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BREAKING NEWS

• New Trash Technology Aims to Turn Waste Into Energy
• Right Turns Deliver Gas Savings. Just Ask UPS
• Energy Boost
• Crate and Barrel's New CEO Charts Green Course









New Trash Technology Aims to Turn Waste Into Energy

Kurtis Alexander - Sentinel Staff Writer

SANTA CRUZ -- In what appears to be an early Earth Day gift for the county, a Southern California company has offered to turn the trash at the Buena Vista Landfill into a money-making fuel. No more smelly garbage to deal with. No more holes to bury the trash in. No more fiery debates about what to do with rubbish in years to come. "This really eliminates the need for any landfill," said Patrick Mathews, manager of the county's Recycling and Solid Waste Services division. And, it all comes at no cost to the county, at least initially. Carlsbad-based AdaptiveARC is looking for a place to showcase its latest waste-eviscerating technology, and Santa Cruz County, company representatives say, is the ideal site. "No one in California is doing as well as Santa Cruz when it comes to waste management," said AdaptiveARC managing partner Kris Skrinak. Skrinak cites the county's high rate of recycling and its renown for environmental stewardship, both of which he expects to ultimately help him brand and market his new product. Keep reading-

Right Turns Deliver Gas Savings. Just Ask UPS

By William Hageman Chicago Tribune

Here's how to cut gas costs, help the environment and feel like a UPS (NYSE:UPS) driver (minus the brown pants). Stay out of the left-turn lane. Drivers for UPS use a route-cutting technology that minimizes left turns. Last year that enabled the company to save 3 million gallons of gas and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32,000 metric tons--the equivalent of taking 5,300 passenger cars off the road for a year. UPS' route-planning methodology focuses on efficiency and safety, according to Marvin Hill, a manager in the company's industrial engineering department in Chicago. "In a nutshell, it's a very complex system that plans our dispatch for our drivers, the direction they go, the number of streets they go on," said Hill In addition to the obvious (i.e., have drivers run through traffic as little as possible), UPS also has found that having trucks sitting in a left-turn lane, engines idling as they wait to turn, wastes their fuel as well as that of vehicles behind them. There's also a safety factor; it's better not to have to turn across oncoming traffic. So delivery routes are plotted with a series of loops with as few left turns as possible. That's just one idea that any driver can employ. Hill does. "It's ingrained into me as a UPSer," he said. "Most of the things we do, from a safety standpoint, from an efficiency standpoint, you tend to do in your life."

Energy Boost
Solar and Wind Businesses Powered by Tax Breaks

By Anita Huslin Washington Post Staff Writer

For Tony Clifford, president of Standard Solar, the threats of climate change and high energy prices have been great for business. His Gaithersburg firm, which installs solar panels for homes, has tripled its revenue in the past year and raised new funds for expansion. Last week, he got another piece of good news. The Senate agreed to extend solar and wind energy tax breaks as part of a housing bill that is likely to win approval in the House. An elimination of the tax incentives would have been a blow to Clifford's business, forcing him to cut his staff of 20 and tell subcontractors he no longer needed them. "We just raised $3.5 million in new capital with the expectation that the incentives were going to get extended," Clifford said. "If the [federal tax breaks] do not happen, that's going to be a significant disincentive for a lot of venture capital." Although the solar business is booming across the United States, federal tax incentives remain key to fueling the industry's continued growth, utilities and solar firms say. Solar energy is still more expensive than more conventional sources, such as coal or natural gas, and is likely to remain so for a few years.

But solar costs are coming down while coal and gas plant construction costs are going up, and the solar industry says the eight-year extension of tax breaks in the Senate legislation would help create a cleaner, more reliable source of energy. For 31 years, the federal government has subsidized new wind and solar projects. A tax break that provides up to 30 cents on every dollar it costs to build solar facilities and one for operating wind turbines are set to expire this year. The Senate last week voted to renew them. Now, proponents are pressing the House, which passed a stand-alone tax package with similar extensions, to do the same.

Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) sponsored the renewable energy tax incentives as an amendment to a housing bill last week. The measure provides up to $500 for consumers to install energy-efficient products in their homes and extends a production tax credit for electricity produced from wind, solar and other renewable sources. Businesses that manufacture and install solar or photovoltaic fuel cells would get a 30 percent investment tax credit. "We are not only providing certainty to these industries, infusing money into our economy, but creating high-paying, long-term jobs to help Americans get through these tough economic times," Cantwell said.

This makes bankers, solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers, and contractors happy. Without the subsidies, they say, companies would start putting projects on hold, freezing contractors out of the new work and companies and governments out of ways to buy more clean technology. Indeed, in February, Arizona Public Service Co. announced its intention to build a 280 megawatt solar installation using parabolic mirrors to concentrate heat and steam turbines to generate electricity. But the plant needs regulatory approval and isn't expected to come online until 2011. Don Robinson, the utility's senior vice president of planning and administration, said the plant will be built only if the federal tax incentives are extended. The alternative-energy industry has learned not to take the tax credits for granted. The wind industry, for instance, has had its production tax credits lapse three times -- in 1999, 2001 and 2003. According to the American Wind Energy Association, new installed wind capacity declined 93, 73 and 77 percent, respectively.

Matt Cheney is chief executive of MMA Renewable Ventures, a subsidiary of Baltimore-based Municipal Mortgage & Equity, a real estate investment company that finances and invests in facilities that generate renewable energy. He said the wind-power industry can handle such funding uncertainty a little better than the solar industry can because wind facilities receive a production tax credit that is not an upfront incentive but is applied over the time the facility operates.

The wind industry appears be confident that the credits will be extended "because there are a lot of [wind] turbines being sold well into 2009, 2010, 2011," Cheney said. "But still, wind farm developers can't bridge any particular [subsidy] gap if it's a long one. And if it's not renewed at all, companies will start unraveling." With the tax breaks up in the air, banks are telling solar companies such as SunEdison in Beltsville to hold off on any projects that wouldn't get done this year, said SunEdison senior vice president Chris Cook. "If you lose 20 percent of the [tax break], first we'll look toward state incentives to cover the gap," Cook said. "If you hit a cap with that, we'll once again have to go back to the customer and ask if they will make up the difference. My guess would be . . . they'll say no, and the deal will fall apart." Maryland this year increased its grants for solar power projects and requirements that businesses buy 20 percent of their power from clean energy sources by 2020. The District is looking to set similar standards, while Virginia offers cash incentives for installation of renewable energy technologies.

To lawmakers weighing the merits of the tax breaks, wind and solar industry representatives stress the incentives as a job creation measure in a time of economic weakness. "In the absence of an extension by Memorial Day, we're looking at 116,000 jobs at risk -- 76,000 in wind and 40,000 in solar -- and $19 billion in clean energy investment," said Greg Wetstone, a lobbyist for the American Wind Energy Association. "We have a lot of friends in the House, and we need to make them understand that time is imperative." Staff writer Steven Mufson contributed to this report.

Crate and Barrel's New CEO Charts Green Course

Home Furnishings Retailer On Sustainable Path By Brian Clark Howard

With a sagging national housing market, many retailers are experiencing tough times, from department stores to home improvement giants. Some specialized chains such as Wickes Furniture and Bombay Co. have even gone out of business. For the time being, Crate and Barrel is weathering the economic storm, and its newly minted CEO hopes to capitalize on going green. The current president of Crate and Barrel, Barbara Turf, is scheduled to take over as CEO of the home goods and furniture retailer in May, reports the Chicago Tribune. Gordon Segal, the founder and current CEO, will remain as chair and an advisor. What's exciting for greens is that Turf says she is committed to expanding the company's lighter footstep. As the Tribune reports, "Walk through the reception area and you will discover Crate's interpretation of what is happening in American culture today: a bamboo nightstand, cotton organic towels, eco-friendly upholstered chairs." The retailer stopped using packing peanuts in 2006 and has been moving to eco-friendly catalog practices. Last year, it touted more sustainable furniture. Turf says the company will be introducing more sustainable upholstery and chair frames, using soy- and corn-based foam for cushions, offering recycled glass items and launching many products made from renewable bamboo.

Naturally, Crate and Barrel isn't the only large company going green (or talking about going green) these days, from IBM to Google, UPS, Bank of America and even Wal-Mart. But it is exciting news that a new CEO clearly has the environment on her mind and on her agenda. It is perhaps telling that despite the slackening economy, Crate and Barrel's sales reportedly rose about 8.5 percent for the fiscal year that ended in January. As is likely the case in the real estate market, it seems going green is indeed good for business. Hopefully, this will result in significant, lasting changes in the way business is done, and not get diluted to the level of window dressing.