Paul R. Holland writes in BusinessWeek.com on the opportunities and perils in investing in the greening of business.
He says, “In coming years the green energy movement will expand even further and touch many more multibillion-dollar industries, many of them overlooked today. In fact, the expansion is already underway. Here are three industries that from an investor’s perspective are certain to be touched by the greening of business.”
Let’s begin with construction…CH2M is also leading the explosive growth in green building infrastructure. For the last 10 years it has been a world leader in protecting the environment through smarter management of environmental impacts of its own operations as well as those of clients. In 2006, CH2M’s North American operations implemented a broad effort for reducing waste, institutionalizing environmental practices, greening the supply chain, reducing carbon emissions, and measuring impacts.
Then there’s food and water. Novazone, in Livermore, Calif., purifies 90% of the world’s bottled water via ozone purification. The company, in which my firm was an early investor, is experiencing exponential growth in the market for using ozone to treat food and produce, because it can erase outbreaks of E.coli and salmonella without the use of harmful chemicals. It also helps produce growers and retailers keep up with increasing consumer demand for organic produce.
A third notable area of investment is recycling—and this means much more than office paper or putting bottles and cans at the curbside each week. It’s a growth industry. For example, Lehigh Technologies in Naples, Fla., recently struck a deal with a major collector in the Southeast to turn as many as 15 million tires annually into high-quality crumb rubber feedstock that can be used in such products as floor mats and speed bumps or on surfaces like playgrounds and sports courts.
Check out the rest of the article for possible risks and market trends.
