Wednesday, March 10, 2010Green Opportunities

Freeman RogersBVI Takes Baby Steps Towards Creating Green Economy

Local businessman Floyd Stoutt caught the green bug while watching television and travelling. All over the world, it seemed, people were talking about saving the environment — and many of them were bent on turning a profit while they were at it. About three years ago, Mr. Stoutt jumped on the bandwagon: He turned in his contractor’s hat and started a recycling business in Sea Cows Bay that crushes vehicles and sells them abroad for scrap metal.

“Before 2006, I was involved in cutting roads and foundations throughout Tortola,” Mr. Stoutt said. “But it got saturated, and it was time to diversify.”
The decision to take over the function from a Trinidad-based company was motivated both by economic concerns and by a desire to help the environment, according to Mr. Stoutt.

By compacting and shipping away as many as 2000 vehicles each year, he significantly reduces the territory’s solid waste stream. Certainly, then, a business like Mr. Stoutt’s benefits the Virgin Islands environment. But can it also earn a reasonable profit?

Asked if his business, which is subsidised by the government, pays as well as his former contractor work, Mr. Stoutt grinned and shrugged; “It’s balancing out,” he said, adding that he also augments his profits by operating an excavator he owns. Besides, some of Mr. Stoutt’s rewards can’t be measured in dollars. On a recent morning at his compound near the Ellis Thomas Downs, he gestured up to the surrounding green hills. “You see how this is? I’d like to see Tortola remain the same so we can breathe the fresh air.”

The businessman said he has several other ideas to help make that happen, but he was reluctant to share them for fear a potential competitor might be listening. He did volunteer, though, that he would like to start recycling tires. “When you shred them, you can put them in asphalt, or you can put them into concrete for roads,” he said.

But he was quick to point out that he’ll need help. Support from the government, the private sector, and the community would be necessary in establishing such recycling programmes here, according to the businessman. Mr. Stoutt believes the result would benefit residents and tourists alike. “We want to make Tortola an equal island within, say, the next ten years,” he said. “We want to recycle everything.”

Global trend
The so-called “green economy” has flourished internationally in recent years as consumers, businesses and governments have become increasingly concerned with protecting the environment. Green businesses like BVI Recycling are popping up in record numbers. Typically, they aim not just to make the world a better place, but to make a profit while they’re at it.

Some leaders and commentators have gone so far as to suggest that the sector is the answer to the global economic crisis. While touting a clean energy bill in June, United States President Barack Obama proclaimed, “The nation that leads in the creation of a clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy.” United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown struck a similar note in his budget address this year, calling for a global “green new deal” to stimulate economic growth around the world. In the international business community, yesterday’s fad has become mainstream: The New York Times now publishes a regular blog called Green Inc., and “green banks” designed to aid eco-friendly businesses and consumers are now popular in the United States and Europe. Meanwhile, billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson, the owner of Necker and Mosquito Islands in the BVI, recently unveiled the £240 million Virgin Green Fund to invest in eco-friendly projects. With characteristic optimism, Sir Richard is predicting a 30 percent return on the fund’s investments.

In the BVI
In this territory, Mr. Stoutt is not alone: A handful of businesses offering green goods and services have started up here in recent years, and some established businesses have been moving in a similar direction. But many businesspeople are quick to add a caveat similar to Mr. Stoutt’s: They cannot do it alone. Without the support of government, the private sector and the community, they said, they will struggle to survive.

Looking abroad, one can see their point. Much of the international green economy is fueled by pressure brought by concerned consumers, non-profit organisations and new legislation.
For example, the European Union announced in March that €105 billion, 30 percent of its regional policy budget for 2007-2013, will be invested in the green economy: About half of that is designed to help member states comply with EU environmental legislation. And the US, which traditionally has lagged behind many of its European counterparts in green initiatives, recently announced $2.3 billion in tax credits for manufacturers of clean energy equipment as part of President Obama’s stimulus package.

Non-profit help
In the BVI, there is plenty of untapped potential in the green economy, said Charlotte McDevitt, the executive director of Green VI, a non-profit organisation formed earlier this year. Ms. McDevitt, who recently completed a Master’s thesis on waste management in the BVI, believes that much of the territory’s trash can be saved from the incinerator and transformed into viable products. The benefits would be two-fold: In addition to stimulating the economy, such initiatives would help the BVI deal with an overwhelming profusion of solid waste. To jumpstart such ideas, Ms. McDevitt and other Green BVI board members, most of whom are Virgin Islanders, hope to promote green businesses here.

For starters, the group is planning a glass furnace in Trellis Bay, which would be used to turn recycled glass into vases, dishes and other art. The project would not make anyone rich: Ms. McDevitt said it would aim for self-sufficiency, with profits supporting the furnace’s operations, an apprenticeship programme and other community programmes. Green BVI also hopes to work with the Small Business Bureau to help other green companies get off the ground. “There are numerous projects that you can convert using paper as a resource, and quite a few applications for tires as well,” Ms. McDevitt said. “A lot of what we throw away is not waste at all. It’s very useful stuff.”

Recycling
Courtney Tomlingson and his wife Lorraine Wheatley couldn’t agree more. About three years ago, they started collecting glass bottles in hopes of selling them to an overseas recycling company for a profit. Today, they’re still at it, but they have yet to make a sale. Since the formation of their company, BVI Recycling, negotiations with several potential customers have fallen through. “Every time we had a shipment, we had a setback,” Ms. Wheatley said recently. Now, about 600 tonnes of crushed glass are piled up at a site near the Ellis Thomas Downs, in mountains of colourful shards that reach several feet high. Ms. Wheatley, who is also co-owner of the Anegada Reef Hotel, said she and her husband have high hopes that a Florida company will buy the glass in the near future. And, if that proves profitable, they plan to start recycling aluminium and plastic, too.

Solar power
Alternative energy is another rapidly growing facet of the green economy worldwide. Here, a small company called Alternative Energy Systems opened in 2004. Since then, the business has grown slowly but steadily, engineer Jacco Bos said on a recent afternoon in the company’s warehouse office in Purcell. Even though AES is feeling the pinch of the recession economy, Mr. Bos said, “Business is still good enough that it’s proving successful.”

To date, he estimates that AES has sold 50-75 solar-powered back-up power systems, which are often used in lieu of generators, and more than 100 solar hot water systems. Currently, much of the company’s business depends on customers who are willing to make an investment up front in hopes of earning their money back in the long term through reduced electricity or gas bills. “Economically, solar hot water is a great option in the Caribbean,” Mr. Bos said, adding that the systems typically pay for themselves in four to five years.

The company does its best to educate potential customers about such benefits, but eco-friendly government policies also would help bolster the alternative energy sector here, Mr. Bos said. Currently, for instance, the company pays a 10-20 percent duty on solar panels and other equipment it imports. Reducing or eliminating such duties on eco-friendly merchandise would lower the cost for consumers who wish to go green.

Other options are more complex. When Mr. Bos, a Canadian, talks about Ontario, Canada, his eyes light up. The city, he explained, has started using a “grid-tie” system where residents with solar panels are paid to produce and share electricity. On Ontario’s hottest days, power consumption is very high; but, on those same days, private solar panels draw energy from the sun and put it back into the grid, balancing out the drain. A similar system in the BVI, Mr. Bos believes, could help augment the power supplied by the BVI Electricity Corporation.

Green buildings
Some BVI businesses see going green as a necessity. Steve Fox, the managing director of the OBM International’s VI office, said the architecture firm is increasingly feeling pressure to provide environmentally friendly services. “I’ve always said that we have to do it; otherwise we’ll be a dinosaur,” Mr. Fox, a board member of Green BVI, said recently. “It’s not just good for business. We have to do it. We’re not doing it to be an innovator. We’re just trying to keep up.”

Today, homeowners and commercial developers around the world want their buildings to have green features. “In more cases than not, they’ll actually be looking for that these days,” Mr. Fox said. “Whether it’s for marketing purposes or they actually want do it right.”

One reason for that trend is the US-based Green Building Council. In 1998, the non-profit organisation developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification programme. To receive the LEED label, buildings must earn points based on energy efficiency, water conservation, proximity to public transportation, use of environmentally friendly materials and other factors. “By creating measurable green standards, the LEED programme has done an incredible job of transforming the construction industry in the United States,” Mr. Fox said.

That transformation might soon touch these islands. Hanging on a wall in a conference room at OBMI’s Road Reef office is a sketch depicting what Mr. Fox hopes will be the territory’s first LEED-certified building. Designed for JOMA Properties, the 60,000-square-foot commercial building would be constructed on the waterfront in Purcell if the developer decides to proceed. And, though LEED won’t certify homes here, OBMI is working with the St. John-based Island Green Builders Association in hopes of making local certification available soon.

The future
The sheer variety of new eco-friendly businesses here suggests that the territory’s green economy will continue to grow.

Patrick Mitchell, a former employee of the Water and Sewerage Department, operates BioSafe out of a small shop in Road Town. In addition to installing conventional wastewater treatment systems, the company, which opened about two years ago, offers several green products. The SludgeHammer system, which can be installed in lieu of a septic tank, converts sewage into water that can be used to irrigate a garden or a yard. Such technology is badly needed in the BVI, where many property owners improperly dispose of their wastewater, according to Mr. Mitchell.

Mr. Mitchell also sells grease interceptors that hook up to sinks to collect grease that might otherwise clog pipes or wash directly into the ocean. And, in the future, he hopes to start selling composting toilets. “The whole point is trying to change the way we think of wastewater,” Mr. Mitchell said. “Most of all, we need to protect the environment.”

Even the BVI fashion industry has started going green. Last December, Jenefer McSheene, a night manager at Peter Island Resort, opened a small store at Prospect Reef that sells eco-friendly clothes made by a company called The Earth Collection. Spun from cotton and silk, the dye-free shirts, pants and skirts are made from natural materials through processes that don’t harm the environment, Ms. McSheene said. So far, business has been slow in the quiet shop, but she has high hopes for the future.

Meanwhile, Premier Ralph O’Neal’s daughter Abby is seeing green everywhere she looks. In the spring, she plans to open a Road Town restaurant that she said will sell exclusively locally grown, organic food. Ms. O’Neal, another Green BVI board member, also is considering a business that will specialise in “green conversions,” such as retrofitting existing buildings with solar panels and other eco-friendly features. “I saw on an episode of Oprah once that you could reduce your energy bill just by putting little things in sockets,” she said.

Ms. O’Neal expects that these and other businesses will succeed: Given the chance to go green without too much hassle, most BVI residents would eagerly jump on board, she predicted. “I really believe that the BVI could be the most green country on the planet,” she said. “Because we’re so small, we can push legislation through. We can set an example on a global scale.”

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