A round-up of the latest business news, including Ford, Dong Energy and Nissan.
The Ford Motor Company has teamed up with drinks company Jose Cuervo to turn agave plant residue into bioplastic material for use in vehicles. To produce tequila, agave is roasted and ground to extract juices for distillation. Currently the fibre byproduct from this process goes to farms for compost. As part of Jose Cuervo’s sustainability plan, the tequila maker is working with Ford to develop a way to use the remnants. Engineers at the US automotive firm are testing bioplastic made from the fibre for use in vehicle interior and exterior components, such as wiring harnesses, HVAC units and storage bins.
Dong Energy’s REnescience plant in Northwich, Cheshire is set to be the world’s first full-scale bioplant to use enzymes to break down household waste when it starts producing biogas in 2017. The enzymes, produced by Danish biotechnology company Novozymes, will be used in the 5MW plant to convert 120,000 tonnes of municipal waste each year.
Nissan has announced that its carbon emissions declined 22.4% between 2005 and 2015. Measures to cut emissions have included installing 19,000 solar panels and ten wind turbines at its Sunderland plant. The power from the panels and turbines account for 7% of the plant’s total annual consumption. Meanwhile, the Renault–Nissan Alliance, the strategic partnership between the French and Japanese auto producers, has become the 200th corporate member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
The Curve, the online energy management platform, has released what is claimed to be the largest collection of user-generated data of real-time energy projects. The platform collects around 15 data points for each project from companies, such as BAE Systems, BT, Capgemini, Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota and Unilever. Key data points are: site type; technology area (such as lighting, control, wind and transport); amount invested; the payback; project rating; comments; and recommended suppliers. The anonymised information is available through a search capability, allowing users to see aggregated data and individual project data.
