State of Green Business 2008

Joel Makower and his editorial team at GreenBiz.com launched a 64-page report, “State of Green Business 2008,” this morning. Aside from analysis on green business activities in the United States, it features the debut of the GreenBiz Index. And handy for anyone building out their green communications initiatives, it includes dozens of “Editors’ Picks,” lists they’ve compiled of the best books, websites, reports, business initiatives, and other resources.

The GreenBiz Index is a set of 20 indicators of green business progress that Joel and his team will update annually. It measures the following:

• Alt-Fuel Vehicles
• Building Energy Efficiency
• Carbon Intensity
• Carbon Trading
• Carbon Transparency
• Clean-Technology Investments
• Clean-Technology Patents
• Corporate Reporting
• Employee Commuting
• Employee Telecommuting
• Energy Efficiency
• Environmental Management Systems
• E-Waste
• Green Office Space
• Green Power Use
• Packaging Intensity
• Paper Use and Recycling
• Pesticide Use
• Quality of Management
• Toxic Emissions

We’ve been tracking business media coverage for the past two years and one thing that has always surprised me is the lack of coverage in these publications about “how to” green your business. These same business publications have published dozens of articles on how to be a greener consumer, and have reported on green news coming out of businesses… but they’re business publications and CEOs, CSOs, CFOs are all struggling with what they should and shouldn’t be doing. That’s their readership, and business executives want to know more than just the news from other companies, or the sporadic bashing of a few companies for “greenwashing.” For their part, McKinsey, The Economist and the Economist Intelligence Unit have done a good job of addressing the executive audience directly, with real ideas and best practices.

Congrats to Joel, his editorial team and his publisher Pete May for keeping us moving in the right direction.

UPDATE: Check out Joel on CNBC’s Closing Bell.

It’s getting hotter

Anyone who grew up near my childhood home of tropical Rochester, NY can likely relate to the stories my parents would tell about walking to school with 20 foot snow drifts reaching the telephone wires. Well, according to this image I just saw on BusinessWeek’s green blog, they might have been telling the truth. The surface temperature change in the Great Lakes region is profound.  The poles are another story. Not news to most of us, 2007 was the second hottest year on record. Maybe the tropics and Rochester really will meet.

Sustainablity at Davos

Industry heavyweights, political leaders and celebrities gathered in Davos Switzerland this week for the World Economic Forum and one of the primary issues up for discussion was sustainability. Check out this video from Forbes TV which highlights Al Gore, Bono and Bill Gates.

Corporations in attendance included Campbell’s, who Forbes TValso interviewed. Following Davos, will companies in attendance take a stronger stance on sustainability or were they just in for the great company at the event? I’d love to hear your comments.

— Barbara DeConto, Text 100’s Clean Tech Practice

Clean PR’s Week in Review: Jan. 18

Following a week of candidates campaigning in Michigan about challenges facing the U.S. economy and heightened discussion around the possibility of recession as many companies dropped their expected earnings for upcoming quarters, it was refreshing to read that the clean tech industry is continuing to prosper.

The Cleantech Group released numbers this week indicating venture investment in clean tech across North America and Europe increased 40% in 2007 – reaching $5.18 billion in 2007. Red Herring reports the high numbers are attributed to “an unexpectedly strong fourth quarter despite growing uncertainty in the global economy.”

The number of venture funding announcements in the first few weeks of 2008 suggests growth in clean tech will continue in 2008. TheDailyGreen writes the continuing rise of clean tech companies will be instrumental in battling increasing unemployment, wages dropping and housing troubles. Something especially relevant in clean tech cities like San Francisco and Austin, where we’re already seeing job creation and new opportunities.

Outside of investment news, industry leaders – Google, Dell, HP, IBM, Sony, Nokia and Ptiney Bowes  – made green headlines this week. Interestingly, six out the seven mentioned above made announcements that involve developing industry standards.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which involves 11 corporations including HP and Dell and hundreds of investors, is developing a standard method to gather carbon-emissions information from suppliers. The hope is that suppliers can more easily provide carbon emissions details to customers by following one standard rather than juggling requests in various forms.

Additionally, IBM, Sony, Nokia and Pitney Bowes announced an effort called Eco-Patent Commons, which will make available rights to environmentally friendly technologies. Twenty-seven of the first 31 patents are being contributed by IBM. It’s off to a good start – we’ll watch to see how this programs grows in the coming year and if more companies join on to support the cause.

— Barbara DeConto, Text 100 Clean Tech Practice

Clean PR Week in Review: Jan. 11

As most of us in the tech world are aware, the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show took place in Vegas this week. The trend of “going green” at conferences was certainly evident with numerous companies unveiling energy efficient products aimed at consumers.

CNN.com aired an interesting piece with a CES rep demoing various green products on display such as home energy meters and USB drives that can fully charge your blackberry in 20 minutes. NPR took a look a the news as well in this morning’s show and posed some smart questions about what it actually means to be green.

HP announced plans to reduce the energy consumption in its volume desktops and notebook PC families by 25% by 2010. InfoWorld’s Ted Samson raises an interesting question to HP and its competitors. Setting reduction levels is great, but even better news would be hearing companies commit to make the most energy-efficient power supplies the standard in their systems – building green features into products rather than giving customers the option. After a year full of green announcements and hype, everyone is going to be looking for some real action and follow through.

CES itself went green this year making recycling bins available across the show floor and using “environmentally friendly chemicals” in maintaining over 100 restrooms. CES also announced plans to donate to renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects to compensate for any environmental damage caused by the show. While we’re all in favor of donations, I’d rather here about more ways CES is reducing energy usage at the show.

greentechmedia reports that industry watchers find the organization’s plans to offset 20,000 tons of carbon associated with the conference by purchasing carbon offsets from the nonprofit Carbonfund.org to be a minimal effort. This is a good point. Especially when you think about 100,000+ people traveling into and around Vegas for a few days.

However, for a major conference like CES to step up its green initiatives is certainly a step in the right direction. It will be interesting to see if other conferences follow suit and perhaps up the ante. We saw Hollywood take a stab at it earlier this year.

– Barbara DeConto, Text 100 Clean Tech Practice

Clean PR’s Week in Review: Jan. 4

Happy New Year! We’re only a few days in to 2008 and news of clean tech funding, awards and predictions for the year ahead are already in full swing. Here are a few highlights from the week:

• Gap, Nike, Dell and Xerox were among the 21 companies classified for “exemplary disclosure that placed performance in the broader context of sustainability challenges, risks and opportunities” and named as finalists for the 7th annual awards program from Ceres and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Winners will be announced in April.

• Greentech Media reports that clean-energy companies globally pulled in $117.3 billion in public and private funding in 2007. According to London-based New Energy Finance, that’s 41 percent more than the $83 billion the firm tracked in 2006.

• Deeya Energy, a battery energy storage startup, kicked off 2008’s funding news by raising $15 million in a Series B funding. Deeya is developing battery storage technology called “L-Cell,” which has been describe as “flow battery” technology.

• Looking ahead to 2008, check out Earth2Tech’s interview with with Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s partners Steve Jurvetson and Raj Atluru that appears on the GigaOM TV Show. Steve and Raj discuss where they see clean tech investing heading in 2008.

– Barbara DeConto, Text 100 Clean Tech Group