EBJ's Weekly News Update


March 1 - 8, 2006

Environmental Business Journal's summary of the weekly environmental business news

To learn more about EBJ, visit EBI's web site

http://www.ebiusa.com.


1. Stericycle acquires U.K. company
2. Hach acquires Marsh McBirney
3. R. W. Beck: alternative project delivery grows in water
4. Evergreen Solar receives $88-million order for PV technology
5. Energy Solutions completes acquisition of BNG America
6. GreenMan divests Georgia operations
7. MACTEC wins $10-million EPA contract
8. DynaMotive forms global biomass venture with CBG
9. EBJ Business Achiever of the Week: ENSR International

1. Stericycle acquires U.K. company

Stericycle Inc. (Lake Forest, IL) announced that it has completed the acquisition of Sterile Technologies Group Ltd., a provider of medical waste management services in Ireland and the United Kingdom, for approximately $131 million, including $114 million in cash and $17 million in assumed debt. Dublin-based Sterile Technologies Group generated about $55 million in revenues during 2005. Stericycle said that the acquisition is expected to add approximately $46 million to its revenues this year, and to be approximately $0.02 accretive to earnings per share in 2006, above the previously announced guidance of $2.41 to $2.47 per share. Stericycle entered the U.K. medical waste management market last June through its acquisition of White Rose Environmental Ltd.

2. Hach acquires Marsh McBirney

Hach Co., a subsidiary of Danaher Corp. (Washington, DC), has acquired Marsh-McBirney (Frederick, MD), a maker of flow measurement equipment for water and wastewater system applications. “Water monitoring and analysis is Hach’s top focus,” noted Hach President Tom Joyce. “Marsh-McBirney brings strong technical capabilities that, combined with Hach’s global reach and world-class manufacturing, distribution and customers service capabilities, creates a unique position to best serve the growing demand for flow measurement products and technologies worldwide.” Last year, Marsh-McBirney received an Innovative Technology Award from the Water Environment Federation for its Flo-Dar sewer flow monitoring technology.

3. R. W. Beck: alternative project delivery grows in water

More than half of the larger U.S. water and wastewater utilities have used some form of alternative project delivery, such as design/build, to complete facility construction and other capital projects, according to a recent survey by the management consulting and engineering firm R. W. Beck, Inc.? More than 90% of the utility executives surveyed by R. W. Beck indicated that alternative project delivery saves time, while nearly 75% said that alternative delivery promotes design innovation and effectively manages project risks. “One particularly stunning conclusion of the survey is that 96% of the utilities that have used the design/build method of alternative project delivery would do it again—almost universal satisfaction with this alternative delivery methodology,” said Steve Gates, a senior vice president at R. W. Beck.
(www.rwbeck.com).
4. Evergreen Solar receives $88-million order for PV technology

Within a week of securing a $100-million order for photovoltaic (PV) modules from a German firm, Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Marlborough, MA) has signed a major multi-year supply contract to provide PV modules to Vermont-based Global Resource Options, Inc. (GRO). Under the agreement, Evergreen will deliver approximately $88 million of PV modules to GRO over the next four years. “GRO is a great addition to Evergreen Solar’s growing list of high-volume distributor and system integrator customers,” said Richard Feldt, Evergreen Solar’s president and CEO. “GRO has firmly established its presence in the Northeast region and is expanding into adjacent markets. We see them as a key partner in our effort to grow and maximize our penetration of the U.S. market.”?

5.
Energy Solutions completes acquisition of BNG America

EnergySolutions (Salt Lake City, UT), the company recently formed to provide broad-based nuclear facility and waste management services on a global basis, announced that it has completed its acquisition of BNG America (Arlington, VA) from British Nuclear Group. The acquisition includes the North American rights to a reprocessing technology currently in use in Great Britain. “The nuclear industry and the U.S. government are moving closer and closer to the use of reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel as a significant part of a long-term energy strategy,” said EnergySolutions President and CEO Steve Creamer. “EnergySolutions will continue to support our nation’s efforts to provide clean alternative energy sources like nuclear power. This important technology will allow us to help in that effort.”

6. GreenMan divests Georgia operations

Scrap tire recycler GreenMan Technologies, Inc. (Lynnfield, MA) has reached separate agreements to sell its tire-recycling assets in Georgia to Tires Into Recycled Energy and Supplies, Inc. and MTR of Georgia, Inc. for an aggregate amount of $405,000 in cash. GreenMan has also agreed to refrain from providing tire recycling services and selling crumb rubber materials in certain Southeast markets for three years. “As previously disclosed, due to the magnitude of the operating losses incurred by our Georgia subsidiary, we implemented an initiative to dispose of all Georgia operating assets and wrote down these assets to their estimated fair market value at September 30, 2005, recording an estimated non-cash loss on disposal of approximately $3.4 million,” said GreenMan CFO Chuck Coppa.

7. MACTEC wins $10-million EPA contract

MACTEC Engineering & Consulting (Research Triangle Park, NC) has received a five-year, $10-million contract from EPA to provide a variety of air-related environmental services. The company said that the contract represents a continuation of work conducted for the agency for nearly 20 years. Services to be provided under the contract include the following: source testing for mercury emissions and fine particulate matter; developing emission factors for air pollutant emissions used in emission inventories; remote sensing of pollutants using advanced techniques such as Fourier Transform Infrared Source Spectroscopy (FTIR); ambient monitoring for fine particulate matter, ozone, and toxic air pollutants; and data and lab analysis.

8. DynaMotive forms global biomass venture with CBG

DynaMotive Energy Systems Corp. (Vancouver, B.C.) and Consensus Business Group (London, U.K.) have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture to pursue a variety of biomass energy projects on a global basis. The joint venture will undertake such activities as the prospecting and securing of biomass sources, the preparation of feasibility studies on biomass resource and recovery projections, and the development of biomass energy generation and delivery opportunities. Under the terms of the agreement, Consensus will acquire participation in DynaMotive projects already in progress for $1.5 million and will provide a revolving capital loan facility of $20 million for project development. The parties have also agreed to contribute $1 million for initial capitalization and a working capital loan of another $1 million.

9. EBJ Business Achiever of the Week: ENSR International

Through the coming year, EBJ will take some space at the end of our weekly news column to recognize the performance of a winner among the recipients of the 2005 EBJ Business Achievement awards. We begin this week by saluting ENSR International, Inc. (Westford, MA), gold medal winner in the large-firm category (over $100 million in revenues), for organic growth of 31% in 2005, a corresponding increase in net income over the same period, and strong performance across all business lines and global areas of operation. The firm’s U.S.-based revenue growth was up 28%, international revenues increased by 56%, and key-account business grew by 68%. ENSR credits its breakthrough performance to a three-fold business strategy: “employee engagement” to ensure a high-performing work force; “seamless global delivery” of expanding technical services; and a steady focus on key accounts. In September 2005, ENSR merged with AECOM, making it part of a global design and management company with 22,000 employees worldwide.

For more information on the EBJ Business Achievement Awards and the 2005 winners go to:
http://www.ebiusa.com/award2005/

Between October and December 2006, EBJ welcomes readers to submit nominations for the 2006 EBJ Business Achievement awards, which will be announced in early 2007. Nominations must be in the form of 200-word essays and may be submitted on our website, by email or by post.

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