You know you are in trouble when financial investors are the ones asking for independent safety reviews, but that’s exactly what is happening when it comes to BPA and the FDA. It appears investors do have aconscious beyond making profits, and they are concerned about our health. Financial companies have children too, right?
As stimulus funding leads some industry insiders to think of Washington as “the new Wall Street” for green energy, some investment experts say they’re concerned about the government’s new role. “I worry about the government as a dealmaker in this space,” said Tom Bratkovitch, director of LP Capital Advisors, a consulting firm for private-equity investors, at a Thomson Reuters conference in Palo Alto, Calif., this week. “I just don’t know if the government is the best one to make decisions in this space.”
After all, the federal government has supported some technologies that have not panned out, while missing some that have ultimately been successful. The government also has a reputation for moving slowly – though the Department of Energy certainly is trying hard to get stimulus money out as quickly as possible – and the applications for the grants and loan guarantees can be extremely time-consuming.
By Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, a leading U.S. coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Originally published at SolveClimate.
Tom Benson, owner of the World’s Largest Laundromat in Berwyn, Ill., is tired of listening to conservative industry groups’ bluster that climate change legislation is bad for business.
That’s because clean energy saved his.
When Benson bought his business a decade ago, all that hot water helping scrub everything from Speedos to sheets ate up a staggering 25 percent of total monthly revenues. With 153 washers using thousands of gallons of hot water daily, you can only imagine the energy costs. And that’s before factoring in the 148 dryers.So to cut his natural gas costs, Benson installed a solar hot water system on his roof. Three dozen 10-by-4-foot solar panels now produce more than 2,400 gallons of hot water daily, saving him some $25,000 a year.
“Our energy bills could have sunk this business,” says Benson. “Now, they’re a source of pride.”
Image credit: Jack Dempsey and NREL/DOE
Written by Renee Cho and published on May 10, 2009, at SolveClimate.
Green jobs go far beyond the hands-on renewable energy and energy efficiency work that the Obama administration emphasizes with each new project and grant announcement.
To deal with the effects of climate change, jobs will be springing up across the spectrum of research and development, fueled by billions of dollars in Department of Energy grants and scientific funding provided by the economic recovery program and proposed through the Markey-Waxman bill’s National Climate Change Adaptation Program and Fund.
As Energy Secretary Steven Chu likes to say, borrowing from hockey great Wayne Gretzky:
“The United States should skate to where the puck is going to be.”
Fast money and fast movers. These are the phrases that come to mind when entrepreneurs talk about venture capital as a potential source of funding. But what if the flow of funds slowed down…way down?
The Investors’ Circle spring conference attempted to answer that question during a lively breakout session entitled “Slow Money: New Strategies for Investing in Local Food Systems.” Attended by reps from next generation investors such as SJF Ventures, Transformative Capital, and Renewal Partners, the conference blended a business pitch competition, philosophical discussions, an entrepreneur showcase, and community education in an effort to jump start the transition to a sustainable economy. Ecopreneurist writers were out in full force at the conference, with Leah Edwards blogging the “Is Organic the Next Clean Tech?” breakout session and joining in the networking events.
As part of the larger Slow Movement sweeping the cultures of food, travel, cities, and schools, Slow Money proponents seek investments and returns at the pace of sustainable business development. Slow Money panelist Greg Steltenpohl, former CEO of Odwalla and self-confessed “fast money sinner testifying before you,” advocated for the creation of new metaphors for economic growth. In the Slow Money movement, organic phrases replace academic terminology and new financial vehicles arise to form the “compost of the slow money economy.” Investors’ Circle chairman Woody Tasch expressed this transition as a study in contrasts between old and new ways of thinking:
Nearly 50 leading U.S. and European institutional investors managing over $1.75 trillion in assets released a climate change action plan at the United Nations that calls on Congress to introduce national policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% below 1990 levels by 2050. U.S. institutional investors also pledged $10 billion dollars over two years in renewable energy technologies and project development, energy efficiency, green building and clean technologies. The group of investors also wants the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to insist that companies listed in New York and elsewhere disclose their exposure to climate change risk. The plan aims for a 20% reduction in energy used in core land and building investments over a three-year period.
The two largest pension funds in the US, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, with some $246.7 billion under its management, and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, $168.8 billion strong, were both on board with the institutional investor coalition. These two large and incredibly wealthy pension funds tend to be leaders in the institutional investor arena. George McPherson, senior managing director of the DC-based private equity firm Global Environment Fund said he expects other pension funds to create more programs geared towards clean technology over the next year.
After looking forward to it for several months, the Opportunity Green Conference is now just around the corner. To be held November 17 at UCLA, the conference’s organizers are asking a question that seems to be on everyone’s lips: “Is green the new gold?”
The conference will bring together those involved in all aspects of green business, from visionaries and entrepreneurs to executives and investors, all of whom are dedicated to building socially conscious, sustainable, and profitable [...]
New “green” podcast series covers revolutionary companies changing the world using sustainable and clean technologies.
GreenTech.fM, a podcast series with entrepreneur & co-founder of iRent2u.com, Tim McCormack, and renowned green architect Robert Mechielsen, is now available online. So far 3 shows have been published (shows zero, one and two), with new shows to be announced every second Tuesday.
The series focuses on current and future environmentally friendly technologies that have the potential to correct and [...]
Two weeks ago, I wrote about a small sustainable plastic company, Metabolix, Inc. that had caught my attention in the previous months…but something happened that made their stock price jump up 5% in the past 24 hours. What exactly? The Target Corporation recently partnered with Metabolix to make their new gift cards out of sugar. As of today, Target uses them at 128 of it’s stores…a number that’s sure to rise in [...]
I am happy to say that our survey has blasted through the 500 barrier, well on its way to hitting that exciting and elusive 1,000 responses mark! 
This weekend, after Pepperdine university so kindly sent out the survey to a bunch of our old graduating classes, the survey blasted by 500 all the way up to hitting 544 responses. Once again the responses have been great. [...]
Everyone's talking about the potential of green business to reshape the planet, but what does "green" really mean in the business world? If you've talked with any green entrepreneurs lately, or are one yourself, you know that vision and passion are in abundance. The question is how does a green start-up turn personal commitment into sustainable profit?
To find out the answers to these and other key questions, listen in when Linda Feinholz
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