Law and Taxation: See the Forest and the Trees

On December 11, 2015 the management of EcoHub will have a telephone conference with potential investors and their advisors about the firm’s prospects. I have arranged for Alfred University to have access to this call.

Municipalities across the U.S. are implementing regulations that require substantial increases in waste recycling/diversion rates to be achieved in the near future. This provides an opportunity to derive substantial value from that waste—but for one thing. The main barrier to realizing the full economic and environmental value of recovering material from the municipal waste stream is our current inability to properly separate the wide variety of materials that are thrown away. EcoHub LLC’s patented separation technology solves this problem and will allow municipalities to meet their diversion requirements without requiring residents or businesses to separate waste. Moreover, the entire operation will generate tax revenues and create up to 800 jobs for every 2,000 tons per day (tpd) of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) processed.

EcoHub is in an advanced stage of negotiations for a 20-year solid waste management contracts with three major US Cities.

On November 13, 2015 the management of Greensulate will have a telephone conference with potential investors and their advisors about the firm’s prospects. I have arranged for Alfred University to have access to this call.

The greenroof industry looks like a flower garden gone to weed. Vibrant, fecund, fast growing and productive. But also wild, shapeless and chaotic. Greensulate is transforming all that into an English garden.

Greenroofs’ benefits are well known. Green roofs protect the original roof from damage from UV rays, cycles of freezing and heating and whatever humans do to them, so they can last up to three or four times as long as typical roofs. One big benefit they provide is natural insulation, which saves on heating and cooling costs. Those savings can reach 73 percent in the summer on a one-story building. So investments can be recouped in about 20 years.

As impressive as that is, those benefits don’t count the environmental benefits (the “externalities”, if you will). For the climate, greenroofs absorb CO2, produce oxygen and establish roof-top eco-systems with a surprising amount of biodiversity. (“We even saw bees!” exclaimed one employee.) For the local government, greenroofs aid in storm water management, by slowing the flow of water down the drains during and immediately after a rain storm. Employees and residents in the green-roofed buildings feel better and work more productively.

Super Storm Sandy drove home the benefit of slowing storm water runoff and sewage overflows that occur when a storm overburdens the city’s water management system. Green roofs capture water at lower cost than trying to control it through end-of-pipe storage tanks and the other engineered systems, like pumps and raised ventilation grates that the NYC transit authority is considering.

On October 9, 2015 the management of EcologiCiti will have a telephone conference with potential investors and their advisors about the firm’s prospects. I have arranged for Alfred University to have access to this call.

Locally grown foods in urban areas is well-established and accelerating across the country and indeed in countless urban areas around the world. Greenhouses come in many varieties: indoors, outdoors, in soil, on cloth and hydroponically and grow a large number of foods: tomatoes, herbs, corn, squash, grasses, sunflowers, and on and on.

Most have been fairly small operations focusing on one market segment. But EcologiCiti is super-sizing that vision with a vertical farming center concept that challenges the existing norm.

EcologiCiti plans to design, build, finance, and operate the nation’s first vertically integrated sustainable urban food center using indoor Hydroponic and Aeroponic farming with the financial savvy and assistance of BuildFarms, a company that pairs energy efficient real estate expertise with cutting edge technologies to start and fund urban farming initiatives.

These facilities will be developed in urban brownfield sites (usually a 10,000-20,000 sq. ft. facility) installed indoors and in rooftop greenhouse component in the New York Tri-State area. EcologiCiti expect to grow up to 100 tons of premium-quality leafy greens, basil, arugula and berries each year for sale to local retail and restaurant markets.