BioRegional and WWF met with staff at the Ministry of Construction and the State Environmental Protection Agency in Beijing and have agreed to work together to introduce One Planet Living ideas and technologies to China.

Xiao Hong Chen, a Chinese civil engineer, joined the BioRegional team in October 2005 to start work on implementing a One Planet Living Community in at least one location in China. Since then we have visited sites and talked to potential developers and government partners in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

In Guangzhou, the largest city in south China, China Merchant Property Developers (CMPD) has a mixed use site for 20,000 people in the Panyu district. China Merchant has a track record in sustainable construction, achieving the first LEED silver certification for a commercial building in China in 2005 and organising a series of green building conferences in recent years. In February 2006, China Merchant visited BedZED with the Mayor of Panyu.

In May 2006 BioRegional ran very successful workshops with CMPD where together with DHV engineers, WWF China and other stakeholders we developed a One Planet Living Sustainability Action Plan for the Panyu Jin Shan project. The project is currently seeking final planning permission and if approved could become the first One Planet Living Community in China.

The government of Shanghai Pudong, which has seen most of Shanghai's growth in the last sixteen years, is now giving priority to environmental development and so the vice mayors have actively supported us in identifying suitable sites for a One Planet Living Community in the area. Two sites are under active consideration. London's Mayor Ken Livingstone has also pledged his support for the One Planet Living Community to the Mayor of Shanghai Han Zheng in a letter and when the two men met in Shanghai in April 2006.

Potential sites in Beijing are harder to find, but the Chinese would like to further explore the opportunities for One Planet Living in the capital city. They aim to start work on the first One Planet Living Community in China in 2007.

Turco and Larry Nies, a Purdue civil engineer, are helping Sheets and other Clinton County and Frankfort city officials develop a long-range plan that considers the most efficient use of waste to produce the largest possible amount of sustainable energy. Nies, Turco and Sheets believe that the innovative energy-producing operations will encourage industrial expansion in the area.

"This is industrial symbiosis, meaning all the businesses in the area are in this together to find better energy sources," Nies said. "Some companies in the park have high organic waste to make methane. Indiana Clean Energy has excess heat to activate the microbes used to break down the waste. ADM has vegetable oil that can be used for biodiesel, with the remainder used in waste conversion.

"When you have a finite resource like petroleum and natural gas, you have to look at alternative fuel, which is one thing this plan does. In addition, changing waste into energy for homes, businesses and farms is stewardship for the environment. Throwing away waste that has value is a waste; it harms the environment and ignores a valuable resource."

The Clinton County/Frankfort plan would locate a biorefinery for converting ADM, ICE and other waste from industry into methane on five acres in the industrial park at a cost of about $12.5 million. The facility for converting hog waste will cost about $5.5 million.

A public/private partnership is contemplated to finance the cost. County officials also are seeking grant money from various sources that fund economic development and energy alternatives plans.

Sheets' office is taking proposals from private companies interested in owning waste-to-wattage operations. Nies and Turco are advising city and county officials on which of the proposals is most viable for meeting the project's objectives of sustainable energy sources, economic development, education and research.

A 2.5-mile pipeline will carry waste from the swine facilities to the conversion plant. One of the hog farms has about 6,900 pigs and the other has about 14,000.

Eventually it would be in the interest of agriculture and the environment for farmers to develop waste conversion facilities on their own properties, Nies said.

"If the energy is generated immediately rather than transported to a conversion plant, producing the energy would be less expensive and the power could be transferred into the electric grid immediately," Nies said of the European individual energy conversion operations. "Distributed energy production also would make it possible to isolate and maintain portions of the grid in the event of a power outage."

Although converting waste to energy is a novel idea in the United States, parts of Europe have been doing this for quite awhile, Turco said. The Netherlands, in particular, uses conversion facilities because access to cheap fossil fuel and hydroelectric power is lacking. That country also has strict rules about disposal of human and animal waste.

The waste-to-energy facilities in Europe are mainly the individual type that Nies recommends. The waste conversion facilities in Clinton County will be large, centralized regional energy sources. The strategy of companies and farms trading waste for energy is being negotiated.

The Clinton County project will help teach people in the United States about alternatives to fossil fuel, which can't be replaced once depleted, Turco said.

"We need to change people's mindset about waste and about fuel sources," he said. "We want these waste conversion facilities to be in place, not just to provide alternative fuel, but also so we can train students in this technology and to conduct further research on using different sources for energy supplies."

The market is experiencing significant growth as companies not subject to caps on carbon emissions decide voluntarily to offset some or all of their emissions from a variety of sources directly or indirectly related to their business activities. A variety of obstacles could, however, impede the market's future growth.
"To continue its recent explosive growth, the voluntary carbon market must decisively address the significant persistent challenges of credibility, fragmentation, and overlap with the mandatory carbon emissions market," said Eric Lounsbury, carbon market analyst in ICF's London Office.

"The emerging standards for project development and verification are a positive sign that the voluntary market is ready to take the next step in its maturation and development. The market will, however, need to adapt to meet increased stakeholder expectations on environmental integrity and to maintain its niche alongside the market for Kyoto-compliant carbon credits."