By SHANNON O. WELLS
It was just two years ago that Dylan Lew and Kyle Wyche, partners in Ecotone Renewables, launched their first ZEUS “digester,” an innovative contraption that converts locally generated food waste into nutrient-dense, ready-to-use fertilizer for commercial use.
With the $300,000 prize they received from winning the Pitt Sustainability Challenge, Ecotone’s role in keeping tons of compostable products out of the regional waste stream can move even more boldly forward. The project will create 2,600 gallons of Soil Sauce — described as an “ultra-clean, nutrient-microbial-rich fertilizer.”
Lew was at the Petersen Events Center’s Campus View Club on Sept. 14 when Ecotone was announced as the winner among five finalists. Although he felt good going into it, Lew, a Carnegie Mellon University alumnus, also was well aware of the innovative concepts Ecotone was up against.
“I definitely felt confident, but I was incredibly impressed with all the finalists here, and I think it’s great to hear. It sounds like the University is going to move forward with all of them in some capacity,” he said immediately after the event. “But there was definitely some challenging competition today. I’m proud of my team that they are able to come home with the prize.”
The remaining four finalists included the “Chill Up” Challenge by Pitt Green Labs; University-based CO2IReduce; Panther Tracks by S&B USA Construction; and the Pitt–Johnstown Geothermal Tunnels Feasibility Study (see their project summaries below).
Ecotone’s prize-winning composting proposal will be implemented within a two-year period, while Pitt Sustainability will debrief the other finalists and consider their proposals for potential advancement.
Sauce for the soil
Applicants from both within and without the Pitt community were required to submit a written application and 90-second video detailing their proposal. They were asked to share an “integrated, impactful, durable and feasible solution” to move Pitt toward its goal of carbon neutrality by 2037, the 250th anniversary of the University’s founding.
A panel of 18 external judges evaluated proposals based on a four-point rubric: integrated, impactful, feasible and durable.
At the award event, a representative of each finalist presented a summary of their proposal. The selection committee — comprising Kenyon Bonner, vice provost for student affairs; Dave DeJong, senior vice chancellor for business and operations; and Amanda Godley, vice provost for graduate studies — then took a short break to vote on the winner.
Recognizing that excessive food waste and dying soils have a “profoundly negative global impact” in creating extreme atmospheric carbon levels, Ecotone’s Anaerobic Digestion Technology is designed to divert carbon emissions by converting local food waste into nutrient-dense, ready-to-use bottled fertilizer, its mission statement said.
Wyche, a 2015 Pitt graduate, and Lew built their model on the need to keep locally generated food waste from overburdening and expanding municipal landfills, leading to less healthy plant life and “weakening the soil microbiome.”
Installing the company’s ZEUS anaerobic digesters on or near Pitt campuses would address these issues by processing 10 tons of food waste and diverting 120 tons of CO2 emissions per system per year, aiding in Pitt’s carbon-neutrality mission, Ecotone said. This waste would be converted into Soil Sauce fertilizer, samples of which Lew distributed at the Sustainability Challenge finalist event.
Ecotone built its first digester a little more than four years ago, launching into a commercialization phase two years ago. The company launched a five-month composting pilot program with the city of Pittsburgh in March.
Other entities are taking various approaches, “testing some compost tumblers, pickup services,” Lew said, “but ours is the only on site, automated solution.”
The city project was created through the PGH Lab program, a six-month partnership program that connects startups with local governments to support innovative practices based on efficiency, transparency, sustainability and inclusivity.
“We already have (a composter) at the Pittsburgh Airport, processing waste for Dunkin’ Donuts,” Lew said. “We have one at the Allegheny General Hospital’s suburban campus, another in Swissvale, at the Municipal Building, and the Homewood Senior Center. So, we’re excited to bring some (digesters) right here to Oakland.”
Advancing solutions
Noting her familiarity with Ecotone and the other four finalists, Aurora Sharrard, executive director of Pitt Sustainability, said she was inspired by the all the ideas presented and how the Challenge process played out.
“We’re very excited to have a winner of Pitt’s Sustainability Challenge,” she said, noting that the award details and implementation plan would begin right away. “We’ve actually had conversations with (Ecotone) previously about campus deployment that never really ended up with campus implementation, so it’s great to be able to advance their solution on campus.”
The Challenge, she emphasized, is about direct engagement between the Office of Sustainability and the community.
“It’s about giving people creative opportunities to make positive change toward our goal of carbon neutrality,” Sharrard added, noting that it was great to see a proposal from a regional campus (Pitt–Johnstown Geothermal Tunnels). “We tried to make it as open as possible.”
John A. Swanson, Pitt professor emeritus and namesake of the University’s School of Engineering, said taking part in the Sustainability Challenge evaluation panel keeps him in the technological mix.
“I enjoyed it. But you know, I enjoy working with students. I enjoy working with technology,” he said. “It keeps me stimulated … and I hope to do it again. I’m glad they invited me.”
Other finalists
Here are summaries of the other finalists’ proposals:
"Chill Up" Challenge by Pitt Green Labs
Because they need to freeze specimens, tissues and things like vaccines, research labs can be three to six times more energy intensive than an average commercial building. The “Chill Up” Challenge proposal would offer researchers on all campuses’ freezer upgrade rebates and incentives to share freezers, as well as reduce barriers to “chilling up” with educational efforts.
Chill Up also wants to increase engagement with the Pitt Green Labs program, which provides recommendations and resources to help Pitt laboratories incorporate sustainability best practices. So far, only 22 labs have participated in the Pitt Green Lab program out of more than 2,000 across the University.
CO2IReduce by University of Pittsburgh
The CO2IReduce project would collect data and create a personalized dashboard relevant to any student, faculty or staff member on the Pittsburgh campus to demonstrate how they can use space efficiently and reduce their carbon footprint. A key goal of the project is to provide scalable solutions to make even the least energy-efficient buildings more efficient, especially when compared with new buildings or vast renovations.
Panther Tracks by S&B USA Construction
In fiscal year 2019, commuter travel represented 16.4 percent of Pitt’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Due to Pitt’s size, geographic pull and relative shortage of nearby affordable housing, many community members rely on personal vehicles to get to campus.
S&B USA Construction aims to facilitate regional transportation decarbonization and increase the University’s electric vehicle charging and eMobility infrastructure. They plan to leverage the physical places that Pitt controls, such as garages, lots and adjacent buildings across campuses, to support the transition of single occupancy vehicles, shuttles, shared-use vehicles and micromobility to zero emissions.
Pitt–Johnstown Geothermal Tunnels Feasibility Study
Pitt–Johnstown has an unseen resource under the campus grounds — mining tunnels that can provide sustainable geothermal energy. This year, Pitt-Johnstown’s electricity consumption is trending 60 to 70 percent above budget allocations. A sustainable solution is needed, and this project would also result in savings via tax credits. The team will complete a feasibility study and project management plan to use the existing tunnels as a geothermal heating and cooling source; the solution will tie together campuswide systems more effectively. The study will be led by partners at Apex Companies and H.F. Lenz, who both hire Pitt alumni.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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