Cash cows: Green Growth Technologies aims to turn cattle manure into moolah.

MANY companies that consider themselves part of the "green"--or environmentally sensitive--technology sector have looked to cutting-edge innovations to fuel their growth.

Not Jim Ballew. His firm is looking to cow manure and business acumen.

Ballew founded Long Beach-based Green Growth Technologies about a year ago. His small company serves as part clearinghouse. part incubator and part venture capital provider for product or tech developers that it brings under its umbrella.

Among the handful of companies that GGT has launched is Natural Bio Technology, a laboratory that has developed a product that breaks down carpet before it's put into landfills and has found bugs that eat residual petroleum from storage tanks.

Natural Bio Technology's latest creation is a lactic acid microbe that converts animal waste into a liquid fertilizer, efficiently and cleanly. It's a discovery with both ecological and business potential.

There aren't many competitors. "Surprisingly enough, people aren't lining up to get into the ag waste business," Ballew deadpanned. "The basic idea is an old concept: to turn something that was wasted into a commodity."

Green in business

Ballew conceived the idea for his green technology clearinghouse after he was invited to speak at an environmental conference in San Francisco in the fall of 2004. He found that a number of the attendees were not only green in terms of their environmental philosophy, but also green in their knowledge of business.

"Everyone at the conference was full of ideological motives and focused exclusively on the scientific aspect of the industry. The funny thing was, this was an economic development conference for green technologies," he recalled. "Not one of them had a business approach to the industry. That's why they invited me, I guess."

After he spoke, Ballew was approached by a handful of patent holders, tinkerers and research scientists who were struggling to turn their products into a business.

"The green industry is still so fragmented and undeveloped. I realized there had to be a company out there that could find the right technology and apply the right business plan to it, someone who could approach it from a practical business standpoint and not an ideological one."

That's exactly what Ballew did with Green Ag Technologies. Green Ag, in East Lansing, Mich., was created to market the manure-eating microbe. Green Ag is owned, operated and funded by GGT.

Jack Laurie, retired head of the Michigan Farm Bureau, heard about the manure-to-fertilizer technology last fall and approached Ballew. He offered to lend his expertise in the agriculture industry if Ballew's company could fund the venture. Laurie now essentially runs Green Ag.

"I know very little about finding venture funding, that's Jim's game," Laurie said. "He knows very little about farmers and the agriculture business. That's my game. This product provides farmers across the country, and the world, with something they need: a way to manage their waste and a source of fertilizer."

But many in the industry are skeptical.

Joe Donahue, the head of the California Dairy Research Foundation, said farmers across the country have heard this song all too many times.

"We've been lied to and taken advantage of for so long, you'll be hard-pressed to find a more skeptical bunch," he said. "That being said, a way for farmers to deal with waste is needed right now, especially here in California. So if this technology works, and he has the data to back it up, the demand will be great."

Green Ag currently has six customers across Texas and Michigan and plans to have about 20 by the end of the month. The firm installs a meter in a lagoon that releases a measured amount of the microbes to break down the stinky slop into a liquid that can be used as fertilizer. The process takes about 22 days, works in temperatures as low as 40 degrees, eliminates odor and neutralizes the unhealthful pathogens. That's far more efficient than today's common practice--essentially letting time and water break down the manure--which does nothing to address the odor and pollution problems.

The process costs the farmer about $2-$3 per head of cattle per month, assuming the cattle rancher already has an operating lagoon.

However, the typical farmer could save between $100 and $500 per month; according to Laurie. That's because the farmer can forgo the costs of cleanup and regulatory fees, as well as inoculations for cattle that are exposed to the waste. The largest savings would come from the reduced acreage needed to raise cattle.

Since starting GGT last year, Ballew has raised about $5 million in private funding and has a private placement scheduled later this spring, which he hopes will net another $20 million to $25 million.

"The tricky part of the business is putting the right governors on the right companies," Ballew said.

Green Growth Technologies

Year Founded: 2005

Core Business: Finding, funding and developing emerging eco-friendly technologies

2005 Revenues: Under $1 million

2005 Employees: 23

2006 Employees: 28

Goal: To acquire and develop eco-friendly or "green" technologies and establish a technology fund within the next year.

Driving Force: The abundance of under deloped green technologies that lack funding and business guidance