Business Review Features Viability for Grant Success, Industry Insights
Holland company helps businesses go green
By Olivia Pulsinelli
Business Review West Michigan, Nov. 17, 2009
For companies that want to pursue energy efficiency or renewable sources of energy, financing the effort may be the biggest hurdle.
Holland-based Viability, an economic development consulting firm, provides consulting and grant-writing assistance for those companies. Last month, Viability helped five companies across the country win grants from the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program. These federal grants fund portions of energy-efficiency or renewable-energy projects in designated rural areas.
Byrnes at the Knowledge Economy Event. Photo by Johnny Quirin
Viability President Chris Byrnes has seen an increased interest in clean-energy grants, but those available directly to businesses are “few and far between.” Most of the incentives available for improving energy efficiency go to municipalities.
Even when companies are very driven to lower their energy costs or move away from using fossil fuels, renewable-energy systems often do not pay for themselves as quickly as many companies need.
“A lot of times, these projects are more expensive than the standard option, so it won’t meet those kinds of returns,” Byrnes said. “So if we can knock off 25 to 50 percent of the project cost, then all of a sudden, this project that has a lot of great merits to it — which is why they started looking at it in the first place — now starts to fit with their corporate-investment structure a little bit better.”
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Post on Nov 29 in Viability in the NewsEmissions and Corporate America
Businesses in U.S. Brace for New Rules on Emissions
By Jad Mouawad
The New York Times, Nov. 25, 2009
The nation’s corporations have long been bracing for the day when they would be required to carry out sharp cuts in the emissions that cause global warming. That day seemed to move a bit closer on Wednesday, when President Obama outlined a national target for such reductions.
Much of corporate America has already been thinking about how to comply. Many businesses concluded years ago that such limits were inevitable, and they have been calling on Congress to define the exact rules they will need to follow.
Already, many companies are recording their emissions and analyzing the results. Some have set voluntary targets for reductions and are claiming substantial progress in meeting them. Sustainability — a notion mostly heard in environmental circles only a decade ago — has become a mainstream idea to which some companies are committed and many are paying lip service.
Major corporations, including General Electric, the Ford Motor Company and PepsiCo, have teamed up with environmental groups to set up the United States Climate Action Partnership, a wide-ranging coalition trying to find ways to cut emissions throughout the economy.
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Post on Nov 26 in Related storiesNew Job Efforts May Include Growing Solar with Tax Credits
Tax credits eyed for solar energy firms amid Obama’s push for ‘green jobs’
By Ben Geman
The Hill, Nov 18, 2009
Solar energy companies are lobbying for new tax credits for domestic manufacturers that would come on top of subsidies included in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted earlier this year.
The effort is unfolding alongside the Obama administration’s push to spur “green” jobs by expanding this kind of manufacturing.
For instance, the Energy Department provided a $535 million loan guarantee to a solar panel maker this year, and is also helping finance expansion of a wind turbine plant.
The administration argues the U.S. is falling behind other countries in its capability to produce such materials.
Capitol Hill Democrats, meanwhile, are vowing new jobs legislation that backers might eye as a vehicle for the new tax credits for solar panel components.
“If Congress does, because of high unemployment, pass a jobs growth bill, the manufacturing tax credit is a perfect fit,” said John Stanton, a lobbyist for the Solar Energy Industries Association.
“The sole purpose of the bill is to create new jobs,” he said.
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Post on Nov 19 in Related storiesViability Graces GR Business Journal for REAP Success
Holland firm secures USDA energy grants
By Pete Daly
Grand Rapids Business Journal, Nov. 9, 2009
In a thorough Grand Rapids Business Journal article, Viability’s Chris Byrnes and Greg Lam explain the company’s $1.3 million success through the USDA Rural Energy for America Program.
When asked regarding Viability’s most successful energy technologies, Byrnes clarifies the company’s typical client.
“Most of our clients are ag-related businesses,” said Byrnes. “They are a food processor, a greenhouse grower, wood processing …”
In essence, he said, the clients are either in agriculture or natural resources-related businesses “and they tend to be a lot of thermal energy projects.” Food processors, for example, use a great deal of heat in cooking food products during the canning process. Greenhouses also require a great deal of BTUs through the winter months to maintain growing temperatures.
Byrnes said Viability is sometimes involved in wind and solar energy projects but its work is mainly thermal energy. “The incentives for thermal energy are less prescriptive than the electric incentives,” he said.
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Post on Nov 12 in Viability in the NewsAlternative Energy a Michigan Solution, Now?
Michigan businesses making strides in the alternative-energy industry
By Olivia Pulsinelli
West Michigan Business Review, Nov. 12, 2009
Whether for environmental or economic reasons, the country and the state have paid a lot of attention to alternative energy in the past few years.
A recent study conducted by professors from the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Illinois and Yale University, said adopting comprehensive clean-energy and climate-protection legislation, like the American Clean Energy and Security Act, could create as many as 1.9 million jobs nationwide and between 37,000 and 42,000 in Michigan.
The study, “Clean Energy and Climate Policy for U.S. Growth and Job Creation,” reported a likely growth in real GDP and average real household income, as well.
Birgit Klohs, president and CEO of The Right Place Inc. in Grand Rapids, said Michigan definitely will see job creation from the alternative-energy industry, but maybe some types more than others.
“Our strategy at The Right Place is pretty much a twofold strategy,” Klohs said. “One, help your existing manufacturers diversify into this industry if, in fact, they have the capabilities.
“And two, look at where the supply chain is, and if we’re missing key pieces in the supply chain, find companies that can fill in the blanks.”
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Post on Nov 12 in Related storiesViability Client, Green Circle Growers, Makes Headlines with Orchid Expansion
Driving Sales & Value
The next generation of van Wingerdens at Green Circle Growers has led the way in making the company a sales-driven organization and executed a vision to bring orchids to the masses
By Delilah Onofrey, Editor
Greenhouse Grower, November 2009
Well-established as a state-of-the-art production leader, Green Circle Growers in Oberlin, Ohio, remains on the cutting edge in a new era, partnering with retailers to drive sales and really zeroing in on what consumers are buying and their interests. This year marked its big entry into the phalaenopsis orchid market, with the first high volume shipments to stores in February for Valentine’s Day sales. Green Circle also continues to be a leader in green technologies and recently installed what may be the most modern biomass heating complex (video) for a greenhouse operation in the United States.
Founded by John van Wingerden in 1968, Green Circle has grown to span 90 acres of greenhouse production, producing plugs and liners, bedding plants and potted plants year round. The retail customer base is a mix of regional, national and international chains, including mass merchandisers, home improvement centers, supermarkets, wholesale clubs and independent garden centers. Green Circle also is a plug and liner powerhouse serving growers through sister brokerage company Express Seed.
(The rest of the article explores Green Circle Growers’ novel orchid marketing campaign, along with their expansion in sustainable production, and other great innovations)
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Post on Nov 08 in Viability in the News