Green Options

For years, green activists were “anti-technology”, claiming that technological advances were largely responsible for the polluted state of Mother Earth. This was a fair claim, as yesterday’s technologies only looked at the bottom line, and not the resulting mess. In today’s reality, the words “green” and “technology” no longer constitute an oxymoron, as technologists have turned their attention to cleaning up the mess previous generations have made.

Pittsburgh’s plans to make itself into a hotbed for solar power and other green technology got a metaphorical fist bump last week with the visit of two cabinet secretaries to announce funding from the federal stimulus package.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $11 million green stimulus funding during their trip. They also toured a welding and heating and air conditioning training facility at Allegheny County Community College, where officials showed off the skills needed for energy efficient projects. Allegheny County  will get $8.1 million, City of Pittsburgh will receive $3.4 million out of a $3.2 billion pot being divvied up around the country.

At first glance, the latest numbers from the Cleantech Group look like terrific news. After all, they conclude that 2008 was a record year for cleantech investments, with venture deals in North America, Europe, Israel, China and India reaching a total of $8.4 billion, up 38 percent from $6.1 billion in 2007.

But most of that money was dealt out in the first three quarters, with investment slowing significantly – as expected – in the fourth quarter.

According to preliminary numbers, venture capitalists in these regions committed $1.7 billion in 99 deals in the fourth quarter, down 35 percent from the third quarter and 4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007. In North America, by far the biggest venture-capital region, fourth-quarter investments totaled $1.14 billion, a decrease of 38 percent from $1.83 billion in the third quarter and of 5.8 percent from $1.21 billion in the last quarter of 2007.

Think of Björk and the Icelandic musician’s bizarre videos, eccentric clothing and eclectic music might spring to mind. Now she’s bringing a new theme to her persona: money.

Reykjavik, Iceland-based Audur Capital is raising money for its second venture-capital fund, named Björk, focused on greentech startups (via Earth2Tech and The New York Times). The singer and Audur jointly established the fund to help turn around Iceland’s economy, which was crushed by the country’s banking collapse in the fall. Audur seeded the fund, expected to close in March, with an investment of 100 million Icelandic kronur (about $816,330).

It’s been quite a year for the cleantech industry, with roller-coaster oil and stock prices, multiyear federal tax credits finally passed after more than a year of narrowly failed attempts, the beginning of a recession and the election of a new president.

“It feels like it’s been three years in one just with all the emotions,” said Michael Butler, CEO of investment bank Cascadia Capital. “A lot of people thought they were having a really good year, then they were hit with the negative economic environment. … So many people are saying ‘let’s just shut down until the end of the year.’”

The United States has good reason to take pride in its recent green technology achievements. A look at world-wide wind energy production alone should give Americans cause to brake into the famous “We’re number one!” chant. However, there are a number of truly remarkable, environmentally-friendly technologies that have so far, at least for the most part, passed the US by.

#1: High-speed trains

America, this is what a train should look like. These streamlined vehicles rocket between destinations at around 190 MPH (300 km/h) in at least eighteen countries outside the US. And they’re getting even faster. This week, Kawasaki made headlines with plans for a new 217 MPH (350 km/h) train in Japan. High-speed trains make long-distance travel fast, comfortable, and more hassle-free than flying. You sit back with a book, a beer, or a sandwich and relax, watching the scenery whiz past. Seriously, what’s a red-blooded nation like the US doing without a form of transportation that actually encourages beer drinking?

Although there is not currently a nation-wide high-speed train system in the US, things are looking up. In 2000, Amtrak opened the Acela Express, a 150 MPH (240 km/h) train serving Boston and Washington DC. More exciting yet, Californians will get to vote this November on whether to build a 220 MPH high-speed train connecting Sacramento and San Francisco in the north with Los Angeles and San Diego in the South.

Although school may be the farthest thing from your children’s mind this summer, your representatives in Congress are thinking about it.  The truth is that many US schools are in dire need of repair, and most of them are very energy inefficient. My children’s school still has asbestos tiles in some rooms, the roof is poorly insulated, and the heaters/AC are power suckers.  If the H.R. 3021: 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act passes, this may change.

The Green Schools Act passed the House of Representatives last month by a vote of 250 to 164 and is now in the Senate. If passed into law, this bill would provide funding to make school facilities safe, healthy, energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and technologically up-to-date. U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA), a member of the Education and Labor Committee explained:

The condition of our nation’s school facilities can have an immense impact on the ability of our children to learn and the quality of education they receive.  By improving our schools and making upgrades using green technology, this legislation will create new jobs and help improve student health, learning ability, and productivity.

When I spoke with Nancy Cronin Edwards last week, she had just returned from TechConnect Summit in Boston. Cronin Edwards is a principal in ipCapital Group, a consulting firm specializing in intellectual property strategy, and had been speaking at the conference and was excited, but also concerned about growth in clean tech.

It wasn’t the growth which caused her concern; it was the viability of many of the companies crowding the field. While many of those flocking into the realm of clean tech are serial entrepreneurs with the successes (and failures) that lead to carefully crafted business plans, many are also new to entrepreneurship and in Cronin Edward’s opinion may overlook the importance of integrating intellectual property into overall strategy.

Early stage companies need to selectively consider what they choose to protect with a patent. A number of them haven’t considered that part of their strategy. She warned.

Over the past few years, Cronin Edwards has seen a tremendous growth in interest in the area of green technology, but warns that there are pitfalls for ecopreneurs. She explains that as there is a lot of media play on green washing, companies that divert into the green area, if going green is not part of their core strategy can run into trouble. Going green must be consistent with a firm’s business model or going green will end up being disruptive.