All Aboard! Heading West

Taking the train through the Rockies has long been on my list of things to do. Recently, I added that to the accomplishments pile.

The trip started with a bus ride from Madison, Wisconsin to Union Station in Chicago. I had planned to stash my rolling suitcase and computer bag in a locker for a couple of hours, then head over to Millenium Park to experience this new urban space firsthand.

Locker technology has changed considerably since I last put a couple of quarters into one. At Union Station the lockers are governed by a central control panel that requires you to scan a fingerprint twice to activate a locker. The cost? A lot more than a couple of quarters. When I realized that I would spend $8.00 for two hours of freedom from my bags, I decided to sacrifice convenience. Let's see - 40 or so lockers at $4.00 per hour. Okay, I'm in the wrong business. Add to that to do list - find out what company is behind these lockers.

Of course, it was rainy, windy and relatively cold in Chicago that day - rather miserable conditions for walking to Millenium Park. However, I was committed and would not be deterred. I had seen the scuptures, video art, gardens and other amenities of the park in articles and from 30 floors up in a nearby building. It was contextual to experience them on the ground, particularly when I walked to the Cloud Gate, looking for a little relief from the drizzle. Under Cloud Gate I met one of the few other souls in the park. In what is an all-too-common reminder of the fact that the economic downturn has a lot of personal faces, he asked me for spare change.

Buying domestic - by way of China

I shopped at Harry and David prior to the holidays to put together a grilling-themed gift for the give-and-get pile that has become a family tradition. I selected cedar grilling planks and a variety of marinades and sauces.

The planks were cut from American-grown cedar. The planks were then shipped to China where they were sorted and wrapped with a printed label in clear plastic. Finished packages were shipped back to the US for distribution to Harry and David stores throughout the country.

Think about it. Harry and David found it to be cost-effective to ship American goods to China just for the sake of packaging.

Raising the Bar

I just finished a great read - Raising the Bar. I was drawn to this book while reading Small Giants, a book that showcases 14 companies that made the decision to focus on quality and remain independent.

Raising the Bar tells the story of Clif Bar & Company. from the perspective of one of the founders - Gary Erickson. In a nutshell, Gary got the idea for a good tasting, healthy bar during an epiphany at the end of a long bike ride. After months of development in his Mom's kitchen, the first Clif Bar was introduced by Gary and his partner. Tapping into natural demand for their products, the company grew quickly. After turning down $120M for the company, Gary bought out his partner and refocused the company on a foundation of five aspirations:

1. Sustain the brands
2. Sustain the company
3. Sustain the people
4. Sustain the community
5. Sustain the planet

This is a useful model, predicated on commitment, for creating a sense of shared understanding about the company, for setting goals, and for guiding decision making. At the end of each year, Clif Bar & Company reflects on performance against each of these aspirations.

I encourage you to read Raising the Bar for the details, and to understand why Clif Bar & Company chose to become what Gary metaphorically calls a white road company rather than a red road company.

Touring an ethanol plant

How many ears of corn are there on a single stalk of corn that has been grown for use as grain? The answer, and its implications for the future of ethanol, in a minute.

Recently, I had the pleasure of riding along with Nelson Graham, an agronomist with UAP Corporation, as he checked the condition of bean and corn crops grown by two of his client farmers in Dane County, Wisconsin. Afterward, we drove north to Cambria to tour the United Wisconsin Grain Producers (UWGP) Ethanol Plant. The plant, only a few years old, produced more than 50 million gallons of ethanol last year. Capacity of the plant in its present configuration is 60 million gallons.

The plant is essentially a large distillery. Corn grown by area farmers (18 million bushels last year) is combined with water (up to 500,000 gallons per day) and two enzymes. The enzymes convert the starch in corn to sugar. Yeast is then introduced to convert the sugar to alcohol. The mix reaches 13 percent alcohol content before it is distilled to remove the water. Ultimately, the alcohol reaches 200 proof. The ethanol is sold to oil companies where it is blended with gasoline in ratios ranging from 10% to 85% ethanol.

The UWGP plant produces two byproducts. One of the byproducts is distiller’s grain, which contains the residual fat and protein content of the corn. Some of it is sold in a wet state to area farmers for use as feed. The remainder is dehydrated in large drum dryers to create a meal that is shipped all over the world, also for use as animal feed. Click on the image for a larger view of dried distiller's grain.

The other byproduct is CO2. An enzyme in the yeast breaks down simple sugar during fermentation, forming ethanol and carbon dioxide:

C6H12O6 ----- 2 CH3CH2OH + 2 CO2

At this point, UWGP is not willing to invest in sequestering or otherwise offsetting the CO2. Rather, the CO2 is simply allowed to dissipate. Ethanol supplants the need for a percentage of the gasoline we use, but at a price in terms of CO2 emissions.

On Friday, July 25, 2008, Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland, Deere & Company and DuPont announced a new cooperative initiative. Their Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy will spend several million dollars to advertise and lobby so as to build the case that new approaches can make crop-based fuels like ethanol and bio diesel economically feasible while still meeting the food needs of the world.

Not long ago the CEO of Monsanto claimed during an interview broadcast on CNBC that his company possesses the knowledge to create hybrid corn seed that will double the yield per acre with fewer inputs. However, the article on the Alliance suggested that Monsanto “hopes to double the yield-per-acre of crops like corn and soybeans by 2030” and that Pioneer Hi-Bred, a division of DuPont, plans to boost yields produced by its seeds by 40 percent within a decade.

What does the Alliance want? Clearly they want to counter the efforts of the Wholesale Grocers Association and other outspoken critics of ethanol. In addition, they want to preserve the current federal mandate that requires the use of 9 billion gallons of alternative fuel annually by 2009. Finally, the Alliance hopes to obtain funding for agricultural research and development that it says is needed to increase crop yields.

Now, back to the question posed at the outset. Today, corn that is grown for grain produces one ear per stalk. It is unlike sweet corn, the usual point of reference for consumers with any experience picking corn, which can produce multiple ears per stalk.

As we drove away from the ethanol plant, Nelson noted that corn is capable of producing an ear wherever a leaf emerges from the stalk. However, corn has been bio engineered to create a uniform crop in an effort to make farming increasingly productive. In addition to the single ear, the stalk has been strengthened, separation between stalks has been reduced, and resistance to disease has been enhanced.

So, I will leave you with more questions. If Monsanto has the intellectual wherewithal to double yields now (two ears per stalk?), why will it take federal dollars to fund the research? As importantly, why will it take until 2030 to see such crops? Between now and then, how do we balance the need for fuel and food if corn-based ethanol remains the dominant alternative?


A note about Nelson Graham. In addition to his work as an agronomist, Nelson is an accomplished singer-songwriter-musician. Many of his songs are poignant observations about life and change in the country. Others reflect his commitment to social and political justice. Nelson is on the Board of Art in the Barn and performs frequently in and around Madison. Sample his work at www.nelsongraham.com.

What are we going to build and where?

Roof structure, Warner Park - Madison, Wisconsin

Click for larger view

As noted in Architecture 2030’s Blueprint for action to reduce CO2 emissions, we have an opportunity to transform the built environment and dramatically reduce energy use in buildings as we construct, renovate and demolish 11 to 12 billion square feet of buildings each year in the U.S. But, what are we going to build and where will we build it?

Will population continue to concentrate in metropolitan areas, as has been the dynamic for the last century? If so, will the concentration continue to occur in existing metropolitan areas where many of the expensive investments in infrastructure have already been made? Or will changes in transportation, information and energy technologies make less dense living feasible and preferable for increasing numbers of individuals and families?

Ray Kurzweil, in his challenging and fascinating book The Singularity is Near, describes the exponential development curves we’re experiencing in artificial intelligence, genetics, nanotechnology and robotics. Applied to transportation, nanotechnology guided by artificial intelligence will surely make existing modes of transport smarter, lighter and more energy efficient. Longer term, virtual experiences which change the way we define travel and completely new modes will portend changes in the way we self-organize in communities and in the shape of our living spaces.

Subsequent posts will explore sustainable self-organizing, beginning with an effort to make sense of what we are doing now.