The money will be distributed to Verenium over the next 18 months, with a likelihood of further investment and cooperation beyond that point. Under the agreement, BP will have broad access to Verenium’s research, production facilities, and technology.

Although relatively late to the fray, BP thinks this investment gives them the “most advanced technology for transforming [cellulosic material] to biofuels,” as Sue Ellerbusch, president of BP Biofuels North America said.

Verenium claims to have the edge in cellulosic ethanol production through genetic engineering of the microbes required to turn the cellulosic material (switchgrass, wood chips, sugarcane bagasse, miscanthus) into ethanol.

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Although they have yet to disclose the location of the new tower manufacturing facility, it would be situated to complement the company’s fist North American blade manufacturing plant, which recently opened its doors in Windsor, Colorado.

For the tower plant, the company will need a large parcel of land served by freight rail, a combination that Northern Colorado can provide at several locations, including the Windsor location, where construction proceeds on phase two of the blade plant. According to the Northern Colorado Business Review, more than 1,000 new jobs could result from further expansion of Vestas’ manufacturing presence.

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One of the primary imperatives for being an environmentally conscious consumer is to vote with your dollars - support companies that have a positive impact on society and the environment by purchasing their products and services. In the minds of many, that concept is easy to apply to the day-to-day stuff we buy at the grocery store or retail outlets. But some folks forget that our longer term investments can speak just as loudly.

Enter Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). SRI takes into account the impact that companies have on society and the planet, and recognizes that we can factor these concerns into our investment choices. Now our decisions as investors, which used to be determined solely on corporate financial performance – perhaps based on short-term and short-sighted goals – can now be based on the whole of a company’s standing, including their impact on the environment.

Once only a small piece of the total investment market, SRI now represents $2.71 trillion, more than 10% of all investments. That figure is up from $639 billion in 1995, an increase of more than 300%. As SRI has matured, green investing specifically has taken much of the limelight - as demand for clean technology, alternative and renewable energy, green building and other environmentally driven businesses rise, so does the desire to invest in them.

With this growth, opportunities for us as individuals to get into green investing and SRI abound. There are the usual suspects like stocks and bonds, mutual funds and venture capital. For example, dozens of mutual funds exist for investors looking to put their money where their mouth is, and support companies who share their values. And many of these funds focus on green companies, with large numbers of them joining the ranks within the last year or two.

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The same thing will happen if the renewable energy tax credits expire

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From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: What tax or other government incentives are there out there for buying green—for individuals as well as businesses?                             — Sarah Rafferty, New York, NY

There has never been a better time than now to tap into a laundry list of tax rebates and other financial incentives designed to encourage individuals and businesses to go the greener mile. At the federal level in the U.S., individuals can reap the rewards of no less than eight different financial incentives ranging from tax credits and home loans for replacing windows and installing insulation around the house to tax rebates for purchasing a hybrid car or hooking up a solar hot water heater.

Besides these federal incentives, nearly every U.S. state has additional state or local incentives available. Many require utilities to rebate consumers who save electricity. Some utilities even offer “net metering,” whereby consumers who generate some of their power through rooftop solar panels or other technologies can sell electricity back to the utility, thus reducing or zeroing out their electric bill—even earning money.

Many financial incentives are in place for businesses, as well. At the federal level, examples include an energy-efficient commercial buildings tax deduction, a business energy reduction tax credit, an energy-efficient appliance tax credit for manufacturers, and a new energy-efficient tax credit for green-savvy builders.

At the state level, many are eager to attract renewable energy companies to their region, and offer tax breaks to get them there. Washington State, for example, charges no sales tax on renewable energy equipment produced or sold there. And some forward-thinking cities are beginning to offer “density bonuses” and green building incentives to developers and builders to encourage sustainable land use.

The best place to look for what’s available is to steer your web browser to the free online Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE), a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility and federal incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. DSIRE is a federally funded project of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, whose membership includes state and local government agencies, national laboratories, renewable energy companies and advocacy groups.

In Canada, the Office of Energy Efficiency at Natural Resources Canada offers a slate of federal grants and incentives under its ecoENERGY Retrofit program to homeowners, businesses, large industries and public institutions to help them invest in energy- and pollution-saving upgrades. The agency also administers the High Efficiency Home Heating System Cost Relief program, which will contribute up to $300 to homeowners who upgrade their old oil or gas furnace or boiler to a new high-efficiency model. And low-income households might qualify for additional federal financial assistance for energy retrofits. Another Canadian program, the Vehicle Efficiency Incentive (VEI) rewards those who buy fuel-efficient cars or trucks with rebates of up to $2,000 each. Beyond these federal programs, selected provincial and municipal entities across Canada also offer incentives to those looking to save energy and the environment.

CONTACTS: Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE), www.dsireusa.org; Natural Resources Canada ecoEnergy Retrofit Program, www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/corporate/incentives.cfm.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

Enthusiastically, he explained how many cars the parking lot could hold, the costing of renting an additional adjoining unit (for when my business becomes so successful that I need more space, obviously!) and the malls proximity to various major highways. To him, these were all major selling points for any potential business owner. To me, they were all reasons to look for another financial advisor.

For eco-entrepreneurs, it is important to question many of the ‘quick solutions’ offered by various industry professionals, The result of doing so may be larger fiscal investments, longer-term commitments and temporarily thin profit margins, but the pay-offs can be substantial.

Often times, when sticking to conventional notions of what makes a business successful, an entrepreneur finds themselves at the mercy of the trends. Just because a certain suburb is the hottest market around today, does not mean its subsequent strip-malls will be at all profitable in five years. Another downside of setting up shop in places between places (i.e.: the bi-product of sprawl) is that you can be subjected to fluctuating or over inflated rent. In reality, this can mean that you are financing a building or space you may never have ownership over while, at the same time, substantially decreasing your margin of profit.

A good way to think outside of conventional conception of business is to consider the tenets of New Urbanism when developing your business plan. New Urbanism is a great way to not only solidify your new business as sustainable, but to better ensure its longevity. New Urbanism is an urban planning and design movement that began in the mid-1980s. While many American cities were dealing with the aftermath of decades of large-scale sprawl, New Urbanism offered remedies for depleted populations, unused urban space and stagnate real estate markets. With the goal of taking old infrastructure and retrofitting it to incorporate more useable cities, New Urbanism can be seen as an attempt to recycle an entire city, making it a more enjoyable (and sustainable!) place in the process.

New Urbanism has a lot to offer eco-entrepreneurs. First of all, it can act as a checklist of things to look for in a new location. Is the city walkable? Is there adequate public transportation available? What is the housing situation? Is there enough ‘mixed use spaces’ in the area you are looking to invest in? The end goal of New Urbanism is to create cities with a true sense of place, cities that have all the amenities within walking distance, and places where people are relatively connected.

Another way in which New Urbanism can be seen as a tool to any eco-entrepreneur is in its focus upon the revitalization of areas and neighborhoods that have lost popularity, or density. By encouraging people to re-inhabit places that were previously vacant, or run-down, New Urbanism is working to not only recycle existing buildings and infrastructure, but to increase the long-term profit of small-businesses.

For small business the financial advantages of New Urbanism is two fold: On the most basic level, New Urbanism can act as a catalyst for urban growth. By investing early in such a place a small businesses can reap the benefits of increased property value over time. This phenomenon is referred to as Sustainable Prosperity.

As explained Richard Florida’s book, The Rise of the Creative Class, when people re-inhabit a place that was once considered ramshackle and put forth the effort to make it a desirable place to live, more people will follow suit and thus repopulate the area. As more people move to this newly improved city, corporations will soon follow, as there exists an ample employment base. The financial contributions of these corporations to both the community and the tax base serve to further economic growth. Basically, it is a strategy for economic recovery that focuses on issues pertaining to quality of life.

In ‘big picture’ terms, New Urbanism promotes ownership. While the ownership New Urbanism encourages usually involves purchasing a neglected property and bringing it up to code, the investments this process entails are well worth their price. Ownership is key for small business success, as it frees eco-entrepreneurs from the control of a landlord and all limitations that go along with being a renter.

Although it may seem daunting to take on a large project like renovating a building, the end result is a space that has been retrofitted to fit your exact needs. Further, as an eco-entrepreneur, you have a responsibility to look for more sustainable alternatives to conventional business practices, By rehabbing a building that may been destroyed otherwise, you are making a commitment to sustainability, especially if you employ eco-friendly building practices in the process!

Being an eco-entrepreneur comes with both adversity and rewards. If you keep long-term success in sight, and disregard much of what you thought you knew about short term profit, the struggles will seem more manageable and the rewards more obvious. New Urbanism provides the eco-entrepreneurs of the world with a vision of what their struggles can help actualize.

Whether you just cashed in with a winning lotto number or just have a bit of extra cash lying around, investing can be easily overwhelming and intimidating. If you want to avoid financing companies that sell products such as weapons or oil, there are options which offer more control over the direction of your investments, with Shared Interest playing a vital role in Fair Trade through financial assistance.

In 1984, the first ethical investment funds were introduced in the UK. While concerns about poor performance of ethically-based investments still linger, there has been no correlation discovered between the two. In fact the "performance of ethical funds is just as reliant on good management techniques as that of conventional funds."

Shared Interest is a UK-based co-operative lending society of over 8,400 members which seeks to help finance and support Fair Trade projects. Shared Interest achieves this goal through two avenues: one focused on the developing world; the other on Fair Trade businesses in the developed world. Trade finance is given to producers against both individual orders and through long-term loans to help with business development and expansion. As Shared Interest is supportive of Fair Trade, they understand the limitations faced by producers, such as collateral and credit history, and take such into account when evaluating applicants. On the buyer side, capital is provided to both help new stores acquire initial inventory of Fair Trade items and to assist in bridging the gap between advance payments to producers and subsequent sales. The latter is especially important within the Fair Trade movement as it is the prepayment which allows a direct trade to be successfully established between the retailer and producer.

Shared Interest qualifies companies on individual basis, but typically asks that they be members of Fair Trade groups such as International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT), Fair Trade Federation, or Fair Trade Labelling Organizations (FLO), to ensure Fair Trade practices are being followed. To create an understanding with consumers about the need for Fair Trade, Shared Interest has created the Beekeeper game, which allows you to make the tough decisions faced by poor producers in a "choose your own adventure" setting, and to see where they take you. This drives the point that without Fair Trade and financing opportunities, the producers face choices of bad or worse, jailed in a cycle of poverty frequently exploited by traditional international trade systems. Consumer impact is also achieved through stories about producers and buyers and the success they’ve found with Shared Interest support.

With over $40 million in share capital, Shared Interest is able to support many avenues, making a significant impact upon individual lives and within the Fair Trade movement. While becoming a member is currently limited to residents of the UK, hopefully the success of such companies as Kiva will inspire expansion or others to fill the gap and offer investment opportunities in other developed countries.

Maybe you don’t read the NY Times religiously, but hey…you don’t have to be Warren Buffet to know oil is going up, or that America is in the midst of a corn frenzy. Food prices are rising faster than inflation. All of a sudden people are trading in their SUV’s for hybrids and Wal-Mart is going solar. Home Depot even just slapped it’s new "Eco-Option" labels on 60,000 of their products…and now they sell organic worm poop? Boy, times have changed.

The Ripple Effect

The bottom line is that you don’t have to be a genius to know that the market is shifting. All you have to do is look at your grocery bill. The cost for some of the most basic food items has literally skyrocketed over the past year, thanks to our new ethanol obsession and record-breaking corn prices. Cola-Cola is even looking for a corn-syrup alternative. The price of raw milk jumped by 23% and a gallon may even set you back $5 by September. The ethanol demand is not just driving the price of corn up….it’s also having a ripple effect on everything from cotton balls to cornflakes. So, maybe we’ll end up saving a few cents at the pump, but we can all count prices going up for 1300 other consumer products.

How to Start Investing in the Ethanol Rush?

Well, for starters, it’s definitely not with an ethanol producer! These companies are the epitome of volatile and super sensitive to both oil and corn prices. Why? Simply because U.S. ethanol is made from corn, and then transported by rail or truck, which both use oil.

Expensive + Expensive Oil = Skimpy Net Profits…and that doesn’t make a very sexy balance sheet. Then, when some of America’s largest ethanol producers started fetching stock prices lower than their IPO’s, Wall Street started to lose interest, and investors began looking for other ways to profit from America’s ethanol binge. Where exactly are investors looking now? Outside of the "ethanol box", that’s for sure…

4 Ways to Profit from the Ethanol Rush

1) Corn-Related Farm Products

Fertilizer, soil conditioners, agricultural machinery, genetically engineered seeds that can increase crop yields, etc. are gaining popularity with farmers. Because of the stress being put on increasing output, companies that can provide products that will enhance yields while reducing input costs will increase in demand.

Why Now?

Farmers are feelin’ good and making more loot than ever. With pressure to be even more productive, they don’t want just any kind of corn-seed, they want really “special” seeds (AKA: "genetically modified"). In addition, with climate change making weather conditions unpredictable, seeds that grow drought & disease resistant crops will be ideal.

Hot Picks:

Monsanto. They’re the largest corn-seed producer in the world, genetically modified seeds are their specialty and US farmers are flocking to them for supplies. DuPont has some pretty hot kernels too, but they produce all sorts of agricultural products, allowing Monsanto the company of choice for the entire farming sector. More corn to grow = More seeds to plant.

2) Agricultural Machinery

Why Now?

This year, farmers planted 90.5 million acres of corn, the largest crop since WWII. Within just 5 years, we can expect to see ethanol production triple. It’s sure going to take a lot more corn to produce all that ethanol! With more corn to grow, farmers are forced to extend their acreage. With more land to farm, incentive to produce, and farmers making more money per bushel…farmers are demanding more agricultural machinery.

Hot pick:

Deere & Co., the world’s largest maker of farm equipment takes the cake. If you bought this company this time last year, you’re probably one happy clam right now. BusinessWeek is calling them a "Revolution on Wheels" because it’s not just U.S. corn farmers who are scrambling to buy its products, either: farmers in developing countries are demanding Deere quality too. Other farm equipment and agro-processing companies like Agco Corp, CNH Global NV, and Bunge are typically in a position to gain momentum when commodities are hot.

3) Capitalize on Soft Commodities

Why Now?

It’s no mystery corn’s pretty pricey right now. But with the biofuel boom, oil prices high, and 1.4 billion people in China that don’t plan to stop eating any time soon, analysts are predicting that prices for a slew of other crops are expected to skyrocket, just like corn. For instance, we can already seen this with sugar. Sure, that sweet goodness seems super cheap right now, but it’s actually at 24-year high. Then, factor in Asia’s rising sweet tooth and the fact that 60% of the world’s ethanol is produced from sugar….and we’ve got one big "sugar high" on our hands. Bottom-line: as we begin divert our food crops to fuel, supplies will decrease, giving way to rising demand for raw materials.

Hot Pick:

The Rogers International Commodity Index is a favorite amongst anyone wanting to benefit from commodities. It’s created and managed by the investment guru, Jim Rogers. The other “edge” that investors like about this this index is that it contains 35 different commodities (weighted according to their importance in international commerce), making it much more diversified than the other indices. Another easy option is to buy "Rogers TRAKRS," which allow investors to gain exposure to agricultural, energy and metal commodities with just one transaction. There’s no minimum, and it’s similar to buying a share on a stock exchange. It’s that easy. More information can be found here.

Other Commodity Index Funds:

• Oppenheimer Real Asset Fund
• PIMCO Commodity Real Return Strategy
• Goldman Sachs Commodities Index
• Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodities Index
• Dow Jones AIG Commodities Index

*You can also buy other ETC’s and ETF’s (“Exchange Traded Funds”) that invest in a particular index. The fees are minuscule, and you can take your investment out at anytime.

4) Profit from the Packaging

The price of raw materials is on the rise, and a way for commercial retailers to cut costs is by using affordable, eco-friendly packaging. Something biodegradable, and made from something ridiculously cheap and NOT petrol-based will help maximize profits. Keep an eye out for anything recycled too.

Why Now?

For starters, commodities like sugar, coffee, soybeans, corn, wheat, oil etc. are all hitting record highs, meaning more expensive grocery bills for consumers. As a result, the efficient, low-cost packaging just became incredibly important.

Hot Pick:

Metabolix (MLBX), the maker of a biodegradable sugar-based plastics has developed over 60 different types of applications for consumer products, agricultural products, and packaging. They also just partnered with ADM, the biggest ethanol producer in the United States. As environmental regulations continue to gain momentum, major corporations will be looking to "green" packaging companies to help increase their profits.

Statement: SRI does not perform as well as traditional investing
Status: Mostly False
Explanation: As more people become of aware of investing responsibly, a lot of naysayers point out that social portfolios and funds have underperformed market indexes over the last few years. This much is mostly true, but it is not that simple. Following the tech bust and subsequent recession, the market enjoyed a cyclical upturn in 2003, which continues to the present day.

In this cycle, as in most early-stage cycles, the stellar performers have been commodities-based companies, extractive companies, heavy industrial companies, and of course, oil companies. Many socially screened portfolios have not participated with these companies because they tend to rely on socially troubling practices. Commodity players (some, not all) are in developing countries paying exploitative wages. Heavy industry pollutes. Oil companies are a root cause of global warming emissions. But, since overall market indexes incorporate these companies, SRI indexes have trailed.

However, with an over-weighting toward technology and health care stocks, SRI portfolios outperformed for seven years prior to the last upturn. Most of the run-up in those cyclical stocks occurred in 2003. So, any study of the matter that does not take multiple cycles into account is just plain incomplete. The best scholarship on the topic, represented by the Social Investment Forum’s Moskowitz Prize, shows that there is no real difference between screened and non-screened performance over the last 25 years. The verdict is that SRI neither underperforms, nor overperforms traditional investing on a financial return basis.

Statement: SRI is more risky.
Status: False
Explanation: Adherents to the Dow Theory claim that by narrowing your universe of stocks through social screening, you increase your risk by decreasing diversification. The problem with that notion is that, by definition, managing a portfolio requires narrowing your universe of stocks. If that is too much work or too expensive, just get an index fund and be done with it.

Statement: Companies do not pay attention to social investors.
Status: Mostly False
Explanation: Skeptics point to alcohol, tobacco, and gambling companies, long the target of social divestment strategies, and show that the social divestment movement has not really made them change their ways. This is probably true. Divestment probably does not work when a socially repugnant enterprise is the core business. In these cases, activists can only hope that they behave more responsibly, such as has happened with cigarette settlements, better labeling, etc.

Social investment activism has been very effective with companies that have repugnant practices in the everyday pursuit of their not-especially-repugnant businesses. For example, Nike (NYSE:NKE) was once shamed as a pariah of sweat shop labor. Today, that company is one of the most progressive companies on the issue. Social investors recently persuaded large publicly traded financial companies such as Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) to pledge to clean up their project financing guidelines. I could go on and on. If the company's core business is not socially IRRESPONSIBLE in and of itself, SRI can have a huge effect.

Statement: National divestment campaigns do not work
Status: Jury is still out
Explanation: Social investors like to take credit for forcing companies to divest from Apartheid-era South Africa. The economic isolation was one reason that the white leadership eventually caved. I, personally, think that SRI contributed to Apartheid’s downfall, but realize that there were several other issues that contributed as well. Alas, this is a subject for another post, or even another Green Options blogger.

However, anecdotally at least, one can look at occasions of forced divestment through government regulation to see how this works. Companies have been forced to divest from countries with oppressive political regimes for decades. Forced divestment from Cuba, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, the former USSR, and its allies frankly has a mixed record. Economic isolation definitely caused some communist regimes to crumble. In other cases (Cuba, Libya, Iran), sanctions have not had much effect on destabilizing regimes. And, in others (Iraq, North Korea), it could be argued that sanctions have caused suffering only among the population while actually strengthening the targeted regimes. Having an enemy to rally against while at the same time exploiting black markets created by sanctions helped Saddam hold on to power, and is probably doing the same for Kim Jong Il.

The current campaign to divest from Sudan is a current hot-button issue. In my opinion, this is a case where national divestment could work. Oil revenues are giving the genocidal government its power. Foreign oil companies make those revenues possible. Make no mistake. The ethnic cleansing going on Darfur is all about claiming oil-rich land. If it were just about claiming political power (as in Cuba, or North Korea), I would be more skeptical that financial investors could change the minds of maniacs.

Mark Brandon is the founder of First Sustainable, a Registered Investment Advisory catering to socially responsible investors. His weekly column appears in Green Options on Mondays.