Yes #2 - Brewing A Future, Here is the website where the article was posted,

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

Thanks Fred is great to hear a personal connection to this story.
                                                 Wes

UTNE WEB WATCH DAILY
The Best of the Alternative Web
http://www.utne.com/daily

http://www.futurenet.org/2Money/Nambia.html

Brewing a Future

A southern African brewery spawns a chicken farm, a fish farm, a mushroom 
plantation, a Spirulina plantation, an earthworm farm, jobs, and hope

In natural systems, there is no such thing as waste. Everything that’s 
excreted, exhaled, or exhausted from one organism is used by another. Some 
of the most innovative industrial designers are following nature’s model 
and turning waste into valuable by-products.

Waste is particularly unacceptable in poor regions of the world, where 
food, water, and energy are scarce. Gunter Pauli, founder of the Zero 
Emissions Research Institute, and George Chan, a civil engineer from 
Mauritius, are working primarily in the Third World on designing industrial 
processes that turn waste products into valuable inputs for other processes 
– particularly those associated with meeting basic needs.

As Paul Hawken says, "Waste is too expensive; it’s cheaper to do the right 
thing."

There’s a new brewery in Namibia in southern Africa that sounds too good to 
be true: "Good beer, no chemicals, no pollution, more sales, and more 
jobs." When the chairman of Namibia Breweries heard from George Chan, an 
engineer, that it is possible to brew beer and generate no waste, he could 
not believe it. But as a veteran in the brewing industry with 60 years of 
experience in the German tradition, Werner List was willing to listen.

To his surprise, he found that Chan’s proposals were simple and made a lot 
of sense. The Mauritius-born civil engineer was simply applying the 
principles of nature: whatever is waste for one is food for someone else.

Namibia Breweries had decided to construct a sorghum brewery in Tsumeb, a 
five-hour drive north of Windhoek, the capital city; the question was, 
could the zero-emissions concept be applied in the desert? Funded by the 
United Nations University, George Chan undertook a field visit in the 
summer of 1995 and concluded that it was not only feasible, it was necessary.

Less than 18 months later, on January 31, 1997, the first phase of the 
project was inaugurated by Namibian President Sam Nujoma.

The system, engineered and built under the supervision of George Chan, is 
the result of extensive research and design over the Internet. Teams of 
scientists from all parts of the world worked together in cyberspace to 
figure out how to make best use of the spent grain, the alkaline waste 
water, and the CO2 gases that make up 98 percent of the waste from the 
brewery. The solutions they developed turn all waste into products that are 
particularly valuable in a country that lacks water, food, and cash.

Traditionally, spent grain left over after the brewing process is given 
away to farmers to use as cattle feed. However, cattle cannot digest the 
fibers, and the result is a lot of gas. Cattle are the second largest 
source of methane gas, one of the major causes of global warming. But this 
lignin-cellulose component, which makes up 70 percent to 80 percent of the 
spent grain, can be broken down by mushroom enzymes.

So, George Chan brought S.T. Chang, professor at the Chinese University of 
Hong Kong, to Namibia. This world expert on mushrooms trained the Namibians 
in the cultivation of this high-priced product, which the country 
traditionally imported. Each day, the brewery will produce four tons of 
spent grain – enough to grow one ton of mushrooms. Professor Chang is 
confident that Namibia will soon be exporting rather than importing mushrooms.

The spent grain is up to 26 percent protein. Wasting protein is 
unacceptable, particularly in Africa. So George Chan, in cooperation with 
Namibia University, is initiating the cultivation of earthworms, which are 
to be used as chicken feed. For a country that imports all chicken feed and 
80 percent of its chickens, this is a blessing.

Not a drop of water ...

When George Chan learned that Namibia Breweries had secured a license to 
extract ground water, but planned to discharge 80 percent of it, he 
designed a system that ensures not a single drop will be lost. Normally, 
the law requires that the waste water, which is alkaline, undergo an 
expensive chemical treatment process to make it pH neutral. Instead, the 
alkaline water will be used for the cultivation of Spirulina algae, which 
is up to 70 percent protein – exactly what is needed locally to fight child 
malnutrition. Instead of wasting protein, the brewery becomes a protein 
factory, and the waste water will generate additional revenues instead of 
extra costs.

The residual water is then channeled to fish ponds where fish farming is 
introduced. As in China and Vietnam, multiple species of fish and aquatic 
plant life will mimic a natural ecosystem, keeping disease to a minimum and 
maintaining the health of the ponds. By producing 15 tons of fish per 
hectare per year, the brewery will also become a fish factory.

The two most needed ingredients for a fish farm are water and feed. Namibia 
traditionally had neither. Now, it has abundant water for fish farming and 
feed provided by the earthworm/chicken/mushroom waste streams.

There is more; the chicken manure goes through a digester and produces 
methane gas. The gas, which would otherwise be released into the 
atmosphere, is used as a fuel, reducing demand on wood which, for 80 
percent of the Tsumeb population, is the main source of energy.

The Namibian brewery will produce a total of 12 products in addition to 
beer. This integrated biosystem will produce seven times more food, fuel, 
and fertilizer than a conventional operation and four times as many jobs.

The opening of the brewery in Tsumeb, Namibia, is not just a local affair. 
Representatives from around Africa, and Asia, Australia, Europe, and Latin 
America will attend a special training course to be held in Windhoek. This 
course is aimed at unleashing entrepreneurship and creativity, resulting in 
more jobs and a better use of natural resources.

Meanwhile, at the UN University, we have expanded our research on the 
application of the zero- emissions concept to vegetable oils (palm, coconut 
and olive), construction materials (cement, bamboo), paper, fruits, sugar, 
seaweed, and sisal, with a particular emphasis on techniques and products 
that can be used in the developing world.

The industrial model of the future

William McDonough, dean of the University of Virginia’s school of 
architecture, has said, "Only industry is capable of producing things no 
one wants."

Zero emissions is simply the continuation of the drive of industry toward 
higher levels of productivity and away from waste. After zero defects 
(total quality), zero accidents (total safety), zero inventory 
(just-in-time), zero emissions means that all raw materials will be fully 
used.

This model could well prove the economists and politicians wrong. They 
believe that in order to increase the productivity of a company, you have 
to reduce jobs.

We are showing that when you focus on the productivity of the raw 
materials, you can generate more income, higher returns, and more jobs, 
while at the same time eliminating pollution. This is the industrial model 
of the future. s

Professor Keto Mshigeni, a respected botanist and pro-vice chancellor of 
the University of Namibia, helped introduce the zero-emission concept to 
Namibia.. Email: 
<Mailto:kmshigeni at unam.na>kmshigeni at unam<Mailto:kmshigeni at unam.na>.na

Gunter Pauli is founder and director of the Zero Emissions Research 
Institute (ZERI) at the UN University in Tokyo. He is the former CEO of 
Ecover, a Belgian company that makes natural cleaning products. His most 
recent book, Breakthroughs: What Business Can Offer Society, ©1996, is 
published by Epsilon Press, Surrey, UK.


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