Our Impact

Over the past decade we have coordinated more than 20 national and international workshops – in collaboration with prominent academic, industry, government and NGO partners – on the production and use of biomethane (aka RNG) made from organic waste feedstocks.

Since 2009, when EV began exploring opportunities to advance the organic waste-to-fuel strategy, the number of projects producing biomethane in the US has grown from a few dozen to more than 250. The number of heavy-duty buses and trucks powered by renewable, clean-burning and low-carbon RNG fuel has grown from a few hundred to more than 50,000. NYC now has a fueling station that carries exclusively biomethane to power medium and heavy-duty trucks, and the MTA – North America’s largest transportation network – is using biomethane to fuel roughly 700 of its buses.

In 2022, more than 350 million gallons of high-carbon diesel fuel (up from 20 million gallons in 2013) were displaced by RNG, eliminating over 2.5 million tons of CO2 emissions. Moreover, the RNG industry has created more than 10,000 jobs and attracted investment of close to $10 billion during the past decade.

EV continues to be a go-to resource for project analyses and case studies detailing the various RNG projects in the US. We’ve co-authored two biomethane case studies with the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). We’ve also worked with ANL annually since 2016 to maintain a comprehensive database of RNG-production facilities around the country.

In 2019, Energy Vision worked closely with the Colorado Energy Office to develop a statewide assessment of the potential for RNG to be produced and used in the state’s transportation sector. In 2017 we prepared a comparative economic analysis of biomethane, including production potential and procurement opportunities for The Port of Seattle, which has committed to being the “greenest” port in America by 2025.

Among our various publications, EV released Food Waste Erased, a report that gives an overview of various public and private-sector initiatives for reducing food waste at various levels, from individual best practices to international policy, and using inedible food waste to produce biogas fuel and compost.

In 2018, EV released Ending the Diesel Era a report that presents evidence showing why it is crucial for NYC to eliminate heavy-duty vehicles and adopt sustainable alternatives.

Every city, town and rural community around the world generates organic waste that must be managed. Our expertise has afforded us with opportunities to participate in events held by C40 Cities and USAID, the latter of which had EV leading a tour of American biogas facilities for South African municipal officials, and then taking a delegation of American industry experts to a conference in South Africa. In 2015, through the US EPA, we addressed the topic of food waste collection and recycling at a three-day solid-waste conference in Tunisia that was attended by representatives of nine Middle Eastern and North African countries.

We frequently submit written and/or oral testimony at the city, state and federal levels in support of strategies and solutions that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve public health and provide opportunities in the green economy.

Because of the growing need to establish a transformative approach to address the threat of climate change at the micro- and macro-scale, Energy Vision has begun to participate in hyper-local sustainability projects that can be initiated, owned and operated at the community level (housing developments, schools, etc.). Toward this end, we are currently pursuing several “micro” anaerobic digester projects in NYC.

Energy Vision teaches students about the various dimensions of food waste, including the inedible portion that cannot be redistributed. We adhere to the U.S. EPA’s Food Waste Hierarchy and international goal to reduce the amount of wasted food 50% by 2030. For the inedible food that cannot be consumed, we are committed to advancing the beneficial use(s) of the resource through composting and anaerobic digestion.