It’s been quite a couple of weeks for the sustainability movement in Canada, since Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver’s comments about “environmental and other radical groups” and their opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline project.

The unfortunate result of the government and (more…)

A wave of reports trumpeting the oil industry’s shift to unconventional fuels has appeared in recent weeks. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are among the major publications covering changes in the global fossil fuel industry. With their investments in new technologies and new (more…)

The water industry is renowned for being risk averse and conservative. It’s understandable. No one wants people to experiment with their water.

But as fresh water becomes more and more precious and the cost of energy to get fresh water keeps on rising, the challenges of the water-energy nexus are (more…)

Fortunately for the rest of us, some people missed the message, the one that says we’re in an economic slide so slippery there is no climbing back up.

I had a chance to speak to several of these optimists recently. No, they are not members of the Pollyanna Club; they are green energy entrepreneurs, those (more…)

A show of hands – who loved their high school chemistry class? Do you still remember the elements in the periodic table? Quick – what’s the symbol for Iron? How about Hydrogen?

OK. Those are easy: Fe and H.

What about Prometheum? or Ytterbium? (more…)

Here’s something you don’t hear people complain about much these days: worker shortages. That is, unless you’re in energy efficiency, an industry that is booming as others are busting.

Sixty percent of those responding to a recent survey by the Association of Energy Services Professionals (more…)

Having served in the military, I’m intimately aware of the role that energy plays in our ability to defend and uphold our national security. This became apparent to me in many ways during my time in the field, to the safety of my unit who ran fuel supply convoys in theater and the dangers we faced in carrying our (more…)

Who would have thought backyards would cause so much trouble for the North American energy industry? First came the NIMBYs, the not-in-my-backyard protesters who block power projects from being built near them. And now we have the GIMBBYs – the give-me-a-bigger-backyard homeowners who are unwittingly getting in the way of energy efficiency. (more…)

We’ve been hearing for years that the energy efficiency industry needs to find its equivalent to the cell phone. These days industry folks refer to it as the ‘killer app,” the revolutionary product or service that consumers can’t resist.

But lately, partly because I’m dieting, I’ve been (more…)

The cleantech industry, and more specifically the clean energy sector — firms in renewable energy, smart grids, clean energy finance, biofuels, and depending on your definition, natural gas — has a lot on its plate. Not only do these businesses, many of which are in their nascency, need to focus on standard business development operations like R&D, market research, (more…)