Sustainability : Innovation + Job News

When people ask who e-Cycle's biggest competitors are, the answer comes easily to Tonia Irion.

"The closet, the drawer or the warehouse," says Irion, e-Cycle's VP of marketing.

e-Cycle has risen quickly within the environmental industry by building its own niche recycling smart phones. While businesses (and individuals) are still likely to stash away their outdated devices, word is getting out that there's another option, Irion says.

Founded in 2005 by Irion and husband Chris (e-Cycle's president), the Hilliard firm buys up old wireless devices -- mainly phones, and primarily from businesses -- and either recycles them for parts (phones more than two years old) or wipes them of all data and resells them to overseas markets.

e-Cycle's services seem to have met a long-simmering need. The company's revenues rose to $3.5 million in 2009 over the previous year's $1 million, and Tonia Irion says the numbers for 2010 could be double that. The comapany counts 15 of the Fortune 20 companies as customers, as well as numerous small businesses and government.

Meanwhile, employment has risen from 29 employees at end of 2009 to 65 today, and e-Cycle wants to hire an additional 20 sales reps in the next three to four months.

That kind of growth placed e-Cycle 14th on the BusinessFirst Fast 50 list for central Ohio and ranked it 8th in its industry on the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies of 2010.

Irion says the growth is due partly to a good partnership with Verizon Wireless and partly to business practices that include investing in strong sales teams and "making sure every decision we're making is going to generate revenue for the company."

Source: Tonia Irion, e-Cycle
Writer: Gene Monteith

Students at St. Martin-based Chatfield College  have begun registering for a new, free 15-week course and six-week summer practicum in sustainable energy made possible by the Duke Energy Foundation.

The course will cover current forms of energy used in the U.S. and around the world, as well as what to do on a personal level, according to instructor Eric Davenport.

"We will also be researching specific subjects that involve potential projects to reduce energy consumption at the St. Martin campus. This is important primarily for the follow-up course offered in the summer of 2011," says Davenport, who adds he has been talking to students about sustainability for years.

This course "is important to most of us in a variety of ways from saving money on utility bills to those who follow the 'green movement' to the very letter. It is a wonderful opportunity to be able to inform and assist those who want to know more to improve their own lives and directly/ indirectly improve the health of the environment at the same time," he says.

Chatfield, a private, Catholic, liberal arts college, hopes to expand the course to the Cincinnati campus next year.

The Duke Energy Foundation awards grants for projects that address the environment and energy efficiency, economic development and community vitality. It also gives money to employees and retirees who volunteer in their communities; matches 50 cents on the dollar for all employee and retiree contributions to 501(c)(3) organizations, and matches dollar for dollar for all educational institutions.

Source: Britney Grimmelsman, Chatfield College
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Green jobs may well be the key to future prosperity in Greater Cincinnati, says a locally-sponsored study that recommends a Green Jobs Council, among other things, to jump start the region on the path toward growth in the rapidly expanding global green marketplace.

The report, "Pathways and Policies Towards Green Jobs in Cincinnati," was released in October and was sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and the Blue Green Alliance.

In addition to a Green Jobs Council, the report also recommends:

- Defining green jobs
- Supporting existing companies in their efforts to transition to green jobs
- Developing a strong funding model to support additional investment
- Adding "green strings" to existing government incentives
- Adding, aligning and enhancing existing policies for green jobs

The project was launched in part due to a 2009 study released by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which listed Ohio as having the fourth most green jobs in the nation. Ohio was noted as having 2,800 green manufacturing related jobs, behind Oregon, Minnesota and California, which was the clear front-runner with over 13,000 green jobs.

The state is projected to lose as much as four percent of its traditional manufacturing jobs in the next four years. The report's goal is to intensify efforts to attract green manufacturing to the state to offset the loses of skilled manufacturing jobs in other areas. It also focuses on how to define more jobs as "green," says Shawn Hesse, an architect with Emersion Design and one of the authors of the study.

"If we keep the definition of green jobs too narrow, we'll never get to where we want to be. We should be focusing on 'greening' our existing jobs," he says.

The study concludes that Cincinnati's workers have the right skills to succeed in green manufacturing jobs and that these jobs can mean that manufacturing can continue to be a vital part of the region's economy. To make this happen, it says, governments, businesses, unions, non-profits and education organizations will have to work together to develop an economic strategy and policies.

Source: Shawn Hesse, Emersion Design
Writer: Val Prevish

Some of the nastiest environmental problems have the smallest solutions.

In the case of chemical spills -- particularly where solvents used in dry cleaning or as industrial degreasing agents, and fuel spills where hydrocarbons contaminate water or soil -- a Cincinnati company is making its name offering one of the smallest and most effective solutions.

Cincinnati-based CL Solutions, founded in 1999 out of a local environmental consultancy, is pioneering the use of tiny one-celled microbes to fight contamination. Over millions of years, the naturally occurring microbes have developed the ability to not only survive in contaminated environments, but thrive in them.

"You always read about biologists going all over the world and investigating how various plants and animals can be used to develop medicines," explains Mike Saul, CL Solution's vice president. "Microbiologists do the same thing, though they've found these tiny microbes that break down contaminants. They feed on them."

Behind them, they leave a clean, reclaimed environment, converting the contaminants into harmless, naturally recyclable by-products. They also do the job quicker than conventional methods, completing the job in a matter of weeks or months, rather than years.

To date, Saul says, CL Solutions has been responsible for more than 300 clean-ups across the country. The company's biggest success has been in Denver, where rifle scope and binocular producer Redfield Inc. suffered a huge chlorinated solvent contamination. After a decade of studies and other clean-up attempts, Redfield turned to CL Solutions.

"It was a huge plume, contaminating miles of land and affecting groundwater," says Saul. "There were residential areas included in that plume, and we were able to help protect those residents from the contamination. That's probably the project that we're most proud of."

Source: Mike Saul, CL Solutions
Writer: Dave Malaska

On a farm outside of Millersburg, Mike Malicky has figured out a way not only to use more bio-based waste more efficiently, but also reclaim nutrient-depleted farmland in the process.

Malicky, a Kansas native and owner of Mother Earth Farm, has been working for years on finding the answer on how to turn agricultural waste into agricultural treasure. Working in conjunction with several agricultural producers, he's in the process of patenting specialized formulas and processes that could prove to be a breakthrough in agricultural efficiency, bringing new life to old land and even converting some of the waste to electricity. His work has implications for other land, too, like former sites damaged by years of strip-mining. Malicky earned praise last year for reclaiming a strip mining site near Dundee, turning it into productive farmland it little more than 18 months.

Until the patent process on his current project he has to remain tight-lipped, he says, but does admit that he's excited by its potential benefits.

"People have tried for decades to do what we're doing," says Malicky. "We've figured out how to do it inexpensively, efficiently, on a smaller scale. We're in the research and development phase now, looking at how to produce it on a large scale to be able to bring it to the market as an even more affordable product than anything currently available."

Last summer, his new start-up company, Bio-Ag Solutions LLC, joined with Ohio University's Innovation Center in Athens, opening an office there while it works on finalizing the patent process and completing its research. Malicky hopes that within a few months, the legal processes will be complete and Bio-Ag Solutions' work will be revealed to the public. Until then, he's continuing to work on even more formulas to improve agricultural efficiency.

Source: Mike Malicky, Bio-Ag Solutions
Writer: Dave Malaska

When up and running, the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Center will represent a first-of-its-kind effort to make Ohio a leader in creating clean energy jobs.

A groundbreaking is planned for October for the new 20,000-square-foot Center in Lima. The center, a non-profit incubator, will initially house a flexible fabrication and robotic assembly demonstration project. It will focus on several technology clusters including design and development, sustainable energy, advanced materials, agile tooling, additive manufacturing technologies, simulation software and others.

The center is designed to create new, high tech manufacturing jobs in Ohio. The state has a history of manufacturing and innovation, but has lost some manufacturing jobs like much of the Midwest as global economic conditions have shifted. State economic development leaders and government officials in Lima see the center as way to recapture the state's manufacturing tradition by creating new manufacturing solutions and processes.

The center is backed by state and federal dollars, including $1 million the federal government awarded the project in 2009.
 
It's just been awarded a $457,375 state Roadwork Development Grant, and the center has applied for a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

A site for the center was chosen and secured within Lima's Ohio Job Ready Site program site located on South Main Street, says Judith Cowan, the center's president. 

Sources: Ohio Department of Development and Judith Cowan, president Ohio Advanced Energy Manufacturing Center
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Ohio soybeans instead of fishmeal in fish foods? It's a good idea whose time has come, says Dave Smith, and later this year his Freshwater Farms will start a pilot project to prove it.

Smith, who has a doctorate in fish nutrition, tried the idea a few years ago, even launching the company Freedom Feeds. He says his product was good, but its price was not as competitive as the traditional kind.

Now, largely because of damage to the fish population since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, fish meal prices are expected to double � opening the door to a good market for a grain and insect protein feed. Smith says the U.S. Soybean Council and Ohio Department of Agriculture support aquaculture, and he plans to take up his feed project again within the next year.

Freshwater Farms is a busy place already. Three generations of Smiths work at the Champaign County site, where they raise a variety of fish. They sell pond equipment, also. The Smiths' fish are sold to stock ponds and lakes � but also, to go straight to the dinner table. By operating their own FDA-inspected processing plant and 40-by-40 retail shop, they offer smoked trout, trout dips and other goodies.

Because of his expertise, Smith has consulted with people who want to convert their hog and cattle barns to fish farms. Fish are cleaner and better for the environment, he says.

Sidenote: The 9th annual Ohio Fish and Shrimp Festival will be held at Freshwater Farms Sept. 17-19.

Source: Dave Smith, Freshwater Farms
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Estech believes it has found a clean energy alternative to fossil fuels -- and a way to keep from filling up landfills. With sales pending around the world, it's hoping that when the technology catches on, it will create hundreds of new Ohio jobs developing and building garbage-baking autoclaves.

Founded in 1998, the Powell-based company takes municipal waste and cooks it down to usable components.

"When we get through with that, it's easy to separate out the fiber, which is really clean when we separate it out, and metals, aluminum and plastics," says Ted Thomas, manager of engineering. "And all of those have a value in a recycle market."

Thomas says Estech is well positioned to provide both cheaper electricity -- by burning processed biomass -- and savings on municipal landfill costs.

While the process is straightforward, the market realities are more complicated. In the United States, it's now difficult to compete with a typical landfill's low "tipping fees" -- the cost of dumping garbage. Regulations also present a barrier to hooking up generators to the existing power grid, Thomas says.

But in much of Europe, where land is more limited and tipping fees represent a hefty cost for waste generators, Thomas says Estech, through Estech Europe, expects to make significant inroads into the marketplace. Likewise, Estech sees opportunity in developing countries where the cost of dumping may be free (in other words, along the road) but the cost of electricity is extremely high.

Thomas says the company now believes it could also operate profitably in the U.S., reducing the need for landfills and providing electricity cheaper than utilities -- if it can hurdle the barriers to market entry.

Estech received a TechColumbus Green Innovation award last year. It employs seven.

Source: Ted Thomas, Estech
Writer: Gene Monteith

Global Neighbor has struck a chord with dandelion haters who want to kill the buggers in an environmentally friendly way.

Jon Jackson, president of the Dayton-based company, reports that by the end of the year he expects to sell his 1,000th unit of the NaturZap, a device that kills broadleaf weeds without chemicals.

The company was formed in 2003, and in 2006 piloted the NaturCut, an energy-efficient, battery-operated, shear-cut lawn mower. While Global Neighbor is still working on a cost-competitive design for the NaturCut, gardeners seem to have found a new friend in the AC-driven NaturZap, which was rolled out in 2008.

The device works with a combination of high heat -- which damages the root system -- and natural processes that introduce fungus into the damaged root.

That's good news for consumers like Jackson, who says his lab/pit bull mix gets a rash every time it encounters a chemically treated lawn.

NaturZap is sold primarily through online organic gardening outlets and is on back order, Jackson says. While the product is currently manufactured overseas, he intends to move production to Tipp City as volumes increase. Jackson also hopes to increase his number of employees from one -- himself -- to three next year.

Jackson is working on a souped-up, battery driven NaturZap. But he hasn't given up on the NaturCut's technology -- in fact, he hopes to springboard off of both products to create "a lawn care solution that has zero environmental impact," he says. "We envision something that is self propelled or you push through the lawn. It cuts the grass, it kills the weeds, it applies an organic fertilizer, all under computer control."

The company has benefited from a $12,500 Third Frontier grant through the Dayton Development Coalition, resulting in matching funds from private sources.

Source: Jon Jackson, Global Neighbor
Writer: Gene Monteith

The City of Cincinnati is emerging as a U.S. leader in tackling global climate change through its Green Cincinnati Action Plan, an effort to cut Greenhouse Gas emissions 8 percent by 2012 and 80 percent by 2050.

The plan, which City Council passed in 2008, recently got a major boost with a $500,000 Climate Showcase Community Award from the Environmental Protection Agency. The city's Office of Environmental Quality was awarded the highly competitive grant that will be paid out over three years. In addition, the EPA will highlight the city's efforts � which include 80 specific steps to reduce emissions � as an example for other cities looking for ways to clean up pollution. Currently more than 1,000 U.S. cities have some sort of plan to curb emissions.

"Our Green Cincinnati Action Plan is a collaboration among dedicated citizens, community organizations, and businesses in our region. Our partners all realize that making Cincinnati a 'Green City' is essential to making Cincinnati a successful city," said Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory.

Cincinnati was one of just 20 cities awarded the grant out of a total of 450 applicants. It will allow the city to continue to move forward on its ambitious plan. Recommendations include buying hybrid buses, encouraging car pooling, increased bus use and a regional rail system.

"This funding will provide a tremendous boost to fulfilling the vision and programs in the Green Cincinnati Action Plan" said Larry Falkin, director of the City of Cincinnati's Office of Environmental Quality.

Source: City of Cincinnati
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

According to Mark Heiman, president of Tulong, the typical cotton-garment manufacturing process works something like this: A subsistence farmer in a developing nation plants genetically modified cotton seed. While growing, the foliage is showered with a steady diet of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, which have a nasty habit of tainting nearby waterways. Ever thirsty, the plants gulp fresh water that might otherwise be used to grow food. Extensive energy is then expended to harvest, ship, process and prepare the cotton for use in garments.

Now, toss about a fifth of the finished material straight into the trash.

"When patterns are cut and garments are made, about 15 to 20 percent of the actual cotton fabric goes straight into the waste stream," explains Heiman. "We recapture this cutting room waste for use in our Repair The World® brand apparel."

In a mechanical process called garnetting, the recycled cotton fabrics are reduced to fiber state and blended with polyester thread made from post-consumer PET plastic bottles. The finished material is used to make sustainable casual clothing for men and women. Tulong's first products are expected to be available in spring of this year.

Tulong, headquartered in Loveland, currently employs four full-time staffers. As fulfillment orders pick up, additional administrative and sales employees will be added. Heiman also estimates that 25 new jobs will be added to the garment production facilities it uses in South America.

The name Tulong comes from the Filipino word for "help." Heiman says that the company adheres to the "triple bottom line" approach to business. "While we are a for-profit company, a portion of that profit goes back to developing nations in the areas of education, healthcare and microfinance -- the kind of things that help people become self-sufficient. This is the true definition of sustainability."

Source: Mark Heiman, Tulong
Writer: Douglas Trattner

The Garland Company began manufacturing and marketing environmentally-conscious roofing and flooring solutions long before the term "sustainable design" became stylish. Today, sustainability is Garland doctrine.

The company that began with just one employee more than 100 years ago now employs more than 500 people across 12 sister companies under the umbrella organization of Garland Industries Inc.

Founded in 1895 as an oil, grease and paint supplier, Garland today is 100 percent employee-owned, manufacturing high-performance products for commercial, industrial and public properties.

The product line includes reflective, modified bitumen, metal, vegetative and photovoltaic solutions.

"Garland is at the forefront of our industry in the area of sustainable technology for the total building envelope," says Tom Bauer, a Garland Company product Manager. "We've built our entire family of technologies around the belief that longevity is the primary attribute of sustainable design."

Garland's earliest vegetative roofs were introduced to the market in 1991. And in 2008 the company launched "Garland Greenhouse" branding to identify its growing family of sustainable offerings.

Last year, Garland was recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in Northeast Ohio, receiving the Weatherhead Centurion award from the Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management and the Council Of Smaller Enterprises.

Bauer says there are no plans to leave the area.

"(Cleveland) has been hospitable to the numerous expansions we have undertaken over the years," he says. "We have been fortunate enough to have benefited at times from various economic development initiatives offered by the city, and (we) are proud to call Cleveland our home."

Sources: Michelle Sweitzer and Tom Bauer, The Garland Company
Writer: Colin McEwen

Aerospace companies with a colorful history are a dime a dozen. Aerospace companies with a tie to Orville Wright are something special.
 
Hartzell Propeller is the latter.

The company 's roots reach back to 1875, when John T. Hartzell founded a sawmill in Greenville, Ohio. The wood business took an upswing in 1917 when, amidst a growing airplane manufacturing industry, Hartzell's son, Robert, founded a wooden propeller blade business at his father's sawmill company, says Michael Disbrow, Hartzell senior vice president.

"The legend is that Orville Wright suggested the company start making wooden airplane blades," Disbrow says. "It had to do with a relationship with Orville Wright, who lived in Oakwood, two doors down (from Robert)."

While the fledging Hartzell Propeller never made blades directly for Orville Wright machines, the company did become an early supplier to the Dayton Wright Airplane Company, which purchased Wright's company when Orville left to pursue other interests.

Today, Hartzell seems worlds away from the early days of flight. Now headquartered in Piqua with 275 employees, Hartzell is a market leader in supplying both metal and lightweight composite blades for private and corporate aircraft.

Hartzell's website lists a fistful of firsts: the first composite blades in the 1940s; the first reversible blades, also in the '40s; the first full-feathering blades in the 1950s; the first practical turboprop blades in the 1960s.

In 1986, Hartzell manufactured the aluminum props that powered Burt Rutan's historic non-stop circumnavigation of the globe.

While Disbrow says the company was one of the pioneers in development of lightweight composite blades, "most of our props are still made from forged aluminum."

Customers include Hawker Beechcraft, Piper, Air Tractor and a number of others.

Source: Michael Disbrow, Hartzell Propeller
Writer: Gene Monteith

While recent economic woes have forced a number of established businesses to shutter, one long-lived Ohio manufacturer is thriving through innovation.

Ohio Willow Wood USA, in rural Mt. Sterling, manufactures several high-quality prosthetics. Started in 1905, the company, located just southwest of Columbus, has come a long way from founder William Edwin Arbogast's hand-carved artificial limbs. Arbogast, who lost his legs in a railroad accident, founded the company after being dissatisfied with other available artificial limbs.

Fast forward to today. Ohio Willow Wood is not only an industry leader in manufacturing but in distribution and development.

"Ohio Willow Wood's research and development team is constantly exploring and developing new product opportunities, testing new product designs, as well as enhancing current products for continual maximum performance," says company spokeswoman Lisa Watkins.

Landmark products include the Sterling Stump Sock (1921), Carbon Copy II Foot (1984), Alpha Liners (1995), the Pathfinder Foot (2001) and LimbLogic VS (2007).

The company employs 168, in engineering/R&D, prosthetists, accounting, IT and more. Willow Wood soon will hire a quality manager and a certified prosthetist/orthotist. Several state grants helped the company with ongoing worker training, including a $17,500 of an 2009 Ohio Department Jobs and Family Service training grant.

"The products developed by Ohio Willow Wood provide comfort and assist consumers in leading a functionally normal lifestyle, all of which allows Ohio Willow Wood to grow and succeed," Watkins said.

Source: Lisa Watkins, Ohio Willow Wood spokeswoman
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

As Greater Cincinnati's first brand new, full service hospital built in 25 years, West Chester Medical Center has not only brought good-paying medical jobs to the area, but a patient-centered approach to care.

West Chester Medical Center opened in May 2009, and is part of the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, in the same company as the Queen City's University Hospital and Jewish Hospital. The state-of-the art medical center sits in West Chester Township, one of Ohio's fastest growing areas, just off Interstate 75 between Cincinnati and Dayton.

West Chester Medical opened with 160 beds, and 500 employees, but was designed with future growth in mind. Plans call for it to accommodate 300 beds, an additional medical office building and parking garage.

"West Chester and the surrounding communities are growing rapidly, with both businesses and population booming. With this expansion comes an increased need for close-to-home health care services," said Jennifer Garcia, West Chester Medical Center spokeswoman.

Thirty-six design teams worked on the hospital's features, which include private rooms with visitor sleeper sofas, open visiting hours, on-demand room service, and mini-nurse stations between every two rooms.

"Our family-centered care means that patients and families won't have a long wait to be seen, won't get lost navigating confusing floor plans, and will be made as comfortable as if they were staying at a hotel," said hospital Senior Vice President, Carol King, RN.

Source: Jennifer Garcia, West Chester Medical Center
Writer: Feoshia Henderson