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<\/p>\n\u201cEveryone is just so excited to talk about poop,\u201d laughs Daniel Bida, Founder of the ZooShare Biogas Co-operative. I\u2019ve just connected with him over Zoom to hear about the recent completion of their biogas project at the Toronto Zoo. \u201cThe joke never seems to get old and that\u2019s an advantage we\u2019ve always had,\u201d he says, \u201cit\u2019s part of what drew people to our story and mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a background in finance and a passion for the environment, Daniel has always been fascinated by the potential to turn waste into something useful. Ten years ago, that curiosity turned into a bold vision to build Canada\u2019s first zoo-based biogas plant.<\/p>\n
The plan was simple – take zoo waste (yes, poop!) and commercial food waste collected from the Greater Toronto Area, use an anaerobic digester to produce biogas, and burn that gas to produce clean power. His plan also revolved around financing the project through community investors, like you or I, who could invest as little as $500.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe’ve been really lucky that the media loved to tell our story. I think that\u2019s partly because the conversation on food waste and its impact on greenhouse gas emissions has really picked up in recent years, and partly because of the \u2018cuteness\u2019 of our project,\u201d says Daniel, \u201cthese two elements really helped us to raise the financing that we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
To date, the organization has raised over $7 million from over 700 investors, to invest in the project and to refinance earlier investments that are now maturing. The co-op also joined forces with Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation, who made an investment in the project in exchange for 49% of the equity, and the Federal government, which granted $2.7 million from the Low Carbon Economy Fund.<\/p>\n
What started as a mere idea, now stands fully constructed across from the Toronto Zoo processing zoo poop and commercial food waste, producing biogas, and running a combined heat and power generator to produce clean power for Ontario\u2019s electricity grid.<\/p>\n
Now that the project is operational, it will divert 15,000 tons of food waste from landfills each year, reduce CO2 emissions by up to 20,000 tons, generate 500kW of renewable energy each year, and produce a nutrient rich fertilizer as a by-product.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I realized at the time how proud people were to become investors in ZooShare,\u201d says Daniel, \u201cthat\u2019s something I only came to understand with time.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Daniel\u2019s plan for the biogas digester may have appeared simple on paper, the execution was far from it. He was working in what is still an emerging industry and using a technology that was not widely understood in Ontario at that time.<\/p>\n
ZooShare faced several hurdles along the way, including finding long-term suppliers of waste and dealing with organic waste that was not free of plastics, just to name a couple.<\/p>\n
In 2017, ZooShare held what Daniel describes as their most difficult Annual General Meeting. They had come up against so many hurdles that they were faced with a major decision. \u201cEssentially, we were at the point where we either just had to pull the plug and return investor\u2019s money, or as a Board and co-op, make the decision to deploy the capital we had even though all the financing to complete the project was not yet in place ,\u201d shares Daniel.<\/p>\n
The co-op was quickly approaching the cut off date of their feed-in-tariff contract – a key element of their business model to ensure that their renewable power would be purchased by the Ontario power grid. They needed to begin generating power to maintain the contract, and to do that they needed to finance the combined heat and power generator.<\/p>\n
They put the decision to the investors. \u201cI was fully expecting for people to ask for their money back,\u201d shares Daniel, \u201cI really thought there was a limit to the patience the members would have after the previous delays we had faced.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I was wrong, this wasn\u2019t a traditional boardroom,\u201d says Daniel, \u201cthe investors just said \u2018you just keep fighting, you get back in there!\u2019 It was really powerful to have that type of support.\u201d<\/p>\n
With their community bond investors behind them, they met the deadline to generate electricity. There were still hurdles ahead to be met, but it was clear at this point that the investors were in it for the long haul.<\/p>\n
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ZooShare investors gather for the groundbreaking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThe patient investors we have are the reason we were able to do what we did,\u201d says Daniel. \u201cThese are people that were motivated to make an impact. They weren\u2019t people who wanted to make a return and the impact was \u2018a nice to have\u2019. They wanted to make an impact and the return was \u2018a nice to have.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
With a background in finance, it was very interesting for Daniel to see the ways in which different people perceive risk. \u201cWhen we got started we priced our offering based on the pricing of securities with a similar risk profile,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure that the people who ultimately invested in ZooShare would have been swayed by a 0.5% or 1% difference in interest.\u201d says Daniel. \u201cThat\u2019s not to say that they didn\u2019t care about the return, they did, but they cared about the impact first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel believes that if you are doing something environmentally or socially positive and you offer at least an average return, then it really comes down to telling a compelling story.<\/p>\n
The ZooShare Biogas Co-operative was one of the first non-profits in Canada to issue community bonds. As pioneers in the space, they have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with fellow organizations looking to build a project and finance it through community investment.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his experience, Daniel shared three pieces of wisdom for those looking to follow in the co-op\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n
Pad your assumptions so that you don\u2019t have to go back to the drawing board and find more funding. Be frugal and diligent with the money you have in pocket. Having some wiggle room will give you the flexibility to make good decisions.<\/p>\n
My approach was always to be hopeful and optimistic, but also as forthcoming and transparent as possible. I think investors appreciate and respect that.<\/p>\n
When we got started, I really felt that we needed to have the money in hand to prove that we were serious to the other stakeholders we were negotiating with. The problem was that once it was in the bank, we were paying interest on it and as the delays piled up, so did the interest costs. You don\u2019t want to be paying for capital that you aren\u2019t using.<\/p>\n
From the very start, one of the main drivers behind this project was to leverage it as an educational asset. It is one of the reasons that Daniel selected the Toronto Zoo as the site for the digester. \u201cOur hope with this project is not just to process waste and generate power, but also to introduce people to biogas,\u201d says Daniel. The co-op is actively working with the Zoo, Parks Canada and a renewable energy education charity called Relay Education<\/a> to make this a reality.<\/p>\n Expansion could be a likely next step for ZooShare. In bioenergy, Daniel explains, economies of scale are very much at play. The co-op could conceivably build another digester tank, take more waste and generate more gas. \u201cThere is strong demand for renewable natural gas (or RNG), to be sold as gas, rather than used to generate electricity. We are actively exploring this market,\u201d says Daniel.<\/p>\n Daniel stands next to the completed biogas digester. Photo Credit: Dan Pearce.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While Covid-19 may have thrown a wrench in their plans, ZooShare still intends to find a way to celebrate the launch of the facility. They will be releasing a video about the project next month, and hope to host an open house in the fall so that the public can tour the facility.<\/p>\n Stay tuned to the ZooShare\u2019s lettre d'information<\/a> et social media<\/a> to stay up to date on what they have planned!<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":804,"template":"","format":[23],"topic":[48,49],"class_list":["post-801","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","story_format-story","story_topic-client-stories","story_topic-success-story"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/Daniel-Biogas-Plant-May-2021_Credit_Dan-Pearce_Metroland.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
A time to celebrate the accomplishments of Zooshare<\/h3>\n