TROY — From their humble beginnings creating their biodegradable mushroom-based material under their beds, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alums Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer have developed a company that’s now garnering major attention throughout the shipping industry.

With their product EcoCradle, a biodegradable packaging material made from agricultural by-products, Ecovative Design has landed a contract with Steelcase, one of the largest manufacturers of office furniture and related materials.

“We’re really a replacement for Styrofoam,” said Bayer.

EcoCradle is believed to be the only treeless, biodegradable shipping material that can be molded into as many shapes as polystyrene, meaning it can protect objects of any size or weight. Testing has found the material to be safe even for those with fungal allergies as it contains no spores.

EcoCradle is made of agricultural byproducts and mushroom roots; its composition is based on what’s regionally available. For instance, in the Midwest, they might use rice hulls or cotton burrs from the South to generate the shipping material, which provides the same cushioning strength and protection as a petrochemical-based material like Styrofoam. EcoCradle requires very little energy to produce because it is grown, not manufactured, a process that takes about five days. Its creation process not only uses approximately one-tenth the amount of energy used to make traditional synthetic materials, but it’s also completely compostable — the material can return nutrients to the soil within 30-45 days.

GREEN ISLAND —Instead of the traditional anniversary gifts of tin or aluminum, the Green Island Power Authority (GIPA) hopes to celebrate its 10th anniversary this year by eventually installing four new turbines at the 88-year-old Hudson River facility originally built by Henry Ford.

The plant back then prompted economic development around the site and around the area. The same can be said about the facility now.

CASE Window and Door, for example, was interested in moving from their Stockade building in Schenectady to Green Island in large part due to the power savings, said Russell Brooks, a partner with the business which manufactures custom-made windows and doors made out of wood and steel.

The operation has grown from a dream that Brooks and business partner Gerhard Loeffel had in the early 1990s. Both of their families had been in this type of business for three-generations.

Since starting CASE in 1993 in Schenectady, their business has expanded from three people to about 25 employees. And there are plans for the business, which grosses about $2 million a year, to erect a 27,000 square foot addition. This expansion will also include hiring an additional unknown number of employees, Brooks said.

GREEN ISLAND — As he stands in front of the Green Island liftbridge controls inside one of the structure’s four stainless steel 1,200 foot towers, George Federoff gives a new meaning to the phrase “it’s lonely at the top.”

“Not many people wanted this job,” said the resident of Surprise in Greene County who has worked at the bridge as the chief lock operator for about a decade. “You never get to talk with boaters and you are by yourself most days.”

The state Department of Transportation handles maintenance of the road that connects Green Island with Troy, but the bridge is run by the state’s Canal Corp. The facility, however, differs vastly from the other canal sites.

Federoff pointed out that the infrastructure of the 1981 bridge is much newer than the canals, which sometimes have mechanisms going back to around the turn of the 20th century.

“Some of the other people in the Canal Corporation are used to working with older devices, so they think they won’t feel comfortable here,” he explained.

But the bridge mechanics are no less of a marvel than the canals’ locks.

GREEN ISLAND — The Immaculate Heart of Mary parish announced this past weekend that their consolidation plan will include closing St. Joseph’s Catholic Church at the end of August.

Then, in October, the parish plans to decide on closing either St. Brigid’s or St. Patrick’s in Watervliet. Whichever one is not closed will be the home for the parish until the Immaculate Conception on Seventh Avenue in Watervliet is renovated and prepared for approximately 400 parishioners.

Though the community had known these closures would be coming since the parish officials announced in March that the Catholic churches would merge into Immaculate Conception, the announcement still hit many hard.

“It’s a crying shame,” said Frank LaCosse who has attended St. Joseph’s for about 57 years. Originally from Watervliet, he has been a greeter at the George Street church for more than a dozen years and has a long family history at the church since he was married there, and his two children were married there. His two kids, three grandkids and one grandchild were also baptized there.

“Life centered around the church for so long. It means a lot to us since we have a lot of memories there,” he said.

At the time of the announcement in March, the parish’s building committee said they hoped to have the Immaculate Conception ready before the next heating season since the parish pays about $120,000 annually for heat.

GREEN ISLAND — It’s not every day that a firefighter has to rescue someone from a burning building, and Assistant Chief Matt Lansing and Firefighter Ryan Bouchey would like to keep it that way.

The two Green Island Fire Department firefighters were honored Friday with the Liberty Mutual Firemark Award, given to emergency service personnel who best represent their communities through courageous acts. They demonstrated this courage during the recent Good Friday fire on Hudson Avenue which almost claimed the life of Danny Dingley III, who recently turned 7-years-old.

The fact that Dingley was able to have his last birthday was in large part due to Lansing and Bouchey who searched the second-floor apartment and found the boy in his bedroom.

“He was half on his bed and half hanging off. He did not look good, but our main priority was to get him out of the hazardous situation,” said Lansing, an 11-year veteran with the fire department. “Ryan [Bouchey] was right there with me, crawling through the house trying to locate him.”

Soon after the fire was put out, the firefighters’ job may have been done but their mind was still thinking about the little boy. A severely burned Dingley was in the intensive care unit at the University Medical Center in Syracuse for weeks.