Green is good. Green is healthy.

So take that, Gordon Gekko--er, Ivan Boesky. I poked around the Cleantech Forum a bit this week. Lots of gray and navy blue suits there, with few of the jeans-and-polos found at dot-com dealmaking events, but it was relatively laid back nevertheless when you consider all the money-matchmaking involved. The $3.6 billion poured into the emerging clean tech sector in 2006 is twice the 2004 amount for North America and Europe. There are billions and billions of dollars just waiting to anoint the next clean, green, money-making machine. Startup CEOs and scientists were snapping  wishbones, crossing fingers, trading cards.

Want to gobble up clean stocks? Be on the lookout for the IPO of some yet-unpopular, cleantech cousin of Google! But which company will it be? One that can print thin-film solar panels? A large-scale  maker of biofuel blends? A startup that's making LED bulbs cheaper?

I wandered around some booths and learned about Group IV Semiconductor, backed by $10 million and working to make silicon-based, energy-efficient LED lightbulbs that might sell for a mere $3 a pop by 2010. Cheaper, white LED bulbs could be the holy grail of bright, low-energy lighting. SpringStar is working to get rid of things that bug you without pesticides with gizmos that mimic insects' mating calls and perfumes. However, there's no bedbug treatment yet because mimicking their stinky pheromones would make your boudoir smell pretty skanky. Engineers at Lawrence Berkeley Labs are building air quality sensors that they hope they can shrink to fit in or on cell phones. Here's more show-and-tell.

In the adjoining rooms, each panel seemed to be running nearly an hour late. At a talk about corporate market drivers, Ali Iz of G.E. said his company has been snapping up great money-making green businesses, but it needs to figure out how to support innovation that's not yet profitable without spending hundreds of millions of dollars.

PG&E, the villain of Erin Brokovich, has greened nearly every bus station in San Francisco with ads for its eco-friendly efforts in recent months. During the Cleantech Forum, PG&E let loose that it's donating a year of office space to hot startups Adura Technologies (makes wireless lighting sensors) and GreenVolts (working on cheaper, more concentrated solar panels). I planned to make it to the mayor's announcement about launching a cleantech S.F. business campus near the former PG&E plant, but I was interrupted by friends who were wine tasting a block away. Cabbing it home two champagne flutes later, there was no hybrid to flag down. But that could change soon too.

What's next? If you're dying to get rich off of companies built to keep the planet from dying, then scroll down and look in the left column for my updated "Green Money" links of lots of cleantech-related blogs. The tickers at Sustainable Business can be useful too.

 

Comments

[Miriam Dittrich]

The semiconductor industry is certainly growing, and I think that there are a lot of jobs that have surfaced since the recovery of the damages caused by the recession has started. Those LED lights can be the solution to a greener world, man. I really hope they'll be able to continue the development.

[Dr. Light]

Green is definitely good and healthy. It doesn't take that much more effort to be a little more green. If it helps out the world then that is awesome, but even if it doesn't it's hardly an inconvenience.

[PM]

People should learn more about energy alternatives like electric cars. The new ones coming out are way better than gas cars. One of the main electric car companies, Zap, has delivered more than 100,000 electric vehicles (source: www.zapworld.com). EV’s cost 1 to 3 cents per mile to run, compare that to regular cars!

[PM]

People should learn more about energy alternatives like electric cars. The new ones coming out are way better than gas cars. One of the main electric car companies, Zap, has delivered more than 100,000 electric vehicles (source: www.zapworld.com). EV’s cost 1 to 3 cents per mile to run, compare that to regular cars!

[aliza wasserman]

PG&E has not greened its electricity. It merely paid for expensive green colored advertising. It is is still a nuclear and gas power company. It's own electricity generation has less than 1% from solar.

They are positioning nuclear as the 'green energy'. Children in Russia today, are still being born retarded, due to the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. There still is no solution for toxic nuclear waste - so PG&E is setting us and our children up for the same risks.

When companies who are largely responsible for the climate crisis - i.e. power and car companies - start advertising how 'green' they are --- we need to be especially critical of how that plays in to pacifying the public from demanding serious and safe climate laws.

More info on PG&E's classic greenwashing see: www.LetsGreenWashThisCity.org.

[Fred]

Check out this US Carbon Footprint Map, an interactive United States Carbon Footprint Map, illustrating Greenest States to Cities. This site has all sorts of stats on individual State & City energy consumptions, demographics and more down to your local US City level...

http://www.eredux.com/states/

[Stan tarutis]

I just would like to intruduce people to a new way to do tjier wash - using COLD WATER & NO CHEMICALS.
Please advise.

[Dave]

I ran across a great new website that does one great environmental thing, it lists and promotes green homes for sale - worldwide.

Listed Green has gone beyond the typical site, with no banner ads and personally reviews each new listing to ascertain to be green. A low fee for seller and developers.

I also read they will be present with a booth at the AltBuild Expo in Santa Monica, CA on May 19th.

I wish Listed Green great speed in becoming the true MLS for green homes for sale.