The highlights from last month include:

• ZooShare Groundbreaking ceremony
• Executed Connection Cost Agreement with Toronto Hydro
• Continued progress in our pursuit of additional feedstock, with positive movement on 2 different fronts, and can see a path to executing the appropriate agreements.
• Continued progress in our negotiations to sign a binding turnkey design/build/finance contract

Bond Sales

As of May 9th, we had sold $433,600 of the 5% bonds, which are currently sitting in an escrow account awaiting the completion of construction.

If you would like to invest in the latest bond offering, please fill out the form here (if you you a ZooShare member, make sure to check the “Yes, I’ve paid my ZooShare membership fee” box).

We attended a number of events this past month, in addition to leveraging the amazing media attention received at the Groundbreaking Ceremony.  ZooShare was featured on City TV, CP24, Global News, CBC, and Yahoo! Canada, among others – which caused a spike in website traffic, Facebook engagement and bond sales, exactly what we were hoping would happen.  Building off this momentum and continuing to grow our database of potential investors, we hosted a booth at Seedy Saturday in Scarborough, the Green Living Show and the Zoo Earth Day Festival.  We plan on attending a fair number of farmers markets and street festivals around the GTA this summer with the help of students and volunteers to keep the momentum going.

Feedstock

Nothing significant to report on this front other than progress – conversations with waste producers and haulers continued and have been positive in tone, and have also included a couple that control transfer station capacity equipped with de-packaging equipment.  As discussed in the past, this transfer station capacity is key, as we cannot deploy this equipment on site, and almost all available waste is in a package or a bag.  With a contractual relationship with a transfer station owner, we can serve our current partners and/or take on others that can provide our needs.  We are heartened that all of these conversations include the counter-party highlighting our terrific location, which continues to get more valuable as fuel costs increase and we get closer to a potential ban on organics going to landfills.  Without being able to disclose the details, we see a path towards signing the feedstock supply contracts we need for a sufficient term to secure long term project financing.

Design and Construction

As previously communicated, the 30% project design and drawings have been completed and building permit applications have been submitted to the respective authorities.  We have also met with and received comments from the City, the Zoo and TRCA about the designs, and the appropriate responses have been prepared.   The turnkey contract continues to be our primary focus, but disappointingly, it is not yet ready for signing.  We continue to work on it, and are confident that this issue will be resolved in the coming weeks, without causing significant delays to our construction schedule.