Blue Marble Blog

In this Sustainable Industries column, Kelly Ogilvie, CEO of Blue Marble Biomaterials, discusses how renewable chemicals have not seen the federal support that biofuels and renewable energies have received, and how this may be stunting the clean tech industry from developing its most valuable assets.

To one third of consumers, purchasing green isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. Throughout the economic turmoil over the past three years, consumers who buy green have maintained their purchasing habits.

Market research conducted by Mintel1 shows that from 2006 to 2007 there was an enormous jump in green purchasing habits by consumers. At the end of 2007 the U.S. was headed into the biggest recession since the Great Depression.

Big changes, especially those that include a fine, take a while for the public to get used to. Federally mandated food waste collection, like so many laws, would be met with resistance by some and greeted with messianic acclaim by others. There would be concern that waste regulation could impinge on social liberties and lead to armies of governmental henchmen digging through one’s personal refuse. Opinion wars would rage on even after the initiative took effect. Then, gradually the opposition would lose interest as the benefits became clear. And the benefits would be undeniable.

A good friend of mine has two very life-like bees tattooed on her back, one on either shoulder blade. When asked their significance, she will happily explain that they are a personal reminder of the destruction and mayhem we humans wreck upon our environment. “Bees?” You might ask. “Not a beloved Hometree, toppled by greedy contractors amidst fire and brimstone?”

A single lump of coal, like the kind bad little kids might find in their stocking, is capable of producing 12,000 Btu or enough energy to power a 75-watt light bulb for 2 full days. Compared to oil, coal is easy to get out of the ground and dirt cheap, clocking in at 1/6 the cost of oil or natural gas per Btu.

So is coal the new lean, green fuel of the future? There are certainly some hoping and arguing that this is the case. With uncanny timing, considering the various discussions of capping or taxing C02 emissions, coal is being rebranded. “Clean coal” has been the buzzword on the lips of politicians and lay people alike, with the elusive promise that coal will be the low cost, low emissions fuel capable of maintaining our way of life. Heck, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) even called for the U.S. to become the “Saudi Arabia of clean coal” in their recent New York Times op-ed.

Arguments for sustainability can be counted on to come from the usual suspects like Al Gore and Ed Begley, but what if the call to action came from a different source, one long accustomed to sounding the muster?

Top brass in the Department of Defense have begun to take the idea of going green seriously for the uncomplicated reason that it makes strategic sense for national security. The United States military is the single largest purchaser and consumer of petroleum on the planet, burning through 340,000 barrels of oil per day according to NPR. That is 1.5 percent of the total energy consumed in the U.S. “If the Department of Defense were a country, it would rank about 38th in the world for oil consumption, right behind the Philippines, a country with a population of 90.5 million people,” says Michael Graham Richard of treehugger.com.

After a brief hiatus from the world of the blogeratti, I am pleased to return with good news. Over the past several weeks, the Blue Marble team has devoted itself to pushing forward numerous key developments which have now begun to bear fruit.

We are very excited to announce that we are launching BME’s first product featuring our carbon neutral bioesters. Through collaboration with local couture perfumery Sweet Anthem, we have developed a limited run fragrance line, EOS, which features both feminine and unisex scents. This fragrance line is a perfect example of the immediate, high value application of BME biochemicals, which act as direct replacements to petrochemicals already in the market.

Evidence points to the development of the human sense of taste as a mechanism to avoid being poisoned. How strange then that every day we are fooled into eating a substance that poisons ourselves and our planet, namely, oil.

Human taste buds can generally detect about half a dozen basic flavors including sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent, and the less well known umami (a Japanese word for “tasty” or “brothy”, it signifies the rich taste of amino acids in meat, shellfish, mushrooms, etc.). When compared to the sense of smell, however, taste is very limited. What we perceive as “flavor” is in fact primarily composed of the aroma being released by what’s in our mouth. Smell is responsible for about 90 percent of a food’s taste. The human nose can detect smells present in quantities as tiny as parts per trillion (equivalent to about 0.000000000003 percent). Smell is also inextricably linked to memory. Food manufacturers capitalize on this fact, creating “comfort food” flavors that illicit childhood or happy memories.

By this time you probably have a good grasp on why we at Blue Marble Energy are producing biochemicals, but you may be wondering what are biochemicals. If you are a fan of Wikipedia you may have been further confused by the definition of biochemistry as the study of the chemical process in living organisms. Well, don’t fret because the term is relatively new.

Biochemicals are compounds that mirror the structure of synthetic chemicals but have been produced from natural or organic sources rather than oil. Biochemicals and green chemicals have been somewhat interchangeable terms, though the latter is simply a loose umbrella term for anything that represents a reduction of hazardous substances.

Think of your body as a sponge. On the typical human there are said to be 1,000,000 pores per square inch of skin. The surface area of an average-sized person is reckoned to be around 14 square feet (a bit macabre, but interesting to consider). At 144 inches per square foot, and 1,000,000 pores per square inch, the average person has a whopping 2,016,000,000 tiny holes in their body. Suddenly Bubble Boy doesn’t seem so crazy.

We are literally saturated with chemicals, some of them with known toxicological properties. We’ve all become familiar with the toxic effects of eating mercury-laden fish, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Exposure to these chemicals happens in the most banal of ways: shampooing your hair, putting on lipstick, moisturizing your skin, drinking a cup of brewed coffee, handling industrial packaging, cooking with non-stick pans, driving your car, and even just sleeping.

Darwin’s theory is often summed up as “the survival of the fittest.” But what makes one species more fit than another is not physical strength (a common misunderstanding), it is adaptability: the skill and perseverance to adapt to a changing world.

No one now denies the world is constantly changing. The change in climate that we are experiencing could very well prove the ultimate test of humanity’s ability to adapt. Do we have that skill to adapt? Our actions or lack thereof in the coming years will answer that question.

There are less than 3 months until leaders meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to reach a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. While this will not be the final regulatory process on climate change, it will set a pivotal line in the sand for immediate action.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions will lead to an increase in average global temperatures of more than 4 degrees Celsius by 2050. While this number seems small, the effects globally would be catastrophic. Last July, world leaders committed to keep temperatures from rising above 2 degrees Celsius. To reach that goal, global emissions must peak before 2015, and be in decline by 2020. That leaves 6 years for nations across the globe to stabilize emissions in synchronized harmony.

Let’s face it. Humans aren’t going to out-engineer nature. After all, she has a 4 billion year head start on us. That’s a damn impressive R&D timeline. Despite this, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have become the next frontier for many industries.

Over the past decade, synthetic biology companies have sprung up all over the globe, attempting to engineer stronger, disease resistant crops, eradicate disease, or engineer the next “miracle” organism. Synthetic biology accounts for 1-2 percent of our national GDP, and that number is growing every year. Companies like Synthetic Genomics, Amyris, Sapphire, and LS9 have gone all-in for this approach with varying degrees of success. These companies have done everything from creating bacteria that consume CO2 to produce fuel (ok, I can roll with that), to literally replacing the entire DNA sequence of E. Coli bacteria (ala body snatchers).

On Friday, I had the honor of sitting down for a roundtable discussion with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Senator Patty Murray, Representative Jay Inslee and other key members of the Washington State energy community.

The Department of Energy has increased its effort to raise public awareness of the need to curb carbon emissions. Secretary Chu stressed the need for alignment on establishing renewable energy from the federal level, to public utilities, to private investor communities, all the way down to the manufacturing and supply. He recommended incentives for conservation and clean, renewable power to catalyze the shift away from polluting fossil resources. Senator Murray expressed her pride in Washington State as a working example of diverse renewable power options. Representative Inslee also praised the Evergreen State as a leader among energy efficiency and innovation.

Necessity is a powerful motivator. Choking on its own rapid industrialization, China has little choice but to go green. With polluted water, melting Himalayan glaciers, and contaminated soil, it was change, or allow the country to become uninhabitable.

At the recent U.N. climate change summit in New York, Chinese President Hu Jintao made commitments (albeit vague ones) to curb the growth of China’s greenhouse gas emissions, though the country will continue its rapid development. Meanwhile, U.S. leaders continue to imagine we have the leisure of time and choice.

October 7th – 9th the Blue Marble Energy team will be heading down to San Diego for the annual Algal Biomass Organization Summit. We are honored and excited to be speaking at the event for the third consecutive year. BME’s discussion will focus on the importance of biomaterial co-products for a truly sustainable business model. ABO Summit officials are expecting more than 800 attendees including thought leaders, entrepreneurs, policy makers and innovators from diverse industries across the nation.

Sometimes there are just no words. The following is the first of a monthly installment of OMG blog posts, for a healthy dose of laughter.

In the U.S. we throw out 130,000 computers every day and over 100 million cell phones every year. The first rule of the digital age is “newer is better.” It’s called planned obsolescence, and it’s responsible for everything from burnt-out light bulbs to death-by-battery-failure in certain mp3 players.

Worldwide, e-waste is the fastest growing category in municipal waste streams. In 2005, the EPA reported 2 million tons of discarded electronics in the U.S. The tonnage of discarded e-waste was 5-6 times greater than recycled e-waste. Computers, cameras, cell phones and TVs are smaller and sleeker every time you turn around but, like Aladdin’s lamp and members of the opposite sex, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium and polyvinyl chlorides are just a few of the materials found in e-waste with known toxicological and carcinogenic effects ranging from brain damage to kidney disease, to cancer and mutation.

Last Thursday, September 17th, the Blue Marble team had the privilege to attend the Sustainable Industries Economic Forum, and be represented on the speaker panel. The event drew a remarkable group of individuals, including Mayor Greg Nickels and author/activist Paul Hawken. Mayor Nickels kicked off the event, to thunderous applause, by noting that our society of “conspicuous consumption” must shift to one of “conspicuous conservation.”

As the keynote speaker, Hawken discussed the future of our climate, our society and what we need to do about it.

In our recent blog “Peak Everything: Food”, I mentioned the 100 mile diet. Unbeknownst to me (until now), September is the 100 mile diet month in Seattle! There could not be a more perfect time to discuss the simultaneously pleasant and valuable implications of eating locally.

Developed naturally around the world in response to our petroleum addiction and food woes, the “think global, eat local” movement has been inspired and publicized thanks to self-proclaimed San Francisco foodies (www.100milediet.org, The 100 Mile Diet), ecologist Gary Paul Nabham (Coming Home to Eat), writer Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food), and most recently blogger Colin Beaven (www.noimpactman.com).

It is incredible that climate change is still debated as if the science is something one does or does not believe in. While politicians waste time arguing, the greatest threat to the human race is hurtling along unchecked. It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. The problem is no longer a lack of public consensus. It is not a lack of technology. The problem now is Lack of Leadership.

We’re struggling to get out of a really bad relationship. The object of our adoration seemed pretty cool at first but has since trashed our home, beat up our mom, and is now fleecing us for everything we’ve got.

While not everyone agrees with the concept of “peak everything,” we can all agree that there is only a fixed amount of natural resources available. That makes the current system of cradle-to-grave consumption, by definition, unsustainable. The current system is content to let million starve. It’s willing to destroy precious, nonrenewable resources. It’s eager to make short-term profits at the expense of the long-term good.

We all like to eat. Last year was the biggest global harvest in world history, yet stockpiles of grain shrunk by 53 million tons. For the last 5 years we have officially been eating more grain than we have produced.

There are three major resources that global populations count on for food: corn, rice, and fish. What about meat, you might ask? I will answer your question with a question: what do you think the cows eat? (Hint: sadly, the answer isn’t the Jonas Brothers)

According to the U.N., well over half the Earth’s forests have been lost in just the last 30 years. Just one fifth of the Earth’s original forests exist. Every minute, the equivalent of 50 soccer fields of forest is lost.

Over 70 percent of the world’s remaining trees are now concentrated in just 3 countries: Russia, Canada, and Brazil. In the U.S., 95 percent of old growth forests are gone (with the remaining 5 percent almost entirely in Alaska). This means that soon treehuggers will have to be called something else.

We don’t often worry about a lack of dirt. We use the words “dirty” or “soiled” to describe pitted out gym clothes. We seem to have zero respect for a resource without which life on earth could not exist. Often what we take for granted is the most likely to disappear.

With human populations expanding like some zombie apocalypse, there are going to be a lot of new mouths to feed. The planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil (good dirt), the fragile, nutrient rich membrane that supports life and allows us to grow food. It took ten thousand years to produce about 6 inches of that topsoil. Earth is losing “earth” 10 to 20 times faster than it can replenish it, according to University of Washington geologist David Montgomery. In the past 50 years, a quarter of the planet’s topsoil has been lost, and 30 percent of what remains has been categorized as damaged. The planet is literally being skinned.

We as a species are completely exceeding the carrying capacity of the earth. By next year, 7 billion people will be living on our planet. Just chew on that number for a minute. Our collective demand surpassed the Earth’s natural capacity in 1980. That’s like 30 years ago! We now exceed Earth’s resource yield capacity by 30 percent.

Earth’s resources are nearly spent. Let’s set aside peak oil for a moment (though it will likely have the most immediate impact) and focus on the other resources upon which we depend as human beings.

Six inches. That’s all that covers the telltale signs of our ravenous consumer culture.

Buried in landfills under a mere six inches of soil, our solid waste is quickly reaching capacity. Habits are hard to break, and we have a doozy. We are used to consuming without thought to the consequences. In the not-too-distant future we could be up to our ears in trash, WALL-E style. There are 1,794 landfills in the U.S. and the EPA estimates that they will reach maximum capacity in the next 20 years.

As Washingtonians, we (very rightly) take the credit for inventing grunge, pioneering software, and making the best damn lattés this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Well now we have a real opportunity to clinch our domination of all things progressive. A window has been thrown open to the up-and-coming development and practical application of clean technologies. To really make the most of this opportunity we need the active participation of our state’s consumers, elected officials, and private investment community

The word “bacteria” usually brings to mind nasty bouts of food poisoning, unsanitary kitchens, or contagious disease. For being absolutely essential to the functioning of our planet, these microorganisms really have the worst PR.

Bacteria make up most of the planet’s biomass, and as far as we’ve ever drilled into the ground there they’ve been. In one gram of soil there is typically an astounding 40 million bacterial cells. As humans, we are a virtual walking microbe Ark with bacteria cells outnumbering our human cells 10 to 1. The hard-working microorganisms have begun to receive recognition as the future labor force of the clean technology sector.

Our society is built on oil. Those clothes you’re wearing: oil. That computer you’re using: oil. That food you’re eating: oil. Disgusting, eh?

It is important to recognize that oil is far more than just energy. Our entire economy is built on sweet crude oil, which has enabled human populations to multiply rapidly. But the ugly truth is that now we’re running out. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year, but peak oil is coming. Are we really just going to sit on our hands, bemoaning our fate, or are we going to be smarter than the oil?

While there’s nothing new in Washington D.C. finding itself at the center of controversy, the recent Cap & Trade debate is special. I can’t help but feel somewhat encouraged by the bill, as it’s the first real acknowledgement of climate change by our new government. While it might be flabby enough to conjure up images of Jabba the Hutt, if it becomes law this bill will be the first legislation to put the kibosh (however weak) on greenhouse gas emissions. We can only hope it will encourage a massive shift to renewable, clean sources of energy.

The Blue Marble Energy team has been in New York City for the past week, attending the World Technology Network Summit and Awards gala. We were nominated for a WTN award in the category of Energy, and had the honor of attending alongside innovators such as Honda, the Phoenix Mars Mission, Facebook, and YouTube. Among the attendees was Rwandan President Paul Kagame. During a keynote speech, His Excellency discussed the growing global resource competition, both internationally and as it applies to the continent of Africa.