2nd Green Revolution

“My friends in the business world keep telling me that Washington can help on two fronts: by investing in green research, offering tax incentives and passing cap-and-trade legislation; and by setting and enforcing tough standards to ensure that companies with cheap, dirty standards don’t have a competitive advantage over those businesses protecting the environment. As for the rest of us, we should get over the misimpression that American business cares only about immediate profits, and we should reward companies that work to keep the planet healthy.”

- Jared Diamond, a professor of geography at the University of California at Los Angeles, is the author of “Guns, Germs and Steel” and “Collapse.”

[Quote Source: New York Times]

[Image Source]

Yesterday KUNC, National Public Radio’s Northern Colorado affiliate reported that the clean energy economy had created 17,000 green jobs. According to GreenBiz.com

Venture capital is flowing into Colorado for green startups that see promise in the smart grid, energy storage and other clean tech technologies. “In 2008, we had $458 million of venture capital investments in Colorado. It’s just astounding,” Colorado Climate Change Coordinator Alice Madden said, noting that such investments have helped create 1,700 clean tech businesses in Colorado that provide 17,000 jobs.

The Colorado Governor’s Energy Office recently commissioned a green jobs report along with the Green Jobs Working Group (GJWG) and the American Solar Energy Society. The findings calculated that Read the rest of this entry »

The following article is by Alison Hopcroft,a sustainability and carbon management consultant who works for Fluid Market Strategies in Portland, Oregon. Alison is leading a free webinar on carbon management this Tuesday, March 2nd at 12pm EST.

Despite the fact that hope for meaningful climate legislation has all but completely disappeared for this session of Congress, climate regulation will be arriving at some point in the near future. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the avenue for this regulation, and although many industry groups and a group of senators are challenging the EPA’s Endangerment Finding released last December advocating for a slower phase-in of regulations with higher reporting thresholds, the EPA’s Final Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule is still in effect (Read more about these challenges in the New York Times and the Washington Post)

Regulation means that there will be an increased need for professionals who can quantify and verify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Quantification is the accounting of all of an organization’s emissions, otherwise known as developing a GHG inventory. Verification is essentially an audit (the act of verifying that the quantification was performed accurately) and follows the reporting protocols and meets reporting standards. Read the rest of this entry »

Green energy start-ups often promise revolutionary technology in going after the Holy Grail of clean, cheap, efficient, and abundant energy only to disappoint in the end. What makes Bloom Energy and the claims that they make any different? Well, perhaps nothing. But perhaps they will back up their talk when a mysterious countdown on their homepage is explained on Wednesday. Featured recently on 60 Minutes, the company is the product of a foray into business by former NASA engineer KR Sridhar. The origin of the technology goes back to a project to produce oxygen for astronauts on Mars. Once that program was scrapped by NASA, Sridhar reversed his design to make a fuel cell that uses oxygen and fuel to produce electricity. Read the rest of this entry »

The household cleaning product industry has given consumers a way to clean just about every type of stain, spill, mold, dirt, and blemish that there is. Many of them work as advertised, resulting in clean shower doors, mold free tile, spotless ovens and sparkling living spaces. The drawback to all this is that many of the most effective cleaners are either toxic, malodorous, and/or environmentally unfriendly. Ecodiscoveries, co-founded in 2007 by Emory University alumnus David Schurer, is aiming to dispel the stereotype that green cleaning products don’t work as well as more stringent solutions. The company promises that “safe has an effective side”. It currently sells five plant based and three enzyme based cleaners that are made for cleaning glass, kitchens, and baths using “all-natural substances to eliminate dirt and grime without toxic chemicals, fragrances, or dyes.”

In addition, Read the rest of this entry »

For those interested in learning more about the burgeoning field of carbon management, on March 2nd from 9am-10am PST(Noon EST), Fluid Market Strategies is hosting a webinar on the topic. Specifically, the event will “look at future regulations and why organizations must assess the carbon emissions in their operations, products, services and supply chain to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, increase sales and gain a competitive edge.” This could be informative for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and any organization that is interested in reducing costs. Fluid is a “privately held for-profit S-Corporation…founded in 2005 as a marketing and program management firm.” The company focuses on projects with an environmental or social benefit, specializing in energy efficiency and conservation.

We’ve been in contact with the event’s host and will provide more details next week.

- Justin Manger

The world's largest lithium reserves are under the salt flats in Uyuni, Bolivia.

There’s no shortage of discussion about what the United States should do to wean itself off of oil. Such heavy dependence on one main fuel source to power our transportation systems (and thus keeping our economy humming) means the U.S. is vulnerable to the unpredictable gyrations of oil and gas prices. Aside from those concerns, security risks and political considerations from having to deal with OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)  and many less than democratic countries are often the cause of much strife. Last but not least are the environmental concerns from relying on a petroleum based economy. Electrification of the transportation sector has been hailed as one of the solutions to our current oil dependence. By switching to electric vehicles, it is argued, we can avoid many of the problems mentioned above. The need for a reliable and renewable electricity source other than coal to charge those cars is one major concern. The batteries needed to power our electric vehicles is another. Those batteries need lithium, and lithium is not so equitably dispersed around the world.  Is there a chance that there will one day be protests against “Big Lithium” or some other mineral instead of big oil? Here are a few facts about lithium today, taken from work by the Electrification Coaltion: Read the rest of this entry »

In finance, a good rule of thumb for managing a budget and staying out of debt is “Don’t spend more money than you make.” This same simple premise can also be applied to energy management. Take homes, for example. With efficiency gains, energy conservation, and home energy production through solar power, geothermal power (see one homeowner’s perspective) and other types of renewable energy, it is becoming possible to create or retrofit a home to be energy neutral. ZETA Communities is designing houses that don’t use more energy than they make. Partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy, ZETA’s zero energy homes

provide one of the first nationally scalable solutions to these unsustainable environmental impacts. Using a whole-systems design approach, high performance materials, and an innovative mechanical core, ZETA homes require 40%-60% less energy overall and 65% less energy for heating, cooling, and hot water than a comparable structure (based on data published by ZETA’s partner: U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America program). To achieve net zero energy, ZETA homes use grid-tied photovoltaic systems and other clean energy sources.

The Wall Street Journal has an interactive feature that shows how ZETA’s design features listed below can allow homes to produce as much energy as they consume and create a healthier environment for their inhabitants. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ll be featuring “Green IQ Tests” all this week as a way to mark the climate change negotiations in Denmark. Regardless of the outcome of the conference, the second green revolution is well underway among consumers and businesses.  Here are another couple of questions from the Wall Street Journal’s Green IQ Quiz to test your knowledge.

Just how does the U.S. keep the lights on? Match the share of electricity generated this year to the fuel source:

A. Coal
B. Nuclear power
C. Natural gas
D. Hydroelectric
E. Other renewables

1. 3.4%
2. 22%
3. 45%
4. 21%
5. 7.4% Read the rest of this entry »

The debate over whether global warming/climate change is happening is really kind of moot. Some say it’s happening. Some say it isn’t. Regardless of who is eventually found to be right, the larger international community has decided to use climate change as a rallying point to get consensus, institute agreements, and take action to change the way we produce, distribute, and consume energy.

Here at home, irrespective of the U.S. federal government, there are numerous organizations – including powerful ones like the Clinton Foundation and USCAP - that are influencing policy, legislation, and business. They will use climate change to their advantage even if they don’t necessarily believe in it or even if it really isn’t happening. It’s really beside the point. Local and state governments, the military, homeowners, schools, consumers and businesses are taking action to shift to a new energy paradigm, regardless. Money, both saving and making it, is an awesome motivator; so is increased security and more self-reliance by using a variety of renewable local energy sources. And a clean environment is not bad, either.

“Globalization” is forcing businesses to create, innovate, compete, and save like never before: Read the rest of this entry »