World Soil Day

After two years of intensive work, 2015 has been declared the International Year of Soils by the 68th UN General Assembly (A/RES/68/232).  The IYS aims to be a platform for raising awareness of the importance of soils for food security and essential eco-system functions. 

The objectives of the IYS are:

• to create full awareness of civil society and decision makers about the fundamental roles of soils for human’s life;
• to achieve full recognition of the prominent contributions of soils to food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, essential ecosystem services, poverty alleviation and sustainable development;
• to promote effective policies and actions for the sustainable management and protection of soil resources;
• to sensitize decision-makers about the need for robust investment in sustainable soil management activities aiming at healthy soils for different land users and population groups;
• to catalyze initiatives in connection with the SDG process and Post-2015 agenda;
• to advocate rapid enhancement of capacities and systems for soil information collection and monitoring at all levels (global, regional and national).

Dutch Waste Management has suggested to intensive separate collection of organic waste to produce more high quality compost. This compost will improve soil! In the Netherlands about 1.000.000 tons compost per year are using successful.

Re-thinking Progress: The Circular Economy

Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

Recognizing that both India and the Netherlands have similar ambitious sustainable energy targets in realizing clean energy options in densely populated areas, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Netherlands and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India in February 2014. The MoU will encourage cooperation between Indian and Dutch governments and governmental organizations, as well as between research institutions and private companies in both countries. The cooperation specifically focuses on wind and solar energy, biomass and smart grids.

Mr Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is visiting the Netherlands this week to attend the Indo-Dutch Joint Working Group Meeting on the renewable energy cooperation. On the occasion of this visit, Dutch Waste Management was invited to the Sustainable Energy Meeting hosted by InnovationQuarter (in cooperation with RVO, the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands and the Netherlands Embassy in India).

For this meeting a select group of Dutch companies/organizations in the area of solar, biomass and wind energy, as well as a few financing companies were invited. The Joint Secretary has presented and answered questions on the Indian renewable energy sector. He also shared information about the 1st Renewable Energy Global Investment Promotion Meeting and Expo which is to be held at New Delhi from 15-17, February, 2015.

Dutch Waste Management presented six projects for cooperation, which can be supported by the ministry and EU-Indo funds (Horizon 2020)

• Knowledge exchange on Bio refinery (materials and energy) 
• Five pilots waste collection
• Pelleting (testing and marketing development) agriculture residues  
• Sanitize dumps and develop landfills with biogas production
• Sewage- and water treatment with biogas production
• Communication and education programs based on developing People Public Private Partnerships

Incoming Mission Ghana

Netherlands African Business Council, FME and NWP receive a delegation of 15 Ghanaian companies, professional associations and 5 local government officials accompanied by Mr. Julius Debrah, the new Minister of Local Government and Rural Development from 29 September -3 October.

The purpose of the visit of the Ghanaian delegation is to build and strengthen partnerships and develop proposals for GWW with Dutch Waste Management and other Dutch companies.

The objective of the coperation is to provide innovate solutions in the field of:

• -  Sanitation and hygiene
  
• -  Improved waste management (solid and liquid)
  
• -  Access to and use of safe drinking water
  
• -  Urban water management
  

Round Table Energy 'Vibrant Gujarat'

The actual focus in the Netherlands lies on establishing cooperation with India on the ares of Wind-, Solar-, Bio energy and Smart Grids resulting from the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the India Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

24-26 September an incoming mission from the Indian State of Gujarat visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. Mr. Peet de Bruijn of Dutch Waste Management joined the round table meeting on energy with the energy participants to this mission (CEO level) because DWM is involved in the EU-Indo Biobased Project SAHYOG.

Because the participants were very interested in cooperation our questionnaire has been forwarded after the meeting. The focus in the first stage is to collect relevant urban, energy and waste data from the city of Ahmadabat (about 6 million inhabitants). After a quick scan we can work on to develop innovative business cases on implementing Waste Collection, Sanitate landfills and developing Bio refinery.

Power Engineering, energy conservation and environmental control techniques

Our youngest partner is De Blaay - Van den Bogaard Consulting Engineers (De Blaay) and they are a complementary partner of Steinnero Holding. 

This firm is a relatively small, but very flexible organization  operating primarily in the field of mechanical and electrical engineering providing consulting services. Mainly, due to the increasing interest of private Dutch enterprises abroad this firm became actively involved in the fields of power engineering, energy conservation and environmental control techniques.

This work basically involves the following sectors of engineering:

• -  Generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy
• -  Energy assessment studies
• -  Combined heat and power supply
• -  Energy saving and environmental control
• -  Water supply and Sewerage Systems
• -  Biomass and gasification.

In the Netherlands this firm has a staff of about 25 consulting engineers. Furthermore, the firm has contract agreements with a number of specialized senior advisors, covering almost all specific aspects of energy and environment. This gives the company the capability to present the highest possible specialist input, where and whenever the project so requires.

By pursuing this policy a maximum of "historical" know-how and experience is assured.

In this way De Blaay - Van den Bogaard Consulting Engineers can provide just the right man or team at the right time.

They are of the opinion that it is important to strengthen relations between companies in the various countries and subcontinents. The international financing organisations, such as the World Bank, EC, Asian Development Bank etc., in general pursue the policy to award contracts to companies that perform services in a joint venture with local enterprises. The Ministry of developmental cooperation in the Netherlands usually follows the same procedure. To assure efficient short listing for a project or study the company has been registered with the various financing organizations.

De Blaay - Van den Bogaard Raadgevende Ingenieurs B.V. is an independently operating consulting engineers company, and does not combine the functions of consultants with those of contractors/equipment suppliers, and is not associated with, affiliated to, or owned by a contractor.

USA Biogas Opportunities

In August 2014, the USDA has published its “Biogas Opportunities Roadmap”. This report estimates there are currently approximately 2,000 sites in the U.S. producing biogas. With proper support, more than 11,000 additional biogas systems could be deployed in the U.S. The anticipated support consists of the following specific actions:

1) USDA, EPA and DOE will ensure that existing criteria for technical and financial assistance considers the benefits of biogas systems. This includes leveraging more than $10 million in research funding to enhance the economic viability and benefits of biogas systems.

2) Second, the USDA will ensure products of biogas systems are eligible for and promoted by applicable government procurement programs.

3) USDA, DOE and EPA will aim to strengthen markets for biogas systems and products.

4) Finally the USDA, in cooperation with DOE, EPA and dairy and biogas industries, will publish a progress report in August 2015 that identifies and prioritizes policies and technology opportunities to expand the biogas industry and reduce GHG emissions.