Gliocladium roseum. Say it three times fast.

Major businesses and universities are racing on a variety of research fronts to see who can harness fuels from natural sources cost-effectively, and Gary Strobel at Montana State University may have found a unique two-pronged solution in the form of a small mushroom.

G. roseum potentially changing the world in a petri dish.

Nicknamed “superfungus,” this mushroom, found on the Ulmo trees in Patagonia, Gliocadium roseum has been discovered as potential source of bio fuel by accident in an experiment originally designed to test how different fungi responded to antibiotics. Researchers were surprised to find G.roseum had not only survived, but thrived after exposure where every other fungi was dying. Naturally absorbing carbon dioxide? Prong one check.

The unusual benefit to G. roseum is not in the input, but what it puts out: diesel. Or something very close to it, dubbed “mycodiesel.”

This is where the fungus’s potential lies. In eliminating many of the additional steps typically needed to harness fuel from plants like corn, G. roseum is appearing to already be cost-effective. Scientist’s ability to synthesis the benefit parts of the mushroom in the lab also nip fears of new found business interests in the rain forest in the bud.

Most biofuels, even when very efficiently harnessed, are not a magic bullet to the growing energy crisis. Discounting often-harmful hydrocarbons as a byproduct, biofuels in a perfect world still produce carbon dioxide. G. roseum, by directly taking in carbon dioxide and excreting mycodiesel, is like few other organisms that are coming to be seen as potential golden eggs. That produce diesel gas.

And if that weren’t enough, secondary rounds of research are revealing that the mushroom also produces potent antibiotics as a byproduct.

As G. roseum is moved into the lab and researchers begin testing it to the demands of a level of fuel output useful to our needs, it is yet to be determined if “Superfungus” will live up to its name.

You may have seen the movie “Fast Food Nation.” You may have read the books An Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Now playing, but probably not in your local theater, is “Food Inc.”, a movie about the food industry and the way our grocery stores are supplied. It has great insight and is a worthy reminder about why we should buy local and organic.

Even the term “locavore” has officially been added to Webster’s dictionary. Let’s take all of this knowledge, media, and news and apply it. Eat locally, and until you get to the grocery store, check out the trailer below.

In the five plus years that 2rw has been developing and running energy awareness programs, in one format or another, we have learned a variety of lessons that help us to make our efforts more successful.

We work to get our clients and their people to adopt the lifestyle — because that is in fact what we are trying to establish — of energy and water efficiency.  Making changes based on past experiences, developing new ideas, and even tweaking details has helped us achieve that goal more effectively.

While we do want to stay in business (shameless plug — call us!), we realize there is a need to share our knowledge with others to help the greater good.  That’s why we’re here.  We want to help you, fellow members of the energy efficiency/behavior change community, to succeed.

I hope that’s why you’re here as well — to learn from our experiences and to share some of your own along the way.  I look forward to the conversations that will follow, the shared knowledge that will grow our programs, and the new strategies that will help us all save energy.