“Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” Often attributed to Mark Twain, whoever said that seemed to have quite a bit of foresight, something the mainstream cleantech community is only recently warming up to.  The fights over water use facing utility scale solar thermal projects in the desert Southwest may have a lot to do with opening the eyes of the clean-tech community, but the sector’s challenges and opportunities are much broader than that, as scores of Californians, Middle Easterners, and Australians will attest.  So why, with the problems so immediate and demand remaining strong in the $58 billion annual market for water technologies, has clean tech venture investment declined since 2005?

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The 26th annual Cleantech Forum begins today in San Francisco. With the theme of “Taking Cleantech to Scale,” this year’s conference focuses on how companies can take advantage of the growing funds available from government and the private sector.

At Friday’s “Information and Clean Technology” session, Microsoft’s Troy Batterberry will discuss the company’s Hohm software, one of the early strong entries into desktop home energy management. Below, Batterberry’s colleague Meredith Budwin previews his presentation.

Matter Network: Explain what Hohm does for a homeowner.

Budwin: Microsoft Hohm was designed to help consumers make smarter decisions about saving energy and money. Hohm uses information provided by consumers to provide personalized behavioral and home improvement recommendations, specific to their home’s situation. (more…)

How far will you travel to get the latest news on clean-tech trends and rub shoulders with industry leaders? CleanTechies is sponsoring these upcoming events on three continents. Check out the CleanTechies Events and Conferences Calendar for more. Among the highlights in the coming months:

• UC Berkeley, BERC, Energy Symposium 2010, March 3-4, Berkeley, CA

This student-run conference features presenters from more than 25 companies. Panels cover smart infrastructure, next generation technologies and more. Former Edison CEO John Bryson and Philip Moeller, commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will keynote. Meet the researchers, students, policy makers and experts from start-ups participating in the Innovation Expo on the first day of this event.

• Energy 2010 Hannover Messe, April 19-23, Hanover, Germany This trade fair is built to document the complete energy mix of the future. Ask for the special CleanTechies package when registering, which provides: (more…)

Whether you’re looking to share your expertise or just curious about the cleantech space, the CleanTechies Events and Conferences Calendar may feature a must-see event in your part of the world.

Among the highlights in the coming weeks:

• U.S.-Japan Clean Tech Symposium, Feb. 18, San Francisco, CA

What’s big in Japan’s cleantech sector? This four-hour session explores the state of the overseas market as well as ties between U.S. and Japanese companies. It’s organized bythe U.S. State Department and Japan’s trade ministry officials.

• Texas-Israel Cleanovation Conference, Feb. 22, Austin, TX

The launch of this conference promises to bring together some 200 attendees including from utility and clean energy companies, investors and technologists. Dr. Eli Opper, Chief Scientist of Israel, is among the keynote presenters. (more…)

Twenty-five solar industry and regulatory leaders shared data and forecast a positive future, especially for small-scale projects, at the third Solar Electric Utility Conference hosted by PHOTON International Thursday in San Francisco.

Smaller Is Better

Keynote speaker Pat Wood III, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and now with Wood3 Resources, summarized the dominant theme of the day. “As I was preparing my presentation, I was struck by the growth of ‘bite-sized’ solar projects and how that is an emerging trend and is based on solid economic data,” he said.

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This is the last of three posts on the Executive Council’s “Value-Based Sustainability” event last week (read previous posts here and here). As official sponsor of the event, CleanTechies raffled off five free tickets to our Facebook fans, Twitter followers (@CleanTechies) and Newsletter subscribers. The author of this article was one of the lucky winners. Fan us and follow us to learn about upcoming raffles like this!

Many companies easily jumped on the ‘green’ bandwagon in 2007 and 2008 when the economy was growing.  Now that the U.S. is in a recession, unless sustainability was already a guiding pillar for your company, making the business case for green, clean, and lean initiatives can be challenging.  At last week’s Executive Council summit on Value-Based Sustainability: the Business Case for Clean, Green, and Lean, several best-of-breed companies shared their thoughts on sustainability and the role of consumers.

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This is the second of three posts on the Executive Council’s “Value-Based Sustainability” event last week (read the first post here). As official sponsor of the event, CleanTechies raffled off five free tickets to our Facebook fans, Twitter followers (@CleanTechies) and Newsletter subscribers. The author of this article was one of the lucky winners. Fan us and follow us to learn about upcoming raffles like this!

The Executive Council’s Value-Based Sustainability Forum in San Jose, CA on January 26th was one of a few “road shows” taken around the country.  Focusing on strategy in making the business case of sustainability, resonating themes of the forum included transparency; measurement; and communication or engagement internally with employees, and externally to customers and clients.

An exuberating opening keynote by Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S, started the day.  Werbach defined sustainability as social, economic, ecological and cultural streams which flow into an integrated one.  Transparency, engagement and networking are enablers of sustainability that are to be exercised internally and externally for maximum value.  To connect the core of a business with a social issue is to create a “North Star goal” which, according to Werbach, will ignite passion within the organization, engaging employees.  For example, P&G’s North Star goal: “Sell $50 billion worth of sustainability innovation products by 2012.”

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This is the first of three posts on the Executive Council’s “Value-Based Sustainability” event last week. As official sponsor of the event, CleanTechies raffled off five free tickets to our Facebook fans, Twitter followers (@CleanTechies) and Newsletter subscribers. The author of this article was one of the lucky winners. Fan us and follow us to learn about upcoming raffles like this!

First of all, a big thank you to Bob Johnston, Eric McNulty, April Lo and the rest of the Executive Council staff for putting together an excellent event last Tuesday.  Value-Based Sustainability: The Business Case for Green, Clean and Lean brought together a high caliber of sustainability professionals and thought leaders from many sectors.  Thank you Ceylan Thomson for bringing the event to our attention on www.CleanTechies.com.

This event had excellent speakers throughout.  Some of the speakers highlighted what their specific companies were doing and what were the drivers for those priorities.  This component provided excellent examples of early wins and highlighted the importance of proper metrics.  The keynote speakers, Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S (and author of the book “Strategy for Sustainability” – see cover on the left) and Rupert Davis of MontaRosa discussed more generally, the state of sustainability and what needs to happen to make sustainability viable long-term.  Werbach emphasized that sustainability must incorporate social, cultural, economic, as well as environmental aspects in order to withstand the downturn.  To be successful, these four elements must be combined into a single corporate “North Star” goal that is transparent, engages stakeholders (at a personal level) and expands networks.

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What are the latest corporate environmental trends, and how are business leaders meeting the toughest challenges?

GreenBiz.com will release its “State of Green Business 2010″ annual status report to coincide with State of Green Business Forum events in San Francisco Feb. 4 and Chicago Feb. 9.

Veteran green business writers Joel Makower and Marc Gunther will lead the one-day sessions. Themes to be covered include “When Green Business Meets Cleantech” and “Can IT Solve the World’s Problems?” Attendees in Chicago will also hear about local issues, such as “The Green Economy Meets the Great Lakes.”

Thought leaders will include lawyer and longtime activist Van Jones, who stepped down from his post as White House green jobs “czar” amid a media firestorm in September. Other experts there should include: (more…)

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year was awesome and grandiose as always. As I scoped out the latest in tech madness, I was assaulted by a sensory overload of 3-D screen enablers, perceptive sensors, gaming devices for a lazier and racier audience and phones that promise to be smarter than ever before. The general trend in every category seems to be hybrid super gadgets that perform multiple functions like smartbooks which function as smartphones and netbooks that are also e-book readers, smart TVs that display websites, mobile TVs for cars and phones, and so forth.

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