Geeks

Great article from Fast Company.

Article location: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/130/attack-of-the-green-tech-geeks.html
October 13, 2008
Tags: Innovation, Technology, Social Responsibility, Agilewaves Resource Monitor
5 Readers Recommended this Article
Attack of the Green Tech Geeks
By Anya Kamenetz

"I had this idea that there were going to be these recycling carts all over the country with chips embedded in them," says Ron Gonen, CEO and cofounder of RecycleBank and a former Deloitte consultant. "Trucks owned by cities or haulers would have a mechanical arm that would go out and grab these carts, weigh them, and transmit that info wirelessly to my server. We would run an algorithm to convert the volume into points, and people would come to my Web site, and then I would have all these businesses accept those points. Nobody ever pulled me aside and said, 'Are you out of your freaking mind?' "

Gonen isn't crazy. In fact, he is one of a vanguard of green-tech geeks -- at both startups and established companies such as IBM -- who have developed sophisticated sensors and software systems to let individuals and companies measure and manage gas, electricity, and water usage; power-grid surges; traffic congestion; pollutants in rivers and other bodies of water; the effects of green roofs and solar panels; and, of course, the impact of increased recycling. These technologies aggregate the data they gather in easy-to-view interfaces, displaying relevant feedback in charts on a BlackBerry or in a 3-D virtual world.

The guiding principle behind these advancements is that "with better information, people will make better decisions," says Collin Breakstone, VP of business development for Agilewaves, a startup by three former NASA scientists who set out to give homeowners the same view into their energy use that Wal-Mart has of its supply chain. Research backs him up: Thirty years of studies about home energy show that simply seeing the impact of your behavior in real time cuts consumption by 5% to 15%.

Although a product such as Agilewaves' Resource Monitor can be installed in a home or small office for as little as $7,900, cities and large government agencies are the ideal customers for this basket of related technologies. Agilewaves hopes to market its product to municipalities, which need accurate predictions of energy use. IBM is introducing a Smart Planet label to link ongoing initiatives including a traffic-congestion-pricing system in Stockholm; a demand-based electricity-pricing scheme in the Pacific Northwest; and several water-management projects that will employ sensors and visualization tools in locations as diverse as New York's Hudson River and China's Yangtze. RecycleBank's Gonen has already wooed more than 70 cities and towns to use his service, with Dallas expected to come online this winter. Cities pay to put trash in landfills; RecycleBank diverts part of the waste and then shares in the savings.

RecycleBank's second revenue stream -- the targeted marketing data it collects along with customers' milk cartons -- signals the potentially controversial nature of smart technologies as they roll out to a wider audience. "As soon as you log in, we know things about you which almost no other Web site knows," Gonen says. "We know where you live, we know your email address, we know each week you've been home; we know how much you like to buy because we know how much you're recycling." There's a fine line between sensing and surveillance, especially when the government is the one screening the numbers, as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg discovered when his proposed congestion-pricing plan failed due in part to privacy fears.

For green-tech geeks, though, a nudge from Big Brother is unavoidable if these technologies are to radically improve the management of scarce resources. "A lot of the response to climate change depends on changing behaviors," says Colin Harrison, IBM's director of corporate strategy of earth, water, fire, and wind. "This is one of the most powerful levers we have to pull on."

Ben and Jerry's chills ice cream - and the planet

Ben & Jerry's chills ice cream - and the planet
A refrigeration breakthrough from the popular ice cream maker could change the business of cooling.
By Marc Gunther, senior writer
Last Updated: October 22, 2008: 10:07 AM ET
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/22/technology/ben_jerrys.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008102210

(Fortune) -- No one wants melting ice cream. Nor do we want melting polar ice caps. The trouble is, keeping our ice cream cold warms the planet because powerful greenhouse gases are used in most refrigerators and freezers in the U.S.

That's why environmentalists at Greenpeace have been working with some of the world's biggest food makers - among them Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500), McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500) and Unilever - to deploy refrigerators in supermarkets and convenience stores that are free of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are potent greenhouse gases.

Just last month, Ben & Jerry's, the Vermont-based ice cream maker owned by Unilever, announced plans to roll out the country's first HFC-free freezers.

"A company can be responsible in terms of the environment, it can be proactive in terms of solving problems, and it can make money at the same time," said company co-founder Ben Cohen when he introduced the freezers at an ice-cream store in Washington, D.C. "That's what we should expect from all corporations in this country."

The new freezers are a rare example of a global warming solution that actually saves money. They cost about the same as conventional refrigerators - the price depends on the size - and are 10% more efficient, meaning they use less electricity. So far, more than 300 million HFC-free freezers, which use hydrocarbons like propane and butane as refrigerants, have been sold in Europe, Asia and Latin America, but not the United States.

Why is that? The answer, surprisingly, lies with the Environmental Protection Agency.

First a fix, then a new problem
Bear with me, because this gets complicated. It's an example of how an attempt to solve one environmental problem can exacerbate another, and how bureaucracies can (no surprise) stand in the way of change.

You may recall a mostly-forgotten environmental problem that goes back to the 1980s and was often described as the hole in the ozone layer. In 1995, a global treaty called the Montreal Protocol banned chemicals known as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) after scientists learned that CFCs depleted the ozone layer of the atmosphere, which shields life from the sun's harmful radiation.

Instead of using CFCs, the refrigeration industry turned to so-called F-gases - HCFCs and HFCs - which did less damage to the ozone layer but contributed to global warming.

Greenpeace blames F-gases for about 16% of man-made global warming; the chemical industry, which makes the gases, says it's much less. It depends on what you're measuring, but big users of refrigerants like Nestle, one of the world's biggest food companies, have committed to phasing out HFCS.

"F-gases are the worst greenhouse gas you've never heard of," said Amy Larkin, who runs Greenpeace Solutions, which works with businesses to address global warming. (Disclosure: My wife works for Greenpeace USA.)

Refrigerators, it turns out, are big polluters. Greenhouse gases are emitted during the manufacturing process, when air conditioning fluid leaks, and when refrigerators are disposed of improperly.

Greenpeace has been working on climate-friendly refrigeration since the 1990s, when it persuaded a German manufacturer to make refrigerators cooled by hydrocarbons. Since then, Whirlpool (WHR, Fortune 500), Bosch, Panasonic, LG, Miele and Siemens (SI) have all developed HFC-free refrigerators - or what they like to call "natural refrigerants."

In 2004, Unilever, Coca-Cola and McDonald's formed a coalition called "Refrigerants Naturally!" to develop HFC-free vending machines, coolers and display cases. Carlsberg, Ikea and PepsiCo (PEP, Fortune 500) have signed onto to the initiative. (Yes, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, fierce rivals in the beverage business, are cooperating to solve this environmental problem.)

Some of the technology they are developing is quite sophisticated. Coca-Cola, for instance, has deployed "smart" vending machines that learn how to cool drinks only at times when customers want them. Those in office buildings, for instance, power down over night, saving electricity and reducing emissions.

Convincing the regulators
For its part, Unilever says it has deployed more than 300,000 climate-friendly refrigerators overseas.

But U.S.-based companies like Ben & Jerry's that want to deploy so-called natural refrigerants have been stymied, until now, by the EPA. The agency says on its Web site that refrigerants made from hydrocarbons like propane and butane are flammable and therefore unsuited for use in anything other than industrial applications.

Only after considerable efforts did Ben & Jerry's get EPA permission to install its hydrocarbon-based freezers, which use butane, in the United States. The EPA said Ben & Jerry's can test up to 2,000 freezers.

If the EPA allows the test to expand, Ben & Jerry's estimates it could convert more than 100,000 ice cream cabinets in eight to 10 years. "If we get approval from EPA, we will roll them out in large numbers," said Allen Gerard, a Unilever engineer who has been working on the effort. Greenpeace hopes the trial run will open the door to wider use in the United States of so-called natural refrigerants.

Said the group's research director, Kert Davies: "The great thing is, we've got some momentum now."

First Published: October 22, 2008: 10:03 AM ET

Francorp

Being a green company takes a large commitment from both the management and the people within the organization. Francorp takes pride in supporting our perpetual race for conservation and eco-friendly business. Francorp is the world leader in franchise consulting and franchise development.

www.francorp.com

Scientists Confirm Shark's Virgin Birth

Scientists confirm shark's ‘virgin birth’
Pup carried by Atlantic blacktip shark contained no male genetic material

Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark. In a report in The Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.
Matthew D. Potenski / Instttute for Ocean Conservation Science
Tales of sharks and survival

Real-life 'Jaws' in Martha's Vineyard?July 11: Lifeguards say they spotted what they believe to have been the dorsal fin of a great white shark in the waters off of Martha's Vineyard. Shark expert George Burgess talks to MSNBC's Tamron Hall.

Rarely seen creaturesFeast your eyes on these extraordinary creatures from under the sea and on land.
By Steve Szkotak

RICHMOND, Va. - Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark.
In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.
The first documented case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks involved a pup born to a hammerhead at an Omaha, Neb., zoo.

"This first case was no fluke," Demian Chapman, a shark scientist and lead author of the second study, said in a statement. "It is quite possible that this is something female sharks of many species can do on occasion."
The aquarium sharks that reproduced without mates each carried only one pup, while some shark species can produce litters numbering in the dozen or more. The scientists cautioned that the rare asexual births should not be viewed as a possible solution to declining global shark populations.
"It is very unlikely that a small number of female survivors could build their numbers up very quickly by undergoing virgin birth," Chapman said.
The medical mystery began 16 months ago after the death of the Atlantic blacktip shark named Tidbit at the Virginia Beach aquarium. No male blacktip sharks were present during her eight years at the aquarium.
In May 2007, the 5-foot, 94-pound shark died of stress-related complications related to her unknown pregnancy after undergoing a yearly checkup. The 10-inch shark pup was found during a necropsy of Tidbit, surprising aquarium officials. They initially thought the embryonic pup was either a product of a virgin birth or a cross between the blacktip and a male of another shark species — which has never been documented, Chapman said.

Weird science: Top unexplained mysteries From Bigfoot to déjà vu, some strange phenomena remain to be explained. Tidbit's pup was nearly full term, and likely would have been quickly eaten by "really big sand tiger sharks" that were in the tank, Chapman said in a telephone interview from Florida.
That is what happened to the tiny hammerhead pup in the Omaha case.
"By the time they could realize what they were looking at, something munched the baby," he said of aquarium workers. The remains of the pup were used for the DNA testing.
Virgin birth has been proven in some bony fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds, and has been suspected among sharks in the wild. The scientists who studied the Virginia and Nebraska sharks said the newly formed pups acquired one set of chromosomes when the mother's chromosomes split during egg development, then united anew.
Absent the chromosomes present in the male sperm, the offspring of an asexual conception have reduced genetic diversity and, the scientists said, may be at a disadvantage for surviving in the wild. A pup, for instance, can be more susceptible to congenital disorders and diseases.
The scientists said their findings offer "intriguing questions" about how frequently automictic parthenogenesis occurs in the wild.
"It is possible that parthenogenesis could become more common in these sharks if population densities become so low that females have trouble finding mates," said Mahmood Shivji, one of the scientists and director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
Click for related content
Weird science: Top unexplained mysteriesHow the turtle got its shell Super-sized dinos had super-sized stomachs
The DNA fingerprinting techniques used by the scientists are identical to those used in human paternity testing.
Chapman, who is with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook, was assisted in the study by Beth Firchau of the Virginia Aquarium.
Chapman and Shivji were on the team that made the first discovery of virgin birth involving the Nebraska shark.

www.francorp.com

Going Green is going Mainstream

Green Is Going Mainstream by Lara L. Sowinski October 1, 2007
ARTICLE TOOLS
EmailPrintReprints
Share
Use
One year ago, the topic of green supply chains was found more in fringe discussions than on front pages. Sure, a number of companies were doing their part to be environmentally friendly, but it was largely a groundswell of consumer awareness in tandem with savvy marketing campaigns that has really pushed the issue to the forefront. A recent survey by UK-based eyefortransport (www.eyefortransport.com) finds that 94 percent of supply chain professionals polled rate green issues as a business priority. “With up to 75 percent of a company’s carbon footprint coming from transportation and logistics, the focus of supply chain greening is beginning to shift towards this area, where the opportunity to make the biggest difference exists,” according to eyefortransport. As to the steps that companies are taking to get greener, eyefortransport’s Katharine O’Reilly explains that greening is “fundamentally a cooperative process, with a majority of successful green initiatives being based on changing relationships with suppliers, partners, and logistics providers.” Like so many other supply chain strategies today, collaboration is again at the top of the ladder. Twenty-eight percent of the supply chain executives polled in the survey said they have (or plan to) partnered with a logistics provider to help them green their processes. Their efforts range from focusing on improving energy efficiency (59 percent), redesigning warehousing and distribution center networks (42 percent), and measuring and/or reducing emissions (39 percent). And, despite concerns that environmental initiatives are detrimental to supply chain efficiency, 66 percent reported that their green initiatives are not affecting their supply chain efficiency, while 27 percent said the changes are actually making their supply chains more efficient. Rising energy costs alone are pushing companies to explore ways to reduce overall consumption, and it’s not just limited to oil. Electrical power consumption is at “the tip of a melting iceberg for an IT industry that is currently unsustainable,” warns research firm Gartner (www.gartner.com). Large organizations spend between 4 and 8 percent, and sometimes as much as 10 percent, of their IT budget on energy and it’s expected to increase fourfold within the next five years. Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner, notes: “Organizations are increasingly deploying more computing power. These systems require considerably more power and cooling than the last generation of hardware. Because global energy prices are rising, there is a significant increase in data center operational budgets.” Furthermore, data centers waste nearly two-thirds of their energy consumption on cooling equipment, and 75 percent of the 512 million PCs that will be disposed of in the next five years with end up in landfills rather than being recycled. Kumar believes this kind of consumption and waste is not sustainable. “This is bad for the environment and bad for business. Enlightened consumers and enterprise buyers will increasingly vote with their wallets, choosing more sustainable products and services from suppliers with environmentally conscious corporate social responsibility programs.” Fortunately, there’s been movement from the talking stage to the ‘doing’ stage. A newly released study by data center operator Digital Realty Trust shows that 55 percent of companies have formed detailed strategies for making their data centers more energy efficient. For example, some companies are consolidating servers to reduce energy consumption, along with making better use of open space between server racks and making sure data center temperatures aren’t calibrated too cold. Many of these small steps are easy to make and can save a lot of money. For instance, simply raising the temperature in data centers by three or four degrees can lower cooling costs by 10 percent or more. Green initiatives are also sprouting up on the software side. In August, RedPrairie (www.redprairie.com), a leading consumer-driven optimization company, announced a green initiative to create programs and provide education to companies in order to help them reduce the environmental impact of their supply chains. It’s worth noting that RedPrairie is also the first supply chain technology provider to be accepted as an Affiliate member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWaySM Transport Partnership, which was established to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and improve the efficiency of ground freight transportation. John Jazwiec, president and CEO of RedPrairie, said: “We are committed to our green strategy, including delivering solutions that are conscientious of the environment and programs to educate and enable employees. Through more efficient transportation, storage and packaging of goods, companies can significantly reduce dioxide emissions, wasted packaging, paper, and energy consumption.” RedPrairie’s whitepaper entitled “Greenlighting Efficiency: 7 Easy Steps to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Today’s Supply Chains,” offers some practical tips that are fairly easy to implement. Optimize Routing and Consolidation. Optimized routing and consolidation provides the ‘best possible path’ through a series of stops and ensures that drivers spend as little time as possible at each stop. Fleet clients can save an average of 10 to 15 percent in miles driven from improvements in this area, resulting in a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Improve Fleet Management. Some of the biggest benefits in this area come from a reduction in idling time and improved equipment use. In addition, more states and county governments have proposed laws to restrict the amount of time a vehicle can idle its main engine. Increase Global Transport Efficiency. Delays due to port clearance documentation, poor duty payment coordination, or general lack of visibility into the global supply chain are costly not only in terms of lost sales but for the environment too. Create System-generated Tasks and Communications. Many warehouses are still paper intensive when it comes to communications. However, electronic interfaces, RFID, voice-based technologies, and electronic Advanced Ship Notices (ASNs) can significantly reduce paper waste. Take Full Advantage of Improved Packaging Strategies. Many companies are already taking steps to reduce packaging materials, but not everyone is reconfiguring their shelving to take full advantage of those gains. A sophisticated warehouse management solution can help streamline storage and accurately track crates and pallets so transportation materials can be more easily recycled and reused. Deliver on Energy Conservation Strategies in the Warehouse. Energy-saving motion sensors for lights, solar power, and reusable pallets are a few ways to save money in the warehouse. In the U.S., more than 2 billion wooden pallets are used each year, which is equivalent to approximately 1 million acres of hardwood forest. Improve Labor Management. Essentially, it’s about working smarter, not harder, and includes analyzing how a job should be performed in order to avoid wasted efforts. It also extends to optimizing work schedules to cut down on excessive commuting and unnecessary overtime.
Seeing signs of green in the supply chain A number of companies in the broader transportation and logistics sector have already embarked on various green initiatives, including ports; ocean carriers; rail, truck, tugboat, and terminal equipment manufacturers; 3PLs; industrial real estate developers and warehouse operators; and manufacturers of reusable packaging and pallets. Tay Yoshitani, the new CEO for the Port of Seattle (www.portseattle.org) has emphasized environmental leadership as the number one priority for the port, both as a way to differentiate the port from others as well as a competitive advantage in the marketplace. “The Port of Seattle should be the greenest, cleanest, and most energy efficient in the U.S.,” Yoshitani said in a recent interview. Although the specifics of his plan are still being rolled out, one aspect includes a major staff reorganization. To the south, the ports of Los Angeles (www.portoflosangeles.org) and Long Beach (www.polb.com) are well on their way to pursuing green initiatives, partly because surrounding communities have long resisted expansion at the ports due to concerns over air quality. The San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan aims to reduce emissions from port operations by at least 45 percent by implementing a number of measures, including using low-sulfur fuels and emulsified fuels in container ships, adding more hybrid and alternative-fuel equipment to the terminal yards, and moving forward on plans to require cold-ironing for vessels (which means the ship uses electrical power while at berth instead of running its diesel engines). Earlier this year, ocean carrier APL (www.apl.com) began testing a revolutionary fuel emulsification system aboard its container ship the APL Singapore. The test involves injecting water into the ship’s bunker fuel in order to reduce harmful emissions. Furthermore, APL has converted to cleaner burning, low sulfur fuel on all 23 of its vessels that call California ports. At the same time, Foss Maritime (www.foss.com), the Seattle-based tug services company, has received funds from the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan to build the world’s first hybrid tugboat. The tug’s engine will work somewhat like Toyota’s hybrid Prius car, and shut down its diesel engine and switch to an electric motor during idling. It’s estimated that the tug will reduce particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions by 44 percent. Foss will begin production of the tug this year and it will go into operation in Southern California in 2008. Green technology is evident elsewhere. Evergreen’s (www.evergreen-marine.com) new S-type “Greenships” feature double-skinned hulls to minimize the risk of oil pollution or fire in case of grounding or collision. Matson (www.matson.com) has maintained a zero waste discharge program for all of its vessels since 1993, and is currently working on an innovative ballast water treatment system on one of its vessels. In addition, Crowley Maritime (www.crowley.com) recently announced that its newly christened 650-3 is the first tank barge to be issued Green Passport certification. The Green Passport program is basically an inventory of materials present in a ship’s structure, systems, and equipment that may be hazardous to human health or the environment. It is regularly updated and is eventually passed from the ship’s owner to the recycling yard at the end of the ship’s life to help the yard to come up with a safe and environmentally sound way of breaking the ship. In the terminal yards, manufacturers such as Kalmar (www.kalmarind.com) are introducing a new generation of container handling equipment that’s more energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and quieter. Last year, Kalmar embarked on a two-year project in conjunction with the West Coast Collaborative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to reduce pollution in ports by integrating three of its terminal tractors with hybrid technology. The green hybrid equipment is expected to reduce air emissions by 93 percent, which equates to 19 tons of nitrogen oxide and 200 pounds of particulate matter. Likewise, BNSF Railway (www.bnsf.com) is hoping that a proposed plan to own and operate its own fleet of trucks to move freight from marine terminals in LA-LB to a proposed intermodal yard four miles from the port complex will convince local residents and port officials that the new operation won’t negatively impact the environment. Specifically, the railroad says it will use 2007 model-year trucks to meet emission standards contained in the Clean Air Action Plan. The trucks will also be outfitted with global positioning tracking systems to allow BNSF to optimize a routing plan and lessen the impact on residential communities. Meanwhile, railroads are already using electric cranes, low emission switching locomotives, and alternative fuel yard tractors. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rules for locomotives and diesel marine engines are also helping to drive changes. The agency’s proposed rules, which could take effect as early as next year, intend to reduce emissions by 90 percent for particulate matter and 80 percent for nitrogen oxides. Some of the biggest opportunities for greening the supply chain are the most obvious, like reducing paper and packaging waste and choosing reusable shipping containers. ALEX Pallet Systems (www.alexpallet.com) manufacturers a lightweight aluminum pallet that is superior to conventional wooden pallets in a variety of areas. The pallets are 100 percent reusable and recyclable and have a life-span of at least 20 years, and exceed industry standards for impact and static-loading performance. And, due to their composition, the pallets are exempt from government regulations requiring chemical- and heat-treatment to kill harmful bark beetles and other insects. Companies are also turning to alternative packaging materials. Last year, Wal-Mart Canada switched some of its shipping crates from cardboard to plastic, which allowed the crates to be used approximately 60 times instead of once. The company estimates it saved $4.5 million from the switch and reduced waste by 1,400 tons. Furthermore, in a show of corporate goodwill, the Wal-Mart Foundation announced in late August that it would donate $1.5 million to create a sustainability research center at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville as part of the company’s efforts to improve the environment. The Applied Sustainability Center will work to develop green business practices for the retail and consumer goods industries. Over the next year, the center plans to study ways to reduce carbon in products and identify key sustainability issues in agriculture. Meanwhile, reusable packages are also a part of Pelican Products’ (www.pelican.com) strategy. The company’s Repeat Use Packaging program was initially developed to protect shipments of electronics and other sensitive equipment for companies such as Apple and Gateway. The advantages of using high-quality, durable cases for other types of shipments became apparent immediately—there’s less impact on the environment, the container is reusable, and the risk of damaging goods in transit is dramatically minimized. According to the company, a recent study showed that a mere 5 pounds of waste was generated by 250 shipments inside a repeat use Pelican Protector Case (two cubic feet). This was in stark contrast to the 375 pounds of waste generated by the equivalent amount of cardboard boxes necessary for the same number of shipments.
Clean, energy efficient DCs get the green light Now that public awareness has heightened over the impact of transportation and logistics on the environment, warehouses are getting as much scrutiny as seaports and trucks, especially in high-profile regions such as Southern California. Tejon Ranch (www.tejonranch.com), located approximately 60 miles north of Los Angeles on Interstate 5, is a multi-use master-planned community. It is also the location for a 1.7 million square foot distribution center for furniture manufacturer Ikea. Given the Ranch’s history in farming and ranching, the focus on environmental stewardship is high on the minds of the company’s executives. According to Barry Hibbard, vice president of commercial industrial development at Tejon Ranch, truckers spend roughly $2.90 per hour in fuel costs when idling. To minimize that cost, the Ranch installed electrical power at the truck stop and charges truckers $1.95 per hour. Not only is it cheaper for truckers, but it’s quieter and cleaner for the surrounding community too. Within a warehouse’s four walls, other changes are taking place. Lighting is one area that warehouse operators can reduce costs. For instance, skylights and fluorescent lighting can improve energy efficiency by as much as 75 percent, while recycled building materials and asphalt, better use of landscaping, and reusing rainwater can all contribute to the bottom line. Supply chain solutions provider Manhattan Associates (www.manh.com) offers other ways to trim costs and operate more efficiently in the warehouse. For starters, companies should maximize the efficiency of their conveying and handling processes, advises Manhattan Associates. By integrating material handling and warehouse management systems, the warehouse can reduce the number of times products are moved and touched as well as minimize forklift usage. In addition to reducing handling costs, these techniques help to reduce energy consumption and emissions. Secondly, using advanced warehouse management systems allows companies to streamline warehouse operations to achieve higher levels of cross docking, which in turn cuts down on inventory and increases product turns.
Fostering green practices While many companies are jumping on the green bandwagon, a handful of them have earned a reputation for “green leadership,” explains John Davies, vice president of green technology research at AMR Research (www.amrresearch.com) “Enterprises that want to succeed in the marketplace must integrate ‘green’ thinking into their overall approach to growth and profitability,” he states. “Early movers are reporting long-term advantages both in cost savings as well as new revenue opportunities.” There are many examples of green leadership, some quite novel. Seattle-based freight forwarder and 3PL TransGroup (www.transgroup.com) has unveiled the industry’s first 100 percent greenhouse gas neutral logistics solution, called TransNeutral. “As a leader in transport logistics, we at TransGroup feel a responsibility to our industry and to the planet,” says Ron Lee, president and co-founder of the company. “So, we formed TransNeutral as a not-for-profit program that helps our customers to offset the climate-effecting impact of their shipments in a way that works collectively to preserve the environment.” Under the program, TransGroup customers can green their shipments with a nominal contribution (less than 1/7 of a cent per pound on domestic shipments) for every pound they ship. TransNeutral uses a weight-based calculation to determine the amount of climate-effecting greenhouse gases that a shipment emits, and then offsets those gases by contributing to greenhouse gas emission reduction programs involving reforestation, wind power, and biofuel related farm renewal projects. Sometimes the best green initiatives are truly at our fingertips. The Port of Houston (www.portofhouston.com) recently launched a “Clean & Green” program to clean up litter and debris in and around Buffalo Bayou and the Houston Ship Channel. Five days per week, a land-based crew will collect litter and debris from the banks while a water-based crew will work from a skimmer boat to remove litter from storm drains and banks. The program aims to collect in excess of 10 cubic yards of debris per day over the next year, which is enough to fill 83 garbage trucks. wt
Sidebar: The Forklift of the Future Earlier this year, the Raymond Corporation (www.raymondcorp.com) was awarded a contract for $750,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to research hydrogen fuel cell applications in electric lift trucks. The company has turned its New York manufacturing facility into a “living lab” with hydrogen fuel cell-powered Raymond forklifts in the facility. Raymond is also working on developing the necessary infrastructure for indoor fast-fill hydrogen refueling systems, which also represents new technology (refueling systems are typically installed outdoors). The goal of the program is to study the performance of hydrogen fuel in electric forklifts and to demonstrate the safety of a hydrogen-fueled forklift environment. Exp ected outcomes include a working indoor refueling system that meets all required code and standard requirements, and documented best practices for the design and application of indoor refueling systems. “The Raymond Corporation is committed to researching the application of hydrogen as an alternate method for storing energy on its forklift equipment,” remarked Michael Field, Raymond vice president, research and development. “The NYSERDA contract confirms the merits of our project and supports our business strategy to develop fuel cell technology for electric forklift applications. By using our own facility as a test lab, we can streamline the development process and learn firsthand the requirements for using fuel cell powered forklifts in a manufacturing environment.” In a conventional electric lift truck, the energy used to drive the truck is stored as electricity in a lead-acid battery. In a fuel cell, energy is stored as hydrogen gas and converted into electricity as needed. There appears to be significant potential to improve warehouse productivity and lower operating costs if fuel cells are used in high throughput warehouse applications. Hydrogen fuel cells offer higher productivity because they can be rapidly refueled—in several minutes versus several hours—eliminating the need to change a battery. A battery recharging cycle is long, typically taking one shift to charge and another shift to cool down the battery. For a three-shift operation, three batteries plus a charger may be needed per lift truck, as well as room to store and maintain them. Cost savings come from eliminating the need to buy batteries and chargers, and from labor savings. Another advantage is that the voltage delivered by a fuel cell remains constant; the vehicle experiences no performance degradation until the fuel runs out. Furthermore, hydrogen is environmentally clean; the only by-products from a fuel cell are water and heat.
Lara L. SowinskiLaraS@worldtrademag.com

Lara is Associate Editor for World Trade. You can reach her at LaraS@worldtrademag.com.

Why Clean Tech Is Taking Biotech's Shine

Viewpoint October 7, 2008, 12:01AM EST
Why Clean Tech Is Taking Biotech's Shine
It's simple: Alternative energy is where the venture capital is these days. Plus, the skill sets are similar, and researchers are making the jump
by Connie Johnson Hambley
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2008/tc2008103_906261.htm?campaign_id=technology_related

Nigel Beeley is a biopharma veteran. He spent 25 years in research at such biotechnology companies as Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN), Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA), and Senomyx (SNMX). He had a hand in creating cancer and metabolic disease drugs Mylotarg, Symlin, Byetta, and Lorcaserin. But when he decided to start his own company based on pharmaceutical discoveries, he made a switch to a field many might find surprising: emerging alternative energy.

Beeley is not alone in looking beyond biopharmaceuticals for opportunities in clean tech, an industry comprised of companies focusing on alternative energy, recycling, conservation, and pollution reduction. Much of the growth in clean tech is being fueled by investors, inventors, and entrepreneurs with deep biopharma credentials, underscoring how tightly interwoven these seemingly disconnected industries are. The next great wave of innovation and investment is building just as the once booming biotechnology industry appears to be passing its peak.

Scientists such as Beeley are following the money. Venture capitalists are increasingly stepping up investment in alternative energy technologies at the same time that they deemphasize biopharma and other life-science companies. Scientific and management talent who used to be at the forefront of drug discovery and the biosciences are finding that their skills are in high demand in these new energy companies.

Venture funding in clean technologies surged to $2.5 billion last year, from $216 million in 2002, according to VentureSource, a division of Dow Jones Financial Services that researches venture capital. In the first half of 2008, venture capitalists poured $1.6 billion into clean tech, making it almost even with life-science investing. Indeed, biopharma investing dropped 40% in the first half of 2008 from 2007, a record year for the sector, according to Jessica Canning, director of global research for VentureSource. Additionally, four of the top deals for the second quarter were in clean tech. The National Venture Capital Assn. reports that VCs selected clean tech as the sector where they plan to focus and increase their investment in the future. Most bets are that clean tech investing will hit records this year.

Borrowing Pharma's Toolbox
The booming interest in clean tech is by no means an overnight sensation, tracing its roots to the energy crisis of the 1970s. Interest has deepened in recent years because of the rising cost and finite supply of oil. But it's also being fueled by a quest for U.S. energy independence and the desire to reduce carbon emissions—imperatives that remain whatever direction oil prices take, explains Ray Lane, managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "Even if you take one away, you still have the other problem," he says.

So where does biopharma fit in? Today's burst of energy innovation stems from having the right scientific and discovery tools available and a shift in focus away from people when applying life-science knowledge, Lane and others say. Pharmaceutical companies have historically spent large percentages of their revenue on research and discovery, while traditional oil and gas companies have spent little. The vast majority of cell-based research, conducted for drug discovery, has focused on the cells of animals and has explored the agents—bacterial, microbial, viral, or genetic—that make those cells live, die, change, or multiply. Recently these gains have been applied to plants and other substances, such as shale, that form the backbone of alternative energy research. Traditional pharma research techniques have certainly improved, and some drug discoveries translate into alternative energy promise.

Beeley found much of his background applicable to his new company, EnrQi, pronounced "energy." He had long been fascinated with how plants convert light energy into chemical energy by photosynthesis, but his career remained focused on drug discovery. When colleagues found a protein receptor that changes when exposed to light, he immediately suspected a link to the search for alternative fuels. More research followed on the cascade of events leading to the conversion of carbon dioxide into stable, energy-containing molecules.

Long-Term Approach
People with biopharma bona fides fit well in clean tech because they're willing to take a long-term approach to research and development, experts say. "The development of technology-intensive energy companies is often very similar to the development of biotechnology companies because both have a long gestation period, large capital requirements, and a high degree of technical risk," says Hemant Taneja, managing director at General Catalyst Partners and co-chairman of the New England Clean Energy Council. "Management teams from the biotech ecosystem are very well suited to scale early-stage clean tech companies."

For all the interest in clean tech, biopharma remains alive and well, says Flagship Ventures general partner Jim Matheson. "Innovation and investment in drug discovery and development are still happening at a healthy rate," Matheson says. Still, some biopharma companies are clearly having a harder time lining up funding. "Investors are using more caution," says Michael Pavia, entrepreneur in residence at Oxford Bioscience Partners. Venture capitalists are focusing on reduced risk and a clear path to making money. While it might not always be clear that a new drug therapy will be a big seller, newly produced gas or electricity has a ready-made market. The domestic natural gas market alone is estimated to be worth $150 billion.

Some biotech vets are casting about in clean tech because that's where the jobs are. As large pharmaceutical companies lay off workers, existing small biotech companies are not able to absorb the influx of available employees, and companies are not being created quickly enough to use all available talent. The perceived greater risk of working for a drug-discovery startup is losing its luster with some. "We are seeing top-notch bioscientists—in chemistry, bioinformatics, identification, and other areas—being faced with reestablishing themselves in a completely unique forum, and we have watched as they have chosen to move toward alternative energy and biofuel," says Mark O'Connor, CEO of Monadnock Research, which follows consulting trends.

Putting Together the Perfect Team
As increasing numbers of scientists and other professionals make the switch to clean tech, it's more than just a skill set that gets them the job, O'Connor adds. "You also have to have a clear understanding of the company's vision and the individual's passion and put the two together."

It was a quest for the perfect team that brought Robert Pfeiffer and Mark Finkelstein together at Luca Technologies, a startup funded by Kleiner Perkins, Oxford Bioscience, and chemical giant BASF (BASF.DE). Luca uses the tools of biotechnology and genomics to cultivate microorganisms that produce natural gas in farm-like "geobioreactors" by consuming hydrocarbons. Pfeiffer's background is in oil and gas, but he knew he needed bioscience muscle. "Oil and gas guys are hunters and gatherers," he says. "We know where to find the gas, not how to make it." Finkelstein, a self-proclaimed "bug guy" with credentials from research-based drugmaker Schering-Plough (SGP) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was key to unlocking the "cell consortiums" that produce methane.

The past 20 years saw astonishing advances in biotech. Those advances are now fueling growth in clean tech.

See BusinessWeek.com's slide show for more on the growth of clean tech.

Connie Johnson Hambley is a consultant for emerging companies in the biopharmaceutical and clean tech industries for Steele Executive Search, www.steelesearch.com. She can be reached at connie@steelesearch.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite costs, healthy school lunches on the menu

Another example of green natured and healthy minded communities. If you are thinking about franchising go to www.francorp.com.

Despite costs, healthy school lunches on the menu
By MARGARET STAFFORD
Associated Press Writer
Posted: Monday, Oct. 06, 2008
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/136/story/236135.html

KANSAS CITY, Mo. The buffet offers a variety of pizzas, with whole wheat crust, organic toppings and hormone-free cheese. The salad bar includes some greens and vegetables grown without pesticides in a nearby garden.

And the chef even takes special requests from vegetarians, those wanting gluten-free food or even an extra slice of free-range meat.

This isn't a restaurant in one of Kansas City's trendy neighborhoods, but a cramped room in the basement of the Kansas City Academy, a private school for 6th-12th graders in the city's Waldo district.

The Academy is one of three Kansas City-area private schools that participate in Bistro Kids' Farm 2 School program, which is committed to improving students' health by offering lunches from organic, natural, locally-grown food.

"It's really, really good," said sixth-grader Peter Imel, while chomping away on pizza. "When I first heard about it, I thought, 'OK, maybe, maybe not.' But it's better than any restaurant I've been to."

Kiersten Firquain, owner/operator of Bistro Kids, passionately believes that typical school lunch fare such as high-fat, nutrient-poor cheeseburgers, nachos and hot dogs is damaging the mental and physical health of the nation's children.

Health and nutrition experts agree, saying poor dietary habits are a contributing factor in dramatic increases in childhood obesity, type 2 diabetes, asthma and high cholesterol. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the number of overweight children from ages 6-11 has more than doubled in the last 20 years and tripled in those aged 12-19.

Schools across the country are responding by adding more fruits, vegetables, salads and healthier alternatives to menus.

But few have gone as far as Firquain wants to go. She advocates providing lunches using foods free of additives, hormones, antibiotics and trans-fats. And she believes the ingredients should, as much as possible, come from local producers.

For Farm 2 School, Firquain uses several sources within a 200-mile radius of Kansas City, such as small family farms and organic bakeries. The rest she orders through Ball's Food Stores, which promotes locally grown foods.

Besides eating the healthy lunches, the program also educates students about the food cycle by bringing farmers and producers to the schools, teaching nutrition classes, growing school gardens and encouraging recycling.

While Firquain's is the first for-profit business in Kansas and Missouri promoting the farm-to school ideals, the concept has been gaining traction across the country since 2000, when a national Farm To School program started

More than 2,000 school districts have some facet of a farm-to-school program, although most are not offering full meals but have selective products in the schools or bring in food producers for education efforts.

Schools - particularly public schools - face several obstacles before starting a farm-to-school program, advocates say. Many schools do not have the kitchen facilities or skilled labor needed to provide more than heat-and-serve meals.

"Schools often don't see food or cafeterias as a major investment," said Anupama Joshi, co-director of the national Farm To School network. "It's really sad because research has shown that the food we serve our kids can help them facilitate learning and is tied to performance."

But the top barrier for both public and private schools is money.

Public school districts are reimbursed $2.57 by the federal government to provide a free meal, Joshi said, but most districts say a meal costs an average of $2.88. Firquain said some public schools have told her they have $1 left for food after they pay administrative costs.

Firquain said she currently works only with private schools, partly because of costs but also because of the bureaucracy and red tape in public school districts. But she said she eventually wants to serve 10-12 schools in the region, or about 1,000-1,200 students a day, with half of the schools targeting at-risk populations.

"We don't want to serve food only to kids who can afford to pay for it, but get it into the populations that need it most," she said.

Biodegradable Food Containers in Alaska

Company marketing eco-friendly packaging
by Ted Land
Monday, September 29, 2008
www.ktuu.com
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=9095752

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An Alaska company has a new, more environmentally friendly way to store food.

It's called Greenware, a completely biodegradable line of food containers and utensils.

The containers look like a normal take-out box, but the material they're made from comes from Mother Earth -- not a lab.

At Middle Way Cafe, they're serving up corn, soy, and even sugarcane. The busy lunch crowd lined up Monday to order the tasteless colorless starches.

But no one is actually eating it -- rather they're eating from it.

"I think these really are the future for disposable products," said Deborah O'Leary, who runs Greenware Alaska, one of the first companies to bring this food innovation to the state.

"I've always been preoccupied by garbage -- what's thrown away, what can be recycled, just the sheer volume of what we throw away," she said.

Middle Way has been using her products for months. They serve sandwiches on soy paper, coffee in corn-based cups, and scrambled eggs in sugarcane boxes.

Middle Way owner Jonathan Campabello pays a premium for the eco-friendly supplies, but he does so because Greenware is in line with his values.

"We're sending a message out to our customers that we care about you, we care about your health, we care about the community, and ultimately the planet," he said.

Some people come here specifically because of the Greenware, but most have no idea what they're eating from.

And it's not just restaurants using the products. Greenware also makes plastic shopping bags from corn. Their plastic brethren are scorned, even banned in some states.

Foam and plastic take years to break down in landfills, and along the way, they leak toxins into the earth. Greenware dissolves in months, leaving behind starch and water vapor.

Some companies are still not thinking green, and even if they were, there's no guarantee they could afford the more costly Greenware, which runs about 30 percent more than foam or paper.

O'Leary stays competitive because her products get people talking.

"It's really good public relations for a business to put these products out there," she said.

Greenware can be found at places like Snow City Cafe, La Mex restaurants, and the Botanical Garden, which uses them for events.

Contact Ted Land at tland@ktuu.com

Green Consulting Movement

As a consulting firm, the greatest impact that we could ever have on the environment is on the work that we do for our clients. I am happy to say that we have been assisting numerous companies with an environmentally responsible agenda.

As a consulting firm that specializes in franchise development, Francorp creates the foundation for companies to expand throughout the US and even worldwide. Through our 13 international offices, we are working with numerous companies that are developing concepts that meet the environmental challenges that we have ahead of ourselves worldwide.

Some of these GREEN concepts in the US are Fisher Recycling - http://www.fisherrecycling.com/ , SynLawn - http://www.synlawn.com/ and a number solar companies that choose to be kept underwraps until they officially launch.

In addition to having the pleasure of working with socially responsible companies through our franchise development work, we also have been operating in a more environmentally friendly way oursleves. Many of our staff members now carpool to the office, work at home, some even take public transportation from the city out to our suburban location, and others have even purchased fuel efficient cars in order to be operating conservationists. We have also recently switched to recycled paper cups for office usage when a glass cannot be used. Furthermore, we discourage usage of bottled water and encourage filtered water provided to our staff. In addition, we purchased renewable bamboo tables for our lobby and refinished our Eames office chairs throughout our office instead of purchasing new chairs which prevented the filling of a land fill. We also used paint free of VOC's and replaced our light fixtures with high efficiency fixtures, which should save a great deal of energy. Our next addition will be new HVAC units that will further increase effeciency.

The beauty of these new GREEN initiatives is that they also offer a financial incentive now adays. Why not go green like Francorp? The price is right!

Francorp - Wild Things

Wild Things: Life as We Know It
Great white sharks, endangered frogs and more
By T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Anika Gupta, Laura Helmuth and Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian magazine, October 2008

It's not Easy Being Green (or Orange) Of 6,300 known amphibian species, one-third are vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered, say scientists in California. Tropical countries have the most amphibians and the most threatened species. The culprits? Habitat loss, global warming and the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.
A Change in StrategyMilkweed plants defend themselves against caterpillars and other predators with toxins, spiky leaves and sticky latex. But a Cornell and Portland State University study of 38 milkweed species shows that the newest ones rely more on a different survival strategy: they regrow quickly after being damaged. Apparently resistance to predators is (relatively) futile.
The Baddest Bite Australian-led researchers have found that a great white shark clamps down with a force of 2 tons. The most powerful bite known of any animal alive, that's 3 times the force of a lion and 23 times that of a person—though just a nip compared with the 12- to 20-ton bite of the extinct megalodon shark.
Long-Tailed Tipplers Pen-tailed tree shrews and at least six other small mammals in Malaysia imbibe naturally fermented bertam palm flower nectar, which is up to 3.8 percent alcohol, like beer. The animals are the only ones (aside from humans) known to drink regularly, say the researchers, from Germany and elsewhere, who saw no "motor incoordination or other behavioral signs of inebriation." The animals appear to have a high alcohol tolerance.
ObservedName: The Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana In Private: Males prefer to mate with large females. They also often pursue females that they have seen other males pursue.In Public: When rival males are present, a male disguises his choice of mate by feigning interest in a different female.In the Lab: Males went so far as to feign interest in a female of a different species, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Potsdam, Germany, and the University of Oklahoma. This bait-and-switch routine, the scientists say, may represent an attempt to direct rivals' attention away from the choicest female and avoid competing with other males.
Additional Sources
"Are we in the midst of the sixth mass extinction? A view from the world of amphibians," David B. Wake and Vance T. Vredenburg, PNAS, August 12, 2008
"Phylogenetic escalation and decline of plant defense strategies," Anurag A. Agrawal and Mark Fishbein, PNAS, July 22, 2008
"Male Fish Deceive Competitors about Mating Preferences," Martin Plath et al., Current Biology, August 5, 2008
"Three-dimensional computer analysis of white shark jaw mechanics: how hard can a great white bite?" S. Wroe et al., Journal of Zoology, August 12, 2008
"Chronic intake of fermented floral nectar by wild treeshrews," Frank Wiens et al., PNAS, July 29, 2008

www.francorp.com

www.francorp1.com

Francorp: Invasion of the Cassowaries

Invasion of the Cassowaries
Passions run high in an Australian town: Should the endangered birds be feared—or fed?
By Brendan Borrell
Smithsonian magazine, October 2008

Ripe fruit plunks to the ground and rolls to the road at my left. That instant, the cassowary bursts from a tangle of ferns outside Clump Mountain National Park near Mission Beach, Australia. The bird's sharp beak is pointed roughly at my neck. Her eyes bulge. She probably weighs about 140 pounds, and as she thumps past me her red wattles swing to and fro and her black feathers give off an almost menacing shimmer. Local residents call her Barbara, but somehow the name doesn't fit the creature in front of me. She looks like a giant, prehistoric turkey—a turkey, however, that could disembowel me with a swipe of its nearly five-inch claws. Luckily, she just wants the mango, which she scoops up whole and mashes with her beak.
Although many of Australia's mammals are, to North Americans anyway, infamous oddballs—from the duck-billed platypus to the eucalyptus-munching koala—the cassowary is gaudy proof that its birds can be just as strange. The southern cassowary is related to the emu and native to the tropical forests of New Guinea and northern Australia. (Two other smaller cassowary species live in New Guinea.) Fewer than 1,500 southern cassowaries live in Australia, where they are endangered; much of their Queensland rain-forest habitat has been cleared for sugar cane and banana plantations.
While programs to protect koalas, which are not an endangered species, draw in millions of dollars in donations, cassowary conservation just squeaks by in the arid continent's last tropical outpost. But the ruggedly independent folk of Queensland feel a bond with their local emblem of biodiversity—everything from stuffed toys to cassowary-themed wind chimes can be purchased along the Cassowary Coast—perhaps out of respect for a flightless creature that's able to eke out an existence despite suffocating heat and devastating storms. And like the cassowaries, Queenslanders have long felt underappreciated; indeed, some urbanites in Sydney and Melbourne refer to them as "banana-benders," as if they have nothing better to do than put the crook in tropical fruit.
But the ornery cassowary is not an easy creature to love. In fact, it ranks as the world's most dangerous bird, at least according to Guinness World Records. A cassowary can charge up to 30 miles an hour and leap more than 3 feet in the air. On each foot are three claws—one slightly curved like a scimitar, the other two straight as daggers—that are so sharp New Guinea tribesmen slide them over spear points. The last person known to have been killed by a cassowary was 16-year-old Phillip McLean, whose throat was punctured on his Queensland ranch in 1926. There have been plenty of close calls since: people have had ribs broken, legs cracked and flesh gashed.
In Mission Beach (pop. 992), two hours south of Cairns, cassowaries have lately come out of the forest, cruising the streets and looking, it seems, for trouble. They peck at bedroom windows, chase cars and tangle with pet terriers.
Townspeople are divided over what to do about the invasion. Many want the birds back in the forest. But others enjoy feeding them, even though that's against the law. They claim that the birds need the handouts: a 15-year drought, a building boom and Cyclone Larry in 2006 wiped out many of the area's native fruit trees, which were prime cassowary food. One woman told me she spends $20 per week on bananas and watermelons for a pair of local birds named Romeo and Mario. "I feed them," she said. "I always have and I always will."
Biologists say she's not doing the birds a favor. "A fed bird is a dead bird," the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service insists on posters and brochures, underscoring the idea that luring the birds into town endangers them. Since the cyclone, some 20 cassowaries, out of a local population of perhaps 100, have died after being hit by cars or attacked by dogs. Wildlife wardens—clad in chain-saw chaps and groin protectors and wielding giant nets—regularly transport problem cassowaries to more suitable habitat.
To see how life in the cul-de-sacs of Mission Beach has affected the largest native land animal in northern Australia, I visited the Garners Beach cassowary rehabilitation facility five miles north of town. Steve Garrad, a conservation officer for the Australian Rainforest Foundation, was wearing a dirt-streaked khaki outfit and a pair of gaiters to ward off the region's infernal leeches. We entered a pen where a knee-high cassowary chick was zipping along like a teenager on a skateboard. Rocky had been plucked from a dog's mouth in South Mission Beach a few months earlier. Cassowary chicks are striped for camouflage, and Rocky seemed to vanish in the shady enclosure. We finally cornered him near an artificial pond. "It'll lose those stripes in three months' time," Garrad said, "and become a pretty ugly-looking mousy brown." In about a year, Rocky will burst into his adult colors and develop wattles and the species' most remarkable feature: the casque atop its head.
It's an odd structure, neither horn nor bone; it has a hard covering but is spongy inside and somewhat flexible overall. Some researchers have speculated that cassowaries use the strange protuberance as a crash helmet to deflect thick foliage while running through the jungle, or perhaps as a weapon for settling territorial disputes. Ornithologists in New Guinea have proposed another function: amplifier. They reported seeing cassowaries inflate their necks, vibrate their bodies and emit a pulsing boom that drops below the threshold of human hearing. "An unsettling sensation," is how one author described standing in front of a thrumming bird.
Cassowary males and females look pretty much the same when they're young, but females eventually grow about a foot taller, reaching some six feet. They start breeding at age 4 or 5 and can live 40 years or more. The birds are solitary aside from brief encounters during the breeding season. Females abandon their one-pound eggs soon after laying them, and males build a rudimentary nest on the forest floor and incubate up to five eggs for almost two months. After chicks hatch, they follow the male for six to nine months as he protects them from predators such as wild pigs and dogs, and guides them to fruit trees within a home range several hundred acres in size. Scientists studying cassowary scat have identified the seeds of 300 plant species, making the bird a key player in spreading rain-forest plants over great distances.
At the rehab center, Rocky retreated back into the shadows. He has made a full recovery after his encounter with the dog. Adult male cassowaries will adopt orphaned chicks, and Garrad hoped to find a surrogate dad in the wild that would rear Rocky. Garrad said it's sometimes hard to send the little ones off to an uncertain fate, but the best thing for wildlife is to return to the wild.
Brendan Borrell is based in Brooklyn.
Ripe fruit plunks to the ground and rolls to the road at my left. That instant, the cassowary bursts from a tangle of ferns outside Clump Mountain National Park near Mission Beach, Australia. The bird's sharp beak is pointed roughly at my neck. Her eyes bulge. She probably weighs about 140 pounds, and as she thumps past me her red wattles swing to and fro and her black feathers give off an almost menacing shimmer. Local residents call her Barbara, but somehow the name doesn't fit the creature in front of me. She looks like a giant, prehistoric turkey—a turkey, however, that could disembowel me with a swipe of its nearly five-inch claws. Luckily, she just wants the mango, which she scoops up whole and mashes with her beak.
Although many of Australia's mammals are, to North Americans anyway, infamous oddballs—from the duck-billed platypus to the eucalyptus-munching koala—the cassowary is gaudy proof that its birds can be just as strange. The southern cassowary is related to the emu and native to the tropical forests of New Guinea and northern Australia. (Two other smaller cassowary species live in New Guinea.) Fewer than 1,500 southern cassowaries live in Australia, where they are endangered; much of their Queensland rain-forest habitat has been cleared for sugar cane and banana plantations.
While programs to protect koalas, which are not an endangered species, draw in millions of dollars in donations, cassowary conservation just squeaks by in the arid continent's last tropical outpost. But the ruggedly independent folk of Queensland feel a bond with their local emblem of biodiversity—everything from stuffed toys to cassowary-themed wind chimes can be purchased along the Cassowary Coast—perhaps out of respect for a flightless creature that's able to eke out an existence despite suffocating heat and devastating storms. And like the cassowaries, Queenslanders have long felt underappreciated; indeed, some urbanites in Sydney and Melbourne refer to them as "banana-benders," as if they have nothing better to do than put the crook in tropical fruit.
But the ornery cassowary is not an easy creature to love. In fact, it ranks as the world's most dangerous bird, at least according to Guinness World Records. A cassowary can charge up to 30 miles an hour and leap more than 3 feet in the air. On each foot are three claws—one slightly curved like a scimitar, the other two straight as daggers—that are so sharp New Guinea tribesmen slide them over spear points. The last person known to have been killed by a cassowary was 16-year-old Phillip McLean, whose throat was punctured on his Queensland ranch in 1926. There have been plenty of close calls since: people have had ribs broken, legs cracked and flesh gashed.
In Mission Beach (pop. 992), two hours south of Cairns, cassowaries have lately come out of the forest, cruising the streets and looking, it seems, for trouble. They peck at bedroom windows, chase cars and tangle with pet terriers.
Townspeople are divided over what to do about the invasion. Many want the birds back in the forest. But others enjoy feeding them, even though that's against the law. They claim that the birds need the handouts: a 15-year drought, a building boom and Cyclone Larry in 2006 wiped out many of the area's native fruit trees, which were prime cassowary food. One woman told me she spends $20 per week on bananas and watermelons for a pair of local birds named Romeo and Mario. "I feed them," she said. "I always have and I always will."
Biologists say she's not doing the birds a favor. "A fed bird is a dead bird," the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service insists on posters and brochures, underscoring the idea that luring the birds into town endangers them. Since the cyclone, some 20 cassowaries, out of a local population of perhaps 100, have died after being hit by cars or attacked by dogs. Wildlife wardens—clad in chain-saw chaps and groin protectors and wielding giant nets—regularly transport problem cassowaries to more suitable habitat.
To see how life in the cul-de-sacs of Mission Beach has affected the largest native land animal in northern Australia, I visited the Garners Beach cassowary rehabilitation facility five miles north of town. Steve Garrad, a conservation officer for the Australian Rainforest Foundation, was wearing a dirt-streaked khaki outfit and a pair of gaiters to ward off the region's infernal leeches. We entered a pen where a knee-high cassowary chick was zipping along like a teenager on a skateboard. Rocky had been plucked from a dog's mouth in South Mission Beach a few months earlier. Cassowary chicks are striped for camouflage, and Rocky seemed to vanish in the shady enclosure. We finally cornered him near an artificial pond. "It'll lose those stripes in three months' time," Garrad said, "and become a pretty ugly-looking mousy brown." In about a year, Rocky will burst into his adult colors and develop wattles and the species' most remarkable feature: the casque atop its head.
It's an odd structure, neither horn nor bone; it has a hard covering but is spongy inside and somewhat flexible overall. Some researchers have speculated that cassowaries use the strange protuberance as a crash helmet to deflect thick foliage while running through the jungle, or perhaps as a weapon for settling territorial disputes. Ornithologists in New Guinea have proposed another function: amplifier. They reported seeing cassowaries inflate their necks, vibrate their bodies and emit a pulsing boom that drops below the threshold of human hearing. "An unsettling sensation," is how one author described standing in front of a thrumming bird.
Cassowary males and females look pretty much the same when they're young, but females eventually grow about a foot taller, reaching some six feet. They start breeding at age 4 or 5 and can live 40 years or more. The birds are solitary aside from brief encounters during the breeding season. Females abandon their one-pound eggs soon after laying them, and males build a rudimentary nest on the forest floor and incubate up to five eggs for almost two months. After chicks hatch, they follow the male for six to nine months as he protects them from predators such as wild pigs and dogs, and guides them to fruit trees within a home range several hundred acres in size. Scientists studying cassowary scat have identified the seeds of 300 plant species, making the bird a key player in spreading rain-forest plants over great distances.
At the rehab center, Rocky retreated back into the shadows. He has made a full recovery after his encounter with the dog. Adult male cassowaries will adopt orphaned chicks, and Garrad hoped to find a surrogate dad in the wild that would rear Rocky. Garrad said it's sometimes hard to send the little ones off to an uncertain fate, but the best thing for wildlife is to return to the wild.
Brendan Borrell is based in Brooklyn.

www.francorp.com