Blogs

Mon, 01/14/2013

Chico, CA - January 14, 2013: There is a movement underway to transform the mobile food truck industry from an also-ran in the climate change discussion, into a leading agent of change. As a refresher, there are over 3,000 mobile food trucks tracked by mobile-cuisine.com, the de facto place to go on the web for news and information regarding this rapidly growing segment of the US food industry. These food trucks are generally operated by forward thinking people, who understand that they can provide excellent fare with lower overhead in a more flexible, friendly fashion. On average, a mobile food truck travels 50 miles from commissary to diners and back every day. 60% of mobile food trucks are diesel powered and average about 10mpg - so approximately 5 gallons of diesel fuel per day x 6 days per week = 1,560 gallons per year x $4.00 per gallon = $6,240 x 1,800 trucks = over $11MM on diesel fuel. Unfortunately diesel fuel has been and remains a significant CO2 contributor - 22.3/lbs of CO2e per gallon - so 62.6MMlbs of CO2e per year for the industry. This is not something that will make people feel warm and fuzzy; it will not enhance the gourmet fare of owner operators, and more importantly, it could be another log the regulators could put on the regulatory fire that is constantly licking at the edges of the industry. However, change is on the menu! Springboard Biodiesel, a small, cleantech manufacturing company based in Chico, CA points out that in very few businesses does the conflagration of reason, logic and economic opportunity explode with such marked synergy (ie, this makes perfect sense from every angle), and they are working to get the message out. What's the new must have ingredient for the mobile food truck industry? Biodiesel! Here's the logic: Biodiesel is an alternative, cleaner burning fuel that's been around for decades. The EPA claims biodiesel is the most tested alternative fuel in the US fleet, and over 1.2 billion gallons of biodiesel will be produced in the US in 2013. Importantly, biodiesel is a one-for-one replacement fuel, so you don't need to modify your existing food truck. Biodiesel burns 70 - 90% cleaner than diesel fuel, depending on your feedstock - ie, what you turn into biodiesel. And here, points out Mark Roberts, CEO of Springboard, is the secret sauce for the industry, "Used cooking oil is the best source of feedstock for biodiesel, and that's why we are so excited to offer the food truck industry our small-scale, biodiesel processing appliances, which enable our customers to turn UCO into ASTM-grade biodiesel for less than $1.00/gallon. I view the opportunity available to both owner/operators and commissaries as the Mother of all no-brainers - make better profits while reducing GHG emissions, and tell your customers about it." Be Like Sam! (2 minute video of a restaurant owner with a BioPro) Springboard has BioPro™ units operating in 14 countries and in all 50 states. Their client list includes 65 US colleges and universities, Sara Lee Foods, and the US National Guard. "We think the food truck industry can benefit on so many levels," Mr. Roberts continued, "We just need to get the word out and then the facts should speak for themselves". Change is on the menu. *************************************** Springboard Biodiesel is clean-tech manufacturing company that makes, markets and sells small-scale biodiesel processing systems that enable customers to produce biodiesel locally and consume biodiesel locally from a wide array of feedstock sources, for less than $1.00/gallon. They can be reached at (530)894-1793.

Thu, 09/27/2012

There is a raging political debate that is consuming the airwaves of late - apparently 4 guys in North Carolina and 3 women in Nevada can't tell the difference between the presidential candidates positions on.....just about everything (Early on, I was taught to avoid political discussions in new business settings, and I treat these posts as new business settings. I want the readers to evaluate the substance of biodiesel, rather than the ephemeral policy of biodiesel. So, I will attempt to employ objectivity from here on). One of the "hot buttons" of this Fall's political debates is the need to address the crazy, unsustainable debt levels that our once triple A rated country is currently carrying. On one side of the economic divide is the group that wants to "grow" us out of debt (this entails ignoring the debt, near-term, and "spurring" growth); on the other side is the group that wants to "cut" us out of debt (this entails a substantial reduction in current government expenditures). The Latter group, in particular, implores us not to leave our children with unsustainable debts that will cripple their chances to meet, let alone, surpass their parents level of success, comfort, happiness, etc. What's not to like? I can believe we overspent and we need get our country's fiscal accounts in order. There is a debt problem and curing it should be a priority. The debate about how to do so, seems reasonable (remember, I'm employing objectivity). However, the debate about our county's finances and the argument that we are betraying future generations should also be applied to another topic that seems, inexplicably, to have fallen off the the Top Ten Chart of both the Growers and the Cutters. Neither group of "debt fixers" has the audacity to highlight our obvious, dangerous and serially ignored Environmental Balance Sheet. You see, the REAL debt debate we should be having involves our number one creditor, Planet Earth. Now, I'm not trying to encourage you to rock out with the Grateful Dead and tell you to tread more lightly, recycle and eat more soy. I'm here to tell you that we have not only built an unsustainable debt to the environment, but that we are on a trajectory to grow that debt astronomically, AND NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT IT AS A POLITICAL ISSUE! The stupidity and hypocrisy of ignoring climate change is beyond articulation. For those of us who pay attention to facts (and believe in evolution = critical qualifier), we know that the balance has tipped already. In thirty years, even if we were to magically transition to an all solar economy tomorrow, the planet will be hotter, agricultural regions will migrate, water sheds will change, sea levels will rise and the overall acidity of the ocean will be higher. Geopolitics will be radically different and less stable; today's naysayers will either have exited stage right or be denying that they were deniers, and later generations will curse our selfish inaction. You see, the earth's environmental systems move methodically. Geologic time is radically out of sync with Human time. Battleship Earth has already received her instructions - 400ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere as of May 31st of this year - and nothing we do now will change the impact and direction of the systematic climate change that will occur as a result of today's 400ppm CO2 "instruction set". All we can do is try and manage those changes and take steps, now, to bring future GHG emissions down - pay our debts - and change the trajectory of environmental wreckage that follows increases in average global temperatures. To fix the financial debt problem is important, of course. But to have a debt free nation on a planet that is measurably less livable remains a significant "downgrade" for our children and grandchildren. Importantly, financial downgrades can be addressed and weathered. GM, that stalwart of CAFE-fighting, market share losing automotive intransigence, has taught us that in the financial world even bankruptcies can be "cured" and cured quickly. Unfortunately, environmental "cures" take a long time and they don't make exceptions, turn blind eyes or play favorites. For me, a CEO of an alternative energy company and a father of 3 three future super heroes, this issue is so obvious that I get headaches just reading about the rank stupidity espoused by so called climate change deniers like Jim Inhofe or by Big Oil that sees our salvation as more drilling, cheaper oil and higher CO2ppm counts - REALLY? If you've gotten this far, perhaps the most important advice I can leave with you is to read Bill MckKibbon's article: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new... Take 20 minutes and read his thoughtful, fact-filled article and then decide to whether or not you think Environmental Issues should be something important to the US and global policy debate. If we continue to ignore the debt we owe the environment, "little" issues like national solvency will pale in comparison to the actions of Mother Earth's Repo Man. Mark J. Roberts Springboard Biodiesel, LLC The Cure for Diesel™ 341 Huss Drive | Chico, CA 95928 | 530.894.1793 - tel | 530.894.1048 - fax www.springboardbiodiesel.com | http://twitter.com/springboardB | skype:mjroberts27 | www.biodieselisgood.org

Wed, 06/27/2012

I read this article last night (hold on; it's linked at the bottom). I kept having to put it down, as I was almost physically agitated by the palpable hypocrisy that oozes from the pages. Tom Clynes, the author, does an admirable job maintaining a generally, calm reporting style as he shares the ravings, lies and the transparent fraud that a select group of petroleum-industry funded agitators is using to "debate" the science of climate warming (One of the featured "climate deniers" is a guy named Steve Milloy, whose impressive CV includes "...a Fox News commentator and former tobacco-industry advocate..." - certainly a good place to cut your teeth on the denial highway). It's no fun to read things when physically clenched, but, nonetheless, this article is instructive for many reasons, chief of which is to a) remind us that entrenched interests with money rarely tell the truth, and b) despite the well funded lies, virtually every citizen "knows" that we live in an anthropogenic era, and even if they don't believe their Hummer is contributing to the problem, they viscerally understand that the climate is warming and whether it's because of us or not, we better figure out how to stabilize things or our little space pod is going to become a whole lot harder to manage. Before unleashing the article on you, I can't help myself and have to point out the sad truth that Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe the most intentionally ill-informed ("Big Oil's top call girl" - RFK, Jr), irrational, overly quoted climate denier, has been re-elected consistently since 1994! Come on Oklahoma?! Read this and let me know what you think: http://bit.ly/M9nMVd or http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-06/battle-over-climate-change (incase the shortened link fails).

Thu, 05/31/2012

Today, May 31st, the AP reported that Carbon Dioxide levels had reached 400 parts per million. That's bad. The last time CO2 levels were that high was 15 MILLION YEARS AGO! And it was hotter then. No one knows exactly what will come of these new levels - levels that no government is actively attempting to curb - but we do know that like turning a battle ship, the cause and effect are not immediate. So while we are all aware that the summers seem to be getting hotter and winters less white, we may not be aware that the "cause" of the current climate effects is the impact of the CO2 levels in 1982 - when levels were less than 350ppm! That's right, there is a 30 year lag between CO2ppm and climate reaction. Here is the article: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/05/31/492747/carbon-dioxide-pollut.... I would respectfully suggest the following: Think about how you can help clarify the issues to both your local climate change denier ("CCD") and your local, environmentally apathetic government representative. If 100MM people voted for change, change would happen.

Wed, 05/16/2012

So, despite the brain numbing experience of driving a 16' Budget rental truck 2/3 of the way across the country in 36 hours, the show offered us a great venue to tell our story to the restaurant industry. For those of you not up to speed on the magnitude of this economic sector, believe me, it's big: Over 500,000 restaurants with sales over $630 billion, employing over 13MM people (that's one of every 10 employed Americans!). Not only is it big in the traditional industry metrics, but it is also the largest producer of used cooking oil in the US, and, for those of you who have been paying attention, you know that used cooking oil can be turned into ASTM-grade biodiesel for less than the cost of diesel. So the restaurant industry would appear to be ideally placed at the intersection of alternative fuels and outsized profits, which, given the average profit margin of the restaurant industry - 4- 8% according to the NRA - would seem like a very attractive position to occupy. Historically, it has been Springboard's experience that most restaurant owners are not overly impressed with their operations inherent ability to make an alternative fuel inexpensively (in a BioPro™ they can produce fuel for less than $1.00 per gallon, creating nearly obscene ROI and payback models); rather they want to cook and feed people and have others deal with the waste product, aka used cooking oil. But the times 'they are a'changin'". With the price of [foreign] oil hovering around $100/bbl and consumers being reminded daily that $4+/gallon is just a giant economic pain in the rear, and Springboard Biodiesel trumpeting the advantages and ease of turning this captive asset into a fuel, 2012 is the year of .....BioPro™EX, which, coincidentally and as mentioned above, was honored with a prestigious Kitchen Innovation Award. The beauty of the award, is that if forces all the senior people throughout the industry to at least pay attention to the story, (told well and succinctly by Sam Manolakas) so that they are not blindsided by a competitor who paid attention and is now making money and marketing hay with our solution. In general, I am pleased to report that our reception was great. We met many forward thinking restauranteurs, and we have lots of follow-up, as we try to help the industry further green itself and make money doing so. If you are a restaurant owner and interested in further greening your operations while increasing your overall profitability, give us a call. Mark

Thu, 06/30/2011

I have recently been talking to a lot of college, university and even high school administrators, and I am optimistic the upcoming school year will see a surge in small-scale biodiesel production at the campus level. There are plenty of good reasons for this increased focus on biodiesel.Read more

Thu, 05/26/2011

I'm just back from the [other] NRA show, where no guns where needed, but a healthy appetite was demanded. It was Springboard Biodiesel's first National Restaurant Association conference, and we were impressed. Thousands of restaurant owners and hundreds of companies that sell to those restaurant owners were collected together in a sea of stainless steel equipment, free food samples and innovative restaurant ideas. Springboard Biodiesel was there to inform restaurant owners from all over the world that they had a new and essential restaurant appliance option - the BioPro™ biodiesel processing appliance. Give that restaurants are the world's primary producer of waste cooking oil, and given that waste cooking oil is an outstanding feedstock to turn into biodiesel, restaurants have the unique ability to produce a valuable fuel commodity from a less valuable (essentially free) waste stream. With the economic metrics of "Gourmet Biodiesel" (our tagline for the show), a biodiesel appliance can substantially enhance a restaurant's overall profitability and elevate it's environmental marketing cache. As such, we argued - politely - every restaurant should consider owning this appliance - "You have your refrigerator, your oven, your dishwasher and your biodiesel appliance, and only one of them writes you a check every time you press start". The response from the conference was outstanding, as both large (800 unit chains) and small (single restaurant) operators enthusiastically peppered us with questions and comments. All of them recognized the inherent advantage that they had in this waste-to-fuel arena, and given that we'd brought our shiny BioPro™ 190 with us, they had the opportunity to see and touch the appliance and better visualize how it might fit in their specific locale. The restaurant industry is huge. It's progressive, and it values profitable innovation. We thoroughly enjoyed our first NRA show. We met some impressive restauranteurs and we further strengthened our understanding of how restaurant owners can simply and profitably create biodiesel from their used cooking oil. The restaurant industry is full of innovative entrepreneurs, who recognize an opportunity when its presented. We're going to like working with these guys.

Tue, 04/26/2011

Oil is on the rise; the Middle East is chaotic; world wide commodity prices are at exorbitant levels, and the US is still debating the value of a coherent renewable energy policy. As big oil receives billions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits and then pours [literally] billions of dollars into anit-renewable lobbying (who do you think finances "clowns" like Bjorn Lomborg?) we are in danger of fully ceding our renewable technology platform to international competitors. Here is an insightful look at some of the obstacles facing renewable policy makers and some potential solutions. Well worth a read. http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/guest-post-does-the-green-in...

Fri, 04/15/2011

Biodiesel is Back!Read more

Fri, 10/29/2010

I have been thinking about voting.Read more