Global Cleantech Cluster Association's Top 30 Companies Announced

As readers of The Green Skeptic know, I co-founded the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, a business network for cleantech professionals working from New York to Northern Virgina.

Earlier this year, we joined the Global Cleantech Cluster Assocication (GCCA), which is comprised of 30 cleantech clusters and networks around the globe from Switzerland to Singapore and San Diego to Syracuse.

Together the GCCA members represent 4,000 Cleantech Companies Worldwide.  And now the GCCA has an award to recognize some of the best of the best of those companies, nominated by its member organizations.

A Global Top 30 semi-finalists for the 2011 award were announced today and will now be judged by 28 cleantech venture capitalists, investors and serial entrepreneurs who collectively manage $3.5 billion in clean technology investments.

From this group ten winners will be picked in each of ten categories.  The award winners will be announced on November 14th in Dublin, Ireland, at the Dublin Cleantech Forum and GCCA Later Stage Awards.

Co-hosted by An iSli Ghlas – The Green Way, Ireland’s cleantech cluster, the full-day event will feature CEO presentations and high-level discussions on the most critical topics for emerging clean technology companies and investment opportunities.

The Global Top 30 Companies are:

Category	Companies	Clusters
Biofuels	Imperative Energy	An tSlí Ghlas – The Green Way, Ireland
	Chempolis	Finnish Cleantech Cluster
	Synthezyme	NYC Acre
Energy Efficiency/ Green Buildings	Omnio	swisscleantech
	Albeo	Colorado Cleantech IA
	PearlLED	Chicago Clean Energy Alliance
New Materials	Genomatica	CleanTech San Diego
	Beneq	Finnish Cleantech Cluster
	OPX Biotechnologies	Colorado Cleantech IA
Other renewables	AWS Ocean Energy	ecoConnect, U.K
	Open Hydro	An tSlí Ghlas – The Green Way, Ireland
	NovaThermal Energy	Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, U.S.A.
Solar	Alencon Systems	Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, U.S.A.
	PrismSolar	Clean Technology & Sustainable Industries U.S.A.
	Solaris	Chicago Clean Energy
Storage/Smart Grid	PowerGenics	CleanTech San Diego
	HydroGenics	MaRS Discovery District, Toronto, CA
	ICE Energy	Colorado Cleantech IA
Transportation	Achates Power	CleanTech San Diego
	Rapid Electric Vehicles	Green Tech Exchange, Canada
	SAM Group	swisscleantech
Water	Trunz	swisscleantech
	Rentricity	NYC Acre
	PortaPure	Chicago Clean Energy
Waste	EcoATM	CleanTech San Diego
	Newalta	EcoTech Quebec
	Akkuser	Finnish Cleantech Cluster
Wind	Moventas	Finnish Cleantech Cluster
	STEP	EcoWorld Styria, Austria
	Acrosoma	Flanders Cleantech Association

For more information about the Global Cleantech Cluster Association, go to their website: GlobalCleantech.org  

ECO-nomics: Re-envisioning Financial Services; My Talk at SXSW ECO

Last week I gave a talk at the first SXSW ECO in Austin, Texas. 

Here is the slide show from my talk, available on SlideShare:

and here is a transcript of my talk on Scribd:

ECO-nomics: Re-envisioning Financial Services for the 21st Century

A video of the talk will be available at a later date.

Related articles

• SXSW ECO: How to Make a Difference (incl. brief video) (ecoleader.wordpress.com)
• SXSW Eco: Interview with Scott Wilcox, SXSW's CTO (treehugger.com)
• SXSW Eco: Replacing Unsustainable Language To Tackle Climate Change (huffingtonpost.com)

The Greening of Defense: The Green Skeptic on WSJ's LunchBreak

I was on WSJ.com's LunchBreak with Wendy Bounds today talking about how the Department of Defense has become a true energy innovator and the potential benefits of an energy efficiency makeover of the Empire State building.



Here is a link to the video on wsj.com: The Green Skeptic on LunchBreak

The Green Skeptic on FOX Business: EU Emissions Permits Won't Fly

I sat down with Stuart Varney & Company in the FOX Business Studios this morning to talk about the EU proposal to require airlines to pay to offset carbon through its carbon credit scheme.

This flies in the face a long-standing global effort, which would have more consistent impact.

In other words, this permit scheme won't fly, in my humble opinion.

Here is is the video:




And here is a link if the player doesn't work in your browser: The Green Skeptic on FOX Business

Andy Rooney, Schlub Reporter, Says Goodbye

Photo by Stephenson Brown 

Everybody's favorite curmudgeon Andy Rooney signed off last night after 33 years having the last word on 60 Minutes.  I was grateful that a dear friend sent me a link to it (here), knowing how much I'd appreciate it.

"When I was in high school I had an English teacher who told me I was a good writer so I set out to become a writer myself," Rooney said, or wrote, he made it clear that he reads what he writes on TV. "I've made my living as a writer for seventy years now.  It's been pretty good."

That's not a bad run as writer's gigs go.  Only perhaps Studs Terkel outlasted him as a writer-broadcaster.

"A writers' job is to tell the truth," imparted Rooney, as he told the truth about his loathing of celebrity.

"I spent my first 50 years trying to become well known as a writer," Rooney offered. "And the next 30 trying to avoid being famous.  I walk down the street now or go to a football game and people shout 'Hey Andy!'  And I hate that."

I remember Andy Rooney's early 60 Minutes commentaries.  The show was a regular Sunday night staple in our house coming as it did right after football and right before Carroll O'Connor stole my father's lines on "All in the Family."

Sometimes I liked what Rooney said, even agreed with him. Other times I wondered how such a schlub got on television.

I agreed with much of what he said in last night's final word, however, especially about writing.

I have always been a writer -- it's all I've really ever wanted to be.  Sure, I do a lot of other things, always have, much of which I've stopped doing over the years. But I'll never stop writing. It's who I am. I'm a writer.

And, as Andy Rooney wrote and read into the camera last night, "Writers don't retire and I'll always be a writer."

For those of you who never saw Andy Rooney in action or want to relive some of his classic commentaries, here's a link to "The Best of Andy Rooney" courtesy of CBS.

And one final note to Jeff Fager, if you're reading this and you're looking for a skeptic to take Mr. Rooney's place, give me a call.

Clean Energy Is the New Black -- Eye, That Is...

The Tonight Show, Starring John Doerr

There's so much noise about "clean energy" and "green jobs" and "Obamacare"...oh, well, maybe not Obamacare, but it's tainted by the same brush these days, I'm afraid.

I was talking with my cleantech colleague Scott Moon of Ernst & Young the other day at the ribbon cutting for Renmatix's new technical facility in King of Prussia, PA.

Renmatix has developed a technology that converts wood waste into cellulosic sugar for use in biofuels and biochemicals.  It's not just an energy play.

The world in which we live -- tech, manufacturing and service companies that are trying to disrupt energy, building materials, chemicals, and even finance -- is getting a black eye from a peanut gallery full of enemies. 

As if that wasn't enough, then came Solyndra, which was like getting hit by friendly fire as we were taking the hill.

"We can't get a break," I said to Scott.  "Good companies that have solid solutions and good products and even customers lined up out the door are being lumped into the rubbish bin of broken dreams."

Even my pals at Fox Business are trash-talking the entire sector while attacking the President's policies and insider shenanigans.

"We need to come up with a new name for 'cleantech,'" Scott said. "I can't get anybody to pay attention to it."

Inside the spartan facility, Renmatix's presentation was beginning.  John Doerr, venture partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and a long-time advocate of and investor in cleantech, came on the stage to a rock music intro.  It was a talk show entrance.  He even did a Johnny Carson move to silence the music.

"There were basically three revolutions over the past 30 years," Doerr related. "computer technologies: IT; biotech: BT; and now we have the third, energy tech or ET."

"Energy Tech."  With all due respect to Mr. Doerr or my brethren at Enertech Capital, who were prescient in being inclusive when naming their firm, I'm not sure that does it either.

Sure you can lump stuff like "clean coal," natural gas, nuclear, and maybe even tar sands under the "ET" label, but wasn't that what "clean energy" was accomplishing over "renewable energy."

At the end of the day, we really need to find not a new brand, but to make a better case for the energy technologies we need to power the future. 

The debate over whether we can make money in this stuff has started, but that's still too early.  The real test is still a way off.

Until we do make some green from green, however, we'll never see cleantech, clean energy or even energy tech become the new normal.  And I just hope we don't get caught with the lights off one day.