A vast gap exists between the detailed information financial institutions need to support energy efficiency financing and the limited data they currently have. Several examples suggest these loan programs can succeed, but there are no large datasets supporting investment in energy efficiency.

Providing energy efficiency loans could give financial (more…)

You landed your first pitch at a venture capitalist’s (VC) office. You’ve practiced the pitch and have your laptop fired up to deliver. So, like a sprinter at the sound of the gunshot, you dive in hard and heavy to make sure you get through the deck. After all, you might only have one chance to excite them with your company’s story. Inevitably, with all the questions the (more…)

How do you consume electricity in your home? For many households, this isn’t a question often considered. The question “How much do you spend on electricity?” resonates more with households and bill payers. Most people need an easy and actionable plan for managing costs, which at the same time will reduce overall energy consumption. Understanding (more…)

The Case For Global Cleantech Clusters:
Presented by: The Global Cleantech Cluster Association (GCCA)

There has been an explosion of cleantech clusters around the world, promising to help accelerate financing, growth, job creation and the next generation of sustainable technologies. Contents of this article were recently published in Environmental Finance (March 2012). (more…)

Nothing exists in a vacuum (except space). Unlike neighbors who can build walls or fences between them, we can’t fence off the heavily polluting European Union (14 percent of the global total CO2 emissions, 3rd place) or the United States (18 percent of the total; 2nd place) or China (23 percent of the total, 1st place), from the rest of world. To be sure, many (more…)

A report released last week by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (“ACEEE”) showed that overall spending on industrial energy efficiency (“EE”) projects is on the rise. 

The report tracked 2010 spending by utilities, state and federal agencies, public benefit fund (more…)

We all know that Silicon Valley is the beating heart of the tech industry, with large corporations, tiny start-ups, entrepreneurs and the finance community all living, working and drinking coffee together. (This last bit isn’t a throw away reference to our increasing addiction to the black magic bean, but to an article I read in Harvard Business Review in 2010 which said (more…)

One of the ways the business case is determined is that each region, country or community has a different combination of CSR drivers. I will start with the five typical CSR drivers that are local (or internal) drivers, namely pressures from within the country or community. (more…)

Fisker Automotive has hit a rough patch (a rock quarry may be a better way to characterize it, actually). The company has seen excitement about the product crumble recently thanks to the recent, incredibly public failure of the $102,000 Fisker Karma while being prepped for testing by Consumer Reports. This was immediately followed-up with the all-but (more…)

So, you’re at a networking event and you get an opportunity to talk with a Venture Capitalist (VC) for just a few minutes. After breaking the ice with quick introductory formalities, you present your elevator pitch, right? Wrong. How can you possibly capture that VC’s interest if you don’t know what excites them? Would you try to sell meat to a vegetarian or bricks to a (more…)