Know Your Audience (and Its Bite Size), Say Corporate VCs to Cleantech Entrepreneurs

Grant Allen of ABB TechnologyVentures

"Get your stuff together before you meet with us," said Grant Allen of ABB Technology Ventures to an audience of entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate leaders gathered at the offices of Pepper Hamilton in Philadelphia last Thursday. "Do your homework. We're quite clear on our web site what we do. And make sure you have a crisp, compelling script, and a strong, committed management team."

This sentiment was echoed by Michael Smith, head of Constellation Technology Ventures at Exelon. "You need to know your audience," Smith said. "Talk to us like an energy company. We're looking for ways to keep Exelon relevant."

The event, "Energy Giants: Looking for Innovative Investments," was jointly sponsored by Pepper Hamilton and the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, and featured Sumit Sarkar of NRG Ventures, in addition to Smith and Allen, on a panel that I moderated.

Michael Smith of Constellation
Technology Ventures

"Large companies aren't good at innovation," Allen offered, "our goal is to be a thorn in the side of internal R&D."

Sarkar suggested that the venture arms of corporations can sometimes be nimbler in response and are constantly scanning for technologies that offer improvements.

Each outlined what they look for in a company and how much they want to invest, their “bite size.”

There was, of course, some discussion about capital "light" companies or technologies, but given the range of their investment thresholds -- from $3M-$250M -- they understand the need for some capital outlay.

While traditional Venture Capital (VC) has been pulling out of the sector, corporate VC (CVC) has picked up some of the slack.

In 2012 for example, according to a recent study, of the total $6.46B investment in the sector, $2.7B came from corporates, up from $2.55B in 2010 and $1.7B in 2006. Q2 of 2013 saw CVC rise to 14% of total venture investment in the sector vs. only 8% in Q1. And 107 CVCs made an investment in the sector in the 1st half of 2013, versus 148 in all of 2012.

Sumit Sarkar of NRG Ventures

Corporate VCs are a little less risk averse than traditional VCs, in part because such companies are full of engineers who can scrutinize a technology's before an investment is made, but there seemed to be consensus that if the technology enables an existing technology perform better, it is going to be worth a look.

All three investors agreed that networking and investment pitch events can serve as a feeder for companies, but having an executive sponsor is best. 

The entrepreneurs in the room, representing everything from energy storage to software that helps increase the efficiency of long-haul truck drivers, seemed to nod in understanding or agreement.

At the cleantech CEO Retreat that I help manage for EY’s Global Cleantech Center this fall, a recurring meme developed around elephants dancing with mice. As small companies (the mice) began to dance with corporates (the elephants) either as strategic partners, customers, or investors.

Some of the concerns for the mice, obviously, were around how not to get crushed while dancing with elephants. But from the elephant side, how can mice get noticed and have something relevant to share?

Hopefully, the panelists at last Thursday’s event helped alleviate some of the stress between species on the dance floor.

(Disclosure: the author is co-founder of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic.)

Energy Giants: Looking for Innovative Investments

Join me as I moderate this panel on corporate investors looking for innovative technologies that fit their corporate strategies. Hope to see you there.   

Energy Giants: Looking for Innovative Investments

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Large and forward-looking corporations want to be on the ground floor of the next wave of energy innovation. Corporate investors are looking for innovative technologies that fit within their corporate strategies. In addition to financial assistance, these corporate investors are also assisting to commercialize technologies within the large and changing energy markets. Learn about this and more by attending this informative and lively dialogue in which industry experts will address these and other key questions. Sponsored by Pepper Hamilton LLP's Energy Group and Emerging Company Group and the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, this session examines the recent resurgence in corporate venture activity in the energy space - particularly among Fortune 500 companies - and the many new players involved in the industry. Join us to learn more about this complex and important topic.

5:30 - 6:00 p.m. Networking and Registration

6:00 - 7:00 p.m. Program

7:00 - 7:30 p.m. Networking

Pepper Hamilton LLP

3000 Two Logan Square

Eighteenth and Arch Streets

Philadelphia, PA  19103

Welcome & IntroductionThomas P. Dwyer, Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP

Moderator
Scott E. Anderson, Global Marketing Director, Cleantech, Ernst & Young LLP
Co-Founder, Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic

Speakers

Grant Allen, Senior Vice President, ABB Technology Ventures
Sumit Sarkar, Director, NRG Ventures
Michael Smith, Vice President, Head of Constellation Technology Ventures at Exelon

Contact Kristen Clark at clarkk@pepperlaw.com or 412.454.5049 with questions.

CLICK HERE to register for this event.

(Full disclosure: I am co-founder of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic.)

3rd Annual EY Cleantech CEO Retreat Underway

EY Cleantech CEO Retreat Underway

Today starts the 3rd Annual EY Cleantech CEO Retreat, an event I've managed for the past two years and which we, EY's Global Cleantech Center, hosts at the Carneros Inn in Napa, California.

This two-day Retreat is designed to be an intimate, facilitated dialogue between peers working in all sub-sectors and concentrations from the broad spectrum that is cleantech.

Included are emerging company entrepreneurs focused on energy efficiency, new ways of financing clean energy development, producing alternative fuels and even more efficient ways to use traditional fuels.

Some of the companies attending include Elevance Renewable Sciences, LightSail Energy, OriginOil, Energy Points, and WegoWise.

In addition, we bring into the fold some of the most innovative companies fostering sustainable solutions or investing in the companies and business models for a sustainable future.

Among the corporations are Nike, SunEdison, WiTricity, Tecsis Brazil, and CLP India.

We're excited to be hosting this event again this year and look forward to a couple of days full of stimulating dialogue about the issues facing cleantech companies today -- from capital raising to working with corporations as partners and customers, from helping US government agencies reach their renewable energy targets to seeking opportunities in emerging markets like China and India.

And, of course, we look forward to the good food, wine, and landscape that Napa and the Carneros Inn provides.

We couldn't do it without our sponsors, including Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Goodwin Procter, Heidrick & Struggles, Silicon Valley Bank, and Steelcase, who provided the furniture for our unique event. Additional support came from the Aspen Institute's Energy & Environment Program.

For more on this invitation-only event and other programs and thought leadership from EY's global Cleantech Center, go to ey.com/cleantech.

In Case You're Wondering Why The Green Skeptic Hasn't Posted in Some Time...

As the season turns from summer to fall, it's becoming increasingly obvious to me that I've neglected The Green Skeptic and its readers for too long -- my last post was August 2nd.

But there's good reason! 

In addition to the usual summer vacation (those of you who follow me on Twitter or Instagram will have seen my tweets from Martha's Vineyard), back to school, and the Jewish holidays, which I've been fortunate enough to enjoy with my fiancee, Samantha, I've been cooking up a few other things -- besides delicious meals.

First, is EY Cleantech's upcoming CEO Retreat in Napa, California, where we'll welcome over 80 cleantech CEOs, corporate, and government leaders  representatives. It's a very exciting event and I've had the pleasure of organizing and managing it for the second straight year. You can read more about it (and read last year's report) HERE.

Second, I've begun work on a new book of nonfiction that pulls together stories of cleantech innovation and my own insights on the sector, which will be of interest to readers of The Green Skeptic. (More on that later, I hope.)

And finally, this fall, the Aldrich Press is publishing my first full-length collection of poetry, FALLOW FIELD. The book consists of 45 poems, representing my best work from the past quarter century, and you can order your signed copy of FALLOW FIELD here:

Here is what others have said about this collection, FALLOW FIELD:

“Scott Edward Anderson’s poems honor the reality that the things of the world – rye grass, fall warblers, ravens, owls, ‘Sargassum drifting/ in a pelagic wave,’ lovers and sourdough bread – speak to and for our innerness. Here the sense of place is not simply a matter of geography, but of feeling one’s way into that sense of becoming that makes one’s path clear. The book’s fourth section is comprised of poems that beautifully embrace the very human need to join the inner and outer, a territory defined, as the poem titles suggest, by ‘Becoming,’ ‘Shapeshifting,’ ‘Cultivating,’ ‘Mapping,’ and ‘Healing.’ Guided since childhood, as the book’s closing long poem relates, by nature’s teaching, Anderson is devoted to finding the words for what it means to dwell mindfully among others on the wounded earth.”

                                                            –Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of Rope: Poems

“I was impressed by Anderson’s engagement with nature — especially the way in which his lyrical lines sketch the profound relationship between humans and their environment.”

                                                             – Jonathan Galassi, author of Left-handed: Poems

For those of you not familiar with my poetry, it is rooted in nature and grounded in what Robert Hass called the “strong central tradition of free verse made out of both romanticism and modernism, split between the impulses of an inward and psychological writing and an outward and realist one, at its best fusing the two.”  (Hass, Introduction to Best American Poetry 2001)

I studied with Hass and with Gary Snyder, along with the late Walter Pavlich, and received some great mentoring and advice from poets Alison Hawthorne Deming, Donald Hall, Colette Inez, and Karen Swenson, as well as wonderful friends and readers.

My poetry is informed by a deep engagement with the natural world, attuned to the smallest details and complexities of nature and our experience of place. Attentiveness and mindfulness are critical to my method of working, both as the poem first evolves and later, through the often rigorous process of revision.

I believe poetry is the most direct language with which to approach our place in the world and reconnect us to nature. By nature, I mean not only the natural world, but also the built environment; not only the processes and causal powers of the physical world, but our immediate experience of the spiritual and the non-human.

For the past twenty five years, I have been building a body of poetry that tries to achieve my goal of writing that is open, approachable, and eminently readable, at the same time that it is intellectual and revels in the joy of language. FALLOW FIELD represents the best of my poetry over that time.

Order your signed copy of FALLOW FIELD below:

Review: ENVIRONMENTAL DEBT by Amy Larkin

There have been a number of books about business and the environment over the past five years.

Most follow the same formula: explain the environmental issues and problems we're causing as a species, point to a few success stories -- especially about good corporate citizens who are taking steps to reduce their impact, and outline a prescription for a path forward toward a solution.

The books tend to resemble each other, too, as if book jacket designers and marketing staff have done their market research. Typically, there's a fringe of grass along the bottom edge with a plant growing out of it and some denomination of money, either as blossom or as the potting material that nurture's both ecological and economic growth. (Yawn.)

Amy Larkin's Environmental Debt: The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy is no different, but it stands as a complementary volume to Mark Tercek's Nature's Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature, which I reviewed earlier this year.

Larkin, a self-proclaimed environmental activist and "revolutionary in a suit," is former solutions director with Greenpeace. She has enviro street-cred, but has also been in enough boardrooms to know how to achieve corporate compromises.

Larkin has done great work, some of which she highlights in her book, and she continues to serve as a consultant with companies wrestling with how to address their environmental footprint.

Hers is a strong, credible voice for focusing on solutions, while not ignoring the intractable problems.

She's direct and forthcoming about some of the challenges facing the environmental movement, especially in trying to convince the public that there is a better, albeit harder way.

That better way is outlined by her Nature Means Business framework (NMB), which is also, curiously, the name of her consulting firm.

The NMB Framework is simple (thankfully):

1.) Pollution can no longer be free and can no longer be subsidized.
2.) The long view must guide all decision making and accounting.
3.) Government plays a vital role in catalyzing clean technology and growth while preventing environmental destruction.

Larkin stops short of prescribing a cure beyond this three-part framework.

In fact, she's set up a web site and a kind of Changemakers-style competition called transitionagenda.org with the conflict resolution organization RESOLVE in order to allow readers to continue the conversation, offer their own ideas, and possibly, via crowdfunding a la Kickstarter, fund those ideas.

Either Larkin has a lot of faith in her readers or her editors wanted there to be a life for Environmental Debt beyond the book. It's an interesting concept and I'm curious to see whether it works.

Ultimately, a book like this will only make a difference if it gets into the right hands and at the right time.

The revelation that caused Ray Anderson to transform his Interface flooring company came from his reading of Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce.

Lee Scott and Rob Walton overhauled Walmart's supply chain and business operations after touring biodiversity hotspots with Pete Seligmann of Conservation International.

As Larkin writes, her "greatest hope is that Environmental Debt promulgates new ideas into the culture that in turn change our understanding of business."

And, perhaps, she didn't have to add, change the way we do business.

I hope the right people read this book.

July Hiatus: Chris Nelder's Tribute to Randy Udall

While I'm on my July blogging hiatus, I'd thought I'd share with you a few posts from friends whose thought leadership I admire. Earlier this month, my pal Chris Nelder wrote about Randy Udall for SmartPlanet. Udall passed away at the age of 61 while on a solo backpacking trip in Wyoming's Wind River Range. 

I recall Udall's cogent, smart, and somewhat snarky comments on pricing energy in conversation with Jim Rogers of Duke Energy at the Aspen Environment Forum back in 2009, where we were both speaking.  

Here is Chris's tribute, in part. You can go here to read the full version:

Randy Udall: An energy hero’s journey by Chris Nelder

Randy Udall by Dan Bihn

Randy Udall had a unique talent for expressing complex realities and befuddling data in a simple, tangible way that anyone could understand; for being able to step back from the immediate issues of the day and put them in a larger, clarifying perspective.

So when I learned last week that he had died on a solo backpacking trip in the Wyoming wilderness, it was a crushing loss. Randy was one of my heroes: a wonderful man who was a hugely important and helpful friend, mentor, sounding board, and teacher to me over the past several years. He was a gifted writer and a compelling speaker. It’s hard to believe we’ll have no more of his words.

He certainly contributed much to mine. It was Randy who, preferring to be credited anonymously as “a perspicacious friend,” said this in my article on “energy independence“ in February 2012: “The masses (and the cheerleaders) love this story because it is one of Abundance and Manifest Destiny in this Exceptional Country of ours.” That phrase expressed beautifully what the shale mania is really all about. A student of human nature, Randy had an unerring ability to detect the emotional underpinnings of our rhetoric about energy and our destiny, and bring it back to earth.

He never doubted that the engines of human activity were redlining, and that we had entered a period of extreme, even existential challenges where “the politics of energy has to surrender to the physics of energy.” He had no doubt that peak oil was a real and a serious issue we would have to confront in the very near future, as the decline of a handful of mature giant oil fields eventually overwhelmed new additions from the thousands of new wells being drilled every year. And he put his shoulder to the wheel in response, co-founding the U.S. chapter of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO), and co-hosting its first conferences.

Over the past several years, I was lucky to exchange emails every few days with Randy and some other fellow energy geeks. (Some of them wrote this touching tribute.) In a kind of ongoing workshop, we passed around data and charts and observations, working through arcane details, trying to detect the reality of our energy situation amidst a growing crescendo of industry propaganda.

Read the complete tribute here.

More about Chris Nelder.