COMPREHENSIVE ORGANIC WASTE
CONVERSION SOLUTIONS
BUILD - OWN - OPERATE - MAINTAIN
Thousands of anaerobic digesters provide organic waste management in Europe, dozens operate on domestic farms, and virtually every municipal wastewater treatment plant has utilized similar technology for decades. However, no domestic business entity to date has captured the full array of benefits (renewable fertilizers + energy production) of these proven systems that are ideally suited for duplication on commercial dairies, piggeries and chicken ranches, in addition to the myriad food processing facilities whose organic wastes remain, simultaneously, a vastly underrated problem and a grossly underutilized resource.
STEWARDSMITH® (Portland, Oregon) was formed to stand in the gap by optimizing the cooperation of the leading global subsystem providers in order to define a comprehensive, proven, efficient and simplified approach to the production of BOTH clean renewable energy AND organic soil amendments for profit. By integrating ONLY globally-proven and robust technologies to pioneer the joint commercial production of clean Renewable Energy AND Organic Fertilizers from common organic waste feedstocks, STEWARDSMITH® envisions the mitigation of serious environmental, air & water quality and odor problems while converting otherwise problematic wastes into valuable commodities to be sold into established and sanctioned markets.
STEWARDSMITH® has taken a professional design approach to identifying the most common facility sizes (3,000-6,000 head dairies) and matching globally-leading and reliable equipment in order to establish a business model that is profitable (20-40% IRR with NPV equal to 2-4 times initial capital investment) and streamlined.
Operations Optimization: STEWARDSMITH® identified that unless the 4 key, and straightforward, tasks associated with any biogas project are embraced with a purpose, any project runs the risk of underperformance or even commercial failure. Those 4 “PILLARS”, in which the actual digester is just a PART of the overall solution, are:
Optimization: In the same way each project must incorporate the different disciplines, so must the commercial structure take advantage of the diverse revenue streams. Specifically, for (a) Renewable Energy-related income, the use of longstanding FERC QF laws or other industry savvy must be used to establish a meaningful Power Purchase Agreement complemented by Renewable Energy Credit (REC, or ‘Green Tag’) sales, and the capitalization of Greenhouse Gas Offset Credits for avoided methane gas emissions, and for (b) Organic Fertilizer revenues, a qualified, experienced producer broker with strong market presence must be deployed to fully maximize the value of the digested fiber, whose properties are comparable to peat moss, an increasingly challenged product due to its inherently destructive mining/extraction methods of production.
Integration Optimization: STEWARDSMITH® has expertly assembled the leading world-class suppliers and providers for each task, and offers in-house capabilities to help optimize project contracts, secure regulatory approvals, and help manage any given project while also assisting in the identification of, and application for various cash rebate & low-interest, long-term financing incentives available to end users with sufficient balance sheet / borrowing capacity. These activities can include interaction with 3rd party Owner/Operators who endeavor to meet the need for capital investment-free outsourcing that is commonly desired by farmers and ranchers who consider waste conversion systems to be non-core business.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF Why is this a great thing to do?
Not only does the use of manures and otherwise undesirable organic materials completely transcend the recent tensions witnessed in the “Corn as Feed vs. Fuel” debates, but the ability to sequester the fugitive methane (over 20 times more toxic as a greenhouse gas than CO2) renders STEWARDSMITH® projects the most cost-effective value in terms of dollar invested per ton of GHG reduced as compared to ANY OTHER form of renewable energy, including solar and wind.
By integrating ONLY globally-proven and robust technologies to pioneer the joint commercial production of clean Renewable Energy AND Organic Fertilizers from common organic waste feedstocks, STEWARDSMITH® will mitigate serious environmental, air & water quality and odor problems.
From a Regulatory & Environmental standpoint, ALL current political policies and programs advocate and support the conversion of problematic farm wastes into usable by-products, especially when they save and/or produce energy. Federal, State and County level statutes all over America have created a relatively streamlined regulatory approval process for these projects. This support includes substantial cash incentives (grants, tax credits, rebates, etc.) as well as long-term, low-interest loans to qualified borrowers.
All regulatory filings (e.g. Air Permits, County Land Use Approval, FERC QF Self-Certification, utility interconnection, etc.) for the project are standard tasks for which numerous precedents have been set. Because of the ecological, social, and economic benefits of the proposed systems, no delays outside of the standard 1-3 month processing period are expected.
Indeed, some regional regulators are in the process of not only allowing, but even mandating anaerobic digestion of organic wastes, biogas utilization, and residual fiber conditioning/export as standard farm waste management policy. It is STEWARDSMITH’s core objective to meet that trend head on with a proven and practical “real world” answer.
In 2005, STEWARDSMITH’s management tested this approach by bringing the first project in the United States with (a) contracted revenues for all energy and horticulture by-products, and (b) 100% of all licenses and permits to a “shovel-ready” state. Funding (not merely cash, but even just borrowing capacity) was, and remains, the only lacking piece necessary to launch this “everyday” European system into the model that America is longing for. STEWARDSMITH® has taken the European “wheel” and, rather than reinvent it, has simply translated it for the United States.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDFManagement Team - Who is STEWARDSMITH®?
Garrett Smith, P.E. — Chief Technology Officer
Garrett is a Professionally Licensed Mechanical Engineer with 17 years experience on over 90 projects in energy systems development, power generation plant design, construction management, plant start-up & commissioning, and control systems. He was graduated with Honors in Mechanical Engineering in 1991 from Oregon State University where he studied high-efficiency energy concepts with the late, renowned professor of thermodynamics, Dr. Dwight Bushnell. Garrett's expertise lies in understanding & optimizing plant operations. He was instrumental in developing the Stewardsmith business model and is poised to play a key role in its implementation.
Matthew Braun, P.E. — Managing Director
Matthew Braun is a licensed Civil Engineer with 10 years of design and construction experience on over 15 high-tech, energy, communications, medical, and institutional facilities.Matthew has served as president of a regional non-profit, worked in mentoring and coaching, worked on developing environmental and energy policy, and run over $250 million worth of construction. His professional career and personal life underscore the triple bottom line of Stewardsmith: Profit-People-Planet.
Joe Grigsby — Director of Operations
Joe Grigsby is a Navy-trained field service technician with 13 years of experience in electro-mechanical troubleshooting and maintenance experience. He has been instrumental in the course of customer relations and helping facilities run more efficiently with greater uptime. Aside from his extensive experience which included Nuclear Power training with the US Navy, Joe has received a business management degree from the University of Phoenix. He has worked for such reputable firms as Hynix Semiconductor and BOC Edwards.
Ryan McDonald — Director of Public Relations and Marketing
Ryan McDonald was graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Political Science in 1998, and has spent most of his career as a Utility Resource Specialist dealing with Purchasing Agents from Utilities in 6 Western States. His current responsibilities are with Platt Electric Supply, one of the West’s largest electric distributors.
MARKET
North America greatly lags behind Europe and other continents in the implementation of manure-to-energy systems. STEWARDSMITH® intends to define and dominate this rapidly emerging United States market that is being driven mainly by increasingly stringent farm environmental regulations along with increasing demand for renewable energy production and organic soil amendment substitutes.
Although several dozen anaerobic digesters have been successfully installed on US farms (and virtually every municipal waste water treatment plant utilizes similar technologies), no business entity to date has stepped up to take responsibility for, and benefit from, the total array of environmental and energy benefits of these relatively low-tech systems. Therein lies STEWARDSMITH’s core strategy: to capitalize on this emerging need in Western society, and translate the same technologies to even larger Asian and Global markets. For many smaller and more dispersed Asian and African animal farms, the STEWARDSMITH® plant can be modularized downward in scale to the point where an entire system designed to serve up to 100 typical dairy cows could be completely packaged into a standard ISO shipping container. Literally thousands of such applications exist worldwide.
The USDA Agricultural Statistical Data Base indicates that there are approximately 1,250 dairies west of the Mississippi River alone with cow populations in the 2,000-6,000 head range that STEWARDSMITH® is targeting. USDA statistics also substantiate the trend toward consolidation of dairies as economy-of-scale realities force smaller dairies to merge together or sell their animals to larger facilities. If STEWARDSMITH® is only able to implement agreements at 25% of suitable western dairies, the franchise model would be duplicated at over 300 sites (approximately $1 Billion initially identified market).
Local, State and Federal governments are imposing more strict odor and water pollution restrictions on dairies. Stewardsmith® systems resolve farm environmental problems in a proven and economically viable fashion, without requiring farmers and ranchers to invest in what is essentially non-core business.
Digested Fiber from anaerobic digesters is a peat-moss like product and is a simple replacement for peat moss and other potting soil type of amendments and organic fertilizers. Fiber sales contracts are already in place via STEWARDSMITH’s strategic ally ORGANIX. Mandates for renewable energy are growing in the United States, as evidenced by the establishment of marketable Renewable Energy Credits (RECs, or “Green Tags”) and continued enforcement of mandatory purchases from certified “Qualifying Facilities” in accordance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) statutes. STEWARDSMITH® responds to both trends in a fully integrated and modular arrangement designed to simultaneously benefit farmers, investors, and the communities they share.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDFLong-Term Financial Opportunity
Whether STEWARDSMITH® retains ownership of each of the hundreds of imminent farm-waste conversion projects or establishes a franchising type of model is irrelevant to the eventual value of a portfolio of over $1 billion in PROFITABLE, GREEN assets.
STEWARDSMITH® is currently simply looking for the right investor, corporate entity with sufficient net worth, or lender who is able and willing to assist in the launch of the first few professionally designed and operated projects that are so painfully common in Europe yet have, for a variety of mostly poor and outdated reasons, evaded the American landscape.
There are already dozens of Energy Service Companies in the US who are lining up to buy out the first company who is able to “get this right” with even 1 or 2 successful projects. With the economics and social support described above, isn’t it worth the investment of just a few million worth of cash and/or debt ability to unlock the key to a Billion Dollar market? The short-term end-game could be a 5-10x buyout of a short list portfolio for millions more than the investment, and the medium-term end game could be a combination of (a) 20-40% ROI on a portfolio of strategic projects leveraged and built on the growing company’s balance sheet, (b) an IPO with lucrative stock gains, and/or (c) a corporate takeover, leaving STEWARDSMITH’s founders with large financial gains and operational involvement to those who desire it.
The bottom line is that whoever pulls the initial-term trigger can literally SET THE RULES as they Define & Dominate this nascent domestic market. ALL of the regulatory, social, energy sector, political and business drivers are aligned. There is just enough competition to justify the stance. But none of the others understand the complete array of revenue streams scaled to the real-sized dairies like STEWARDSMITH® does.
STEWARDSMITH® represents the IPOD of the renewable energy sector – soon, it will BE the IPOD. Now is the time to move. Do the due diligence, find out the plan is real and tested and that the people are solid, and be part of the revolution that promises more permanent benefits for our children than just enjoying a song or movie.
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