Misc

by Debra Fiakas, CFA The post “Water:  Invisible Crisis” introduced a new series on water supply in Latin America, describing the lack of access to quality water despite a bountiful supply of rainfall and snow melt.  As the series has unfolded we have learned that water supply in Latin America is largely a local government undertaking.  Investment opportunities are limited to water management companies that sign on to operate government-owned infrastructure or water treatment solution providers. Water supply to the north has inched further into the commercial realm.  A discussion of water investment would not be completed without a look at private water suppliers in the...

Specialty retailers are also joining the packaging revolution.  REN Clean Skincare is a good example of a retailer that is making environmentally-friendly packaging part of its offering.  The company kicked off the campaign with a splashing Earth Day celebration featuring its new partner, the Surfrider Foundation.  The campaign was aimed at making REN customers aware of the need to conserve water and keep beaches clean and plastic-free. The company is selling some of its skincare products in bottles made from plastic reclaimed from the ocean.  The bottle is part of REN’s Clean to Planet initiative to become a 100% zero waste company by 2021.  The bottle...

by Debra Fiakas, CFA The post “Water:  Invisible Crisis” on December 6th highlighted the building problem of inadequate supplies of quality water in Latin America.  The World Water Council’s Comision Nacional Del Agua reports that As much as one-third of the Latin America population lacks access to safe water.  Unabated pollution and lack of water treatment have been identified as culprits.  In South America, for example, 40% to 60% of water comes from aquifers that are subject to increasing pollution from untreated run-off from mining and agriculture operations. Our survey of Latin America water sector in South America found an interesting mix of pollution abatement and water treatment...

At ComCap19, I drank from a firehose of information about local investing, securities law, crowdfunding, and democratizing capital. And had a great time! by Evelyn Wright I just returned from spending four days in Detroit at one of the most inspiring and informative conferences I’ve attended in a long time: Community Capital 2019. This was the fourth gathering of this network of entrepreneurs, lawyers, financial professionals, economic development practitioners, and community organizers dedicated to democratizing and localizing finance and investment. I went because — after several months of researching the opportunities and challenges for cooperatives — I’ve seen that access to...

by Jim Lane It’s Thanksgiving week in the United States but we are feasting alternatively on acronyms here in Digestville. I.E., e.g., ICYMI, BYND IPO PDQ, and FYI Perfect Day AKA Muufri JDA w/ ADM. As they said at Bletchley Park, let’s get out the Enigma machine and decode. In New York and California this week, the nutrition side of industrial biotechnology — and specifically, the “beyond the cow moovement is, ahem, mooving faster with news that Beyond Meat has filed for its IPO and Perfect Day has inked a Joint Development Agreement with Archer Daniels Midland(ADM) to scale up the production of dairy proteins using fermentation...

Graphene is a one-atom thick sheet of carbon atom arranged in a honeycomb lattice.  It is an exceptional conductor of heat and electricity and its strength is unparalleled.  Although synthetic graphite can be used to produce graphene and it offers the benefit of consistency, natural graphite is far less expensive as a source material.  Synthetic graphite is made by combining petroleum coke with carbon black in a high heat process that burns up profits as it purifies the carbon. There are several methods for producing graphene.  Exfoliation of natural graphite is perhaps the most common alternative because it produces the least defects and leaves...

Oxides Grafoid, Inc.  has been toiling since 2011 to solve the challenges of scaling graphene production.  The company recently launched a new product group of oxidized graphene material that is being marketed under the brand name GNOX.  The GNOX innovation follows three other product groups of gels, solvents and dispersed graphene material.  Grafoid touts its capacity to produce graphene of high purity and consistency. Privately-held Grafoid is a spin out of Focus Graphite (FMS:  TSX.V).  Focus Graphite still owns significant interest in Grafoid so investors could consider FMS shares as a proxy for a stake in Grafoid.  For all practical purposes the two companies are operated as one entity as they share...