At full operations stage, each mega co-op's agro-forest farm should be expected to produce thousand-ton stacks of farm wastes (stalks, leaves, straws) out of some 3,000 hectares of agro-forests that perpetually grow trees, vines, grains, vegetables, grasses, root crops and other greenery. Each co-op may also operate feedlots for thousands of sheep, cattle, pigs, deer, antelope, ostrich, range chicken, ducks and goats under forest trees largely on contract production terms with foreign ranchers and restaurateurs. The animals will be expected to yield enormous quantities of fecal waste. As environmentalists know, crop and livestock wastes when combined in sealed digester tanks can generate methane gas which may be used to fuel power generators.
Methane is 25 times worse than CO2 as greenhouse gas, and it stays within the atmosphere for around 12 years before transforming into CO2 and water vapor. Sequestering methane from generation source is therefore a great help in CO2 mitigation. Methane exuded by farm animals may be prevented by adding certain types of seaweeds to their feed, per Australian research findings.
1st World CSR companies and Green Funds may therefore multiply their ecology rebuilding budgets by setting up twenty or so biogas-fueled power generation facilities per 3,000 hectare mega co-op agro-forest on build-operate-transfer terms. One biogas plant can yield 500 kilowatts to 1 megawatt of electricity. A mega co-op and its group of joint venture companies that together export scores of high-profit product lines at million-dollar level are sure to afford paying for electricity they use for water supply, lighting, refrigeration and cold storage, factory operations, and other purposes. The foreign BOT biogas companies should thereby earn out of power sales to the co-op and its joint venture factories, plus profits out of the twenty or so biogas facilities that they ultimately transfer to the said co-op upon end of BOT term. Biogas plant power prices have to include installment payments to the foreign BOT companies. The scheme ensures that by transfer period, the beneficiary co-op gets to own scores of biogas power facilities absolutely free, which means higher dividends and risen shares value for co-op shareholders as the co-op singly operates the transferred plants. Hundreds of 1st World BOT companies may build thousands of biogas facilities initially among Philippine mega co-op agro-forests, then repeat the process throughout the tropics as more mega co-ops rise within the largely denuded region.
To create a biogas company, a group of 10-20 1st World CSR companies may partner with one biogas equipment manufacturing company, sell shares to their employees and the 'green' public, and sign a BOT agreement with a Philippine mega co-op. World Green Funds and State Aid may provide 75% of project cost in soft loans to earn interest income that will help expand their climate change fund. 1st World corporate CSR 'names' are highly trusted, so Green and Aid Funds should more easily hand out soft loans to the BOT company. Reputable biogas equipment manufacturing companies currently operate in Europe, USA and India. Even at planning stage, the project will attract millions of Filipino employees into forming mega co-ops, since 1st World 'names' will be directly involved.
The BOT company should in due time transfer ownership title to mega co-ops, not to government, to ensure no suspicions of corruption based on popularly-known "standard arrangers' terms" for all State infrastructure contracts: million-dollar 'facilitators' commissions per project for arranging franchise rights, for rigging of contractor and supplier bids, for protection from rebel attacks, for goodwill to obtain more State contracts, and for including more BOT proposals in future State budgets. To milk old-style BOT projects further, politician-sponsors appoint directors to the BOT company who in turn hire trusted employees and even 'ghost' employees who will assure more commissions from suppliers plus cash for election campaign kitties and campaign personnel. State BOT projects currently come in the form of power plants, water supply systems, tollways and expressways, light railways and public markets, each costing millions or billions of pesos, indicating enormous wealth flowing into the hands of politicians and the State-connected few.
Our mega co-op Movement and government should hence change the picture for the better. Aside from preventing more large-scale corruption, transfer of BOT project titles to employee masses who co-own mega co-ops (thru stock shares) ensures wealth flowing among the masses, not among a few politically-connected elites as usual. What's more, BOT projects' prices and fees for services rendered will include installment payments for the transfer (actually a sale) of entire billion-peso facilities, so the masses will own giant wealth-creating companies without sweating it out to save capital over decades. The State should even grant 'free capital' thru the Employee Income Tax to Mega Co-op Shares law, and the Loans for Mass Entrepreneurship law discussed in a later post.
What's the Green signature? Mega co-ops throughout the tropics preventing say 30 million tons of methane gas each year thru biogas operations is equivalent to sequestering 750 million tons of CO2 yearly, since methane is 25 times more heat-retaining than CO2. The said volume cancels out the current 40-60 million tons of CO2 exuded by world industries and transports each year while helping reduce the planet's 700+ billion tons of atmospheric CO2 load down to pre-industrial levels. Truly, the profit motive can be a highly effective tool for advancing human and planetary good!
Methane is 25 times worse than CO2 as greenhouse gas, and it stays within the atmosphere for around 12 years before transforming into CO2 and water vapor. Sequestering methane from generation source is therefore a great help in CO2 mitigation. Methane exuded by farm animals may be prevented by adding certain types of seaweeds to their feed, per Australian research findings.
1st World CSR companies and Green Funds may therefore multiply their ecology rebuilding budgets by setting up twenty or so biogas-fueled power generation facilities per 3,000 hectare mega co-op agro-forest on build-operate-transfer terms. One biogas plant can yield 500 kilowatts to 1 megawatt of electricity. A mega co-op and its group of joint venture companies that together export scores of high-profit product lines at million-dollar level are sure to afford paying for electricity they use for water supply, lighting, refrigeration and cold storage, factory operations, and other purposes. The foreign BOT biogas companies should thereby earn out of power sales to the co-op and its joint venture factories, plus profits out of the twenty or so biogas facilities that they ultimately transfer to the said co-op upon end of BOT term. Biogas plant power prices have to include installment payments to the foreign BOT companies. The scheme ensures that by transfer period, the beneficiary co-op gets to own scores of biogas power facilities absolutely free, which means higher dividends and risen shares value for co-op shareholders as the co-op singly operates the transferred plants. Hundreds of 1st World BOT companies may build thousands of biogas facilities initially among Philippine mega co-op agro-forests, then repeat the process throughout the tropics as more mega co-ops rise within the largely denuded region.
To create a biogas company, a group of 10-20 1st World CSR companies may partner with one biogas equipment manufacturing company, sell shares to their employees and the 'green' public, and sign a BOT agreement with a Philippine mega co-op. World Green Funds and State Aid may provide 75% of project cost in soft loans to earn interest income that will help expand their climate change fund. 1st World corporate CSR 'names' are highly trusted, so Green and Aid Funds should more easily hand out soft loans to the BOT company. Reputable biogas equipment manufacturing companies currently operate in Europe, USA and India. Even at planning stage, the project will attract millions of Filipino employees into forming mega co-ops, since 1st World 'names' will be directly involved.
The BOT company should in due time transfer ownership title to mega co-ops, not to government, to ensure no suspicions of corruption based on popularly-known "standard arrangers' terms" for all State infrastructure contracts: million-dollar 'facilitators' commissions per project for arranging franchise rights, for rigging of contractor and supplier bids, for protection from rebel attacks, for goodwill to obtain more State contracts, and for including more BOT proposals in future State budgets. To milk old-style BOT projects further, politician-sponsors appoint directors to the BOT company who in turn hire trusted employees and even 'ghost' employees who will assure more commissions from suppliers plus cash for election campaign kitties and campaign personnel. State BOT projects currently come in the form of power plants, water supply systems, tollways and expressways, light railways and public markets, each costing millions or billions of pesos, indicating enormous wealth flowing into the hands of politicians and the State-connected few.
Our mega co-op Movement and government should hence change the picture for the better. Aside from preventing more large-scale corruption, transfer of BOT project titles to employee masses who co-own mega co-ops (thru stock shares) ensures wealth flowing among the masses, not among a few politically-connected elites as usual. What's more, BOT projects' prices and fees for services rendered will include installment payments for the transfer (actually a sale) of entire billion-peso facilities, so the masses will own giant wealth-creating companies without sweating it out to save capital over decades. The State should even grant 'free capital' thru the Employee Income Tax to Mega Co-op Shares law, and the Loans for Mass Entrepreneurship law discussed in a later post.
What's the Green signature? Mega co-ops throughout the tropics preventing say 30 million tons of methane gas each year thru biogas operations is equivalent to sequestering 750 million tons of CO2 yearly, since methane is 25 times more heat-retaining than CO2. The said volume cancels out the current 40-60 million tons of CO2 exuded by world industries and transports each year while helping reduce the planet's 700+ billion tons of atmospheric CO2 load down to pre-industrial levels. Truly, the profit motive can be a highly effective tool for advancing human and planetary good!
(Read other posts: Press Up arrow, click 3 bars at top of page, click Labels, click your choice of topic)