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In a previous article we looked at the outcome of neglect when it comes to eco-consciousness. Examples like General Motors or Ford Motor Company come to mind. The reputation of a company as a measure or important factor for its success will be an important aspect of the economy in the 21st century.

At the same time the bottom line for any activity is people. What people do or do not do, what they stand for and what actions they take makes all the difference. That’s why it is important to take a look at your eco-reputation.

To start out I feel it is important to get a clear understanding what the term “reputation’ actually means. Here is a summary from references on the internet, in dictionaries and other public sources:

Reputation is the opinion of the public toward a person, a group of people, or an organization. It is an important factor in many fields, such as education, business, online communities or social status.

Reputation is known to be an ever-present, spontaneous and highly efficient mechanism of social control in societies. It is a subject of study in social, management and technological sciences. Its influence ranges from competitive settings, like markets, to cooperative ones, like firms, organizations, institutions and communities.

Furthermore, reputation acts on different levels. At the individual level, it concerns groups, communities, collectives and abstract social entities (such as firms, corporations, organizations, countries, cultures and even civilizations). It affects phenomena of different scale, from everyday life to relationships between nations. Reputation is a fundamental instrument of social order.

These definitions don’t just apply to the work reputation, but also to eco-reputation. You have one, your company has one, your school, college, university, has one. Corporation receive one from the public, and even regions and countries have eco-reputations.

In the recent past, cases have been pound where the overall reputation of an entity is different than its eco-reputation. A good example would the country of China. It is known and has the reputation of being communist, almost dictatorial, controlling, and mainly interested in economic growth. Many media outlets and politicians have pointed out that China is adding a new coal power plant to its electric network every week.

Politically, economically, and environmentally, China has the reputation of being strict, ambitious, and willing to neglect the impact on climate. When you dig a little deeper you will find out that international organizations actually give China a pretty good eco-reputation – and rightfully so.

With the beginning of the year 2008, China has become the largest producer of solar and wind energy products, not just for export, but also for installation in their own country. What most people don’t know about their eco-reputation is that they pollute the climate with the equivalent of about 5 tons per person while the US is putting about 20 tons per person into the atmosphere every year. China is very strict about this and tried to reduce the amounts further with a top down policy and alternative energy initiatives.

You can see how the reputation of a country and the eco-reputation can be significantly different. How does this apply to you?

Well, in a similar way as you need to build your reputation for any other aspect of life. If you want to be seen as dependable, the only way to gain that reputation is by following through on your promises. When you take this premise and convert it to your eco-reputation, you gain dependability by actually acting on the eco-friendly issue dear to your heart. If you ask your friends, co-workers, and family members to separate recyclable items form non-recycle ones, you need to be the role model and do it all the time, especially when they can see it, both at work and at home.

If you want to improve your reputation from wasteful to conserving, you cut down on all the things not really necessary to achieve a goal. The same is true for your eco-reputation. To achieve the reputation as an eco-conserver, you collect your organic matter and use it as part of your compost. You buy organic products because you know that they are packaged in recyclable containers or offered without packaging. You also read most of what you need online or in emails, rather than printing everything, and you don’t through advertisements and other paper products into the trash can but collect them and get them back into the production process.

Even for management and leadership, you want to walk the talk to gain your eco-reputation. That doesn’t just mean that you point out all the things mentioned above, but you encourage your team members to look for ways to develop or improve products, production and services with savings and positive outcomes for nature in mind. That builds the bridge to the eco-reputation of your company, your schools, your region, and your country.

Most important, you need to take action. Some things are obvious and others might need a little push. The free Eco-Action Plan we have developed will help you build your eco-reputation and encourage others to follow your lead.

Your eco-reputation is very similar to a first impression. Someone once said: You can never redo a first impression. If your first impression is the one of a great eco-reputation, you will be well on your path to success. Just don’t forget what Peter Drucker once said: “It takes many people easily years, if not decades to build a good (eco-) reputation, and it only takes seconds or one foolish act to ruin it.”

Don’t let that happen to you and spend some time thinking about the steps you can take to build your eco-reputation. It will set you apart and .prime you to be at the forefront of the people needed to succeed in the new green economies and societies of the 21st century.

In our attempts to bring you new information and interesting developments in the field of eco-consciousness and green innovation, today’s story revolves around a fuel invented by Gene Jackson and his company, Power Ecalene Fuels, Inc. (PEFI).

As we have seen many times before, some of the most suitable inventions are made ahead of their time. The hype about Hybrid technology in the last few years goes back to inventions made in the 40’s and 50’s. To bring the idea to market in a large enough scale was not feasible at the time, not just because gas was cheap, but because all the other components necessary to make it work weren’t available.

Green Fuel Sources

Something similar is true about Mr. Jackson invention, or should I say improvements. He picked up on an innovation originally made by Dow Chemical. At the time they invented a fluid made from Syngas, fossil based fuels were so cheap that there was no real market. PEFI went back some time ago, improved the process, got its own patents, and is now working on bringing its miracle fuel to market. The stuff is called ”Ecalene”. Below is what I found at the PEFI website (paraphrased and
condensed):

“Company founder Gene Jackson has been improving the Ecalene™ production process for 20 years. Several million dollars were spent perfecting the gas-to-liquid technology excluding any R&D expenditures from Dow Chemical, originator of the alcohol-from-syngas process. Independent patents were provided to Jackson for his development. The company now seeks to spread its green technology globally by operating its own production facilities and licensing its patented technology internationally.”
Here is how the company describes itself and its positioning for Ecalene™:

“Mission Statement:

Green Miracle Liquid

To provide clean fuel and green fuel alternatives to fossil fuels that will curb the U.S. dependence on foreign oil while reducing global warming and eliminating potentially toxic waste from our soil and ground water.

Objective

To become the recognized world leader in clean fuels production technology and to provide more green fuel globally through deployment of its technology than any other clean fuel provider.

Logo

Ecalene™ has an octane rating of 124+ that is 33% to 43% higher than regular unleaded gasoline, which is rated between 87 and 93 Octane. It is 10% higher than ethanol at a 113 octane rating and 18% higher than for E85 fuel.

Ecalene™’s formulation properties enable it to be used as a stand-alone fuel in flex- fuel engines and in jet aircraft. Ecalene™ has higher energy content than ethanol and will provide better gas mileage than ethanol when blended into gasoline as an oxygenate or octane booster. Ecalene™ has been registered with the EPA as a fuel additive. It is roughly estimated that Ecalene™ will reduces car emissions to levels 80-90% of the emissions levels for unleaded gasoline. Most cars, trucks, buses, jet aircraft and boats can be modified to run on pure Ecalene™.

Protection of our environment is the primary driving force behind the development of the Ecalene™ system. The technology was devised at a time when gasoline was cheap and neither energy producers or the public were committed to a clean environment-only cheap energy. Today the world recognizes the damage we have done to the environment in our quest to deliver cheap energy. As a global community, we have become more sensitized to the need for maintaining the only environment we have. It must continue to produce clean air, water, food and energy for a rapidly expanding population. The Ecalene™ product technology is designed to improve virtually every aspect of the global environment from reducing global warming to improving water quality.

Coal & Natural Gas (Clean Not Green)

Ethanol, really?

Using natural gas or raw coal promises to produce the largest volume of Ecalene™ fuel at minimum cost, potentially enough to totally displace crude oil in the creation of transportation fuel. It is estimated that America has a 300-year supply of coal, oil shale, and other hydrocarbons. Coal is one of the nation’s most abundant energy resources, currently supplying about half the nation’s electricity demand. Gasifying coal to produce alcohol fuel utilizing the PECI process is considerably more environmentally favorable than combusting it to produce electricity.

Municipal Waste Is Green

Despite the ability of the Ecalene™ production system to create “clean fuels” from coal and other fossil fuels, these resources are not renewable. Ecalene™ can be used to create renewable or “green” fuels from feedstock that is renewable. Utilizing organic wastes, such as MSW, as feedstock represents the most environmentally friendly, economically viable, and virtually untapped source of renewable energy for the country. Americans create over 300 million tons of municipal solid waste annually, of which about one- third is recycled. Municipalities currently pay waste management contractors about $23 a ton to receive ship and bury waste. On average, about 80% of MSW can be gasified, and it is roughly estimated that the 200 million tons currently placed in landfills each year could produce 10 to 20 billion gallons of Ecalene™.

Green Fuel

Other Green Feedstock

Besides MSW and sludge that grow proportionally with the increase in population, Ecalene™ can also utilize plentiful cellulosic biomass including wood waste. When combined with their MSW, large wood waste producing states (Georgia, Oregon, Arkansas etc.) can produce half their fuel requirements from the biomass they generate.”

If you like to learn more, goto:

http://www.powerecalene.com/index.php

In case you like to get in otuch with Gene Jackson directly, you can email him at genej@powerenergy.com (he gave me permission to make his address public in this article)

When looking at many of the applications imaginable for this miracle fuel, I wonder if it would be feasible to use a lot of the gas and the organic material our communities have been dumping into landfills to create Ecalene™. This would potentially lead to a number of applications:

•  The community could use the fuel generated to run its municipal fleet of cars, buses, trucks, etc. for everything from police, fire, mass-transit to city maintenance, etc.
• Each city has energy needs to heat and light its buildings. That could probably be achieved through generators run by Ecalene™ 
• Larger cities could develop public transportation systems that run on Ecalene™ or go even one step further and provide so called flexible city-transportation option, as recently introduced in Europe. You park you vehicle at the outskirts of the town and get into a city provided small car, bikes, busses, etc.
• In farming communities the municipalities could work with the agricultural companies to use all the bio-degradable material to generate Ecalene™ and provide any surplus to the workers and their families as well as use it form all the farming equipment.
• Finally, if anybody has ever driven by a feed yard for milk production and industrial beef or pork, the stink is unbearable. Providing it to a PEFI facility could probably significantly reduce the smell, allow the animals to live in better conditions, and generate fuel form all the biomass they consume during the day. This could work in conjunction with biogas generators or all by itself.

Green Refueling

I am sure I am missing a whole list of other applications. This is an exciting alternative to our current dilemma. I hope people don’t get caught by the recent drop in gas/oil prices. As we keep printing Dollars to pay for a new bailout or rescue plan, we shouldn’t forget that all this money will devalue our currency. Not only will oil run out some time in the future, but massive inflation from all this newly introduced money will create higher prices.

This is the quiet before the storm. Looking for credible alternatives is important, and it appears to me that Ecalene™ is one of them, especially if PEFI can stay away form liquefying natural gas to create it.

As always, feel free to comment and let me know what you think about miracle fuel Ecalene™

Axel Meierhoefer

Today I like to bring you an article about a new vehicle form a luxury brand that has the potential to revolutionize the market.

Before your read the details, please do me a favor and use this link to participate in our eco-awareness survey. This will help us develop the best possible content for the Eco-Action plan that will be free an available to you very soon

Here is the link: http://www.tinyurl.com/5gepvq

Do you need a hybrid to get mega-mileage?

Smart Convertible

Well, maybe not. Mercedes-Benz says that its new smart fortwo cdi – an 1800 pound, 106 inch long car with a top speed of 85 mph – gets nearly 80 mpg. For perspective, consider that driving this two-passenger car 10,000 miles annually requires only 16 fill-ups during the course of the year. Amazing. Plus, along the way the smart fortwo’s 45-horsepower, three-cylinder diesel engine emits less carbon dioxide per mile than any current production car.

Located in the rear, the 799 cc turbocharged engine is the world’s smallest direct-injection diesel engine. This new light alloy engine represents a 10 percent increase in power and torque as well as a 13 percent decrease in fuel consumption. Two-phase fuel injection, like that used in Mercedes-Benz C engines, injects a small amount of fuel a few milliseconds before the main injection to ignite and preheat the combustion camber. This results in a noticeably quieter combustion noise level.

Red Smart

Emissions are handled in two stages. Common-rail injection and extremely efficient combustion result in a low level of untreated emissions. Up to 60 percent of the previously-cooled exhaust gas is returned to the combustion chambers where it is combusted once again, greatly reducing nitrogen oxide emissions. An oxidation catalytic converter and an open diesel particle filter are responsible for exhaust gas aftertreatment.

A micro-computer controls the whole engine-transmission system, calculating how much fuel is needed along with pilot and main injection intervals. An automated manual five-speed transmission is standard and is operated by briefly tapping the shift lever on the center console. Steering wheel shift paddles are optional, as is an automatic transmission mode.

Smart Interior

Anti-lock braking with electronic brake-force distribution, electronic stability program, brake assist, full-size airbags for driver and passenger, safety seats with integral seat belts, and a sturdy tridion safety cell make the fortwo the safest car in its class. All this is wrapped in available coupe and cabrio versions to fit different tastes, providing all the more reason for buyers to consider this stylish, pint-size wonder.

All this is good news and bad. The 2008 smart fortwo models coming to America early next year are powered by gasoline engines only. They will still get an impressive 40 mpg, but since that?s only half as much as the cdi version available in Europe, there clearly will be clamoring to bring the diesel model to American highways.

Smart Engine

As you can see, 80 mpg is possible, even without a hybrid or electrical motor. Maybe more of this type of technology will become available for vehicles a little larger than the Smart, just in case you have to haul some stuff or move your family around.

Please don’t forget the survey at  http://www.tinyurl.com/5gepvq

Thanks

Axel Meierhoefer