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Recent Posts by Joel Makower
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Is greenwashing really as bad a problem as some are making it out to be? I've been thinking about this question a lot recently, as the G-word crops up more and more frequently in articles, blogs, reports, and conversations. Of course, the answer depends a lot on one's view of the potential for big companies to improve their environmental performance — and talk truthfully about it — and whether the pace of corporate change is sufficient to address the magnitude of the problems we face. Like "beauty" (and "green"), "greenwash" is in the eye of the beholder. The definition of greenwashing has changed in recent years. In the early 1990s, the term was used to describe deliberate and cynical attempts by companies to mislead the public about their
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As fuel and electricity prices have ratcheted up, so, too, have the queries about what to do: where can companies, especially smaller ones, go for help? On the one hand, that's a big, vague question. Where you go depends on what business you are in, where you're located, what you need, and how much, if anything, you're able to spend. On the other hand, there's a lot of help out there, much of it low-cost or free, if only you know where to look. Below are just a few of the resources aimed at small and midsize companies. They will be of help largely to U.S.-based companies — apologies to those elsewhere, though there likely are analogs to these resources in other countries. This is by no means comprehensive; indeed, it probably only scratches the surface. But it points to a handful
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The spring rains have yielded a bumper crop of new reports on the business of green. I've been a bit behind in fielding them, given my travels and last week's highly successful Greener by Design conference. Here are five of the latest:
My colleagues at Clean Edge have just released the Utility Solar Assessment (USA) Study, making the case that solar power has the potential to reach cost parity with retail-electricity rates in most regions of the U.S. in less than a decade — but only if electric utilities step up to the plate. The free report (Download — PDF), published in partnership with Co-op America, provides a robust roadmap for electric utilities to accelerate the growth of solar energy. Incorporating the latest technology, market, and policy breakthroughs, and
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The greening of design is gaining interest, and I'm not simply talking about our fast-approaching conference on the topic, Greener by Design. Last week, Business for Social Responsibility and the design firm IDEO released a new free report (download - PDF) showing how companies are infusing sustainability into their design processes in ways that have led to innovative products that offer value to consumers.
The report offers an "A-B-C-D Approach to Making Better Products," as the subtitle promises. And while the real-life process may not be quite that alphabetic, or simple, the report offers a useful framework for how to think about product design and development through the lens of environmental sustainability, including some key questions that never seem to get
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My life often takes me to amazing places, no more amazing than the Great Barrier Reef, where I've just taken two dives. I'm not an experienced diver, though my two dives off the coast of Cairns, Australia, nonetheless rank high in life experiences. Hovering over almost any spot of the reef yielded an abundance of life, the level of action growing the longer one stays and looks.
My too-brief Australian adventure took place en route to Wellington, New Zealand, from where this is being written. I'm here for World Environment Day, which, for the initiated, is a United Nations-sponsored event, celebrated since the mid 1980s each June 5, hosted by a different city. Wellington is this year's host and the theme — "Kicking the Carbon Habit" — seems as fanciful as it is formidable. In
Clean Energy Trends 2008
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The latest annual edition of Clean Energy Trends has just been published. My colleagues and I at Clean Edge have identified five key trends affecting clean-energy markets and produced our annual forecast of markets for four clean-energy technologies. And, working with our partners at New Energy Finance, we've analyzed the investment trends of the past year.
As we point out in the free, downloadable report, 2007 was a very strong year for clean energy technologies, with no signs of a slowdown in 2008. That said, with all of the uncertainties facing the economy, there are some potential speed bumps. One of the biggest is whether and how U.S. policies will extend the production tax credits for wind and solar, both of which are expiring at the end of the year. If these credits aren't extended before they expire, we could see the growth of solar, wind, and other renewables come to a standstill in the U.S., much as markets for wind power did at the end of 2006, when those credits expired for several months. During that period, the wind market simply flatlined. According to research by Navigant Consulting, more than 100,000 jobs within the solar and wind industry are in jeopardy, if the same thing happens again.
The problem is that Congress, in its infinite wisdom, seems to have an appetite to extend tax credits for only two years. That's not long enough to do the long-term planning that any emerging industry needs to scale up.Critics of clean energy like to point out that without subsidies and regulation, clean-energy sources would never be getting a foothold in the market. But that misses an important and critical point: all energy technologies are subsidized - some to the tune of billions of dollars a year. What would happen to oil and gas prices if those industries had to do away with federal subsidies and tax credits (not to mention the costs of fighting wars in oil-rich countries).
The five trends we cover in this year's Trends report cover electric cars (how all of the action seems to be from smaller players, not the major automotive companies); sustainable cities (the emergence of new, fossil-fuel, carbon-neutral cities - in the Middle East, of all places); wind (how the U.S. market is being driven by foreign companies); geothermal energy (it is experiencing a global renaissance, particularly as large, utility-scale projects); and shipping (the new push to create cleaner oceangoing transport, including putting sails on freighters).
You can download the free report here.
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