According to the WEF, this year’s Technology Pioneers represent 31 of the most innovative technology start-ups from around the world who provide cutting-edge innovation and are poised to have a critical impact on the future of business, industry and society.  The entire list of Technology Pioneers, with profiles and selected video interviews with their CEOs, founders and chief scientists, can be found at http://www.weforum.org/techpioneers.

“The World Economic Forum is proud to recognize an outstanding group of innovative companies as Technology Pioneers for 2011.  Their technologies and business models will have a durable and valuable effect in several industries and society as a whole.  We look forward to their unique contributions to the mission of the Forum: improving the state of the world,” said André Schneider, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Economic Forum.

Ostara was recognized for its Pearl® Nutrient Recovery Process, which recovers nutrients such as phosphorus and ammonia from wastewater and transforms them into an environmentally friendly fertilizer sold under the brand name Crystal Green®.  This process protects waterways, conserves natural resources and saves wastewater treatment facilities money.   In addition to operating a demonstration scale Pearl® Nutrient Recovery Facility in Edmonton, Alberta, Ostara has two commercial nutrient recovery facilities operating in the United States: at Clean Water Services’ Durham Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Tigard, Oregon, and at Hampton Roads Sanitation District’s Nansemond Wastewater Treatment Plant in Suffolk, Virginia.  Ostara will open its third commercial nutrient recovery facility in York, Pennsylvania on September 16, where Ostara will provide nutrient recovery services to the City of York, creating a unique public/private partnership allowing the City of York to help protect the environmentally sensitive Chesapeake Bay while saving operational costs.

“I am very pleased and honored to have received this prestigious award and it is a testament to an amazing team at Ostara that has collectively transformed a promising technology into a viable business,” said Phillip Abrary, Ostara’s President and CEO.  “Our technology is not only helping preserve a non-renewable resource by producing a fertilizer from a sustainable source, but is also providing a solution for wastewater treatment plants to recover otherwise polluting nutrients, and turn them into a valuable product, and further protect local waterways.”

The identification of the Technology Pioneer companies is the result of a rigorous selection process.  The Forum received more than 330 applications from around the world, and then these were evaluated by 68 global technology experts.  To be selected as a Technology Pioneer, a company must be involved in the development of a major technology and/or innovation and have the potential for long-term impact on business and society.  In addition, it must demonstrate visionary leadership and show all the signs of being a long-standing and sustainable market leader – and its technology must be proven.  Previous Technology Pioneers include 23andme (2008), Amyris Biotechnologies (2006), BloomEnergy (2010) Dr Reddy Laboratories (2001), Google (2001), Gridpoint (2008), Kaspersky Lab (2001), Mozilla Corporation (2007), Nanosolar (2007) and Twitter (2010).

Andrew McGregor, CEO of ecommerce expert eCommera, said: “The recession has been bad news for the high street but online retailers have seen real growth because of the benefits they offer to consumers. Price is an obvious benefit of shopping online as it's far easier to shop around online for a bargain by visiting multiple retailers' websites or using price comparison sites. But greater choice, a flexible range of delivery options and the convenience of shopping at any time of day and taking delivery without ever having to queue in-store or seek for a parking space, is also critical and clearly driving growth in online sales.”

Online Retail Update: Key findings

More than a third (36.25 percent) of respondents said they have increased the amount of money they are spending online over the past year. Less than a fifth (18.65%) have reduced the amount they spend online.

• Brits spend an average of £71 each per month online.
• Price is the top reason consumers are shopping online, with 60.4 percent believing they get a better bargain than on the high street. In second place with 50.8 percent is the convenience of having items delivered and in third place with 39.3 percent, is the sheer range of choice available online.
• Poor images, product details and descriptions are the biggest put off for 42.15 percent of respondents. Difficult sites to navigate came in second place with 31.65 percent followed by finding items out of stock (26.10 percent).
• The biggest reason for not revisiting a website following a purchase is when a product doesn’t deliver on expectations or is not as described on the site (41.75 percent). Next in line is if a product arrived late (19.15 percent) and in third place if the after sales support was poor (18.05 percent).
• Just 9.3 percent of online shoppers have yet to break the £50 barrier, suggesting a strong market for luxury goods, designer clothing, jewellery and even items such as cars are driving up the average spend.
• Only 5.1 percent of respondents said they had shopped with a particular website because of something they had seen on such social networks. Even direct email marketing has driven more consumers (9.05 per cent) to transact online than social media.
• The recommendation of friends and family remain of great importance with 70.9 percent citing that as a factor in making a purchase.

“The findings show that while price is critical, it’s the fundamentals of product, proposition and delivering on promises that are most important to the customers experience and satisfaction. The operational aspects (stock, availability and delivery) of a retailer’s online business have a big impact on customers. Repeat visits are driven by a good experience, on spec products, delivery as expected and great after sales support. This, in turn, will see the customer recommending the service to others. Retailers must adopt a data driven approach to trading which will enable them to understand the impact of these factors on revenues and profitability,” concludes McGregor. “This report shows signs of positive growth and I think it will encourage retailers to take their online strategy more seriously. They need to have measures in place to monitor and manage critical elements and decide how to optimise their sites. For most retailers repeat purchase is the engine of profitable growth.”

Responsys, a leading provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions, today announced it has partnered with eCommera, a leading e-commerce technology and services company. eCommera will use Responsys Interact® Suite to enhance the online trading performance of its customers by delivering the most advanced cross-channel marketing campaigns. The first eCommera customer to use Responsys will be the online store of the London 2012 Olympics.

 eCommera will use the innovative suite of solutions within the Responsys Interact Suite including Interact Program™ for programme design and automation, Interact Insight™ for marketing reporting and analytics, and Interact Connect™ for data transfer and automation. In addition, Responsys’ easy integration with other marketing solutions in eCommera’s partner ecosystem including leading web analytics and social commerce technologies will enable the company to deliver more personalised messages, as well as customer reviews and ratings for an improved online experience.

Pre-integrating the very best ecommerce components and delivering them as a service to retailers and brand owners around the world will enable eCommera to give customers greater trading flexibility and agility. The partnership with Responsys allows eCommera to deliver highly relevant and triggered cross-channel marketing messages needed to support the online merchandise sales targets of its customers.

Debbie Bond, Director of the London 2012 Shop at eCommera, said, “We are delighted that one of the world’s leading cross-channel marketing providers has taken the decision to partner with us. Our focus is always on helping our customers deliver the most dynamic trading experiences and it is testament to the quality of Responsys Interact Suite that we have selected it as the cross-channel marketing platform for our clients.”

Simon Robinson, marketing and alliances director EMEA, Responsys, said, “Responsys is delighted to partner with one of the UK’s leading ecommerce services companies. We are confident that the combination of our respective capabilities will deliver best-in-class online trading experiences for eCommera’s customers.”

Nordic Capital Fund VII, a 4.3bn euro fund, has acquired a majority stake in SiC Processing from a group of sellers.  SiC Processing’s founding family remains as co-owners with 25% holding; former lead investor Zouk Ventures retains a 5% stake.

SiC Processing is a leading supplier in the recovery and processing of sawing slurry in silicon wafer production. The company generates over 90% of revenues from customers in photovoltaic wafer manufacturing, but also serves major manufacturers in the semiconductor industry. Its headquarters are located in Hirschau, Germany and production facilities are in Germany, Norway, Italy, China and the USA. 

SiC Processing has expanded rapidly in the past as trusted partner to its customer base. In order to meet the growing global demand for renewable energy from solar power the company is planning further expansion of its capacity.

Iyad Omari of Frog Capital, who first invested in SiC in 2007, said: “SiC is a real star in the cleantech landscape.  It has achieved strong and profitable growth in the past three years, delivering a tangible return on investment to customers in the solar and semiconductor industries. We are delighted that Nordic Capital, a reputable and large investor in expanding mid-market companies, will be taking SiC to its next stage of international growth.”

Ostara’s Pearl process provides benefits to HRSD, its ratepayers and the environment by increasing plant capacity and production efficiencies, while creating a premium fertilizer by-product from waste. The facility enhances HRSD’s significant efforts to remove excess nutrients from wastewater. The recovered nutrients, including phosphorus and nitrogen, are transformed at the Nansemond facility into an environmentally-friendly, commercial fertilizer called Crystal Green®, which uses a slow-release formula to ensure that nutrients are absorbed by plants and thereby reduces fertilizer runoff from reaching and polluting the Bay’s fragile ecosystem.

"Our technology integrates into the treatment system, processes the liquids from the digested solids recycle streams and recovers phosphorus and other nutrients — and then converts them into a high-quality environmentally-friendly commercial fertilizer, increasing operational efficiency for the plant," said Phillip Abrary, president and CEO of Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies. “This approach provides HRSD with a cost-effective and environmentally-sound operational improvement and also creates a fertilizer product made from the only sustainable source of phosphorus – waste – which is non-leaching and therefore, helps to protect waterways.”

Successful Pilot Leads to Commercial Facility

Pearl was successfully tested from October 2006 to March 2007 in a pilot-scale facility at HRSD’s Nansemond plant, where it recovered more than 85 percent of the phosphorus and 40 percent of the ammonia from the liquid it processed. This successful demonstration project has led to the full-scale commercial implementation unveiled today.

The Nansemond Treatment Plant is designed to clean up to 30 million gallons of wastewater per day (MGD). It is one of 13 plants owned and operated by HRSD, a public utility that serves 1.6 million people in an area of over 3,100 square miles. The Nansemond facility discharges its treated effluent to the James River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. Excessive nutrients, including phosphorus and nitrogen, have been identified by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation as one of the most serious water quality problems affecting the Bay.

Ted Henifin, HRSD’s general manager, explains, “The pilot program was a great success. Thus, building a commercial recovery facility was an easy decision. The benefit of Ostara’s Pearl system is gaining the ability to recover nutrients that were a maintenance problem in our plant and turning them into a commercially viable fertilizer product with basically no additional costs to HRSD. HRSD is focused on reducing human impact on the environment, and recovering phosphorus to replace mined phosphorus does just that.”

Treatment systems typically separate solids from liquids. The treated solids are then disposed of while the liquids are typically reprocessed back through the wastewater system. This adds costs by clogging pipes with a concrete-like scale called struvite — the result of phosphorus and ammonia (nitrogen) combining with magnesium — and by consuming up to 25 percent of the system's capacity.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an Ostara board member representing VantagePoint Venture Partners, notes that the incorporation of the Ostara technology at the Nansemond plant is the kind of infrastructure solution needed in hundreds of municipalities across the United States. “Local and state governments are taking notice of the improved economics and reduced environmental impact which can be achieved through this kind of this public/private partnership. This groundbreaking approach ultimately saves money for ratepayers while also reducing the impact that wastewater treatment plants have on local waterways, all without onerous regulation,” said Kennedy.

Ostara’s Pearl Deployment in Oregon Produces Crystal Green Fertilizer for Sale

Ostara’s first customers are already seeing significant cost savings and environmental impact reductions. Clean Water Services' Durham Advanced Wastewater Treatment facility outside Portland, Ore., which was the world’s first to implement a commercial operation using Ostara’s nutrient recovery technology, has been operational for more than one year. In that year, Ostara's Pearl process has exceeded expectations with respect to the operational cost savings it has delivered, and has produced more than 500,000 pounds of Crystal Green fertilizer.

The Nansemond Struvite Recovery Facility is projected to remove more than 85 percent of the phosphorus from solids recycle streams and has the capacity to produce more than one million pounds of Crystal Green fertilizer annually.

The production of Crystal Green has dramatically lower production costs and environmental impacts than fertilizers produced from mined phosphorus, which leaves a huge carbon footprint. The world’s first environmentally-safe, slow-release fertilizer made from recovered nutrients, Crystal Green is ideally suited for the nursery, turf and specialty agriculture markets. It is being sold through national and regional commercial fertilizer blenders across North America.

“Phosphorus is a key building block of life, and some researchers believe that the earth’s supply could be depleted within the next 50-100 years if preventive actions are not taken. We’re recovering phosphorus and other nutrients into a useful, premium fertilizer while reducing the carbon footprint in its manufacture and preventing runoff. By bringing the process full circle, we’re truly creating value from waste,” according to Abrary.

Numerous other commercial applications of the Ostara technology are in pilot stages, including the third facility in Europe and the first in Asia, with the next commercial facility to launch in York, Pa. later this year. Ostara estimates that approximately 200 plants in North America and several hundred plants in Europe and the rest of the world are candidates for the Pearl process.

About Hampton Roads Sanitation District

Since its creation in 1940, HRSD has been dedicated to protecting public health and the waters of Hampton Roads by treating wastewater effectively. The regional utility’s service area includes 17 cities and counties of southeast Virginia, an area of over 3,100 square miles with a population of 1.6 million. Wastewater flows through municipal collection systems to HRSD’s interceptor system. This network of pipelines and pump stations conveys the flow to 13 treatment plants, which have a combined capacity of 249 million gallons per day (MGD).

The Nansemond Treatment Plant, which began operation in 1983, is a 30 MGD facility that features a biological nutrient removal process. The plant, located in Suffolk, Virginia, has received national awards for outstanding compliance with its environmental permits for 22 consecutive years. For more information, visit www.hrsd.com.

About Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, Inc.

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, Inc. is a Vancouver-based company developing and marketing proprietary technologies that recover nutrients from liquid wastewater and transform them into an environmentally-friendly slow-release fertilizer, called Crystal Green®.

Ostara’s water technology, named Pearl® Nutrient Recovery Process, reduces the amount of pollutants released into the environment while creating a beneficial fertilizer product. Ostara is backed by VantagePoint Venture Partners in the U.S. and Frog Capital in the UK. In September 2009, Ostara was named one of the Top 100 Global CleanTech Companies by The Guardian, a London-based media group. For more information: visit www.ostara.com and www.crystalgreen.com.

For more information, please contact:
Debra Hadden
Director of Corporate Communications
Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, Inc.
Mobile: +1 (604) 240-3196
dhadden@ostara.com

Nancy L. Munnikhuysen
HRSD Chief of Communications
Office: +1 (757) 460-7058
Mobile: +1 (757) 642-1321
nmunnikhuysen@hrsd.com

Stephen began his career with PA Consulting in its Global Technology Group before joining 3i as a Director of Venture and then Growth Capital.  In over seven years with 3i, he led or was closely involved in investments in a wide range of European IT and cleantech companies, such as Icera, Nujira and Light Blue Optics, and in many profitable exits, including Respond, Insensys and UbiNetics.   A Cambridge Engineering graduate, Stephen also represented 3i on the board of The Cambridge Network. 

Stephen’s experience extends to private equity secondary transactions, corporate spinouts and restructurings.  Recently, he has been working on debt-to-equity conversions with one of the UK’s leading banking groups.

Mike Reid, Managing Partner of Frog Capital, said: “Stephen brings with him a wealth of communications technology and cleantech expertise. He has been actively involved in a number of high-performing companies that have delivered excellent returns and his experience will enable Frog to increase its investment pace, particularly in the IT and digital media sectors.”   

Stephen Lowery added: “I am delighted to be joining both Frog and Mike Reid, with whom I have worked for many years. The availability and flexibility of Frog’s fund, makes it an ideal investor in the current market.  The portfolio, which includes real heavyweights such as SiC Processing, eCommera and agri-capital, is testament to Frog’s ambition to invest in and support some of Europe’s best entrepreneurs and fastest growing companies”.

Iosil, based in Albuquerque, USA, has developed a method to extract high-purity polysilicon from the waste material (Kerf) caused by wafer sawing. Due to the fact that 45 percent of the polysilicon produced is lost in wafer sawing, this represents a significant cost saving potential for the solar industry.

“This investment is another step to expand our business relationships and to benefit from knowledge transfer in both directions”, says Thomas Heckmann, CEO of SiC Processing AG. Iosil was the first company to extract high-purity polysilicon from Kerf and hence to make it reusable. Both Iosil and SiC Processing aim to help their clients to significantly reduce their costs and gain a competitive advantage in a highly competitive industry.

About SiC Processing AG
SiC Processing AG is one of the leading providers for the processing of used slurry from the wafer industry. The company has a broad and international customer base consisting of wafer manufacturers. The philosophy of the SiC Group includes long term contracts, a close and established mutual trust and a partnership-based business model.

About Iosil Energy Corporation
Iosil Energy Corporation, founded in 2007, has its R+D facilities located in the National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton, Alberta, with headquarters located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Iosil has a strong patent portfolio including a worldwide exclusive license for two patents developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. For more information about the company please visit the website at www.iosil-energy.com.

Oxsensis has developed the world’s highest temperature sensors which can be used in gas turbines, for example in power stations. They are capable of measuring heat and pressure in the harshest conditions where temperatures can reach over 1000°C: the equivalent of molten lava and hundreds of degrees hotter than traditional sensors can stand.

With more accurate readings comes the possibility of running turbines at higher combustion temperatures, thereby increasing efficiency, lowering operating costs, and reducing carbon emissions.

The funding will support business development and help Oxsensis to further extend its sensor technology, which will have a market advantage by providing more accurate data than existing technologies and enabling optimal turbine efficiency. The company is already progressing from technology development to full scale commercialisation with long-term customer trials currently underway of initial products in its WavePhire TM sensor range.

The technology also has applications in the aerospace and automotive industries for helping engines to run more efficiently.

David Gahan, CEO of Oxsensis Ltd said: “We are delighted that Carbon Trust Investments is joining with the strong line up of our current investors.  Oxsensis technology is supporting developments across three critical carbon intensive industries and has the potential for significant impact.”

Based in Munster, Germany, agri.capital has grown from inception in 2004 to become Europe’s largest biogas producer, operating 46 electricity production sites with an installed electrical capacity of 29MW and 3 gas-to-grid sites with a bio-methane production capacity of 7MW. The company employs 130 people and generates revenues of €1m–€2m per annum from each plant.

Germany is Europe’s largest producer of biogas, the product of the natural biological decomposition of organic matter, or biomass, derived from energy crops and agricultural waste.  The key attractions of biogas are its ability to produce electricity constantly, irrespective of weather conditions, the fact that it can be stored and that it can be supplied through multiple channels, including the electricity grid, the gas grid or as heat (CHP).

Biogas offers stable revenue streams based on tariffs, currently fixed in Germany for 20 years from the start of each plant’s operation.  The German government has set a goal for biogas of 18% of total energy consumption by 2020, as part of the country’s strategy of reducing reliance on imported oil and gas.

Commenting on Frog’s investment, Iyad Omari said: “We have watched the biogas segment with keen interest for some time and are delighted to be making an investment in it through agri.capital. It’s a market segment with considerable momentum and great potential, and the management led by new CEO Dr Anton Daubner have just the right combination of commercial, technical, development and financial experience to take advantage of this.”

The investment was acquired from an existing shareholder and constitutes a portion of the €60m F Series round led by TCW Group that completed in May 2009.

Frog Capital has been investing in cleantech companies since 2005.  Its investments include SiC Processing AG, a global recycler of key fluids that are used in the production of semiconductor and solar wafers; Ostara, a wastewater treatment company that recovers polluting nutrients from sludge and recycles them into an ecologically-friendly fertilizer; Hydrodec, a recycler of valuable industrial oils such as the transformer oils that keep electricity grids running; and Solar Century, the UK’s best-known solar energy company.

The new scheme will enable homeowners producing solar electricity to earn income from energy generation, benefit from significant savings on electricity bills and cut domestic carbon emissions. Solarcentury estimates that homeowners can save and earn over £1,000 per year for 25 years, increasing with inflation, with a typical solar electric system.

Home energy generation with a typical solar system can generate more than half an average home’s electricity consumption, which means it will provide protection against the unstable energy market. Unlike most other long-term investments the income from the solar electricity produced is also guaranteed and tax-free. This means that solar electricity compares favourably to savings and pensions investments, where the economic crisis has resulted in low returns.

The scheme will also encourage businesses to go solar and enable the rapid growth of solar jobs in the roofing and wider construction sector, as hundreds of businesses trained to install solar will see new opportunities up and down the country. This massive potential could total thousands of new jobs by 2013.

Founded in 2007, eCommera is a UK-based provider of e-commerce technology and services to the retail industry. eCommera serves over 20 major retailers and employs more than 70 people.

Founded in 1997, Xceleron provides unique and robust human data and insights to inform the full range of decisions that determine drug development success, from early preclinical testing through late-stage development.

The company combines technical expertise with vast drug development experience and the industry’s most rigorous analytical quality processes to provide its partners with reliable information for critical decision-making.

Despite intensive pre-clinical screening, only one of every 5,000 compounds today makes it from laboratory bench to bedside, with 30% of new drugs failing in Phase 1.

The Company is expanding its bioanalytical capabilities, following a year of strong growth which saw it partnering with most of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies.

“Our growth reflects the significant challenges facing our customers and our ability to deliver cost-effective insight into a molecule’s characteristics, starting in the pre-clinical stage and extending throughout clinical development,” said Michael Butler, PhD, CEO, Xceleron. “The new investment will allow us to expand our capacity, in line with customer demand.” 

There are currently seven drugs on the market that have used Xceleron AMS data in filing, and others in late stages of development.

In parallel with the processing of the approval, the Company and its Japanese partner, Kobelco Eco Solutions, have also been investigating candidate sites and now have several under consideration. Receipt of the Ministry approval allows commencement of the formal application for approval to build and operate a plant at one or more of the potential sites.

Neil Gaskell, the Chairman of the Company, commented that “we are delighted with this success which reflects both the strength of our technology and our good relationship with Kobelco Eco Solutions. Progress towards launching the Hydrodec business in Japan continues to be positive.”

Martin Jay CBE served as the Chairman of Invensys PLC from July 2003 to July 2009 and was Chairman of EADS U.K. until October 2006. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of VT Group PLC (Formerly Vosper Thornycroft Holdings PLC) for thirteen years from 1989 to 2002 and then as Chairman until July, 2005. Mr. Jay served as Group Managing Director of GEC Electronic Components and held a range of leadership positions at GEC.

Oxsensis is working with the majority of worldwide producers of gas turbines for electricity generation and aero engines and is developing the Wave-Phire™ series of sensors and i-Phire™ systems to improve efficiency and lower emissions. The company was recently recognized as one of the leading European CleanTech companies in the GP Bullhound top 30 and was the 2009 winner of the Carbon Trust Innovation Award in the Industry sector. The extreme environment sensors also have applicability to energy intensive industries and to car engines. The sensors themselves must operate at temperatures up to 1000°C (while glowing yellow-hot) and have shown measurement capability, repeatability and survivability in major power station equipment, while the systems are capable of miniaturisation for an aircraft environment.

David Gahan, the CEO of Oxsensis declared, “We are delighted to welcome an industry leader of the calibre of Martin Jay to help guide us at this phase in our strategic development. Our position as a leader in new instrumentation capability for the power industry has led to an opportunity to take the technology into the Aerospace and Defense sectors. Martin’s strategic insight will be invaluable to guide us into this area.”

Martin Jay said, “I am very excited about the prospects of Oxsensis. There is a unique offering here in high temperature sensing capability which is attracting attention from the major worldwide energy players, and also a unique optical systems capability which could usher in a new era in avionics instrumentation and controls.” 

Oxsensis, which has developed the world’s highest temperature sensors, won the award for innovative new technologies which will cut carbon emissions in industry. Its sensors can be used in gas turbines, for example in planes or power stations, and are capable of measuring heat and pressure in the harshest conditions where temperatures can reach nearly 1500°C – hundreds of degrees hotter than traditional sensors can stand. With more accurate readings comes the possibility of running turbines at higher combustion temperatures, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. 

David Gahan, CEO Oxsensis said:  "Oxsensis is delighted at winning the 2009 Carbon Trust Innovation Award.  The citation given at the Awards event mentioned the strong progress the WavePhire 1000°C pressure sensor has made over the last two years with the world's biggest manufacturers of gas turbines and the first trial of our instrumentation in a public grid power station at RWE NPower's Didcot facility."

Commenting on this year’s Awards, Tom Delay, Chief Executive, the Carbon Trust said: “As the UK looks to develop and deploy new low carbon solutions to tackle climate change, the breadth and depth of innovation here is deeply encouraging. Whilst many of the organisations that we looked displayed innovative approaches to cutting carbon emissions, the winning entries stood out for their industry leadership and potential to be replicated more widely. This shows the fantastic opportunity for organisations to thrive as Britain moves to a low carbon economy.”

The awards were judged by a panel of experts including David MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor of the Department of Energy and Climate Change; Tim Smit, co-founder and Chief Executive of the Eden Project; Damian Carrington, Head of Environment at the Guardian; Chris Mottershead, Vice Principal of Research and Innovations at Kings College London; Dick Strawbridge, ‘eco king’; Jeremy Webb, Editor of The New Scientist; and Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust.

This year’s nationwide hunt attracted submissions from around 250 of the UK’s most inspiring innovators in the development, deployment and use of low carbon technology solutions, across a range of areas from power generation to buildings to transport. The judges rigorously assessed each application against a range of strict criteria including genuine innovation, carbon saving potential, novel application and commercial potential.

This latest injection of funding comes just two months after eCommera secured funding of £5 million from an investment group led by growth capital investor, Frog Capital in conjunction with West Coast Capital and GP Bullhound.

Founded in 2007 by Michael Ross, online entrepreneur and founder of highly successful online fashion retailer Figleaves.com, and ex-BT marketing director, Andrew McGregor, eCommera helps large retailers such as Asda and House of Fraser to establish and run profitable online retail operations.

ePlanet has a successful track record of investing in successful, growing tech companies. Including Baidu, the leading Chinese search engine, and Skype. Dennis Atkinson, ePlanet partner: “eCommera has already made significant in-roads into the online retail market and is working with some of the biggest retail brands in the county. Together with the other investors we look forward to helping them to realise the global opportunity for their business."

Andrew McGregor, CEO and co-founder of eCommera: “Completing this further round of investment is a significant milestone for the company and adds further weight to our belief that eCommera is unique in the market and that our business model is solid and robust. Our ecommerce dashboard and enterprise class Software as a Service (SaaS) platform helps large global retailers to navigate to profit and growth without the distraction and high cost of managing technology. Just as retailers do not tend to own and build their own high street stores, so we believe the same model will emerge online.”

With its focus on delivering business insight and consultancy as well as the supporting technology, eCommera today serves over 20 major retailers, and has over 70 staff, many of whom are veterans from the e-commerce industry from companies like – Arcadia, Tesco, Fish 4, Dell and Harrods.

About eCommera

Founded in 2007 by Michael Ross, founder of Figleaves.com, and ex-BT marketing director, Andrew McGregor, eCommera is a UK-based provider of e-commerce services and consultancy to the retail industry. eCommera serves over 20 major retailers - including Asda, House of Fraser, Hamleys, Goldsmiths, Space NK and Flying Brands - and employs more than 70 people.

eCommera’s CoreTrader service is an analytical dashboard that helps retailers understand what the drivers of profit and growth are for their online commerce operations. The eCommera CoreCommerce Platform is an e-commerce trading platform, delivered as Software as a Service, that enables retailers to act on that insight and build profitable ecommerce operations. Alongside the core technology platforms, eCommera also provides associated online retail consulting services via a team of e-commerce experts.

For more information: www.ecommera.com

The Virginia-based Nansemond Wastewater Treatment Plant, which provides wastewater services for residents located near Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, is expected to become fully operational in the first quarter of 2010. Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD), which owns and operates the Nansemond plant, will now have an environmental and cost-effective solution to ensure that unwanted polluting nutrients are removed from the plant’s wastewater stream, which will protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The discharge of nutrients into Chesapeake Bay causes algae blooms that choke surrounding marine life and upset the natural ecosystem, identified by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation as one of the most serious problems affecting the Bay.

Wastewater treatment systems typically have major pipe clogging problems. They separate sewage sludge solids from liquids and while treated solids can be recycled as soil amendments, the liquids are usually reprocessed back through the system.  In addition to clogging pipes, this also adds significant cost to the system, consuming up to 25 percent of the system's capacity.

Bill Balzer, Manager of the Nansemond Wastewater Treatment Plant, said:  “The exciting thing about this partnership is that we are implementing a green, sustainable technology that is recovering a reusable resource – phosphorus – and creating a marketable product.  It’s a cost-neutral project that will help us solve our nutrient challenges with an environmental benefit.”

Iyad Omari, who leads Frog Capital’s cleantech investments, said: "We are pleased with the progress that Ostara is making in penetrating its markets in the US and Europe. This is a company that is actively changing the industry it operates in and this latest contract is further evidence of considerable demand from operators of waste water treatment systems for the company’s technology.”
 

Ostara was recently named as a Global Cleantech 100 company by the Guardian News and Media and Cleantech Group™.  Supported by the Carbon Trust, The Global Cleantech 100 is the first list to highlight and recognise the most promising private clean technology companies at the forefront of cleantech innovation offering solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.  Ostara is the only Canadian company on the Global Cleantech 100 list.

Last month Ostara announced that the City of York, Pennsylvania had commissioned Ostara to construct a Nutrient Recycling Facility at their York Wastewater Treatment Plant.  In June 2009, Clean Water Services launched its commercial-scale nutrient recovery facility at their Durham Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Oregon, which has the capacity to produce 500 tons of revenue-generating fertiliser by-product (called Crystal Green®) annually.

About Ostara
Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc., founded in 2005, is a Vancouver-based company commercializing proprietary technologies that recover resources from wastewater and recycle them into valuable products. Ostara's struvite recovery process, developed at the University of British Columbia, recovers pollutants that would otherwise be released into the environment, helps wastewater treatment plants reduce operating costs and meet environmental regulations, and provides municipalities and utilities with revenue from the sale of the recovered pollutants that are recycled into environmentally-friendly slow-release fertilizer, Crystal Green®. Ostara is backed by Frog Capital (UK) and VantagePoint Venture Partners (U.S.)  For more information: visit www.ostara.com and www.crystalgreen.com.