Detail Xperts Conserve up to 300% in Water

Entrepreneur and engineer Emanuelle Williams is revolutionizing the car wash industry one car at a time. The Detroit based company he founded, Detail Xperts, is greening and mobilizing a new form of car wash that not only uses less water, it uses no toxic chemicals and is safer for both the cars owners and the car wash employees.

Detail Xperts was founded roughly six years ago when Emmanuelle’s son noticed how much water they were using to clean the car. As an engineer specializing in steam turbines and power plants, Emmanuelle started to think of a new way to operate an old business. Instead of the typical car wash, Emmanuelle created a machine that would use steam to clean the outside of the car. His hard work paid off, and Detail Xperts was born.

Emmanuelle’s company uses steam-cleaning machines that can clean fifteen cars with two gallons of water, while the average carwash uses an astounding 40 gallons of water per car. That’s a 300% water savings!  The company also uses no toxic chemicals on either the outside finish or the inside of the car, instead relying on natural lemon based products, and they are in the process of making and branding their own products as the business expands.

While many are aware of the amount of water use that goes into a traditional car wash, not all understand the chemicals that go into cleaning. Many companies use hydrogen fluoride to help polish rims. Chemicals like ammonium biflouride and benzene are also used in different parts of the operation, which are known to cause diseases such as leukemia and depression of the central nervous system.

Not only is the Detail Xperts method safer for those cleaning the car, its actually safer for the car owner as well. The steam cleaning method is so efficient at removing bacteria and other pathogens that Emmanuelle has recently won contracts from local emergency medical services for cleaning of ambulances and other service vehicles.

Since his first test run in 2004, Emmanuelle’s business has steadily been gaining ground. He continues to expand his business through franchise and to promote green entrepreneurship in a changing industry.

Carbon Neutral Water

By Josef Newman

Every day billions of people wake up, walk to the sink and open the taps. Most of them never think of the carbon footprint that water has.

Carbon footprint? It sounds strange to think of water as having a carbon footprint. However, all drinking water is pumped and treated before it reaches its user. In many places where freshwater is limited, water is taken from the ocean and desalinated for drinking and irrigation uses. Desalination is the process of removing salt from water, so that it is drinkable. Desalination is also a major consumer of electricity, and as such, contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases.

There are two major desalination technologies currently in use; Multi-stage Flash Distillation (MSF) and Reverse Osmosis (R.O.). MSF mimics the natural hydrological cycle, evaporating the water and leaving the salts behind, to later condense the freshwater. It was, until recently, the most widely used technology in the field.  Reverse Osmosis technology works by pumping water at high pressure through a membrane, leaving the salts behind and allowing the water to pass through. Due to recent advances in membrane technology, R.O. has become the most prominent form of desalination worldwide. R.O. has one major drawback, in that it requires a large amount of electricity to operate the pumps at the force needed. On a grid powered by fossil fuels, that amounts to a high carbon footprint.

The good news is that new technologies are currently under development that can drastically reduce the carbon footprint of desalinated water.  One new development, stemming from the nanotech industry, is called nanofiltration. Essentially, nanosized molecules act as a filter, allowing water to pass through but trapping salts and other matter behind. This acts much in the same way as current R.O., but with lower electricity needs. The best part is that it’s a complementary process, and so older desalination facilities can make additions so that they don’t become obsolete.

Another technology under research is called Forward Osmosis. It works by adding the water to a unique solution that lets it pass through a membrane naturally, using only 10% of the electricity that Reverse Osmosis uses. The salts are left behind, and the water is easily separated from the solution. Forward osmosis is less commercialized than nanofiltration, but promises to revolutionize the industry.

With all these new technologies available, we still should not forget the technologies we have. Desalination’s carbon footprint is as high as it is because our grid is powered by fossil fuels. Alternative energy can be used to power these plants with no carbon emissions. That’s exactly what was done in Perth, Australia, when the operators of a new desalination plant contracted with a large wind farm to supply 24 megawatts of clean energy, enough to power their plant full time. The result is carbon neutral water using existing technologies.

Similarly, a plant in Carlsbad, California, is currently planning carbon neutral desalination as well. This will be achieved through a variety of mechanisms, from alternative energy projects to carbon offsets and sequestration projects.

The United Nations has said that drinking water scarcity is quickly becoming the world’s biggest problem. While industry works to solve this problem, they must also remember not to create other problems, and follow the examples of the current industry leaders in ensuring our water is carbon neutral.

Fit to Print

By: Josef Newman

The paper and printing industries have long been adversaries to the environmental movement. Paper production requires deforestation of old growth forests, large quantities of water for production, potentially harmful chemicals for processing. Not to mention that most ink is made from Petroleum sources. Gus Casamayor, veteran of the printing industry and green entrepreneur, has set out to change that.  In 2007, after years of giving seminars on how to green the printing industry, Casamayor founded Certified Green Partners. “The seminars were not enough to create change…. Certification was the only way to get businesses to commit to a greener operation,” noted Casamayor in an interview with Eco Chamber.

Casamayor’s plan is simple. Get businesses to go green by saving them money at the same time.  Working with businesses of all types and government entities, Certified Green Partners has developed criteria that include using only certified, sustainably harvested paper and printing with only vegetable based inks. With over thirty-four years of experience in the printing industry, Casamayor knows what works and what doesn’t, like how and when to recycle paper, and how to save money while doing it. But it extends past just printing, and into the lives of the employees who run the business. Each employee of a Certified Green Partner company is given a declaration, a guidebook, to teach them how to live a more sustainable lifestyle in and out of the workplace.

And it’s working. Monsignor Pace High School of Miami, Florida is saving $20,000 a year through Certified Green Partners. Savings big enough to attract the City of Hialeah to sign up. But Casamayor’s plan extends past local businesses. In April of 2009 Casamayor flew to San Salvador to help Alas Doradas paper mill turn their business around.  Before certification, Alas Doradas was on the verge of closing, after having lost their largest client. However, their participation in Certified Green Partners has recently earned them a sizeable contract with Wal-Mart of El Salvador, marking the start of a major turnaround for this business.

Mr. Casamayor hopes that these can serve as examples to other businesses to show them that going green is not only the right thing to do, its better for their bottom line. He should know, running a successful print shop in Miami that is the first quadruple certified printer in the area.  And Casamayor knows that businesses serve their customers needs above all. “The customer is the boss. If they demand certified paper, the printer will purchase certified paper, or he will lose out to someone else who will. We need to teach people that they can make these changes without sacrificing profit. If we do that, we can create real, lasting change.”