Believe it or not – coffee to mushrooms!

The ZERI Foundation was recognized by the Specialty Coffee Association of America this month for its work helping coffee farms utilise their waste.

Greenbiz.com reported that ZERI (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives) started a programme in Colombia 15 years ago using waste from coffee farms to grow mushrooms. ZERI says that shiitake mushrooms grow three times faster in the waste than normally. Any waste left over from growing the mushrooms is then used as animal feed.

To read the full article visit Grenviz.com at: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/20/coffee-waste-into-mushrooms

Story sourced via Resource Recovery Forum www.resourcesnotwaste.org 

Water Technology Bargain Sale

Waste Technologies Australia (http://www.wastetechnologies.com/index.html) owns worldwide patented technologies and products in the water and wastewater markets. The technologies have been developed over a period of 15 years at a cost of approximately $20m, with the R&D completed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Waste Management and Pollution Control, led by Dr David Garman.

The technologies on offer include AquaVoc, a unique device for real time measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in water. WTA says it can measure VOC in the range of 50ppb to 20ppm to within –25% to +50% accuracy, and is “complete in a final prototype form”.

The second commercial AquaMiner plant is the installation of a 100kl/day plant in the Melbourne City Council new (CH2) building which won the Green Building Award for the world’s most environmentally sound multi-storey building at the 2005 United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Awards.

UniFED, another offering, is essentially a high nutrient removal process (N & P) treating both industrial and municipal wastewater. This technology is “robust, cost effective and well proven,” claims WTA.

The final technology is ElectroDewatering, a new process for achieving sludge dewatered to 45% compared to 16% for traditional belt filters. “This is a very early stage technology but has the potential to solve a significant global issue for waste water treatment plants. The next step is to apply the lab scale technology to a moderate scale prototype,” says WTA.

WTA is looking to wrap the sale up by mid-year. Interested parties can obtain an Information Memorandum by emailing Duncan Stone: d.stone@wastetechnologies.com   

For more on this story including valuations of technology go to: http://www.environmentalmanagementnews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=1002915

Putting the customer first

With the boom well and truly bust, how do you go about managing your customers in today’s economic downturn? As part of European Business School, IMD’s series on “Leading in turbulent times”, Professor Jacques Horovitz explained in a recent article why now, more than ever, it’s time to put the customer first…

When times are good and your company is growing, you tend to focus on markets – increasing market share or targeting new markets – and it’s easy to forget about your customers.

Professor Horovitz provided the following Dos and Don’ts as part of his article:

In a nutshell, when it comes to maintaining your relationships with customers during challenging times,

Don’t...

• think markets any more, think customers.
• focus on simply attracting new customers, but on how to keep existing ones
• think in terms of price discounts, but about the whole “give away” – the additional benefits or cost of usage.

Do...

• keep constant contact with your customers even when no sales transactions are taking place
• focus on the right customers
• adapt and innovate
• remember that although your sales might go down in the short term because every customer buys less, you will keep your customers in the long term.

If you stick to these rules you should be able to ride out the storm and keep your key customers by your side until the waters calm. And you’ll learn a lot about your customers and your strategy along the way.

For the full article go to: http://www.imd.ch

SWITCH on vehicle-to-grid innovation

 Researchers from the Institute of Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) have refitted a Toyota Prius with extra batteries, controls and connections so that it can store energy at off-peak times and feed power back into the grid at times of peak demand. The concept is known as the vehicle-to-grid, or V2G system. The prototype hybrid electric car, called “SWITCH”, could also be charged using renewable energy, said NSW Environment and Climate Change Minister Carmel Tebbutt.

“SWITCH provides us with a glimpse of what a cleaner, greener future may look like in NSW,” she said. “SWITCH not only saves up to 2.8 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, compared to an average car - it also acts as a portable storage unit for renewable energy.”

Based on a 30km per day commute it’s estimated the car would cost as little as 50 cents per day to charge with off-peak power. Householders could eventually save money by plugging in their car at night when electricity is cheapest and feeding back into the grid at times when electricity is more expensive. "The vehicle-to-grid technology this car presents could do for the automotive industry and the electricity industry what the personal computer did for computing, and what the mobile phone did for telecommunications," UTS research project director Chris Dunstan said.

Story sourced from: http://www.environmentalmanagementnews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=1002898

Australian Innovation Festival is on again

Throughout May there will be a number of Innovation festival events throughout Australia. For Australian Innovation Festival events listed so far go to page 133 of the festival magazine:
http://content.yudu.com/

The Illawarra has a major event planned for Monday May 25 from 2pm to 8.30pm at the University of Wollongong Innovation Campus Squires Way, Fairy Meadow (just north of the CBD of Wollongong). This includes tours of the Innovation Campus (including the Australian Institute of Innovative materials), short presentations on innovations in health, education, engineering, materials science and technology as well as a keynote lecture/demonstration on 3D stereo film and video applications. For details of events go to:

Keynote Lecture

Expos

Seminars

For other Illawarra activities before and after the May 25 event Click Here

If you would like your Australian Innovation Festival event publicised in your region please contact I&I as per the details at bottom of this column.

Previously advertised Event:

When the Going gets Tough, Smart Businesses get Going: Eric Tjoeng of CAD Partners shows how to survive and profit in this challenging economic environment.  This is a critical time to fine-tune the business model and focus on important business drivers such as revenue, price, cost of goods/services, margin, operating expenses, receivables, payables, and inventory/work in progress. 

Hosted By: NSW Department of State and Regional Development on 26 May 2009 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM at Level 2, 470 Church Street (cnr Harold Street), North Parramatta, 2151.  For more details click on:   http://events.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/Events.aspx?eventid=131

For other NSW Department of Regional Development business events Click Here

Your Ideas, Innovations or Events?

If you want publicity for an idea, innovation or technically related event, contact the I&I editor, Colin Seaborn on 4254 0200 or 0419 841829 or click here->

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