Category Archives: Green Wave

Sunil Paul on Clean Tech

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GigaOm; the technology blog started by Om Malik of Business 2.0 has started morphing into a media network of its own sometime back starting with the move to group blogging and then various tech related blogs and even a jobs section.

Now they are moving into the Green sector; “Apparently like everyone else…”.

The Earth2Tech blog will concentrate on the growing Clean tech industry.

So we envisioned our site this way: One part clean tech startup coverage – (a quick look at clean tech venture numbers shows the growing ranks of startups in hot areas like solar and biofuels); One part reviews of tech giant’s eco-initiatives (is Google’s carbon neutral initiative more marketing or responsible plan?); One part a resource page for entrepreneurs and Valley types looking for green tech [tools, rules, tips] – LBS meets ethanol?

One of the first posts is an interview with VC Sunil Paul who compares the Clean Tech industry with the IT/Internet industry.

One thing that has remained the same is that there are huge amounts of capital required for this business, which is very different from the Internet world. Two opposite extremes.

Another thing to realize is that compared to all the IT sectors, cleantech is a very slow moving industry. For example, batteries, which are fundamentally driven by product cycles at the customer level. Customers expect a product with a 25-year lifetime, or a 10-year lifetime – you’re not going to suddenly have a 6-month product life cycle. That is an important lesson.

Another important lesson is that engagement with government is fundamental. For IT or biotech, you didn’t have to think too much about government. But in the energy world that is just not the case. Regulations are changing all the time.

The clean-tech world has been built by environmentalists going to bat for technologists. The environmentalists have carried our water for us. At some point we will have to step up and be more engaged because this is an important battle.

I blogged sometime back on the Energy investments of Vinod Khosla. Clean tech is growing everywhere and this could be one of the exciting new frontiers for the business world.

Missed opportunities in climate change

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Financial Times writes about a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Business is failing to exploit the opportunities presented by growing public concerns over climate change, according to a survey of top executives from around the world.

The survey, by the Economist Intelligence Unit, found that only one in 10 of the businesses surveyed were fully monitoring their overall carbon impact, and most of the companies did not see environmental strategy as a way to improve their market position.

More than a third of the executives said carbon reduction would enhance their image. But only 15 per cent saw it as a marketing opportunity and just 7 per cent as a way of differentiating their products.

One in six companies that had started to cut their carbon emissions said the measures had already boosted profits, while a third expected a boost in the next three years. Only one in 10 complained of higher costs, now or expected in the future.

The News changes at News Corp

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When a visionary like Rupert Murdoch speaks we need to listen…very carefully. From owning a small newspaper in Australia he now owns and heads one of the top media companies in the world. Now, he announces that News Corp has acknowledged the risks in Climate Change and wants to tackle it head on.

Rupert Murdoch gave a speech a couple of years back on how the media landscape has changed and how the audiences are different from before. He saw the trend, accepted the challenge and then, he bought MySpace.com. From nowehere, he owned one of the most popular sites in the world and making more money then he coughed up for the company with a single advertising deal with Google. As he says, he took a small risk and re-invented themselves.

Now, Climate change is similar for News Corp. Going carbon neutral is good. Cutting down energy is good. But Rupert realises that he can make a bigger difference. For good or bad, he has had a strong influence on his large media network across the world. Now, that influence may make a big difference.

In his speech he spells out the potential:

But becoming carbon neutral is only the beginning. The climate problem will not be solved by one company reducing its emissions to zero, and it won’t be solved by one government acting alone.
The climate problem will not be solved without mass participation by the general public in countries around the globe.

And that’s where we come in.

We’re starting with our own carbon footprint. Not nothing. But much of what we’re doing is already, or soon will be, little more than the standard way of doing business.

Our audience’s carbon footprint is 10,000 times bigger than ours… That’s the carbon footprint we want to conquer. We cannot do it with gimmicks. We need to reach them in a sustained way. To weave this issue into our content– make it dramatic, make it vivid, even sometimes make it fun. We want to inspire people to change their behavior.Imagine if we succeed in inspiring our audiences to reduce their own impacts on climate change by just one percent. That would be like turning the State of California off for almost two months.

And imagine if… we were able to take on the carbon footprint of our audience in Asia. Many of the most serious impacts of climate change will be felt there, and China and India’s emissions are rising rapidly. STAR is the number one Hindi-language network in the world. In India alone, we reach 100 million people.

The challenge is to revolutionize the message.

For too long, the threats of climate change have been presented as doom and gloom– because the consequences are so serious.

We need to do what our company does best: make this issue exciting. Tell the story in a new way.

The biggest challenge that I have seen with Climate Change and other sustainability issues is the marketing. Changing people’s behaviour is a herculean task. We have to wait and see how this strategy actually gets implemented but the signs are positive.

The real message in the speech is this: The unique potential– and duty– of a media company are to help its audiences connect to the issues that define our time. 

Shaping managers for eco management

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Sushil Kumar, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management – Lucknow (IIM-L), one of the top of MBA schools in the country, writes about the newly introduced “Corporate Environmental Management and Carbon Markets” course.

Professor Kumar points to the increasing interest from large corporates from the Indian industry who are interested in the Clean Development Mechanism and he actually puts a number on the certified emission reduction (CER) units per year available in India right now at USD 2 billion.

In this scenario he believes it is important that B-Schools take up the initiative to train managers for a changing future.

The objectives of the course on Corporate Environmental Mangement and Carbon Markets are as follows:

  • To provide an overview of global and national environmental policy/law issues.
  • To discuss the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Environmental Management Plan (EMP), and Environmental Management Systems (EMS).
  • To examine and analyse various strategies of environmental management.
  • To describe implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and understand Emission Trading Systems.
  • To understand the Clean Development Mechanism from the perspective of business in India.

This is great stuff. In my MBA, I had to struggle to find courses which would help to understand this field from a business  point of view better.

I decided to do an elective in Environmental and Resource Economics from the Economics department in Adelaide University which provided the theory and a self-managed course in Environmental Accounting provided a practical grounding. And, all through the MBA I took the time to read books, follow stories and people to connect the learnings in the MBA to the green new world of the future.  For more information on what I did and the books I read check the post Life Study – Continous Personal Development.

I hope more schools around the world take the tip from IIM-L.

Green Business in India

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Dr. Nachiket Mor, Chairman, New Ventures India Steering Committee and Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank announces a 100 cr fund to invest in Green Businesses in India (hat tip: Karen Seeh).

Dr. Mor also announced Rs.100 crore investment towards the innovation and development of green businesses in India.

“The burden of climatic changes will be borne by the developing countries, therefore opening up a huge market for green business and the market of clean energy is going to double by 2015″, he said.

India has to maintain its GDP growth to become a developed country and green businesses have lot of growth potential for Indian economy, he added.

India offers a great opportunity for investors who can take risk, invest and take initiative and the current economical growth provides the right pace for venture funding to innovative projects, said Dr. T Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

New Ventures India’s goal is to achieve at least 15 million dollars worth of investments in 20 sustainable and green businesses by 2008. These include areas of green building materials, energy efficiency products and services, renewable energy and water products, said Deikun.

CII – Godrej GBC aims at creating India as one of the global leaders in green businesses and India has leadership potential in green technology in the cement, paper, green buildings and renewable energy sector, said S Raghupathy, Senior Director and Head CII – Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Center (Godrej GBC).

Dr. Mor is a visionary in this area. In Deeshaa, our team had interacted with him at different times and he spearheaded the entry of ICICI bank in the Micro finance and rural banking areas. This will be the new growth area for ICICI.

The Green Wave is spreading in all directions and India has great potential in this area.

The Greening of Corporate America

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GreenBiz.com reports on a SmartMarket report released by McGraw-Hill and produced in partnership with Siemens Building Technologies.

“Today’s corporate leaders are already very conscious of using green practices when considering new facilities, and they expect green building to have an increasing impact in the future,” said Brad Haeberle, director of marketing for Siemens Building Technologies. “Moreover, they believe that green building is in their company’s best interests, not only for the clear economic benefits, but for the market differentiation and competitive advantage.”According to the study’s findings, 18 percent of the corporate leaders surveyed are in a position to transform the market — 15 percent view sustainability as a competitive advantage and the other 3 percent are actually driving their entire businesses through this value-driven lens.

Over the next three years, more companies see themselves as entering this top tier, with nearly a third of the sample aiming to be market leaders in sustainability. The report found that by early 2009, but perhaps sooner, American businesses will have reached a tipping point in embracing green as a cornerstone of their corporate philosophy. At that point, 82 percent of the companies will have greened at least 16 percent of their building stock.

And over the weekend, the CERES annual conference, Advancing Sustainable Prosperity, in Boston conducted a survey. The CERES conference is based on the premise that “businesses can use their market-economy power for environmental good, which at this year’s conference largely means blunting climate disruption, while making an honest profit in the process.”

According to the “Advancing Sustainable Prosperity” survey conducted by Ceres last week at its annual conference in Boston, direct action by government and corporations are the best ways to improve the sustainability of the global economy.

Nearly 80 percent of the nearly 300 respondents cited climate change as the biggest global sustainability challenge today, while an overwhelming majority — 90 percent — of those surveyed said greenhouse gas emission reductions and improved energy efficiency are the most important sustainability issue that corporations need to address in 2007. Two-thirds of the respondents — 67 percent — cited renewable energy technology as the technology with the biggest opportunity for achieving sustainable prosperity.

“Achieving sustainable prosperity will require integrating environmental and social challenges into corporate strategies and capital markets so that the global economy and the global community can flourish hand in hand,” said Ceres president Mindy S. Lubber.

A Greener Apple

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Steve Jobs released yesterday a note on the Apple website about a “Greener Apple”. This was Jobs’s attempt to communicate to the stakeholders of Apple about its environmental programs till date and its future plans.A Greener Apple

When Greenpeace released its “Guide to Greener Electronics” report, I was shocked to find Apple at the bottom of the list. I use a iBook G4 and a iPod Nano. I know what it means to use well designed products. I also knew that Apple’s laptops are one of the best in terms of energy-efficiency.

Good Design is one of the basis for a environmentally friendly product. It did not make logical sense that Apple could be at the bottom of the heap. As Jobs said, “Apple is already a leader in innovation and engineering, and we are applying these same talents to become an environmental leader.”

Now Steve Jobs letter explains how Apple is ahead of the other computer manufacturers and what its plans are for the future.

Some highlights:

Apple completely eliminated the use of CRTs in mid-2006.

Apple products met both the spirit and letter of the RoHS restrictions on cadmium, hexavalent chromium and brominated flame retardants years before RoHS went into effect.

Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of arsenic in all of its displays by the end of 2008.

Apple plans to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of mercury by transitioning to LED backlighting for all displays when technically and economically feasible.


Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs in its products by the end of 2008.

Apple recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006, which is equal to 9.5% of the weight of all products Apple sold seven years earlier. We expect this percentage to grow to 13% in 2007, and to 20% in 2008. By 2010, we forecast recycling 19 million pounds of e-waste per year — nearly 30% of the product weight we sold seven years earlier.

In the above comparison Jobs in his own style clearly demonstrated how much ahead Apple is compared to its competitors and at the sametime pointing to Greenpeace about its method of rating companies.

Jobs highlighted the importance of design and materials, especially the iMac.

Producers must also take responsibility for the design and material choices that create the product in the first place. It is these choices that fundamentally determine the weight and recycling value of material waste at the end of a product’s life. The iMac is a world-class example of material efficiency, having shed 60% of its weight since its debut in 1998. Our designs use aircraft-grade aluminum, stainless steel and high-grade plastics that are in high demand from recyclers, who recover and resell these raw materials for use in other types of products. Few of our competitors do the same.

Unique Lessons

Some unique lessons come out of this note from Jobs.

One, that communicating with your stakeholders is important. As Jobs suggests, even abandoning Apple’s policy of not discussing about the future is important in this scenario. By providing some information about its future environmental plans to its competitors Apple is gaining by communicating to its customers, shareholders and other stakeholders and gaining reputation.

Two, the viral nature of the note from Steve Jobs. Jobs previously wrote about his now famous “Thoughts on Music” suggesting the move to a non-DRM music from iTunes. That created waves. A sincere, direct note from the CEO was a great viral marketing idea. He replicates this again.

Three, What is the methodology used by Greenpeace in its report? Is is just based on plans or plans on releasing plans as Jobs suggest? Greenpeace needs to be have a more transparent and robust methodology in releasiing its reports.

Fourth, the importance of design and innovation in general and to environmental performance in particular. The iMac and the generational change seen in the iPod are both examples of how design can be useful in cutting down size, creating a better product and improving the environmental performance.

Climate change and War

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Reading the news that US Army generals are urging US President George W Bush to cut down greenhouse gases seem too extreme. However, I think their argument may have some merit.

It warns that over the next 30 to 40 years, there will be conflicts over water resources, as well as increased instability resulting from rising sea levels and global warming-related refugees.

“The chaos that results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism,” the 35-page report predicts.

Writing in the report, Gen Zinni, a former commander of US Central Command, says: “It’s not hard to make the connection between climate change and instability, or climate change and terrorism.”

Their timing of 30 years could be too early, but there could be conflicts if not war over natural resources including Water.

BCA’s Strategic Framework for Emissions Reduction

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The Business Council of Australia‘s Climate Policy supports a ‘cap and trade’ emission system for Carbon in Australia. In January, we discussed a PWC report called “Carbon Conscious” where the survey suggested that 78% of the respondents wanted a regulated rather than voluntary carbon traded system. The support is seen in the climate policy of BCA now.

The BCA’s Strategic Framework for Emissions Reduction (Download: PDF) acknowledges the need for a long term policy to combat the problem. In fact, they are very realistic in their assessment that to transition from the current high-carbon economy to a low-carbon one will not be easy and will carry a economic cost. However, not doing so has it own associated costs.

Even though a global trading system for Carbon is the ideal situation; Australia should develop its own cap-trade system which will initially run for at least 30 years to remove uncertainty for investors and create a market where the cheapest abatement technology will win.

The introduction provides a clear sense of what the business world in Australia understands and the need for the government to move in. This document will be a great step forward for Australia’s Low-Carbon future.

Sydney Earth Hour : Symbolism or GreenWashing

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The Sydney Earth Hour is a initiative to switch off the lights for a hour on Saturday 31st March at 7:30 PM as a symbolic gesture to climate change.WWF-Australia claims that 1000 businesses have turned up to embrace the initiative and calls it “”Australia’s largest climate change initiative” which is questionable.

Terry McCrann puts things in perspective:

If this is all it takes to stop greenhouse gases frying the planet, I’d be happy to join in doing something which is completely painless and utterly pointless.

What exactly is it? Turning off the lights for one hour. But not at a time or on a day which might actually inconvenience business and therefore mean a real reduction in energy use.

To believe that would add up even to anywhere near four-fifths of five-eighths of very little of 5 per cent is to believe that the tooth fairy can do its job without nightlights.

When company boards and managements embrace fatuous symbolism it’s a bit of a worry. But as long as that’s all it is, so be it — we live in an age of meaningless gestures.

It is important that the debate is concentrated on doing more important things than turning lights off.

We should work towards cleaner base load energy, creating “cradle to cradle” industrial processes, building waste management systems and changing the culture in Australia. These are tougher and more important things to do.

A simple cost-benefit analysis will show that switching off lights on a saturday evening (when the lights should not have been on at all) is not the greatest response to the climate change problem.