Fantastic plasticsPhil Lepage learns how a South Dakota company is using soybean-derived products to decrease the nationÔÇÖs dependence on petroleum. Perhaps if The Graduate were being filmed today, the one word of advice given to Benjamin Braddock might not have been ÔÇ£PlasticsÔÇØ but rather the two words, ÔÇ£Bio-renewable polyols.ÔÇØPolyols are the raw material used to make polyurethane, and Urethane Soy Systems Company of Volga, South Dakota, specializes in researching and marketing the use of soy-based polyols.

From brown to greenTaking an urban college campus from locked recycling bins to a thriving environmental program is a matter of raising awareness, learns Gary Toushek. When Gordon King was hired as senior director of facilities planning and management at Suffolk University two years ago, he found locks on the recycling bins because the person in charge of recycling was afraid that the wrong items would end up in the binsÔÇöpaper in the glass bin, metal cans in with cardboard, and so on, as well as items that were clearly not appropriate for recycling.

WorldWater and Solar TechnologiesWith drinkable water drying up worldwide, and green energy becoming front page news, one company has been quietly refining a solution for nearly two decades. Kate Sawyer reports. Solar energy is making headlines, as global warming and other environmental threats become more prominent. From Angola to East Africa, Pakistan to the Philippines, WorldWater & Solar Technologies, Corp. continues to fulfill its mission of providing clean water and reliable energy solutions to developing nations and companies at home.

Colorado CollegeSustainability through conservation and renewable energy is underpinning the curriculum and inspiring the students at Colorado College, Gary Toushek discovers from George Eckhardt, assistant director of facilities services. Colorado College is a private liberal arts college located at the foot of PikeÔÇÖs Peak in the Rocky Mountains, at the edge of Colorado Springs on 90 acres of land with a campus of two million square feet for the approximately 1,945 undergraduate students.

Technology is the best line of defense in surviving a prolonged and deep recession, says Russ Cereola, as it provides the foundation from which key employees make decisions that affect the bottom line. For many businesses, 2009 and 2010 will be financially troublesome and significantly less profitable than previous years. In fact, many companies will not survive what appears to be a deep and prolonged recession.

The Florida Department of Transportation is getting a rare glimpse into the world of vertical construction, thanks to its lynchpin role in the Miami Intermodal Center. Keith Regan details the lessons learned and how theyÔÇÖll pay off down the road. By any measure, the Miami Intermodal Center (MIC) is an ambitious project. It has been in the planning stages in some form since the late 1980s, when county officials recognized that creating a smoother transition into and out of Miami International Airport could have enormous economic benefits.

ÔÇ£Look for a gold mine where there already is a gold mine,ÔÇØ says Bralorne Gold Mines president Bill Kocken to Gary Toushek. With the infrastructure already in place, he hopes to be pouring gold bars by the end of 2008. Without the existing infrastructure of what used to be a sizeable mining community in the 1930s, Louis Wolfin and Bill Kocken would not be looking forward to their first gold bars from Bralorne Gold Mines.

Technology solutions for generic sectors are old hat, says Thomas R. Cutler. The level of control and traceability required today calls for hyper-vertical market segmentation. Process manufacturing covers a wide field. Within it we find food manufacturing, and within that there is another huge range, including meat products and bakery manufacturing, among countless others. While they might all be food manufacturers within the process industry, however, their idiosyncratic characteristics require specific industry sector knowledge and expertise.

An integrated warehouse management system is essential to an efficient manufacturing facility, says Thomas R. Cutler. In any warehousing or manufacturing operation, errors can creep in at all stages of the process, the most common cause being human error.

With business under pressure to mitigate its contribution to climate change, carbon offsetting is spreading like a rash. It might make you feel good to look good, says Martin Ashcroft, but itÔÇÖs not going to save the planet. The term carbon neutral emerged last year as the latest buzzword to enter the New Oxford American Dictionary. This was not entirely due to the self-proclaimed ÔÇ£former next President of the United States of America,ÔÇØ Al Gore.  The idea of carbon neutrality is spreading like wildfire, and everyone seems to be talking about it.