Author: Ben Debski

Biomass offers distinct energy solution

Posted on by Ben Debski

Biomass is a method of creating energy from matter that generally has little or no other use. Things like household rubbish, branches, lawn clippings, kitchen compost and wood chips can stay out of the landfills and can create energy at the same time. Almost any kind of biodegradable organic material can produce energy when it is burned, and this is where the concept of biomass comes from. The energy in the biomass products is released as heat when it is burned; this in turn can be used to heat water, producing steam.

Another method of releasing biomass energy takes longer but produces another natural product. When biomass is left to compost on its own, it produces heat and methane gas.  Once captured, these products can be used to heat buildings and put to other uses.  In fact, Antioch Community High School in Antioch, Illinois (US) became the first school district in the country to receive its heat and electricity from landfill gas. The naturally produced gas is piped from the landfill to turbines on the school property. The electricity is enough to power not only the school, but approximately 120 homes as well. The excess energy is sold back to the utility company, producing a revenue stream for the school, especially during the summer when the students are out of school, but air-conditioner use puts more demand on the electricity grid.

Using biomass as a renewable energy source creates no net increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. Biomass use is increasing in popularity; it currently meets almost 14 percent of global energy need, and supplies more energy in the US than any other form of renewable energy. In the EU, five percent of energy is currently generated from bio fuels, and by 2020 a target of 20 percent generation is believed to be attainable.

Globally, more and more countries are shifting energy production from fossil fuel sources, which will eventually be depleted, to renewable energy sources. Biomass is the only other carbon resource that can be used to generate energy, and it has the added benefit of not adding to our carbon footprint. There is also enough biomass to be used as a substitute for other carbon-based forms of energy production, like oil and natural gas.

Moving forward, several new technologies promise even better effective uses for biomass energy. Enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass is just emerging as a method of extracting and producing sugars that can be used in a variety of commercial and industrial applications.  Care will also need to be taken that erosion and degradation of soil quality is monitored as more and more acreage is utilised for production of various biomass primary ingredients.  So long as biodiversity is maintained while the use of biodiversity is encouraged, the future looks extremely bright for this ‘green’ technology.

As research develops biomass energy crops that can be grown in currently underutilised areas of the world, the potential for biomass contribution to the world’s energy needs is very bright.

To vote on The New Economy Clean Tech & New Energy Awards 2012, click here.

Lobbyists for cap and trade face daunting task

Posted on by Ben Debski

But intensive lobbying by these climate bill proponents – including heavyweights like Duke Energy, Shell Oil Co and General Electric Co – may not be enough to counter powerful opposition and get a bill passed before the US mid-term elections in November.

President Obama says he still backs a climate bill but many have written off the chances of passing legislation with the most controversial provision: a market that aims to cut pollution by letting companies buy and trade permits to emit greenhouse gases.

Nevertheless, some major US companies are pushing for a bill that would include this cap-and-trade system, saying it would create a modern energy economy and thousands of jobs.

Duke Energy Chief Executive Jim Rogers and Shell Oil Co President Marvin Odum met moderate lawmakers, seeking ways to push such a bill in the Senate that has made little progress.

One idea is to allow cap-and-trade to be implemented on power utilities first, with regulations on oil refineries and other industries coming later.

Proponents from industry are lobbying with environmentalists under the US Climate Action Partnership, who still want a bill regulating emissions of planet-warming gases across all sectors of the economy. They say cap-and-trade will create a lot of jobs and boost the economy.

But climate legislation has fierce opponents in the main US business lobby, the US Chamber of Commerce, and most Republican lawmakers, some of whom doubt the threat of global warming. Few climate bill proponents are confident there are enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill, especially with Democratic fortunes falling ahead of the mid-term elections.

A cap-and-trade system would reward companies for adopting clean energy technologies like nuclear plants and burying carbon emissions from coal generators underground. Rogers said this would give investors confidence to finance new power plants.

“We have to retire or replace every plant by 2050,” he said. “The sooner we get about the business of doing that, the better.”

He said wind and solar power markets would grow faster under a cap-and-trade system, which would help the United States compete with emerging powers like China.

Odum said an emissions market would create hundreds of thousands of jobs as companies race to begin building a new energy system. In such markets, governments limit pollution and let cleaner companies earn valuable credits to sell.

Lobbyists for cap-and-trade, who also include General Electric Co, must find ways to bring in other energy and industrial companies that have opposed the system, said Dan Weiss, an energy expert at the Centre for American Progress.

Otherwise, they will not be able to secure the 60 votes in the Senate needed to avoid a Republican filibuster and pass the bill.

Time runs short
Passage will be more difficult since Senate Democrats lost their 60-seat super majority with the election of Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. The Republican campaigned against a cap-and-trade bill, citing worries about higher energy costs.

With the midterm elections 39 weeks away, many lawmakers may avoid controversial climate legislation and turn their attention to campaigning.

“The bottom line is it will be hard to convince the fence sitters before the midterm elections that the new green jobs will replace jobs that will be lost in the traditional energy economy,” said Divya Reddy, an analyst at the Eurasia Group.

A compromise bill being hashed out by Senators John Kerry, a Democrat, Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and Joe Lieberman, an independent, is not expected to be out before March.

Lobbyists for companies that support a cap-and-trade system have taken heart in signals from the trio of senators, and in recent comments from President Obama, that a compromise could pick up votes.

Rogers at Duke said the lobbyists are targeting 15 to 17 Democratic and eight to 10 Republican Senators to win votes.

A “hybrid” bill, that would impose cap-and-trade on power plants and an emissions fee on other industrial sources of greenhouse gases, could break down resistance from lawmakers in states that produce oil and natural gas.

Shell’s Odum said such a bill could assure the petroleum industry that traditional fuels will be around for decades to come, freeing lawmakers in oil states to vote for a bill.

But time is growing short. “It’s a tough sell,” said Eurasia Reddy, who added they would also need to convince lawmakers the bill would not raise short-term energy bills.

Unpredictably US payrolls jump

Posted on by Ben Debski

Employers added 290,000 jobs in April, the Labour Department said on May 7, far more than analysts had expected. The department also revised figures for February and March to show 121,000 more jobs were added than previously estimated.

“I think we are moving into this very reassuring range of strong employment growth. It is consistent with the way the economy is going,” said Kurt Karl, chief US economist at Swiss Re in New York.

The unemployment rate, however, rose to 9.9 percent as discouraged workers started to look for work again.

Stubbornly high unemployment has been a political sore spot for President Obama, even though the job market is showing increased vigor.

Analysts had expected nonfarm payrolls to rise 200,000 in April and the jobless rate to remain unchanged at 9.7 percent. The median forecast from the 20 most accurate forecasters was for a 188,000 increase in payrolls.

The stronger-than-expected reading for the most widely watched US economic indicator did little to encourage investors worried about the eurozone’s debt crisis.

Private sector employment increased 231,000, the largest gain since March 2006, after rising 174,000 in March. Private payrolls have grown for four months.

Analysts had expected private employment to rise between 50,000 and 100,000 in April.

Census hiring contributed 66,000 jobs.

Data ranging from manufacturing to consumer spending have pointed to a pick-up in the recovery from the US economy’s longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

The jump in US jobs growth was mirrored in Canada, where a record number of workers found jobs in April, stunning markets and adding pressure on the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates in June, ahead of other major industrialised countries.

The US data was unlikely to put pressure on the Federal Reserve, with economists noting earnings for private sector workers were flat in April and would not put pressure on inflation.

Nonetheless, investors slightly increased expectations the Fed will raise its key target rate. Implied prospects that the Fed will raise the target by its September 21 meeting edged up to 50 percent from about 46 percent before the jobs figures.

Momentum
“The trend is improving,” said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities International in New York. “The economic recovery is gaining momentum.”

Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the jump in payrolls was the strongest sign yet that the labour market was healing but noted the high unemployment rate was still a cause for concern.

Public disenchantment over the economy, especially the labour market, is damaging Obama’s popularity. His fellow Democrats face a tough fight in congressional elections in November, with their majority status at stake.

Republicans say Obama’s policies – including a record economic stimulus package – have failed to deliver on their promise of reducing the jobless rate, which is expected to still be painfully high when elections roll around.

About 8.2 million jobs were lost during the recession and economists warn it is likely to take years to regain that lost employment.

US consumers have begun to participate in what has been a manufacturing-led recovery, but job growth is crucial to sustaining that trend.

In April, manufacturing payrolls increased 44,000 after rising 19,000 in March. Construction employment gained 14,000, rising for a second month and defying expectations of a fall.

Payrolls in the service sector increased 166,000, advancing for a third month. Temporary help hiring increased 26,200, strengthening the jobs recovery theme.

Temporary employment is seen as a precursor to full-time jobs. Government payrolls rose 59,000, adding to the prior month’s 56,000 increase.

The average workweek rose to 34.1 hours from 34 hours in March.

Calling Africa: The emergence of mobiles in Africa

Posted on by Ben Debski

Africa might have been slow to catch on to the media and telecom communications wave – after all, it was only a decade ago that budget TVs imported from China started to flood the African market. As a result, broadcasting is now enjoyed by a greater proportion of Africans, even those living outside the main technological hubs. The media environment has hugely developed and today a large chunk of programmes shown are produced in Africa, while imports dominated the offer only five years ago.

Aside from the broadcasting development, the biggest growth market on the continent is mobile communications. Allowing this business segment to flourish, three submerged cables arrived in Africa over the past few years, which have seen data speed quadrupling and prices plummet by as much as 90 percent. One of the reasons why mobile phones have become the communication tool of choice among Africans is that mobile-phone coverage easily surpasses the quality and availability of fixed telephone lines.

Coupled with the arrival of high-speed cables, many additional factors can be attributed to the boom, the liberalisation and privatisation of the sector being just one of them. These changes have been implemented in several countries including Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa and Kenya, and the nations have greatly benefited from the improvements and their telecommunication infrastructure has drastically progressed. The extension of services has been further spurred by the rise in multinational conglomerates. Moreover, the fierce competition between brands trying to break into the booming market help to spur on the telecom movement even further, while at the same time keeping prices competitive. »

Capitalising on the boom
Today there are more than 82 million mobile users across the continent. The Nigerian market is experiencing a particular boom and has grown by over 100 percent per year in the past few years.

The surge in the telecom sector that has taken place in the last few years is hugely significant for the continent. But the market, unlike that of many developed countries, is far from saturated. In the region that covers Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola and Zambia, poverty is widespread with the annual income hovering around $800. While the mobile telecom sector has expanded greatly across these countries, there is still only a 35 percent mobile penetration, which means that as much as 65 percent of the population do not use mobile phones. This can be attributed not only to lack of finance to buy and keep a mobile phone, but also to the fact that many people live in rural areas well outside reception reach. Recognising the amazing business opportunities the African market presents, global telecom companies haven’t been slow to catch on.

Follow the leader  
Having capitalised like no other company on the African spurt in the telecom sector, Nokia is the continent’s ultimate market leader. Allegedly, the Finnish mobile stalwart boasts a market share of 58 percent in Africa, and it is one of the most recognised brands on the continent, ranking as highly as Coca∞Cola in the brand fame stakes.

Despite the worldwide rise in smartphones, about 85 percent of all mobiles sold on the continent are still of the ‘basic’ kind, while smartphone varieties cover a mere 15 percent market share. Since Nokia is the go-to name for fuss-free mobile models, it’s easy to see why the company has proved such a hit in Africa. The most popular Nokia model among cash-strapped African consumers is the Nokia 1100 handset that is priced at a modest $30. No less than 50m of these devices are currently said to be in use throughout the whole of Africa.

The company’s latest contribution to the basic model line-up especially targeted to the African market are two models, the Nokia 101 and Nokia 100. What makes these devices so suited to consumer in Africa?

“The price point is an obvious answer, but there are cheap phones from our competitors. So that’s not the real importance. The first reason why people come to Nokia in Africa is the robustness of the devices. I remember going to one group of customers and asking them why they buy Nokia. One man held up his phone and dropped it straight onto the hard concrete floor. The back flew off and the battery came out. But then he calmly picked up the pieces and put them back together again – his phone was fine. ‘There,’ he said. ‘That is why I buy Nokia.’,” explained Kenneth Oyolla, Nokia’s general manager for eastern and southern Africa, in a blog post recently posted on the company’s website.

Producing mobile phones with long-lasting battery life is another of Nokia’s strengths, and this crucial characteristic alone has seen Nokia sales soar massively. A powerful battery doesn’t merely come in handy in Africa, it is of outmost importance on the continent as many Africans live in homes outside the electric grid. A further key point of Nokia is the availability of local language options such as Swahili, which is something that is not commonly offered among Nokia’s competitors.

The Nokia mobile may seem as it was specifically tailor-made to the African market, but the Finish company is well aware that complacency is simply not an option in such a crucial time for the company. Considering the changes in the mobile market, Nokia’s status as the top device provider probably won’t remain for much longer. While rival names are closing in on that coverted crown, the market itself is shifting to make way for the growing popularity of smartphones – and this is widly known to be one of Nokia’s weaker product groups. Indicative of the growing demand of the smartphone,  when a $90 variety produced by Chinese telecom giant Huawei (the IDEOS) hit the market at the start of the year, it sold out in a number of African countries within a month. »

Smart rivals
As a result of the growing popularity of the hugely sophisticated mobile market, smartphone operators such as Samsung, Huawei and the BlackBerry manufacturer RIM, are threatening to push Nokia off its perch. Quick to capitalise on the African market, BlackBerry has started producing more affordable consumer devices. The company’s reputation may have been tarnished a little following last summer’s extensive network meltdown, and although the African market was one of the affected regions, it’s unlikely that the mishap will put a dent in the company’s future growth within Africa.

Taking the lead in entertainment based devices, Samsung’s Tab is the preferred option among Africans, even though it doesn’t come cheap at $500. This indicates that attitudes relating to price are starting to change among African consumers who do hold enough funds to part with for a more sophisticated device. So far Apple hasn’t jumped on the African telecom bandwagon, but it might be just a matter of time before it does. 

The competition is certainly rife, and Nokia has to up its game in order not to fall by the wayside entirely. Attempting to keep up, a more sophisticated version of the 1100 is soon to be launched. It promises to offer a better screen and internet connectivity that will allow users to access social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, without breaking the bank.

Aside from launching new devices, Nokia is trying to keep ahead of the game via other means. Displaying a philanthropic side is one such method. “Nokia has made donations to UNICEF Somalia and Kenya Red Cross Society to support their relief efforts in particularly poor areas. Nokia’s approach to supporting disaster recovery is to focus first on immediate disaster relief, and then collaborate with local and state governments, civil societies and NGOs to offer mobile technology for development, assistance and to help rebuilding efforts. We have operated this way in a number of tragic natural disasters over the last few years,” read a company blog posted in autumn 2011. 

Spurring growth 
The spurt in mobile communications in Africa has presented international telecom companies with a goldmine and endless opportunities. But it has also had a positive effect on economic growth, particularly in developing African nations. The impact the telecom boom is estimated to have in these particular regions is believed to be twice of that, then in already developed countries.

Significantly, the humble mobile phone is not merely used as a tool to make calls within Africa – it has also come to double up as a mini computer. Again, poverty is behind this trend as few Africans can afford to purchase a computer. Among the 82 million mobiles in use, more and more feature rudimentary internet connectivity, and the mobile is held as the undisputed star in the African media sphere, used as much for making calls and sending emails as it is surfing the web or accessing social media sites.

The telecom boom hasn’t just enabled African people to get connected and access the internet. It can potentially transform the lives of many people living on the continent. African farmers, in particular, will be greatly assisted by the movement, as new mobile data services spanning weather forecasts, commodity market information and mobile banking will bring new business opportunities for farmers operating on a marginal scale and are prone to suffer failures and shaky commodity price movements.

In October 2011, a report called ‘Connected Agriculture’ was launched by Vodafone and Accenture. It highlighted some startling figures, namely that the income of farmers in the developing world may be boosted by as much as $138bn by 2020 – largely due to the rise in mobile communications. The report estimates that 80 percent of the potential upswing in farmers’ incomes will be generated from the growth of the telecom market.

Oxfam is an avid supporter of the report. Dame Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s chief executive officer, said: “With more than 1.5 billion people worldwide dependent on smallholder agriculture – a group that includes half the world’s undernourished people – mobile telephony could have significant potential to help the poorest farmers towards food and income security.”

The benefits won’t benefit Africa exclusively – the rest of the globe will reap the rewards as well. Since the global population is expected to surpass the 9bn mark by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent above 2006 levels in less than 40 years. Hopes are high that African farmers, along with other growing economies, will help to produce much of the extra food needed. Vodafone Group chief executive officer, Vittorio Colao said: “Smallholding farmers in emerging markets are both vulnerable and vital: without a steep increase in their productivity, it is hard to see how future generations will avoid global food shortages. Mobile is already transforming hundreds of millions of people’s lives in ways unimaginable only a decade ago. This report now provides vivid evidence of how mobile can make a material difference in tackling the global food gap.”

Aalto University School of Economics: Pushing the boundaries

Posted on by Ben Debski

The Aalto University School of Economics – formerly the Helsinki School of Economics – was established by a group of business pioneers a hundred years ago. Today, the School of Economics provides the most versatile environment in Finland for studying and performing research in economic sciences on an international level. The school belongs in the top one percent of economic institutes that have been granted the most prestigious international quality accreditations in its field: AACSB, AMBA, and EQUIS. The school is also a partner of the CEMS Masters Programme in International Management.

The School of Economics is part of Aalto University, which was created in 2010 from the merger of three Finnish universities: the Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki University of Technology and the University of Art and Design Helsinki. Aalto University is a multidisciplinary community in the fields of science, economics and art and design. The university is founded on traditional Finnish strengths, and its goal is to develop itself as a unique entity and become one of the world’s top universities.

The real-case approach
The University helps to educate responsible experts to solve the problems of tomorrow. Academic degrees can be obtained at the Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral levels. In addition, the School of Economics offers comprehensive courses in executive education. Thanks to an increasing number of programmes taught in English, the school attracts many international students.

Close relationships with business life ensure that the latest knowledge is taken into account for the benefit of companies and the society. A partnership programme for businesses and the real∞case approach used in teaching and the research carried out in cooperation with business life are considered exemplary operating concepts internationally.

The focal areas of research
The School of Economics has internationally acclaimed research activities. The areas of strength in research, specified on the basis of international research assessments, are applied microeconomics, financing (particularly investor behaviour), and the theory, models, and applications of decision-making. As society and business life are moving towards a service and information society, socially important focus areas in research are strategy and the service economy.

Understanding consumer behaviour in depth
Aalto University School of Economics wishes to be a pioneer in people and service skills in business. Understanding human beings and services is crucial in business studies. Mastering foreign languages, being familiar with other cultures and religions, and knowing the customs, habits, and wishes of different customers are prerequisites for competing in a global market. Today, market-driven development is behind almost all new successful products, many of which are associated with the services sector and digital services in particular. In these areas, a profound level of understanding consumer behaviour is a must.

For achieving this goal, the School of Economics unites experts from different fields in order to understand the economy, management, consumers, international cultures and services in depth. The school has joint programmes with other Aalto University Schools and collaborative teaching with the University of Helsinki in humanities and behavioral sciences. Competitive unique business programmes surpass traditional boundaries.

For further information:
Email: www.econ.aalto.fi/en
Address: Aalto University, School of Economics, P.O. Box 21210
FI-00076 Aalto, Finland

A renewable energy rush

Posted on by Ben Debski

Renewable energy has created a “gold rush” atmosphere in Germany’s depressed north-east, giving the country’s poor good jobs and a great deal of future promise. The natural resources attracting investors and industry are of a simple variety: wind, sunshine, agricultural products and farm waste such as manure.

The rush to tap into the green resources in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state is reminiscent of the frenzies that came with gold or oil discoveries in past centuries. The buzz can be felt in towns and sparkling new factories across the Baltic shore state. “Renewable energy has become extremely valuable for our state,” said the states premier, “It’s just a great opportunity – producing renewable energy and creating manufacturing jobs.”

“From an industrial point of view we’d been one of Germany’s weaker areas. But the country is abandoning nuclear power. That will work only if there’s a corresponding – and substantial – increase in renewables. It’ll be one of Germany’s most important sectors in the future. We want to be up there leading the way.”

The federal government performed a nationwide U-Turn on all nuclear power after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in Japan, set off by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Germany shut eight nuclear plants and will close the other nine by 2022. Germany is a world leader in renewable energy and wants an even larger share of the $211bn global market. A fifth of its electricity comes from renewables, up from six percent in 2000, and it aims to boost this to 35 percent by 2020.

There are some clouds on the horizon. State-mandated incentives, which fuelled a private investment boom, have been cut, squeezing margins in sectors such as solar energy. There have also been delays in expanding and upgrading the national grid of high-voltage transmission lines from sparsely populated coastal regions such as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to areas where the power is most needed in the west and south. The federal government is working to remove these infrastructure bottlenecks, but if the grid is not expanded soon it could cause problems later when more off-shore wind power goes on line.

Eclipsing shipyards
Renewables – especially wind energy – are injecting new optimism into Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, reflected in a word that often comes up in conversations with business and political leaders: “Reindustrialisierung” (re-industrialisation). In a state with a sea-faring heritage, there are now more jobs in renewable energy than in shipyards: 6,000 jobs at 704 firms, expected to nearly quadruple to 22,000 by 2020. Companies are building, designing, maintaining and operating wind turbines and photovoltaic and biomass plants – for which farmers are growing crops and harvesting animal waste. There are more than 1,200 wind turbines on land, and a new push into off-shore wind energy in the Baltic will further fuel that growth.

Many new jobs are at firms such as Nordex, which employs 1,000 in Rostock making lightweight wind turbine rotor blades up to 65 meters long. It has invested ¤100m in expanding its plant and exports some 95 percent of its output. These are sorely needed, highly skilled jobs in a sparsely populated state whose industrial base was devastated by the economic upheaval accompanying Germany’s reunification in 1990. There were 32,800 jobs in the once∞bustling shipyards around the port city of Rostock when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. But most were wiped out when the east German shipbuilding industry collapsed in the face of surging labour costs and fierce western competition.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern became one of Germany’s poorest regions. The jobless rate soared to 20 percent in 2004 – double the national average – and the population fell by 250,000 to 1.6m as mostly young, well educated people moved to the more prosperous west in search of jobs. More than 8,000 left the state in 2008, but only 3,500 moved away in 2010.

The prospect that some areas could turn into ghost towns was an explosive issue, but the gloom is lifting as unemployment has been nearly halved. The state with the worst jobless rate of Germany’s 16 states in 2007 is now ahead of Berlin and Bremen. “There’s a new sense of optimism thanks to sectors such as renewable energy, and the migration westwards was slowed if not completely stopped,” said Edeltraud Guenther, a professor for environmental management at Dresden’s Technical University.

The quest for curing malaria

Posted on by Ben Debski

He keeps them in warm, comfortable bug dormitories, feeds them on meals of human blood with the occasional sugar water snack and lives in awe of their killing power. Seattle-based research scientist Stefan Kappe says mosquitoes are the most dangerous animals in the world.

Which is probably why when his laboratory colleagues slice their heads off with miniscule needle-like scalpels and squeeze them with tweezers to extract early forms of the malaria parasite from their saliva glands, he feels no concern about cruelty to animals.

Kappe has spent his working life trying to figure out how this tiny malaria-carrying insect can inflict so much death and disease on humans, and what he and his team can do to stop it. According to the World Health Organisation, malaria kills a child every 45 seconds in Africa and costs that continent’s economy $12bn a year on top of the unimaginable emotional trauma.

Formidable predators
Kappe, molecular biologist and expert in parasitology who trained first in Germany then the US, has no doubt the killer parasitic disease will one day be wiped out across the world, but acknowledges it’s a tough fight.

“They are formidable little predators,” he says as he looks through the mesh window on one of the mosquito bug dorms at his Seattle BioMed laboratory and insectary. A handwritten sticker on this dorm says “fed”.

“They are uniquely adapted to take blood meals, and unfortunately infectious diseases have taken a ride along with this ability of the mosquito to bite you and take your blood,” Kappe says.

 For years, some of the world’s best scientific minds have failed to make an effective vaccine against malaria – or any parasitic disease for that matter – and Kappe says eradication can’t be achieved without one.

The drug RTS,S was recently recognised as the first effective malaria vaccine when scientists released data showing it halved the risk of children getting the disease in a widespread trial in Africa.

“Right now malaria vaccine development stands at a very interesting point because we have a partially effective vaccine in RTS,S,” said Kappe. Experts stressed that RTS,S – developed by the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline and the non-profit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative – will be no quick fix. At around a 50 percent protection rate, the new shot is less effective against malaria than other vaccines are against common infections like polio and measles.

“The RTS,S vaccine will always stand as the first really successful vaccine that can partially protect against malaria,” Kappe said. “But to eradicate the disease – and that is our goal – you need a vaccine that protects 90 to 100 percent. So we have to build on RTS,S.” To do that Kappe’s team are taking various routes – most of which involve breeding large numbers of these dangerous animals in warm, soupy trays in what he calls the “swamp room”.

After dissecting them, modifying them, breeding more generations and then allowing them to drink malaria-infected blood from a skin-like covered cup, he sets them on brave human trial volunteers who agree to be bitten in the name of science.

Seattle BioMed is a non-profit research institute that works on research to eliminate the world’s most devastating infectious diseases, funded by the US National Institutes of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and around 500 other donors.

One of the institute’s approaches to creating a vaccine centres around immature forms of the malaria parasite called sporozoites, which are carried in the saliva glands of female malarial mosquitoes and transferred into humans when they bite. The process of infection with malaria takes a complex path, starting in the human victim’s blood and moving into the liver.

Inside the liver, the sporozoites change form and then grow and divide into thousands of merozoites. These in turn burst out from the liver cells and back into the blood. Once back in the blood, the merozoites multiply in red blood cells, again burst out and produce more parasites, eventually damaging the brain and lungs, causing fever, chills, anaemia and, in severe cases, death.

Deleting genes
Kappe’s team is seeking to interrupt this process at a critical stage and has found a way of genetically modifying the sporozoites to delete key genes from their DNA, so that while they still make it into the liver where they trigger a strong immune response, they are also genetically programmed to die off there.

“What we’re interested in is preventing the liver-stage parasite from completing its development,” explains Ashley Vaughan, a molecular geneticist working with Kappe. “If you have enough sporozoites going to the liver and stopping there, they will alert your immune system that your liver is seeing a large amount of malaria, which would then generate a protective response. So if you then get bitten by a mosquito carrying natural malaria, the parasite would go to your liver, that same response would be triggered and your immune system would kill it. This would mean you’d never get a blood-stage infection, and never get sick.”

In tests on mice, the so-called genetically attenuated whole parasite (GAP) experimental vaccine has proven 100 percent protective, 100 percent of the time, Kappe and Vaughan said. And in the first early-stage human trials, where six volunteers agreed to be bitten first by a “vaccine mosquito” carrying genetically modified parasites and then by one with natural malaria, five out of six were protected.

Kappe is worried by the sixth case – where the trial volunteer went on to develop malaria caused by the parasites in the vaccine failing to stop developing at the right stage.

In the trial, the volunteer was of course immediately treated and cured with anti-malarial drugs, but for the GAP experimental shot to be developed any further down the path to a potentially useful product, the team still has much work to do. “What we have to do now is learn how to make it safer, and learn how we would be able to manufacture it on a larger scale,” said Kappe.

For the moment the manufacturing process is very hands∞on, and a little gruesome. Working with microscopes in a laboratory next to the “swamp room”, scientists Heather Kain and Will Betz take each mosquito at a time, soak it in an ethanol solution, slice its head off, squeeze its thorax to get the saliva glands out, and then cut open each gland to harvest the sporozoites.

For every potential vaccine dose, the researchers need around 10,000 sporozoites, and all those and more can come from a single mosquito. As Kappe says, “it’s hard to imagine making millions of doses” by hand. “On a good day I can dissect around 200 mosquitoes an hour,” says Betz. “But it takes a steady hand.”

World Water Week: Guidelines for Green Growth

Posted on by Ben Debski

Research led by the World Economic Forum Water Resources Group has estimated that global demand for water could outpace supply by 40 percent within 20 years. The majority of the overshoot will be needed to meet rising demands for food and energy production. By 2030, global energy demand could rise by nearly 60 percent and as much as 70 percent more food could be needed to feed nine billion people by the middle of the century.

The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that between $1∞3trn is needed to spark green economics and help alleviate poverty worldwide, including $200bn in annual investment in the water sector alone. This massive influx of financing will need to be matched by smarter management of water, energy and food resources. 

At the closing of the 2011 ‘World Water Week’ in Stockholm, assembled participants called for concrete commitments from the heads of government, UN bodies and civil society organisations attending the upcoming Rio+20 Summit to ensure that the conclusions of the event have a real impact on human well∞being across the world. Those commitments include achieving a “universal provisioning of safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and modern energy services by the year 2030”, and reaching intervening targets to increase efficiency in the management of water, energy and food by the year 2020 which include:

20 percent increase in total food supply∞chain efficiency, a reduction of losses and waste from field to fork
20 percent increase in water efficiency within agriculture, more crops and nutrition per drop
20 percent increase in water use efficiency in energy production, with more kWh per drop 
20 percent increase in the quantity of water reused 
20 percent decrease in water pollution
 
These targets provide a focus on the primary opportunities to close the growing water supply and demand gap and ensure secure and stable economic development opportunities for all people.     

More nutrition per drop
Growing populations and changing diets will require a further expansion of food production. With over 70 percent of total water withdrawals taken for agricultural purposes, farmers will need to grow more crops per drop.

Today, more than enough food is grown to feed the global population, yet one in seven people are left hungry because they do not have access to food that is produced. As much as half of the food that is grown in the world is lost on the road in transit to the consumer or tossed away after it is purchased. Addressing food losses and waste is the simplest and most direct route to reducing pressure on water resources, and is a giant opportunity for food producers to get the most out of their product.

Generate more; use less
Approximately eight percent of water withdrawals are used for energy production worldwide, but in some regions much more is needed. In China, for example, one fifth of all water withdrawals are used in coal power plants alone. The same water supplies are also needed to support the livelihoods of several hundred million farmers and expanding cities.

In most places, considerable quantities of energy are also used to move heat and treat water. But it is possible to build more intelligent infrastructures that use wastewater to produce energy instead of wasting fresh water. In Sweden, the water and wastewater sector generate twice as much energy as they consume, by producing biogas and supply district heating. Even in Sweden there is room to potentially double the amount of energy produced.

Over the next two decades the required annual investments for OECD nations and five major emerging economies (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa) for water infrastructure are projected to fluctuate between $700bn and $1trn. That money should be invested wisely in breakthrough systems that reuse water to generate energy to power ever∞expanding cities. 

Solutions for the ‘bottom billion’
Roughly one billion people live without access to safe water, one billion are undernourished, nearly one billion live in slums, and 1.5 billion live without access to electricity. In some countries, as much as five percent of GDP is lost to missed work days from people suffering from water and sanitation related illnesses.

The green economy will falter if one in seven of the world’s people are excluded from it and live without access to the basic services it can provide. Solutions to help the ‘bottom billion’ should be prioritised to ensure that all people have access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, nutrition, modern energy services and have a fair chance to positively contribute to their nations economy. tne

About the author
Anders Berntell is the executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), an international policy institute on the environment, water, governance and human development issues. SIWI hosts the World Water Week in Stockholm, the leading annual meeting on water and development issues.

Koc University: Inspiring Turkey

Posted on by Ben Debski

Koç University Graduate School of Business has an array of highly regarded business programmemes including: MBAs, Executive MBAs, Masters of Science in Finance, Masters of International Management and a PhD in business. The School is one of the most influential business schools in Turkey and the Eurasia territory at large.

Koç GSB’s vision is to produce the most capable graduates by providing a world-class education in both Executive MBA and full-time Masters programmemes. In light of this vision, Koç defines its primary objective as to provide knowledge, insight and the essential skills needed for success in today’s fast∞changing business environment.

In addition, Koç GSB aims to develop career direction and acceleration for young professionals and junior managers, nurturing personal development as well as leadership skills in order to ensure that those managers are successful, socially responsible and ethical in their chosen business area.

Koç University has based its educational programmeme on the principle of ‘creative thinking’ and participatory learning. Koç GSB places a significant amount of importance on creating an interactive learning environment. Case studies, simulations, project assignments and guest speakers from the industry are used to foster such an environment. With those elements, faculty members are able to facilitate an active learning process and students have the opportunity to experience a real life business atmosphere. Koç has very strong connections with the business sector in Istanbul, which ensures these programmes are creative, immersive and cutting-edge.

Koç also emphasises a ‘study team’ approach to its programmemes. Masters students are expected to work in “assigned self-managed study teams”. Students are assigned to groups in order to simulate the realities of business. Such an approach helps students to develop their skills in order to cooperate within teams and finish their projects within the deadlines given by their instructors.

Given the nature and demands of modern business and senior management, academic institutions are placing increasing emphasis on the value of ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR) and other similar ethical issues. Koç is paying utmost attention to CSR, and this starts at the interview stage during the programme admission process. The School emphasises its view on CSR and responsible management at the interview so that potential GSB students and future alumni understand how important it is to have an ethical mindset. Koç GSB enjoys partnerships with PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) and a United Nations development programme in Turkey.

In Entrepreneurship MBA Class, students need to develop new business venture ideas that are not only profitable but also contribute to the society in which the business would potentially operate. The School also has CSR courses that are required in the EMBA programme and elective in the MBA programme.  

Koç University School of Business earned EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) accreditation in March 2009. The school prides itself in being the first and only school in Turkey and its neighboring regions to obtain the EQUIS accreditation. 

First of its kind
The Koç executive MBA programme was established in 1994 as the first executive MBA programme in Turkey. The programme is the first from Turkey and from the Eurasia region ever ranked in the Financial Times MBA rankings. The MBA programme was ranked 64th in the last three years among executive MBA programmes around the world, consisting of nearly 100 universities worldwide. The Financial Times ranking is widely considered one of the most reputable ranking systems among business administration programmes in the world.

GSB Masters programmes
Koç University Masters programmes are considered to be hugely prestigious, which have very close ties within the world of business. Almost 95 percent of the programme graduates find jobs within a short time after their graduation. Despite the global economic crisis last year, our graduates still managed to receive good job offers.

An MBA degree from Koç University is advantageous for a number of reasons. An international array of renowned educators and an up-to-date curriculum give a competitive edge over many other institutions. Furthermore, the institute’s location in the heart of Istanbul draws inquisitive students looking to expand their cultural horizons in the excecutive MBA programme.

The Koç Master of Science in Finance programme with its dedicated faculty, innovative curriculum, strong links with the business world, international positioning, and supportive facilities is a valuable investment for managers and their companies. As evidence of the strong ties between the Koç Master of Science in Finance curriculum and professional practice is the recognition of Koç University as the first CFA Institute Programme Partner in Turkey and the region.

The University is the only Turkish School that is a member of CEMS (The Global Alliance in Management Education), which brings top academic institutions, leading multinational companies and outstanding students together from all around the world to educate future global business leaders. CEMS MIM – ranked first in ‘Financial Masters in Managements’ rankings in 2009 – enables students to develop their management skills at the most internationally and culturally diverse graduate programme around. It provides a unique blend of top-level education and professional experience for multilingual, multicultural postgraduate students seeking more.

The PhD in Business Administration
The primary objective of the PhD programme in Business Administration is preparing students for academic careers in top business schools worldwide. The programme is primarily designed to develop students’ research skills, and to provide state-of-the-art business education. PhD candidates will also have the opportunity to develop their teaching skills. The PhD in Business Administration programme has a flexible and interdisciplinary structure with two tracks: behavioral and quantitative. Within each track, students can specialise in marketing, operations and information systems and quantitative methods.

Pabro Firm: Keeping it cool

Posted on by Ben Debski

As carbon trading schemes come into force across Europe, businesses with a substantial energy usage will need to seriously consider reducing the carbon output of their operations if they are to minimise the amount of carbon credits they have to buy.

For many, their building stock is usually in need of significant improvement. Older buildings suffer from poor heat transmission, letting heat escape too easily in the winter and trapping it during the summer. Insulation can help reduce heat loss, but companies frequently waste huge amounts of energy trying to cool buildings in the summer months. This increases expenditure on energy, and soon will cost businesses extra in terms of carbon shares as well.

Pabro Window Film offers a cost∞effective solution for buildings that suffer from over∞heating. Solar control film is an adhesive layer that is added to existing windows to significantly reduce the levels of infra∞red light and UV radiation that can pass through. Blocking this solar energy results in a cooler, more temperate climate for the building as well as reducing the strain on air conditioning units and cutting utility bills.

Solar control film is rated as a carbon negative product, meaning that installation will often pay for itself in savings within a few years. The 3M Scotchtint Sun Control Window Film favoured by Pabro can help reduce the sun’s heating effect by 78 percent and remove 99 percent of UV rays, which can be harmful to staff and cause damage to carpets and furniture. The film also reduces light glare inside the building, removing the need for blinds and comes in a range of tints that can be matched to the sun exposure a particular window receives.

Pabro also offers 3M Prestige 70 film. This has different specifications to other solar control products, reducing UV levels by 99.9 percent and infra∞red by 97 percent without the introduction of any tint to the windows that some films need to work successfully. The results are all the benefits of sun protection without any reduced visibility through the window itself which is perfect for glass∞fronted office buildings. Solar control films can equally be fitted to residential properties as well, helping to reduce the temperatures of rooms such as conservatories.

The right fit
To assist in selecting the right product for a particular building, Pabro offers extensive survey options. A ‘Demand Analyser’ report is typically a free check that calculates the glass area of a building and the savings that can be made in terms of both energy and money.

Alternatively, a full ‘Building Information Model’ is available that takes a far more detailed approach to building assessment. It considers intricate details such as location, building envelopes, colours, glass types and energy usage. Pabro can also set up a record of the energy and temperature readings before and after solar control window film is installed, giving an accurate and complete report of the savings made.

Pabro’s excellence in installation and customer service has seen the company installing window film throughout the UK, Europe and beyond. Pabro Window Film has already been chosen by a host of companies including: Marks & Spencer, Saga and the Bank of England, alongside a wide number of commercial and residential property owners looking to make energy savings.

Improving the environmental credentials of a building is about making smart decisions. A small investment with Pabro Window Film can save huge sums of money in energy costs, making it one of the smartest decisions a business or home∞owner could make.

For further information
Contact: Pabro Window Film Tel: + 44 (0)1304 204950
Email: info@pabrofilm.com Web: www.pabrofilm.com

Indika Energy: Giving it back

Posted on by Ben Debski

Energy company PT Indika Energy Tbk. has demonstrated that commitment to professional excellence and responsible stewardship in all its endeavours is key not only to good business but to  corporate citizenship on a local, national, and global level. 

Indika Energy was incorporated in 2000, listed as a public company on the Indonesian Stock Exchange in 2008 and has grown into Indonesia’s leading integrated energy company. Its energy sector roots span back to 1972, planted firmly in its commitment to providing customers with total energy solutions in energy resources, energy services and energy infrastructure; while accommodating stakeholders’ interests in protection of the environment and community empowerment schemes across Indonesia. 

This multi-faceted commitment drives the company’s vision of being a sustainable corporation and ensuring effective business development in coal production, engineering, procurement and construction services, mining contracting, coal transport, logistics services and even power generation projects.

A case in point is its strategic acquisition of PT Petrosea Tbk., a multi-disciplinary engineering, construction, and contract mining company in 2009. This not only strengthened Indika Energy’s leadership in mining services, but buttressed its capacity to deliver total energy services. From acquiring mining rights and feasibility studies through to mining operations, processing, production, barging, transshipment and eventual off-take.

The company’s management is convinced that no firm can sustain coherent operations in the long-term without effective corporate governance that ensures a consistent operational performance. This adds value not only for  customers, but  to stakeholders in its operational areas. 

Ultimately, good corporate governance becomes a part of a much larger picture that differentiates the performance levels of companies in their respective industries. For that reason, Indika Energy consistently strives to surpass existing standards not only in the energy sector, but in the realm of environmental concerns and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Commitment is what makes the difference; it’s as simple as that.

Award winning
The corporate commitment to a careful stewardship of its assets and operations has led to the company being bestowed with a number of local, regional and international awards. In 2010, it was awarded the ‘Best Managed Company Award’ as ‘Best mid-cap Company for Indonesia’ by Asiamoney magazine, which also awarded Indika Energy’s president director and co-chief executive officer, Arsjad Rasjid the prestigious ‘Asia’s Best Executive Award 2010’. 

In 2011, the company drew international recognition when the World Economy Forum (WEF) listed it as the role model among ‘Global Growth Companies 2011’ for its distinctive integrated energy strategy and business model. Furthermore, Euromoney magazine listed Indika Energy among the ‘Best Managed Companies in Asia’ on three categories: ‘the most convincing and coherent strategy in the metal and mining sector in Asia’, the most convincing and coherent strategy in Indonesia’ and the ‘Best Corporate Governance’ award.

In the same year, the company, led by Arsjad Rasjid and his co-CEO Wishnu Wardhana, was cited for more than its corporate acumen in the energy sector. It was honoured for ‘Best Community Programmes’ (Bronze) and ‘Best Workplace Practices’ (Gold) in Cebu, the Philippines, at the third annual ‘Global Corporate Social Responsibility Summit’, Asia’s most prestigious CSR awards program.

Most recently, Indika Energy has been nominated as: ‘Best Indonesian Corporate Citizen 2012’ by The New Economy, underlining its conviction that growth and synergy should extend beyond company profits and incorporate a strategy that returns part of the benefits it receives to the society it operates in. 

“Good corporate governance is to create a balance between economic and social goals and between individual and communal objectives. It is done so, while encouraging efficient use of resources, accountability in the use of power and stewardship, as well as aligning the interests of individuals, corporations and society at the utmost,” says Arsjad.

Indika Energy undertakes its social stewardship at both the local and national levels extremely seriously. At the local level, individual business units conduct ‘community development’ programmes with the objective of engaging and assisting the communities in which the group companies operate. Nationally, though its headquarters are located in Jakarta, the company implements programmes in operational areas targeting a wider impact on Indonesian society.

Inspiring Indonesia
One of these programmes, the ‘Teach for Indonesia Movement’ (Gerakan Indonesia Mengajar, (GIM)) was initiated in 2010 through collaboration with the national education figure Anies Baswedan. GIM immediately mobilised 120 of the best newly graduated scholars from top universities in Indonesia to teach in elementary schools across 117 villages in isolated regions scattered throughout Indonesia from Aceh to west Papua where quality educational facilities and educators are lacking. GIM’s goal is to improve the lives of people living in poverty pockets throughout the nation by empowering them through better education.

“In just the first two annual rounds of the GIM program, we have had a positive impact on the lives of more than 18,000 school children, and we are still going strong with the third round’s ‘young teachers’ getting into the programme to replace those who have finished their tenure,” Anies explains passionately.

Most recently, in June 2011, two elementary school students under the tutelage of GIM’s young teachers in the Bengkalis Regency, Riau, Sumatra, and Majene Regency in Sulawesi emerged as finalists in the national-scale ‘Kuark Science Olympiad 2011’ involving 82,000 students from throughout Indonesia.

“This is concrete proof of GIM’s contribution to facilitating equitable access to education and to opening up brighter futures for the students at schools under our guidance. As our motto says, ‘A year of teaching, a lifetime of inspiration’,” Arsjad says. “This model has proven effective, and now we hope to expand the scale of impact that we deliver by inviting other businesses to join us as sponsorship partners,” he added.

Indika Energy is convinced that with its own strong commitment, along with cooperation from other private, nonprofit or governmental sector entities, it will be possible to build a nationwide community development network on the back of its current initiatives to empower communities and eradicate poverty. The company believes that it certainly has the obligation to at least try.

“We are a corporation with a strong commitment to stewardship not only within our business sector, but beyond into the community and the natural environment in which we all exist together. We remain committed to contributing to human welfare as a good corporate citizen well into the future,” concludes Arsjad.

Brazilian Enterprise

Posted on by Ben Debski

Brazil is experiencing a very special moment. Endowed with a strong and stable economy, it is attracting a large amount of investment and is growing apace. One of the key protagonists of this growth is the state of Pernambuco. With a privileged coastline that extends for about 200km, and two international airports, the area receives a large influx of tourists and distributes cargo to all continents. Pernambuco is one of the largest consumer markets in the region, being the first in reward profile. It offers opportunities in various business sectors and most of them are concentrated in the Suape Port Industrial Complex.

The Suape Complex is the engine of Pernambuco and the largest centre of investment within the country. In 2010, the Logistics and Supply Chain Institute (ILOS) ranked Suape as the best public port in Brazil. Located in the metropolitan region of Recife, it has an area of ​​13,500 hectares, divided up into: port, industrial, administration and services, ecological preservation and cultural preservation zones.

The port features a modern structure, with depths between 15.5m and 20m with great potential for expansion. Its strategic location in relation to key maritime routes of navigation connects it to more than 160 ports on all continents, with direct lines to Europe, North America and Africa.

The port movement rapidly grows in perspective and pace, reinforcing Suape as a hub port. In 2011 it will achieve 11 million tonnes with fast containers movement increased by 35 percent. In 2016, the perspective is to reach 50 million tonnes. The design of port-industry offers ideal conditions for the establishment of enterprises in various sectors. Suape has a terrestrial infrastructure itself, in constant development and modernisation, with railways and highways. It will be interconnected to all sectors of the northeast region through the Transnordestina railway. The inner port has recently gained new berths and, in addition, the complex also has supplies of natural gas, electricity, untreated and treated water.

Refining success
There are already more than 100 operating companies in the port, responsible for more than 25,000 direct jobs and another 50 under construction. Among them, industries in chemicals, metal mechanic, shipbuilding and logistics will all strengthen the clusters of power generation, liquid bulks and gases, food and wind power. Furthermore, spaces are available for other industries such as metal and construction, grain production and logistics. It all adds up to more than $40bn in investments, 15,000 jobs and generating more than 40,000 construction jobs.

The Abreu e Lima refinery, which is being built in the Suape Complex, is the only refinery designed to process heavy oil. With a capacity of 230,000 barrels per day, the refinery will deal with the large diesel demand in the north and northeast regions. Furthermore, the refinery will produce coke, naphtha and LPG. The project was budgeted at $13.5bn and its operation will generate 1,500 direct jobs.

Suape is the symbol of the new Brazilian naval industry. The Atlântico Sul shipyard, the largest and most modern shipyard in the southern hemisphere, with the capacity to produce ships and platforms of any size, is already operational. Three other shipyards are lodging: PROMAR, CMO (Construção e Montagem de Offshore S/A) and e Galíctio. Together, the projects total investment is over $2.3bn and will lead to over 20,000 new jobs.

In Suape’s petrochemical pole, which will create 1,800 jobs, $2bn has already been invested. The Suape Petrochemical, with its PET, PTA and polyester yarn production units will help put forward the textile centre in the northeast region of Brazil. The Italian enterprise Mossi & Guisolf, an international benchmark in PET resin, opened the sector’s largest factory complex in the world, enabling the creation of the PET plastic preforms pole.

The Suape Steel Company’s arrival and the attraction of other industries in the sector consolidate a steel pole and metal-mechanic in the complex. It is estimated to produce one million tonnes of metal per year, supplying the local demand of boilers, pipes, vessels and other production components used in refineries and other businesses.

Major work is taking place to build on these new enterprises. More than $600m was invested in the construction of new piers, dredging and highways. In November 2011, engineers initiated dredging, solid dredging and deepening the channel to the external port. This work, expected to be accomplished by late 2013, will make the port more competitive and attractive for enterprises as it will receive any type of ship, including major oil and minerals. The dredging is set to increase the depth of the channel by four meters (from 16m to 20m).

Pushing forward
Currently, Suape has five piers for docking at the port and a pier built of stones of protection framed in “L”, which shelters three piers for liquid bulk, a multipurpose berth and floating LPG storage tanks on the external port. Aiming to expand its structure, four new terminals will be installed: one for solid bulks, another for sugar, a new one for containers and a fourth for grains, with a confirmed investment of over $1bn by 2013.
All investments made are in line with a policy of social and environmental sustainability for the region. In the new masterplan for Suape, 59 percent of its territory is preservation areas, composed by mangrove, restinga and rain forest. The complex also maintains a forest yard with an annual production capacity of 400,000 seedlings. To ensure a balance between growth and environmental development, the project “SuapeSustentável” was created. This project includes state and city governments, civil society organisations and the private sector in order to propose and implement sustainable actions, considering social inclusion, respect to the environment and innovation, while focusing on clean and efficient production processes.

The detection of huge oil reserves, measuring 800km long and 200km wide, in the pre-salt layer between Espírito Santo and Santa Catarina states, at a depth of 5,000-6,000ft below the surface of water, will make Brazil one of the world’s largest oil producers. The Suape Complex will have a key role in the flow of production, estimated at more than 100m barrels, and the construction of ships to offshores transport and oil drilling. As a result, the Suape Global Forum, established in 2008, is aiming to turn Pernambuco in to a prime provider of goods and services to the oil, gas, offshore and shipbuilding industries.

Besides the main responsibilities mentioned, the Suape Complex also has a differentiated policy of tax incentives for new investments. The reductions come up to 75 percent on GST and income tax reductions are provided in a similar magnitude. There are many other incentives at the federal, state and municipal levels. In addition, the loans are guaranteed by federal banks, and Brazilian banks BNB and BNDES.

An industrial revolution is occurring within the economy of Pernambuco and this motion is directly related to the growth of income and the consumer market, large structuring investments throughout the state, and the huge expansion of the Port Industrial Complex Suape.