Note: post has been updated as of 2/15/2010 due to conversation with Keene Christopher, CEO of AirKrete.

The other day as I was sitting around of table of women at a Super Bowl Party, one of the women commented on how cold this particular  winter has been  Quickly the conversation turned to how cold their own houses were and the cost of their utility bills.  Some were wearing bulky clothing and  keeping their homes quite chilly  to keep their bills in check. So, I wondered, have you seen your own energy bill soar in the last couple of years?

As many of my loyal Green Talk readers know, I have written extensively about how to button up those air leaks in your house especially in your attic.  But sometimes, simply caulking is not enough when you don’t have adequate insulation in your attic, crawlspace or walls.

I am fascinated about different types of  insulation, and have been particularly interested about AirKrete, for sometime.  This product has been around for over 25 years.

During a recent green exhibition, I interviewed New Jersey AirKrete installer, Fabio Alberti of Alberti Insulation, about the attributes of the product.   I urge you to listen to the above short podcast. It is really quite informative.

What is AirKrete? According to Alberti,  it is a cementitious foam insulation comprised of Portland cement high quality magnesium oxide (MgO) cement,  ceramic  talc, water, and a foaming agent.  The Company states that the product is  fire proof and mold resistant, and free of formaldehyde, CFCs, asbestos, and all other carcinogenic fibers.  It does not off-gas.

In addition,  it has an R factor of 3.9 per inch and completely fills all the  nooks and crannies within a wall cavity. It does not expand within the cavity like foam, so there is no worry that it will blow out the wall.     (See the Material Data Safety Sheet here as well as independent tests and approvals authenticating the Company’s claims.)

According to Alberti, the main difference between ordinary foam and Airkrete is that AirKrete is 100%  fireproof rather than containing a flame retardant ingredient. In the event of a fire,  AirKrete foam will not burn or create smoke.

As to cost, Kristopher stated a board foot (12″ by 12″ by 1″)  on average costs the same as 1/2 lb polyurethane foam. New Jersey based Alberti  states that a typical AirKrete installation would  cost 20% more than the installation of foam, but would be 40-50%  more effective than foam (depending on the installation)  since it does not shrink from its original installed state. He claims foam, on the other  hand, shrinks.

How is the product installed?  Watch the above video. The product fills the walls like other foam applications and cures within a few days.  It is ideal for  new construction and can be added to existing homes. The beauty of the product, according to Alberti, is  left over product could easily be disposed of in your garden.

During my conversation with Alberti, I was impressed that AirKrete could be installed through an exterior  wall so less damage would be done to the interior walls of your home.   He explained it is the only insulation that can be installed from the exterior as well as through brick veneer.

So, is it really fire proof?  The above video shows a penny being burned on top of AirKrete.   The foam does not burn.   The Penny…well, it did not do as well.

The Company does not maintain a list of  installers on their website.  If you are interested in AirKrete, simply contact the Company through their email address and they will furnish you with the  name of a local installer.

A couple of caveats about the product. While I was writing this  article, I thought all types of cement are the same.   Creating  Portland cement is a heavily embodied energy process.  According to the Material Resource Institute at Penn State,

“Concrete is, by volume, the most common manmade material in the world, with 2 ½ billion tons poured each year. In the process of making Portland cement, a main component of concrete, one ton of CO2 is released into the atmosphere for each ton of cement produced, accounting for 7 percent of manmade global emissions.” [Source]

However, what makes AirKrete different is that it is made out of Magnesium Oxide not Portland Cement.  According to George Swanson, in his article, “ Magnesium Oxide, Magnesium Chloride, and Phosphate-based Cements,”

“Depending upon where they are mined, magnesium oxide and magnesium oxide/magnesium chloride cements require only 20%-40% of the energy required to produce Portland cement.”

Swanson’s article is a must read, comprehensive look at the use of Portland Cement versus magnesium oxide and magnesium chloride cement.  Most notably, he explained the health benefits of using magnesium oxide and magnesium chloride  cement to Portland Cement.

Inevitably, with greener products, you have to pick your poison.  Foam insulation, on the other hand, contains polyurethane, a petroleum based product, which environmentalists have argued depletes a dwindling natural resource.

One caveat  about the product.  Alex Wilson, founder and executive editor of BuildingGreen, LLC in Brattleboro, Vermont, who I admire very much, wrote in his September, 2009 article entitled “Foam-In-Place Insulation,” that there were few trained installers and it may be more expensive to hire one that was far away from your area. In my situation, Alberti covers New Jersey, and he is reasonably close to me. Like Alex stated, installing AirKrete may not be so easy for you in your area.  Christopher confirmed this issue but stated more and more installers are coming aboard.

In addition, Wilson states,

“Other than availability, the biggest problem with Air Krete is that the cured foam is fairly fragile; if exposed to frequent vibration, such as along a busy highway, the foam can begin to disintegrate, reducing its performance. The manufacturer is working to solve this problem.”

Christopher denied this statement and had no idea where Wilson heard this problem. Keep Alex’s point in mind if your home is exposed to frequent vibrations.   Contact the Company to see if they have resolved this situation.

Readers, has anyone used AirKrete ?

Have you found this winter to be worse than prior years?  Or are we just getting older and starting to feel the cold?

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Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinitaly/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Solar Hot water Evacuated tube collectors  seem to be the rage at the International Builder’s Show last winter.  I don’t know why,  but those gleaming dark tubes just caught my eye.  The more I learned about them, the more I liked the whole concept.  Putting a solar hot water flat panel collector on my roof just did not appeal to me.  I had my share of roof leaking/ water issues and just did want to go there again.  (Whether this actually happens with panels does not matter. Fear is a powerful motivator.)  Evacuated tubes on the other hand can be installed vertical or horizontal like a fence as well at an angle similar to the solar hot water panels. I like flexibility.

In addition, every vendor I spoke to touted that these tube were so much more efficient than its cousin, the flat panel collector.  Are they more expensive than the panels? Yes.  But, I was assured I would make up the difference in no time.  My eyes grew wider and wider every time a different vendor spoken about these tubes.  At the end of the show,   I  penciled in my Anna’s green wish list,  ”I want an evacuated tube collector.”  Promise me efficiency, good payback, and you have won my heart.

Until…

Martin Holladay  of GreenBuildingAdvisor.com  thumped me on the head and told me to wake up.  In his article, “Solar Hot Water  Heating Water with the Sun Isn’t Cheap,”  he discusses the argument that evacuated tubes are better than flat panels. He states,

“Evacuated-tube fans like to point out that flat-plate collectors experience more heat loss at cold ambient temperatures than evacuated-tube collectors. (True enough — if the snow ever slides off the evacuated tubes). Moreover, evacuated-tube collectors perform better during cloudy weather, and begin collecting heat earlier in the day, than flat-plate collectors.

Remember, though, that you’re not going to be collecting much useful energy on cloudy days or very cold days anyway. As explained by the author of a technical bulletin from EnerWorks, a Canadian manufacturer of solar equipment, ‘On overcast days the evacuated-tube collector will perform better than a flat-plate collector. Of course, if there’s not much sun to begin with, doubling your efficiency is not a big advantage. The question is, do you want a collector that will perform better when there is plenty of sun to be captured, or one that will perform better when there is not much sun to start with?’”

I could just hear him say, “Anna, you have to stop falling for all those marketing claims.”  The tubes were pretty and why wouldn’t a green girl want to add a little green bling to her house?  I put solar hot panels on the back burner since Holladay explained the payback was bleak for a cold area like mine even with the federal tax credit.  But, despite the article,  the evacuated tube versus panel argument still danced in my head.

As many of my loyal readers know, I attend many green exhibits and meet a variety of green vendors.   At a recent Go Green Building Expo in New Jersey, I met Frank Proske, president of  Sun Solar Spot, a distributor of both evacuated tubes and flat panel collectors.  At the beginning of our conversation, I explained that I had heard different arguments of which system was better.  He quickly pointed to both systems he had on displayed and said that he sold both and could give me an objective point of view. He explained that for colder climates, evacuated tubes were the best; whereas in warmer climates, flat panel collectors are better. Okay, this explanation was a nice and tidy for me to comprehend.  To listen to the entire short podcast, click the link above.  His company distributes SUNDA evacuated tube collectors as well as flat panel collectors.

After eying several different solar hot water collectors at the Builder Show, I kept scratching my head and thinking how do you know which one is right for you?  I posed this question to Proske and he  advised me to begin my research at the Solar Rating Certification Corporation (SRCC) website, which  provides  independent certification of Solar Water and Swimming Pool Heating Collectors and Systems.  The website contains a list of those companies who are participating, rating summary of SRCC Certified Collectors, and SRCC Certified Systems.  In both the rating summaries, you can compare each of the different collectors or systems. For an explanation about the performance data obtained, see here.

If you want to obtain a list of system and annual energy savings for your area, click here.  In the location box, scroll down and find your area, and then click, “Show Selections.”  I naturally clicked on the higher numbers, and noticed some were for residences that have existing gas or electric water heaters. Some mentioned positive leak protection, while others did not.  Other are open loop systems, other are not.  My eyes started to blur over with each of the different descriptions of the various systems.  Thank goodness for  Home and Power’s excellent article in which the author explained the various components of   the solar hot water systems.

As I was reviewing the numbers, I kept in the back of my mind the following stated by the  SRCC :

“The collector with the higher number in the box which reflects your climate and category produces more energy than those with lower numbers. While such a comparison should not be the only basis for your choice of a solar energy system, you may find it helpful. Remember, too, that the energy output of these collectors in the directory has been measured under test conditions, which are almost certainly not the same as the collector will be subjected to in your home. The remainder of the system and the quality of the installation are also critically important factors in how well your solar system works, and how much energy and money you save.”

When I looked at the calculations of the different systems for my area , I couldn’t help myself from jumping to the highest annual savings.  However, this may not be the best practice when comparing it to cost.  According to the SRCC,

“One method is to compare the energy output for each dollar spent on dif­ferent collectors. Or, in other words, how many Btu (or MJ) does a dollar buy if spent on Collector #1 versus Collector #2? This question can be answered by dividing the energy output by the cost of the collector. For example, you are consid­ering a solar water heating application. Collector #1 has a rating in Category C (for water heating) under the cor­rect climate column of 29 MJ (per collector per day) or 21,000 Btu (per collector panel per day). Collector #1 sells for $387. Collector #2 is rated at 35 MJ or 33,000 Btu; it sells for $675. Thus:

Collector #1  29 MJ/$387=0.07 MJ/$  or 27,500 BTU/$387=71BTU/$

or

Collector #2   35 MJ/$675=0.05MJ/$   or 33,000 BTU/$675=49/BTU/$

or

Collector #1 is the better buy, based on performance under the test conditions alone. The higher the number of MJs or Btu per dollar, the more cost-effective the collector is…all other things being equal. Remember, though, that the design and quality of the rest of the system and the installation are also criti­cal to a good solar energy system.”

When I asked Proske how much a typical solar hot water system would cost installed, he replied it would cost between $8000 and $9000 to install a system  for a family of 4 with an 80 gallon water tank.  He did not specify if that price was for flat panel or evacuated tube collectors although during the conversation, he told me that tubes cost about 20-30% more.  To inquire if your state provides solar hot water rebates, see here.

For the DIYer, see the following site for information on how to build your own solar hot water system:

Build it Solar  Solar Water Heating

Build your own solar thermal panel

Readers, if you have installed a solar hot water system,

• which system did you use? (Companies who install, please do not comment.  See your questions below.)
• what kind of rebates did you receive?
• what did you determine was your payback?

For solar hot water companies

• evacuated tubes versus flat panels?
• geothermal systems that also heat  hot water versus solar hot water?
• why your system is better than the other ones out there? (Differentiate cold versus warm weather climates.)

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Team BeauSoleil from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette will be entering their solar home in the  Solar Decathlon from October 9-13 and  October 15-18 in Washington DC.  20 Universities will be participating. (See here to watch videos of all the teams. ) This is the first time any team from the University has entered the contest.  What makes the Ragin’ Cajuns’ home so unique is that the students took their first hand experiences of the ravages of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to help design their  coastal home.

Why the name? It means “Beautiful Sun in French” or “Sunshine” in Cajun French. Watch the video above to see how they married their culture and the environment into this modest 800 highly functional space.

It features:

For updates on how this team does during the Decathlon, follow them on their Facebook page.

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I had the pleasure of  podcasting with Dave Kelly, Vice President of  Product Developement at Aquascape, Inc., the maker of the RainXchange, explaining the virtues of the Company’s residential and commercial rain harvesting system.  To hear the podcast, click the link below.

I have been having a ongoing love affair with  rainwater harvesting systems ever since I learned about the concept.   My chance came when I was building my house six years ago.   My then irrigation specialist discouraged me from installing a system.  I looked to him for guidance since I had no idea where to find one.

When we discussed the system, he gave me one of those discouraging looks and told me it would be expensive and ugly.  ”Did I really want a big old cistern in my yard?”  he responded.  But when I explained I wanted an underground cistern attached to my dry wells, again  he explained it would be very expensive.  The concept of rainwater harvesting for residential was like discussing your family’s dirty secrets.  Keep it to yourself, otherwise, everyone will think you are foolish.  The cost of water is cheap. Why would I want this?

But for years, I yearned for a rainwater harvesting system, and would constantly search the internet looking for someone in New Jersey who installed them.  Perhaps today would be the day some company would pop up on the internet that would fulfill my dream.  Buying a big old cistern from Texas seemed silly when I live in New Jersey.  I knew that retrofitting at this point would be expensive since it meant excavation.  But it did not stop a girl from dreaming.

One day my landscaper handed me a brochure about the RainXchange which illustrated the above residential rainwater harvesting system with a beautiful water feature.   I looked at him in disbelief.  See, my landscaper is one of those old timers.  When I suggest adding compost when you plant, he thinks I am crazy.  All you need is good old soil, he would reply. But here  he was handing me a very new age concept.  (The green age.)  I guess he was puzzled by my look and explained , “everyone is going green these day.”  That they are.

What I love about the RainXchange  is you are not only installing a rain harvesting system, but gaining the added benefit of a bubbling urn water feature.  My neighbor has a water feature in her yard and it produces the most amazing soothing sounds.  In addition the water features attract wildlife, and keep the water circulating in the below ground modules.   No West Nile virus here.

From a design perspective, these 26.5”L x 16”W x 17.5 AquaBlox™ Water Matrix® Tank Storage Modules can be layouted in any configuration.  If you want to install a system under a driveway, alongside a driveway or in a limited space, the blocks can be arranged to accommodate your configuration.  85% of the content of the  module is made out of recycled polyethylene. For more information about the installation of the system, see here as well as videos of how to install the system, the modules, booster pumps and downspot filters.

Unlike a rain barrel, the Company states the RainXchange system filters the stored water to prevent stagnation and growth of unhealthy bacteria.  It can be used for as simple task as a residential rain harvesting system to water your plants with a hose or as complex as a commercial rain water system for storm water management and rain harvesting.   Installing a RainXchange system contributes to LEED credits in the area of sustainable sites (storm water management), water efficiency (rainwater harvesting), and material and resources (recycled content of the modules). The Company further states that this system could potentially lead to a LEED credit in innovative and design process given the application.

Pictured above is Aquascape’s patio which features pervious pavers in conjunction with a 300o gallon system.   The bubbling urn on the patio spills water over into the pervious pavers and is captured by the rain harvesting system.  The Company uses the rain harvesting system to irrigate their landscape.

How do you determine what size system you need?  The Company provides a design calculator that helps you to determine the size of your system.  However, if you only wish to water a portion of your landscaping  such as your perennials or vegetable garden, you size your system appropriately.  The Company can provide you with  a list of certified RainXchange installers to help you calculate your needs and install your system.

What about the cost and payback?  Right now with the price of water being inexpensive, the payback could be 20 years.  Kelly explained the cost of water will be rise due to the need to update antiquated water infrastructures  Most people who are installing the systems according to Kelly want to do the right thing for the environment.  A 500 gallon system installed will cost about $5000; however, as you increase the size of the system, the cost per gallon decreases.

I would encourage you to listen to the above podcast since Kelly describes in detail the advantages of the RainXchange. I have merely tried to wet your appetite to explore this system for your backyard or at your business.  Think bubbling urn, beautiful birds floating about, and rainwater showering your plants from water that you stored.    You may never want to leave your backyard.

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(From left to right, Panelists Paul Miller, Dr. dt ogilvie, Marty Johnson, and Robert Antonicello)

Last week, I attended the Jumpstart the New Green Economy conference at Fairleigh Dickinson. Although this conference was in New Jersey, many of the discussions  at the conference were applicable to situations through the country.

One of the most profound seminars that I attended dealt with  the sustainable challenges of  urban communities.  The panelists were Dr. dt ogilvie, Founding Director, the Center for the Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development as well as an Associate Professor of Business Strategies at Rutgers University, Bob Antonicello, Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, Marty Johnson, CEO of ISLES, a nonprofit corporation, and Paul Miller, Director of Sustainability Programs for the Morristown Partnership. (A short podcast is listed at the end of the article  summarizing their thoughts.)

As a short background for those readers who are not familiar with New Jersey, each of the above groups interact daily with urban environments in different ways.  One of the missions of the Center for the Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development is to “build a world-class research-driven, teaching and practitioner-oriented urban entrepreneurship and economic development program that will transform the economy of the City of Newark, New Jersey, and other urban centers.”  The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency’s responsibilities  include “the direct reinvestment of billions of dollars in Jersey City and tens of thousands of jobs. The Agency is committed to enhancing the quality of life for all residents of Jersey City by guiding responsible development and reinvestment in all neighborhoods and communities in Jersey City.”  Jersey City is a riverfront urban community near New York City.

On the other hand,  ISLES is a nonprofit organization fostering urban community self-reliance, through various programs.  Lastly, the Sustainability Programs of the Morristown Partnership helps create a more sustainable town, in which sustainability has been driven by the local businesses. Although much smaller than its urban city counterparts, it faces the same urban challenges as larger urban centers face.

The main focus of the discussion was the challenges of making urban environments sustainable.  The discussion that ensued dealt with the difficulties surrounding urban flight, establishing small and medium size businesses who would employ people in those cities, and educating our young.

Cities Need to Work

Cities are critical for our survival. According to Johnson, flight from the cities has increased to the suburbs since people are in search of lower taxes and better schools.   This now includes people who have historically lived in cities which are now leaving in search of the American dream.  This mass exit is causing suburban sprawl, in which almost 60 major urban cities in the country are moving in the wrong direction.   Both Miller and Antonicello stated that immigration has been a driving force to keep their respective cities viable.

Miller indicated turning to the schools to educate children and inspiring businesses to take on leadership roles can help to make a more sustainable world.

When questioned on how larger cities are more efficient than small suburban cities with regards to the greater services needed, Antonicello replied that if you build a platinum LEED building in the middle of the suburbs, it would never be as sustainable as as building built to code in an urban setting.  In an urban setting, you can build a taller building without common suburban zoning issues,  require less parking, and more people could walk or take public transportation to work.

How can Urban Cities Become More Sustainable?

Some of the panelists’ responses were directed on how to make our Planet more sustainable, which in turn would make our Cities more sustainable. Ogilvie  felt that federal standards  and incentives should be mandated, which would include the elimination of the incandescent light bulb, more incentives to creates green businesses,  standards for products being sold, and a commitment from the top to make businesses more sustainable.  Smalll and medium businesses need to be established in cities.  Employers tend to hire people who live in the cities, which makes the cities more viable.

On the other hand, Johnson felt that in order for businesses to become more sustainable, they must be given a fair plan as to what this will cost as well as one set of standards to meet.  In addition,  Johnson emphasized that  in order for us to be truly sustainable we must deal with  the race issue, which causes segregation.   Look at such business leaders or initiatives such as PSE&G’s Ralph Izzo,  Trenton Green, or  Rutgers for innovative thinking. Miller added Sustainable NJ.

Antonicello explained from his perspective that  it is important to  grow a  city so that it can afford its services and pensions to its employees in  a sustainable manner.  By growing a city around transportation, people are more likely to come back to live in the cities.

Miller attacks the urban problem of sustainability through empowering neighborhood to have a voice.  Moreover, he felt that a community  should look at their  own design to see how their city can become more sustainable.  To that end, Morristown Partnership had a  Sustainable Design Assessment Team from the American Institute of Architects  provide recommendations on how to make the design of   Morristown more sustainable.

But where do you begin to make your own city sustainable in some manner? Both Johnson and Antonicello espoused the idea of having a champion and the power of 1.  Organizing people to create change. Ogilvie added creating collaborative models with different groups with different expertise to create change based on the theory do what you do best.

One of the attendees pointed out the need to create salvage centers for materials to stay within the city  when buildings are renovated.  The panel agreed there was a need for such centers.

Problems in New Jersey

Although the discussion was about sustainable urban cities, the issue of high taxes in New Jersey surfaced through one of the questions of an attendee.  She questioned why aren’t small towns being forced to join with each other.  Perhaps this situation is similar to your own state.

Antonicello stated in New Jersey, there are 566 municipalities.  The panelists agreed that these municipalities have a a kingdom mentality with alot of political invested power at stake and this needs to change.  In addition,  healthy cities should annex regional services  from nearby larger urban center such as New York City instead of duplicating services.

At the end of the discussion,  I had a chance  to podcast with the panelists to summarize their thoughts.  The podcast is 7 minutes long and quite fascinating.  Click here: Sustainable Urban Communities Podcast

What are you thoughts on how to create sustainable urban cities?

Head shots of the panelists, courtesy of Professor Kent Fairfield.

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When I read the initial press release on VAST® Composite Pavers , these pavers had me at hello.  I know. How can pavers be so interesting?  Using words like made out of recycled content materials, helps storm water management and the pavers looks like brick can give an eco- building girl palpitations!  The fact that the use  of these composite pavers contribute to several LEED credits was just the icing on the cake.  I scratched my head and asked, where was VAST® Pavers when I installed my ugly unenvironmentally friendly asphalt driveway  four years ago?

I had the pleasure of interviewing Andy Vander Woude, chief executive officer of VAST Enterprises LLC on the above podcast.  He meticulously and patiently answered all my questions about the product. I encourage everyone to listen to it since it is more detailed then my summary of the product below.

So, why does VAST Pavers make me swoon?  For starters, the composite pavers are made out of 95% post-consumer recycled materials consisting of  tires and scrap plastics.  At the end of their life, they can be recycled again into new materials.  In addition, the Company offers a permeable composite paver , which allows water to infiltrate into the ground to reduce storm water run-off.  Most towns, including mine, require storm water management for new construction.

In the summer, you could fry an egg on my asphalt driveway.  The beauty of these pavers is there use eliminates the intense heat that you feel when you walk across an asphalt driveway or parking lot in the summer. That heat island effect causes the adjacent building, whether it is a house or office building, to use more energy to keep it cooler.

Have you sacrificed beauty or spent alot more green for these pavers?  Absolutely not.  They come in 6 different colors and are brick shaped ( 3″ by 6″.)  According to Vande Woude, they are also cost competitive with the installation of ordinary pavers due to the unique grid systems, which make installation easy and reduces labor costs.  Even someone like myself could install these pavers after a sub-base has been properly installed.  See the installation video above.

There is virtually no waste left over from installing these pavers since the grids used are the packaging of the pavers.  As I mentioned above, these pavers can contribute to LEED credits in the areas of recycled content, storm water management, waste reduction, innovative design, and reduction of heat island effect.  In addition, depending on your location, using these pavers may contribute to the regional material credit.  The Company is expanded rapidly and more regional manufacturing is anticipated.

Since the pavers are manufactured in Minnesota, they have undergone rigorous testing for cracking and fading.  Minnesota has extreme variations in weather.  Winters are extremely cold and summers can be very hot.  According to the Company, the pavers have held up beautifully.

As I mentioned above, I had many questions about this product. I tend to be a skeptic about green claims.  After my interview with Vander Woude,  I was convinced that product was exceptional.   He explained the following in the podcast:

• how the pavers differ from other pavers
• how the heat island effect is reduced by the pavers.  I could not understand how rubber could reduce this effect since I thought rubber retains heat.
• how these rubber pavers differed from rubber mulch which can leach chemicals into our waterways.
• how easy it is to  install  the pavers
• why the pavers are cost competitive
• how exactly the pavers contribute to LEED points
• how the installation of these pavers could reduce the amount of sand being dragged around your house from ordinary paver installation.

Interested? I knew you would be.  To find out more information on how to buy these pavers, visit here. The pavers can be purchased for US, Canada, and international projects. So, for your next outdoor project, consider using a VAST® Pavers as an environmental choices for your new  path, driveway, or patio.

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Editors’ note: This is a transcript from the above audio, which is 26 minutes long. It has been slightly edited so it is more readable. See the giveaway contest and purchase discounts at the end of the transcript!

Read on how to see Mr. Beams’ LED lights will not only decrease those hard to light areas in your house, but save you a little green as well.  How? The lights are battery-operated and sensor controlled, so say good-by to the electrician and hello to more energy efficient lights in your home.

Transcript

Anna Hackman: Hi everybody. I’m here with Mike Recker co-founder of Mr. Beams and Ashley Fantz, Mr. Beams’ Marketing Director. We’re here to talk about Mr. Beams products. Tell us about what Mr. Beams is and what products you sell.

Mike Recker: Mr. Beams makes LED lights that are battery-powered motion sensor and RF controls that you can attach anywhere. In addition to indoor use, most of our products are [sic] weatherproof, and are designed for outdoor use, so that allows our customers to attach them anywhere without the need for calling an electrician for wiring. We’ve found that the LED technology, in addition, to controls and battery power, offered customers a great product for adding lights in places where they previously had not been able to add light. We are launching three new products in March and three more new products in May to go along with the six products we already currently offer.

AH: Could you be a little bit more specific as to what products that you do offer?

(Mr. Beams’ spot light.)

Ashley Fantz: You can put our products basically anywhere. We have a spotlight which is great. You can put it outside your house on any entry areas, and it’s also perfect for inside the garage. It’s basically two screws …a third if you want the little extra support, but basically two screws, and it’s installed. Whenever it detects motion when it’s dark out, it comes on brightly. So, it’s kind of like light on demand. Whenever you need light it’s there for you.

(Mr. Beams’ step light)

We also have a stair light, which works great. You can put it in your stairwell, you can put it in your hallways, [sic] or anywhere as a path light. My Aunt actually has a boat and she puts it in her bathroom on her boat, and she also has a few on her dock as well. So basically, it can go anywhere. As Mike said, many of our products actually are weatherproof now. So, you can use them for indoor and outdoor use. Put in two screws and they’re installed, and you don’t need to wire anything. Everything’s battery powered.

AH: And are these products pretty good for the closets?

AF: Yes. We do have a closet light which is also a great product as well. Again, two screws and it’s installed. When it detects motion it comes on brightly until the timer setting is up, and then, it will shutoff automatically. So, you never have to worry about leaving your closet light burning all night long. If you left for vacation or even worked that day you’re not wasting electricity because you forgot to shut that light off.

AH: Now, I saw that all these products are available on your website. What’s the price point for a lot of these products?

AF: The prices can range from about 20 to 40 dollars depending on the product. We also have a new product coming out which I think is going to be around the 15 dollar range, maybe the end of March, which is also going be like an all-purpose light that you can use it anywhere.

AH: Mike, what is LED’s? A lot of people are confused by that. They don’t know what that means. They know it’s a new technology, but can you give a layman’s description of what it is and why is it more efficient than an incandescent or a CFL?

MR: Sure. LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. Basically, a Light Emitting Diode is a solid state device, so it’s more along the lines of a computer chip than anything else. When you drive electrical current through it, it actually emits light. Compared to an incandescent bulb, which actually the electricity heats the filament, the filament glows. In the case of a Light Emitting Diode, you’re converting electricity into light through the solid state device, but in an incandescent bulb, you’re converting electricity to light by basically illuminating the filament. So, what happens is, in the process of converting electrical power to light, there are some inefficiencies, and those inefficiencies in an incandescent bulb are very high. But because of the solid state device in the Light Emitting Diode, it’s very efficient in terms of converting electricity to light. So, it’s typical that an LED light that consumes around 10 watts of power can generate as much light as a 60 watt incandescent light bulb.

AH: Now these LED’s do not contain mercury. Am I correct about that… versus CFL’s?

MR: That’s correct. Fluorescent lamp uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. [Sic] It’s just inherent in the way all fluorescent lamp or CFL’s works. It has to have Mercury in it. So that is correct. An LED light does not have mercury in it, and it’s basically a silicon device, like I said, is more commonly found on computer chips.

AH: So, are they also more efficient than CFL’s as well?

MR: They are more efficient than CFLs. CFLs have a higher efficiency than an incandescent lamp. The problem with the CFL’s, they’re not quite as efficient as LED’s, but, the disposal issues with the CFLs are what we are finding a lot of people are very hesitant because of the mercury inside the bulb. There’s always going be a problem with disposal.

AF: On our website, if you click on compare tab, at “www.MrBeams.com,” you can click the compare tab and it will display the differences between LED’s, CFL’s and incandescent bulbs in terms of energy, the amount of heat emitted, the environmental impact, how much carbon dioxide is emitted. It really, on a number of different spectrums, [sic] compares all three sources of, I guess, light.

AH: Ashley, can you just repeat that website address?

AF: Sure. It’s www.MrBeams.com. It’s “MrBeams.com.” (spelled out.) It’s all one word, and Mister is Mr.

AH: Mike, how did you get into this market?

MR: Basically back in 2004, David Levine and I started developing some ideas around lighting controls, and we were prototyping a few different RF and motion control ideas that we had. As we talked to people about the ideas, we found that the concept of wireless lighting that was enabled by some of the advances that we were seeing in white LED technology was very exciting.  The white LED technology at that time back in 2005 was really in the early stages. There were some products coming out, but nothing that we thought was really ready for commercial success.

Then in 2005, we actually developed our first prototypes for closet lights and a mini spotlight, which are on our website. Around that time frame in 2005-2006, the dotted, which is a famous LED, (it’s a little push light), came out. It had a great commercial success, and the LED product market sort of started to take off. This is all enabled by really the advances in white LED technology itself. So, the devices that enabled all of this for manufacturers such as Phillips, Cree, or OSRAM, which are the companies that make white LED’s, and Nichia, which makes quality white LED’s that then get integrated into these LED lighting products that we develop and others develop… as those products put out more light for the amount of energy they consumed, products become more and more viable. From 2005 to today, we’ve seen great advances in quality of LED products. And I think what we’re going see from 2009 through the next two or three years, we’re going start to see some great groundbreaking LED lighting products come on to the market that I think really starts to make it viable to replace a incandescent bulbs and CFLs worldwide.

We’re very excited about the prospects for our own products and some of the ideas that we have over the next few years, but not just for ourselves, but [sic] also for the product market. LED lighting really has the chance to change the way lights has been created. I think, it’s technology revolution that people are really going benefit from, both in terms of the quality of the products and the positive impact on the environment.

AH: What is your background?

MR: I have a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from John Hopkins University, and I’ve been doing Electrical Engineering design work for 20 years…for my entire career. Most of the time that I’ve been involved in product development, it has been with cutting edge technology. So, when David and I, back in 2004, started discussing ideas for products for the area we wanted to get into, it was very easy to identify LED technology as really one of the next big things. I used a lot of sort of my engineering background to evaluate what was available at that time, and what could be available in the future. Then, in addition to that, David and I used a lot of the experience we had in RF design, in terms of from his perspective, looking at business side of what we could sell and what products people really needed and wanted, and from my side, what we could design in terms of battery technology and RF control and motion control and how much light we could get out of LEDs.

AH: One of the things that you mentioned a couple of times is this word, “RF.” Many people may not know what that means. So what is RF technology briefly?

MR: RF stands for Radio Frequency. So, one of our early ideas for this product area was a concept called wireless lighting, and wireless lighting is the ability to put a light anywhere, and attach it anywhere without wires, without connecting it to what they call the power grid. What I mean by that is, without connecting it to AC power. If you want to be able to place a light anywhere you need to be able to control it wirelessly. It needs to be powered wirelessly, for example by batteries or by solar power, or another method that it can basically stand alone, but it also needs to be wirelessly controlled, which means that it needs to have a motion sensor or it needs to have a radio frequency controller such that you can have a remote control, a lot like your door lock, [or] your key chain remote for your car. You have a remote, you pull it out of your pocket and you push a button to unlock your Car. We have a radio frequency product coming out that you take a remote and you push an on button and the light turns on. You push an off button and it turns off.

AH: Now what makes Mr Beam’s products so much different from the other LEDs on the market? I know you’ve touched on it a little bit, but if you can just summarize why your lights are different.

MR: I think that comes back to the concept of wireless lighting. In order to design products that are battery powered and are wirelessly controlled, you really have to think through how the customer would use that light. So for example, our motion sensor spotlight, we had to think through what’s an acceptable battery life would be, how much light that product needed to put out to solve the problems that we were targeting, and how effective that motion sensor needed to detect motions 30 or 40 feet away.

So our products, I think, are different than other LED products on the market. A lot of products are first of all are powered by AC power which means they have to be plugged into a light socket or plugged into the wall somehow. So the battery powered aspects of our products make us unique. The wireless control elements also make us quite unique. The motion sensor and the RF control [also make us unique.] We feel that concept of wireless lighting is what differentiates us from some of the other LED lighting vendors in the market.

AH: I had a chance to test your outdoor light, and I loved its wide light beam. I was taking it all around my house and showing it to everybody how wide the light was. Is this typical of a lot of LEDs?

MR: An LED has a viewing angle, so different LED products actually have different beams of light that come out of them. You can think it, an LED, as a little spotlight. A narrow viewing angle of an LED would be something like 15 degrees. That would be a very narrow light output that looks a lot like the flashlight.

A wide viewing angle might be something along the lines of 120 degrees. That would look more like a floodlight. Mr. Beams’ spotlight that you have actually has an optical lens that takes an LED that has a 120 degree angle and it changes the viewing angle to be closer to 75 degrees. We thought, when we were designing the product that you have, that the viewing angle needed to be somewhere in between the 15 degrees and 120 degrees. So it really needed to be a spotlight that had a tighter angle, but it couldn’t be so tight that it looked like a flashlight. So a lot of thought is put into the optics behind a LED product. In that particular case, we did a lot of testing and we felt that the optics in the product that you were testing needed to have a wider light beam. We are actually very pleased with how the product turned out, with respect to the light output.

AH: Is typically all the products that Mr. Beams carries have that wide angle output?

MR: Not necessarily. In some cases we want a tighter beam or a wider beam based on the application. We are coming out with a ceiling light that we felt needed a wider coverage area. The output of the ceiling light is wider. It’s closer to 100 degrees or greater because we felt that if people were mounting it in the ceiling of their closet or above their shower or what have you, it really needed to light up the whole room. So, we try to target either a narrow or wide beam of light out of one of our products based on how we think the customer would want to use it. A lot of thought goes into that and we do spec those differently for different applications.

AH: One thing that I wanted to point out that you just mentioned. I’m glad you talked about closet lights because actually a report just came out recently that talked about not having CFL’s in closets because they’re saying that you turn them on and you turn them off, and that shortens the life of a CFL’s. So, it’s good to hear that you are creating a closet light because that’s something I think is very much needed.

I noticed the color is always been an issue with me with LEDs. A lot of colors that I’ve tried, and I’ve talked about it on my website, they tend to be very blue, and that really bothers me. I am so used to incandescent…that nice yellow, that a blue bothers me. The particular light that I have, which maybe is an old version of what you’re making now, had a tinge of blue. Are there going be any changes to that light?

MR: When David and I started the company several years ago, one of the things that bothered us, when we did our early testing with LEDs was the bluish tint. We felt that it was very artificial, and we just didn’t like it. We didn’t feel like it was a real product until color better matched what you’d get with a normal light bulb in effect. The spotlight that you have may have a slight bluish tint. The reason for that is typically LEDs have colors that range from what you’d call warm white, neutral white to a cool white. The spotlight is somewhere closer to a cool white color, and that is because it’s typically used as an outdoor product. Cool white tends to have a little more blue in it than a warm light which would be more yellow. So, the spotlight, although there’s a little bit of blue in it, it was intended to still be a cool white. As we go forward, there will be more of a neutral white color in that spotlight and I think its going take the blue out of the light. What you have, I think, is one of the very early versions. A warm white light, often times when we were designing our product, like the ceiling light that would be used in the closet, we used either a warm white LED, which is a lot closer to an incandescent light bulb color, or neutral light so it’s got more of a yellowish color to it…like you said, nice warm white that comes out of it.

AH: Now, what is the estimated life of your products? And if you could tell me also with answering that, if you put ordinary batteries in your products, how long do you think that it would take to need to be replaced with another set of batteries?

MR: Our goal is always greater than one year of battery life under normal use. We have products that are spec’d for one year. We have other products spec’d for 18 months. The spotlight, for example, uses three D Cell batteries. It’s got a motion sensor in it. We would expect a customer not to have to change the battery within a year and that would be for alkaline batteries. I have also been doing testing with rechargeable batteries, as an example a nickel metal hydride is a good option also. Nickel metal hydride battery might not have the same life as an alkaline in the product used but it is rechargeable. An alkaline battery fresh is typically one year or more. A rechargeable battery would be along the lines of either nine months to fifteen months depending on the type of batteries and the type of products that we offer.

AH: What is the estimated life of the product?

MR: We have spec’d our products based on the LED’s which have a usable life of greater than 50,000 hours. A 60 watt incandescent light bulb for example is often spec’d for somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 hours. But an LED, just the nature of LED technology because its a solid state device, …and this is a great feature of LED’s, typically the usable light is far greater than 50,000 hours.

AF: That’s 400 years. [Laughs.] If you use some our light for like only 20 minutes a day, I think at 50,000 hours it’s somewhere close to almost 400 years.

AH: Are there any plans, I know it’s a far-fetched question, to take back these LEDs? Will there be a way for someone to just to buy the LED’s and pop it back into the fixture?

MR: At this time we don’t have a plan for any kind of take back program or retrofit. We don’t expect our products to fail based on the LED in the near future. But at some point it’s certainly something that we’ll consider, but at this time we don’t have any plans for anything like that.

AH: Now here’s the most important question. Which one of the products are each of your favorites. Ashley you go first and tell me why.

AF: I’d definitely say that I love, love, love the stair light. There are just so many applications for the stair light. For example, my son and I use it every evening. Previously, we used to keep our closet light on at night. That way I could read books to him in the evenings and it was kept on as his night light. Well, that also uses a lot of energy and I’m constantly changing bulbs I felt like every six months. So, what we now use is the little stair light. So at night we no longer use the closet light. We get in bed, we use our little stair light to read the books, and then at night when I kiss him good night, we put the stair light on the floor. And the great feature about the stair light is that it has two brightness modes. It has a glow mode and a bright mode. When it detects night it will turn on the glow mode, which is the real soft glow, and then when it detects motion it comes on brightly, so that you can see your way. What works out great for my son is that when he wants to get up at the middle of the night to use the little boy’s room or to get a glass of water, he can just go ahead and… he can get out of his bed and the light comes on brightly. He can pick it up and take it, almost like a flash light, where he needs to go. We have a few in our hallway and our stairs as well.

What’s great about it too is that if I get up in the middle of the night, I don’t have to worry about where the light switch is, the light comes on, and it’s not so bright that it disrupts my sleep pattern. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves. When I get up in the middle of the night, I never turn on the hallway light because they’re just so bright that, at that point I’d be up for the next two three hours because my sleep’s disrupted. So now I know it’s a nice amount of light that I can see where I’m going without disrupting my sleep if I need to go for a glass of water or to check on him or something.

AH: Mike, how about you?

MR: For me it’s the spotlight. We tested a lot of LED lights as we were developing our own products, and a lot of LED lights that we tested were underpowered or often had issues with how they were designed. We put a lot of thought into the spotlight. The size of the spot is actually quite a small product, I think, for function that it performs, and it’s easy to mount outdoors. You can mount it to the wall with a couple of screws. You can articulate the light… you can point the light in the direction that you want, because the spot itself swivels around on the base, and the motion detector works quite well. Like I said earlier, the optical lens puts out this very nice wide beam of light, and I think for me, the spotlight was a product that I really felt like it shows that LED lighting, especially for us, for wireless lights…battery powered light that were controlled by a motion sensor was really a very good product. So for me, he spotlight is my favorite.

AF: Now, you mentioned automation. I forgot to ask that one question. Can you control the amount of time that it stays on and turns off?

MR: In order to conserve battery life, the light automatically shuts off. So, if you walk in an area that the spotlight is in, for example, it will trigger and turn on with motion. When you leave that area, it will wait some amount of time and it will turn the light off automatically. We do allow the customer to have some control over how long that period of time is, before it will automatically shut off, and a number of our products have a switch that you can set automatic shut off time.

AH: Now is anything new coming down the pipe?

MR: Yes. As I mentioned earlier we have some three new products coming in March. We’ll offer our spotlight and our stair light also with RF controls, and an all-purpose sensor light, which is the motion controlled sensor light which will be a lower cost item. Then in May, we are going launch three additional new products including the ceiling light that we’ve mentioned earlier, which is great for a variety of applications, indoor and outdoor, including the closet light applications, which you mentioned earlier. Then, down the road, the rest of 2009 we have a very aggressive product development schedule, but unfortunately… I like to be careful about saying too much about what we plan to do for the rest of the year.

AH: Well that’s very understandable that you don’t want to let me know. But I know that Green Talk will be the first one to know about these new products. Ashley, you have a special offer for the Green Talk listeners.

AF: Yes. We are offering all Green Talk listeners and readers 25% off on our website. All they have to do is when they go to checkout, just enter in GREENTALK, as all one word, in the discount code section and they will receive 25% off on their purchase.

AH: I really appreciate you offering that to my readers. This is a great product. Speaking from the heart having used it myself, I’ve had so much fun and I really enjoy this product. I know that you guys out there will enjoy is as much as I do. So go on and check out the website, Mr Beams is definitely shedding some light here on your dark areas. I want to thank both Mike and Ashley for coming on today and explaining everything about Mr. Beams and the science behind it. It’s truly appreciated, because as I said before, LEDs are still a mystery to a lot of people. So thank you so much for coming on, and please make sure I know about those new developments in the future.

AF: Thank you so much for having us. We really appreciate it.

MR: Yes. Thank you, Anna.

In addition to the 25% discount listed above on all Mr. Beams’ product,  the Company has  graciously offered two Green Talk readers either a step light or a spot light. The winners can choose which one they would like.

In order to enter the contest, you must live in the US, and be 18 or older and follow the rules below:

• Leave me a comment here telling me the area in your house or apartment that you feel needs more light.  If you don’t have one, just say so.

• To double your chances of winning the light, consider joining Green Talk’s Ning Forum. Come back and leave a separate additional comment that you joined my forum. If you are already a member, so say.

• To triple your chances consider joining my Feedburner email list or subscribe to my RSS feed. Both subscriptions are listed on the upper left hand column. Be sure to come back and leave a separate additional comment to tell me which one you joined. If you are already a member of either say so.

• To quadruple your chances of winning, twitter about this contest and come back and leave a separate additional comment of the url (weblink) of your twitter comment.

• You must enter by April 9, 2009, 6 PM EST time to win. A winner will be chosen at random on Friday, April 10, 2009.  Good Luck everyone!

Thanks to Mr. Beams, no one should have a dark area in their house anymore.

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Ford’s soy based seat.

Editor’s note: This interview is the transcript for the above podcast. It has been slightly edited to make it more readable.  The audio is 20 minutes long.  Consider signing up for my podcasts.  (Not to be confused with Odiogo, which is a computer generated audio podcast.)

AH: Hi everybody. Welcome to today’s Green Talk Podcast on a snowy January day. It’s frigid cold in New Jersey. My guest today is Deborah Mielewski. She is the Polymer Technical Leader of Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford Motor Company, and she’s here to speak today about Ford Motors Green Initiatives. Welcome Deborah.

DM: Thank you very much for talking with us, Anna.

AH: Give us a little background. I mean that’s a mouthful, you know the Technical Leader, Polymer Research Advanced Engineering. What does this all mean?

DM: I’m not sure I understand my title myself. [Laugh.] I have a Bachelor’s [degree], Master’s and PhD in Chemical Engineering, and I am more of a Research Scientist.  I lead a group of Engineers, who develop new novel plastic materials for cars of the future. So, that’s how I see my job. [It is] much simpler than the title.

AH: And how long have you been at Ford?

DM: I’ve been at Ford for twenty-two years. I came with my Bachelor’s degree and the Company put me through school for both the Master’s and PhD.

AH: Tell us a little bit about what are these green initiatives that Ford’s sponsoring.

DM: We are working in about every area that we can find sustainable or bio material to take a look at. We have a project in soy foam, which we launched last year on the 2007 Mustang, but basically it’s incorporating functionalized soybean oil into the cushions and seat backs of our vehicles. We are looking at soy meal and soy flour, the other half of soybean, putting that into Composites or plastics to strengthen it, make it stronger or as a filler. We are looking at natural fiber as filler for plastics to replace heavy glass fiber that we traditionally use. Fibers such as hemp, coconut coir, [and] Indian grass that grows on the sides of the roads in United States [and incorporating] any of those into any of the plastic material. We are also looking at long term plastic resins made entirely from vegetable sugar such as corn, sugarcane, and sweet potatoes.

AH:  When you mention the natural material, are any of these being used right now?

DM: We started the soy foam project in 2001, and we launched it in 2007. So, it’s not a really quick and easy process. We are inventing and formulating brand new materials, and in order to put them in the car, you have to pass rigorous, rigorous testing, at high temperature, low temperature and long, long term durability requirements. So the soy foam, we worked on it here in the lab for a good five years formulating it, and we finally got it onto the vehicles in 2007 in the Mustang, and now we have it in six vehicle programs.

AM: And is it something that’s going to be [added] to all of the vehicles down the road?

DM: We’ll it certainly has traveled like wildfire. I mean I haven’t seen a material that went from one vehicle in late 2007 to six Ford vehicles. Here we are at the beginning of 2009. So, I’m really proud of the fact that we now have it in six, and it certainly has the potential to be used in other applications in the vehicle as well. So there’s about 30 pounds of foam on a typical vehicle, and the objective is to get a lot of that replaced with soy-based foam.

AH: Now where did this initiative come from? Did this come from the top? Was it something that your team thought of?

DM: In 2000-2001 when we started the program, Bill Ford was the CEO of the Company, and he’s quite an environmentalist so we knew we would have his support for looking at it. I just became the technical leader of Plastics, and sort of struggling with the bad reputation that plastics have on vehicles. And this is one way to sort of tackle that problem is, to look at the sustainable plastic or plastics that tend to degrade or compose. So, I think we started the project here.  We had nothing but positive feedback from our management, and so, that’s why the program was allowed to grow and prosper.

AH: Now tell me a little bit about the team that you work with. They’re all women?

DM: People ask me about that all the time. It’s an interesting coincidence, I think, being in automotive for twenty-two years. I rarely worked with one other woman, and in our case, there are six of us that are working on these materials. All women, different backgrounds, some are chemical engineers, some are chemists, and some are material scientists by training, but it’s quite a passionate group. We all have a similar philosophy about the environment and it has been working out just really well.

AH: Are all of you, moms?

DM: Practically all of us, but the youngest member of the group is yet to be a mom. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if that were to happen at some point. We are pretty much all worried about the next generation, the young people in keeping the Earth clean as we possibly can.

AH: Deborah, can you explain to us, what actually is the soy foam? What is it made of? What percentage is soy? What percentage is foam? How do you go about creating this type of foam?

DM: Okay. That’s a very good question. The current traditional seating material that people have in their vehicles is made 100% from petroleum fossil fuel and a non-renewable starting material. And what we did was try to incorporate a portion of hydrolyzed or functionalized soybean oil [into the cushions]. [sic] Even though the cushions as they stand are not a 100% soy, when we started, it was quite an accomplishment to get a drop of soy material into these foams, and still have it meet all of the stringent requirements that we have to. We worked and worked on formulation and with the Mustang, we launched with about 12% of the polyols being replaced by soy. Our objectives within the group are to continue to push the envelope and get more and more soy material into those cushions and other foam applications as well.

AH: What were the problems that you encountered in creating these cushions?

DM: Our initial problems were, the soybean oil reacts more slowly than petroleum based molecule does, and so we had to completely revamp the formulation, adjust catalyst level, adjust blowing agents, change materials to balance those chemical reactions so that the foam wouldn’t just collapse. The other major technical issue was the odor of the soybean materials. It had sort of a rancid popcorn smell, which obviously could not be in a vehicle with the windows up in higher temperatures.

AH: Deborah, one of my questions is when you are using soy as a product, how does that impact the cost of food because soy is in a lot of food products?

DM: That’s a very good question. When we started working on this project, the United Soybean Board came and visited Ford Motor Company, and they talked about the fact that there’s actually an excess of soy beans in the Midwest currently, and there are many acres that were unfarmed. They have a division that actually looked for new applications for soy materials. So, I don’t see it, especially our materials development affecting the price of food in the near future. But one thing I wanted to make sure everybody understood, these chemistries … they are very, very flexible. You can always move to another starting material. So, if you don’t want to use soybean oil, you can use Canola oil in different part of the world where that’s in excess and you wouldn’t affect food prices.

AH: One other question that I had is, I know, I’m very confused about bio-degradable versus compostable. Can you just give us a brief explanation of what that means and what you see that we need in this country to be able to make that a reality?

DM: I think the confusion is there and it should be there because right now we have our standard compost piles in our backyard and everybody understands what that does, breakdowns materials. But as far as durable plastic materials that continue to be developed and utilized, you may need a certain type of microbe to trigger your breakdown of the material, and so that’s something that we are looking at. You want the material to very, very, very durable, and all of a sudden throw it in the compost pile and have it fall apart. You’ll need special triggers probably to do this. So, facilities would have to be generated that will bio-degrade automotive plastics.

AH: Is Ford working on that at all with the state of Michigan, to get a facility like that?

DM: We haven’t made any of those hookups at this point because frankly we don’t have the ultimate key to having these materials stay durable and fall apart. That’s sort of the focus of the work right now. Once we do, then we can think about having facilities that will actually take the materials back and break them down.

AH: Hopefully that will come soon because it seems like the industry is pretty ahead of its time with making bio-degradable, compostable products. The facilities just don’t seem to exist.  So, hopefully our governments will start getting aboard … [meaning our] state governments and pushing for these facilities to be open.

DM: I agree. Its brand new novel materials, brand new chemistry, and we are going to need support to make it all work and make it work for the environment.

AH: Deborah, I was reading on the web the other day that soy has played a history in Ford for awhile. Did you ever hear about that with Henry Ford?

DM: Yeah. Henry Ford was the obsessed with soybean research. He had a lab here at the Fair Lane Estate that’s still standing there. He served meals where every single course had soy in it. He wore ties that were made of soy fibers. He was totally fascinated.  And I think his main objective was, he felt the partnership between the industry and agriculture, was really, really important. We are starting to think that, in fact he was right, that this partnership between farmers and industry can be a real advantage, and using farmers’ crops in our vehicles is a great idea.

(Lincoln MKR concept with soy-foam based seats wrapped in cashmere leather made with using an environmentally friendly chromium-free process.)

AH: Let’s go back to the soy seat again. Who’s actually making the soy product for you?

DM: We do not make the seats here at Ford Motor Company. We purchase them and put them in our vehicles, but we worked with Lear Corporation to develop the soy seats in the Mustang, and now all our suppliers have a soy-based foam offering. So, after it was demonstrated that it could be done, most of the suppliers now have a product that they have available.

AH: I don’t know if you know this, but has increased employment in any areas of the US because of using these soy based seats?

DM: No. I think we are pretty much replacing petroleum. I don’t know in fact that it has increased any employment within the automotive industry. Now, maybe we increased the amount of soybean grown or utilized. The soy cushions are being used in the furniture industry….the office furniture industry. So we are talking to a lot of people on how to do this in other applications as well.

AH: One of the things that my listeners are pretty worried about is toxic ingredients in their products. Are there any flame retardants, solvents or other VOC’s in the padding?

DM: No, the seat cushions’ polyurethane generally does not have flame retardants. It’s self extinguishing, and it’s not necessary in them. And in the soy-based foam that we launched, we actually had a low VOC surfactant incorporated into the formulation so it lower in volatiles than other foams are.

AH: I wanted to tell my listeners that there’s this terrific You Tube video that’s very short, and it depicts everything that we are talking about today. Tell us a little bit about that video.

DM: Well, it’s been crazy, because if you kind of look at our group, we sort of view ourselves as a bunch of nerdy women, and we’re in the labs, and we are actually mixing chemicals together and making measurements.   So, when people talk about scheduling someone to come in with the camera, and do camera work at our group, we were just kind of really surprised about that. But we spent the day with some camera people, and they videoed foams rising in the cup.  Just the stuff that we do every single day here in the lab and it is kind of interesting to watch.

AH: Was this done into a commercial as well?

DM: Oh yes. Last March, I was notified by email that they were do a national commercial on the bio materials work.  The very next day I think someone picked myself and my family up, and we ended up in California in a limo…the celebrity thing, and we shot a commercial one day. It was just a really, really strange experience for a nerd like me, anyway.

AH: Does your team have a name, like a nickname? Are you guys the bionic women?

DM: Actually we’ve heard, it’s tossed around, and we’ve seen on the Internet, the nickname, Bio Babes, but the women in the group don’t really use that name amongst ourselves. We think it’s kind of amusing though.

AH: So there’s not a calendar in the making of Bio Babes?

DM: Oh, no. [laugh]

AH: I just probably put a thought in your head now, a good fundraiser, the Bio Babes. Now let’s go back to the video for a second. One thing that I didn’t understand, in the You Tube video it talked about how the product is bio-degradable. The seat really is not bio-degradable, because it’s not hundred percent soy. What did I misunderstand with that video?

DM: A seat cushion is a polyurethane foam material, and it’s actually cross-linked so when you take two components and you mix them together, you chemically react them together. That’s what makes it not available for composting. You can’t take apart that bond in a day. I think the confusion is that the video was reviewing all of the technologies that are being developed. Some of them are compostable like the polylactides, polymer resins made from corn. Those can be actually put into a compost heap and will degrade in ninety days versus our traditional plastics, which can take hundred of years to degrade. We’re ready to think about putting those into the lower end applications that don’t have high requirements for automotive but they’re really not durable for ten years in a very hot vehicle, a very humid environment. That’s sort of what the research right now on those materials is, to get them durable and still let them compost at the end of life.

AH: Is there a time line, like a cradle to cradle idea of what’s going happen ten years or fifteen years down the line with these products?  I know you just mentioned that you want them eventually to be compostable.  If somebody bought a Mustang today, has Ford thought about what’s going happen in fifteen years, to dispose of it? Or is that on the drawing board?

(Ford Escape features standard fabric seating surfaces made from 100 percent post-industrial materials.)

DH: Well you know, we like to see as many of the sustainable materials, [and] as many as the compostable material come on to our vehicles, but it really does take some technical breakthroughs for these things to become durable enough or  to perform to the standards that are required for an automobile. So, we work diligently to make those technical breakthroughs here in the labs, and as soon as we are ready, like in the case of the soy foam, we are not going to wait for things to be absolutely positively perfect and we have one hundred percent soy in those cushions. We are going to implement as soon as we can and start taking advantage of those environmental benefits.

AH: The soy has got to be a lot lighter than the foam.  Does that make the assembly of the car a lot easier, or lighter, or makes emissions better?

DM: No, actually the soy foam is not lighter. That’s a confusion with the natural fiber technology. Once we functionalize the soybean oil and react it with the isosynate, it’s pretty much identical to the petroleum based materials. The advantages of the soy are lower CO₂ emissions because when you’re growing plants you sequester CO₂, and that goes into your life cycle analysis. So, that’s an environmental improvement, and the fact that we are using a sustainable material and conserving petroleum. That’s the advantage of the soy materials. The natural fiber materials… you’re taking glass and replacing it with the natural fiber, which is much less dense, and so you use a renewable resource but you have a lightweight component as well, which improves fuel economy.  Then third, the PLA resins are compostable.  So, they each have their own environmental advantages. They’re just different ones.

AH: Is there any new initiatives that are coming down the pipe, in the next couple of years that you guys are working on?

DM: We’ll we have some things that we would like to implement, and we are working with our programs and with our material people to make sure that we meet every single requirement. You know we really can’t disclose our intentions at this point, but I’m pretty sure that we’ll see some applications being implemented, and our portfolio goes from short term to long term. There are plastics all over the vehicle. It all has different requirements. So, we would like to see things utilized as soon as they possibly can.

AH: And if you had a wish list, like you could see into the future, like ten years down the road, what would you want to see these cars look like?

DM: The horrible thing about plastics is that first of all, you’re using petroleum, and I think, we all agree that it’s probably limited and so we should get away from that. The second thing is once you make a plastic component on a vehicle, it’s intended to last forever and it ends up lasting in the landfill forever. So, all of our long term goals are to eliminate that. You invent a brand new material from a renewable resource and you could compost it at the end of life. So that’s sort of my vision for our vehicle is to put that every place you can imagine on the car.

AH: Do you see any of the other car industries picking it up on what you’re doing?

DM: You know, I think every OEM has green efforts. The thing I think is unique about Ford’s effort is we seem to be interested in every one of them. Where the other OEM’s seem to be very focused on one technology, like the polylactide, compostable resins or natural fiber composites, our group is sort of looking at everything. Not to brag but…

AH: [laugh]. You know you could pat yourself on the backs. That’s fine. It was wonderful talking to you today and I’m very proud of what Ford is doing because it’s great. The Bio Babes, I do think you guys should think about a calendar for self-promotion at Ford.

DM: [laugh]

AH: Thank you so much for coming on today, Deborah, and explaining what Ford’s initiatives are, and we welcome you back on the show anytime.

DM: Thank you Anna. It was a real pleasure talking to you. But I would not hold my breath for that calendar.

AH: [laugh]. Talk to you soon, Deborah.

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