The green frog from silicon valley

Innovative company in Chicago tackles last hurdle to eliminate waste of paper in business and legal transactions…

Chicago is just a great place. It is a vibrant city marked by a beautiful skyline. The architecture of the downtown skyscrapers does not pale compared to the ones of its rival cities on the coasts, quite to the contrary. Houses from Frank Lloyd Wright are also not uncommon in the residential neighborhoods. Coming summer — I'll skip the notorious cold and windy winter — jazz and blues bands take over the cafés and music festivals animate the numerous parks in Chicago.

I flew to Chicago last week on a business trip and I used that occasion to meet with one of its dynamic and green start-ups. Sertifi.com develops and sells an electronic signature solution that replaces the existing process of obtaining printed signatures; it has the same validity and effect as hand written signatures.

“Do you have a business card?” I ask the CEO, John Stojka, who meets with me at a local downtown restaurant. It is almost 5 o’clock and the busy downtown district is getting ready for a nice summer week-end. “No” he replies calmly. “No paper. If you go in our office, you won’t see much paper. We are getting rid of the fax machine too…” John is a serial entrepreneur who moved with his brother to Chicago after they sold their first Internet start-up in the Bay area.

John’s colleague who helped set up the meeting, Fotis Kousiakis, explains me that their electronic signature solution is a faster and easier way to obtain commitments and approvals online. “It is about business efficiency” adds John. As he goes through his pitch, I remind myself how I struggle to get purchase orders and contracts done at the end of each quarter. I simply nod.

But the biggest upside might be the amount of paper saved. The main reason paper and the fax machine remain in use today for business and legal transactions, is simply to retrieve hand signatures. It is the last bit of process to address for the digital age to deliver on one of its promises: eliminating the need for paper. For once the Government framework is in place, and it is the businesses that are lagging. Congress passed in 2000 the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provided in 2003 the procedures and guides for Federal agencies to implement the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA).

“We eliminate the interruption of people having to print documents, hand-sign them and send them back.” explains Fotis with a big smile. Five of Sertifi’s biggest accounts — including Careerbuilder, Intercall and Flatrate — save over 50 trees a month just by switching over to electronic signatures. That is more than 400,000 pages per month and it is conservative estimate. John summarizes for me, boldly: “We want to replace the fax machine”.

This is an ambitious goal but not far-fetched. Sertifi.com is one of those smart private companies in the US who know their industry well and understand change. They can combine an attractive business proposition and a green tool for its customers. It is about efficiency. However, we do not necessarily hear a lot about the likes of Sertifi.com because they are not part of the Fortune 500 club or did not raise a lot of cash. Yet, they are slowly preparing the country for the important change of lifestyle that is required in the next 10-20 years to protect our environment.

This makes me reflect on Chicago: outshined in the media by New York and Los Angeles, it seems more in synch with the rest of the country and its needs. Still today, the University of Chicago produces most of the University professors in the country. Hyde Park, the neighborhood located next to the University of Chicago mixes the professors and the students with the rest of the city, and is socially united. The Obama family lives there, and it stands out the middle of more difficult neighborhoods. A local joke: “This is the only place when you go to the grocery store and you see a person behind with shoes tied with fish line, you just don’t know whether it is a homeless person or a Nobel Prize laureate!” Folks in Berkeley might argue but that is probably true…

Renewable energy: let's not forget the other element...

With summer time comes my annual vacation back in my home region, Brittany, with its beautiful coast line spread with pink granite and emerald alike rocks that shine in the sunset like jewels on a crown. The frequent rains maintain a rich and colorful vegetation in-land, stage of many past legends. The dense forest of Broceliande once hosted the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table and Merlin the Enchanter…

This year trip was the occasion to re-discover the potential of an important source of alternative energy, much less talked about than sun and wind. I am talking about water. As I was driving away from Paris and entering the Breton region via the county of Rance — adjacent to the county of Broceliande and mostly known for its cider — I surprised myself to learn about the local hydraulic power plant that leverages the tidal currents into the Rance river and generate up to… 250 MW.

The Rance tidal power plant produces more energy than any solar farm today. It consists of 24 hydraulic turbines generating electricity in both current directions, and of a dam to help store energy and redistribute it on demand. The plant was built in the sixties and remains a spectacular but lone example due to the environmental impact caused by the construction of the dam. Yet, the plant operated by French energy giant EDF recouped its construction cost and provides today non polluting electricity at a lower cost than nuclear (1.8c per kWh vs. 2.5c per kWh for nuclear).

To limit the environmental impact on coastal habitat, smaller tidal plants that do not require dams are preferred today. They can be deployed along the coast or at the entry of rivers. Tidal currents also have the advantage to be completely predictable and stronger than marine currents like the Gulf stream. Last week, EDF announced the deployment of a new tidal power farm near the fortified city of Saint Malo with a capacity of 6 MW. The turbines generate each 1 MW with a conversion efficiency of 30%, above the efficiency avhieved by solar cells and comparable to wind turbines. A cable connects the generated electricity back to a station on the shore.

The idea of harnessing the power of water currents is not new. Like wind mills, tide mills spread in the late Middle-Ages, mostly along the Atlantic coasts of North America, Great Britain and France. Some remain today as the one in Brehat, near Saint Malo. My favorite? The tide mill in Ploumanach, further west and close to my home village. It is made of pink granite and kept its colorful character despite the ages.

Power plants based on combustion still dominate. Sure. Solar cell and wind turbine companies are growing fast. True. But do not discount the fourth element: water. The tidal power farms are discretely replacing the tidal mills of the past and will continue to capture our imagination…