Business and project development for innovative organic waste management projects with black soldier fly insect farms for Christof Industries in Latin America
In February 2021, Carbon Turnaround formed a strategic partnership with the Austrian engineering and plant construction specialist Christof Industries in order to develop and implement ground-breaking organic waste management systems in Latin American markets. In Latin America, most of the organic waste from agroindustry and households is still landfilled – with all the detrimental environmental consequences such as methane emissions, spread of infectious diseases or loss of valuable nutrients. The use of these organic waste streams in insect farms can be the perfect solution to solve all of these problems. The black soldier fly is able to process a wide variety of organic waste streams by transforming them into both valuable insect protein and insect oil (used in the aquaculture and animal feed industry) and valuable organic fertilizer (used in agriculture and plant nurseries). This technology can solve all problems related to organic waste management at once and is closing the gap for a circular economy in the agricultural and food & beverage sectors.
Christof Industries with their ChristofCleanCity technologies is worldwide recognized as the leading specialist for large-scale black soldier fly insect farms with a proven track record in different markets in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. With this strategic alliance between Carbon Turnaround and Christof Industries, we aim to revolutionize the organic waste treatment in Latin America, too.
This potent technology is able to turn unutilized organic waste streams into a highly-priced commodity for the global protein market. This improves the competitive positioning of organic waste generating companies and at the same time solves several sustainability problems related to organic waste, thus making a meaningful contribution to reach the UN SDGs of the Latin American countries.
Methane emissions reduction is considered as a priority to reach the short- and medium-term climate goals because of its high and short-term climate change warming effect. Without a quick and integrated reduction of global methane emissions (among which methane emissions from organic waste management are a substantial part), the targets of the Paris Agreement will not be met. Insect farms are a very powerful technology for these methane emissions reductions in order to meet those climate targets as well as other important UN SDGs.
Sustainability business development services for ENGIE Impact in the DACH region
ENGIE Impact belongs to the ENGIE Group and is an industry service provider for sustainability and infrastructure services. Carbon Turnaround was hired in 2020 by ENGIE Impact as a consultant to coordinate and support the market entry and business development in the DACH region. Our task during this consulting assignment were market studies to identify the right industrial sectors for ENGIE Impact’s services, the analysis of the client’s needs of tailor-made solutions for sustainability services, the identification of cooperation partners as well as building a strong network to establish the brand ENGIE Impact on this new market for the ENGIE Group. This task was completed successfully with the opening of a dedicated office of ENGIE Impact for the DACH region in 2021.
ISWA – International Solid Waste Association: interim management
In 2018, Arne committed himself to turn around the ISWA, which at that time was based in Vienna, Austria. Within two years Arne managed to keep together the core team of employees, to solve the difficult economic situation and, together with the board of directors, to develop a future strategy for 2030 that is currently implemented. In addition, Arne organized und supervised the relocation of the General Secretary from Vienna to Rotterdam in 2019/2020, while at the same time building up new legal structures in the Netherlands and liquidating the existing ones in Austria. At the end of 2019, Arne completed his successful accomplishment and handed over the managing responsibility for ISWA to Marc Tijhuis, the current Managing Director of ISWA. Arne now serves as Vice President and Board Member of ISWA.
Energy storage business and project development for NEC Energy Solutions
Between 2015 and 2019, Herwig was Head of Business Development for Latin America for NEC Energy Solution, worldwide one of the leading energy storage battery integrators for grid-connected energy storage solutions. Due to its weak grid infrastructure and huge amount of off-grid electricity generation, Latin America was identified by the NEC Group as a promising market for its storage solutions. Herwig led a team of local engineers working in business development and project development based in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Energy storage is still a poorly understood technology in these markets, and Herwig had the privilege to participate in many conferences as panelist and speaker talking about the benefits of energy storage for the Latin American energy infrastructure. During these years, several energy storage projects for grid stabilization, behind-the-meter energy storage, demand charge management and solar & PV have been installed in Chile, Colombia and Brazil.
CLOCC – Clean Oceans through Clean Communities
Clean Oceans through Clean Communities (CLOCC) is an initiative by Avfall Norge with ISWA (International Solid Waste Association) as implementing partner and financed by Norad, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. The main objective of CLOCC is the reduction of marine plastic pollution by means of optimization of waste management in the communities. The current focus country for CLOCC is Indonesia. Arne has been part of the development of this initiative from the beginning in 2018. Since 2019, Arne serves as a trainer in the program.
Global Reporting Initiative – Participation in the GRI 306: Waste 2020 Project Working Group (2018 – 2020)
The UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 places responsible production and consumption central to sustainable development, and it calls on organizations to use natural resources efficiently, to implement environmentally sound waste management as well as to prevent and reduce waste through reuse and recycling. Along with a projected increase in waste generation worldwide, the UN notes the critical environmental, social and human health impacts of specific waste streams such as plastics, food waste, and e-waste. Until recently, sustainability reporting intensively focused on the production phase and direct environmental effects rather than on the end-of-life phase or indirect effects linked to the production and use of goods and services. In order to reflect these developments and to ensure that the GRI standards continue to represent internationally agreed best practice, the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) has decided to update the waste-related disclosures in GRI 306 (2020). Arne served as a member of the respective Project Working Group from 2018 to 2020, when the new standard was launched successfully.
Bioenergy business development for Seeger Engineering in Latin America
Between 2008 and 2012, Herwig Ragossnig was working as an external business development consultant for the German engineering company SEEGER ENGINEERING for the Latin American market. SEEGER ENGINEERING is one of the leading specialists for European bioenergy projects such as CHP plants, pellet plants, biogas plants and district heating networks. In this role, Herwig was taking over the mission of business development and project acquisition in Latin America, based in Santiago de Chile. Renewable energies were then just starting to take off in these markets, and SEEGER ENGINEERING was keen to participate in this emerging renewable energy market. Several engineering assignments and consulting services were realized especially for the Chilean and Brazilian market, and SEEGER ENGINEERING successfully managed to enter the Latin American market.
Photovoltaic business and project development for Solarinvest in Latin America
Solarinvest was one of the leading photovoltaic project developers in Austria during the first European solar boom in the 2000s. To continue its dynamic market growth, Herwig was hired in 2012 as Business Development Manager in order to internationalize the business of Solarinvest. In this role, Herwig undertook several market studies for emerging solar markets such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Chile, Mexico and others. Solarinvest finally decided to enter the Bulgarian and Chilean market as a project developer for grid-connected, large-scale solar projects. Herwig was driving the business development in these new markets. His responsibilities included the complete spectrum of business development, brownfield project acquisition and greenfield project development for ground-mounted photovoltaic power plants.
Car4U Carsharing project development for the city of Santiago de Chile
In 2014 and 2015, Herwig was developing as a founder the first carsharing project, Car4U, for the city of Santiago de Chile. Santiago always has enormous traffic jam and pollution problems resulting from an unsustainable traffic system. Carsharing was identified as one measure to make a contribution to a more sustainable transport system. In the development phase of this project, Herwig made a techno-economic analysis of potential and suitable technology providers, an analysis about consumer acceptance regarding tariff schemes, a selection of appropriate locations for carsharing stations, as well as socio-economic studies about the willingness of potential users to use a carsharing system. Sponsorship partnerships were shaped with partners from the retail sector and with operators of gas filling stations. However, following the finalization of the project development, negotiations with potential investors to finance the implementation of the developed Car4U project did not lead to the expected result, and therefore the project was sold to local investors.
Market study and business model evaluation for the utility solar project developer Activ Solar for the Chilean market
In 2013, Herwig was assigned by the international photovoltaic project developer Activ Solar to deliver a market study about the Chilean solar market. Activ Solar was looking for new markets due to the difficult situation on the European photovoltaic market. Together with the client, Herwig made an analysis of different business models on the Chilean solar market. At that time, the Chilean photovoltaic market was among the fastest-growing solar markets worldwide, with new market players entering from all parts of the world and aiming to participate in the Chilean solar boom. To persist on this extremely competitive solar market, innovative business models for the sale of solar electricity were essential. Herwig delivered a detailed market study for Activ Solar about the functioning of the Chilean electricity market, tariff structure, PPA conditions for electricity sale to the Chilean mining industry as well as about legal requirements for project development and environmental impact assessment studies. This report was used by Activ Solar for its new business development analysis and decisions making.
