Editor’s Note: The is a guest contribution by Danny Kennedy, President of Sungevity. This is part of a series from the CEO’s of major solar companies. You can follow the complete series here.
Sometimes it is hard to contemplate what a good news story our industry – solar sales and installation – and the broader clean energy economy really represents. I was reminded on Monday at the graduation ceremony for the Oakland Green Collar Jobs Corps.
OPEN (Organization for Pakistani Entrepreneurs) Silicon Valley is holding their Forum ‘09 this Saturday, June 13th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. This year, the forum will include a Cleantech track that will bring business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and policy makers together to discuss different perspectives of clean and sustainable technologies for the future. If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area and want a new and interesting perspective on the subject, head out to Mountain View this Saturday.
Tickets are $55 in advance and $95 on-site, but OPEN was kind enough to offer Green Options readers a bargain discounted price of $40. The discounted tickets can only be purchased through this link: http://tinyurl.com/OPENforum-DISCOUNT.
Here is a brief overview of the Cleantech panel sessions:
Session I: Where’s the Green in Clean? Investment Opportunities, Valuations and the Funding Gap in Cleantech.
Session II: Innovations in Energy: Viable business propositions after Market Corrections.
Session III: The Stimulus Act: The Impact of Government Policy on Cleantech Start-ups and Investors.
Session IV: Workshop: Crafting your personal brand to transition into the Cleantech sector.
For more information on OPEN Silicon Valley Forum ‘09 Cleantech sessions, click here.
For a full schedule of events click here.
Unless you’ve been laid up in bed all this week, you’ve heard that Apple is releasing a new iPhone 3G-S with an amazing array of features But one you may not have heard of is a brilliant bridging between the iPhone and Zipcar.
These two are as they say peas in a pod, technology enhanced life(style) enhancements, for a demographic that I imagine likes that they get to both have what they want, when they want it, and do good by the planet at the same time.
Impressing your friends in the bargain is a fine dessert.
With so many sources of information on sustainability and green living choices, you’d think it would be easy for you and me to live a greener lifestyle. And yet, how many times have you found yourself out there, doing errands, going out, or traveling, and you have no idea how and where to make greener choices?
3rdWhale is a bridge between talk and action, with an iPhone app that allows you to search for green businesses in proximity to you, plus submit your own finds that aren’t already on there, all listings filtered by 3rd Whale and then rated by users, ala Yelp. An Android version is on its way.
But here’s where it gets interesting: As seen first in Mother Nature Network 3rd Whale are joining forces with Creative Citizen, a hub for crowdsourced, specifically measurable sustainable choices. Each is broken down to how much energy, waste, water, emissions you’ve saved, and in what I think will help it bridge to a broader segment of the population, money. When you have this kind of clearly tangible benefit laid out for you, and it’s on something that you carry with you, action is much for likely.
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In today’s rapidly changing sustainable business landscape, it’s becoming increasingly important to be aware of what’s happening, emerging, and yet to be created where you could fill a need. How best to do that?Newspapers and magazines play a part, but with their shrinking staffs, it’s a smaller role by the day. Blogs? Definitely, it’s where people with the freedom and foresight to look broader, more critically, think more bravely share what they’re observing, researching, and wanting your feedback on. Microblogging sites such as Twitter take the time frame even more immediate, currently breaking.
But, you may be asking, where do I find the time to go to all these sources? A fair question, one which a tool like Feedly handily integrates all together in one place, allowing for you to easily interact with both your information and the people talking about it.
The next question you may have is, how do I even find what I need to keep track of in the first place amongst all this big swirling pot of information? And how do I know what’s best?
This Earth Day, it was my mission to take serious steps towards greening my home office. While saving paper was the no-brainer approach, there is no escaping those documents that absolutely need to be printed in any office large or small. So, the next obvious choice is to look at greening your print habits.
Given that I have been using the HP Officejet Pro 8500 for a few weeks now, I am beginning to realize its merits as an ideal printer for small business or home office use. Not just because of its efficiency but also because it is a truly green option as far as printers go. Read the rest of this entry »
Ecopreneurist has been testing out the HP Officejet Pro 8500, a brand new wireless printer from HP. This is one of the first jet printers we have seen that provides photo quality output. Given that this printer is significantly cheaper than laser printers, this “All-In-One” machine might just be the perfect solution for small businesses.
Now by “All-In-One,” we refer to four key functions that are part and parcel of every small business: printing, scanning, faxing, and copying. This means saving up to 50% of the energy used to do all of these jobs individually.
If your needs match those of most small business, then investing in this printer could actually signal the end of long, frustrating and ultimately expensive hours spent at your local Kinko’s, where you are just one of a many other entrepreneurs lining up to get your bulk print demands met before your business deadline. Read the rest of this entry »
This post is submitted by Paul O’Callaghan founding CEO of O2 Environmental .
‘Growing world population will cause a “perfect storm” of food, energy and water shortages by 2030′. That is what a UK Government chief scientist told attendees at the Sustainable Development conference in London yesterday. Prof. Beddington told the group that demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion.
Despite this, investment in water deals represented just 1.8% of the total investment in the Clean Technology area in 2008. There are number of reasons for this and also signs that this is changing. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ll admit it: I am a chronic trier of new software. Being on Twitter, I am soaking in shiny new things to try. And I do. Often. And almost as often, they end up collecting virtual dust on the shelf, tried briefly, not proving sticky enough to become part of my work or fun flow, or compelling enough to displace what I already use.
Such was the case for Evernote. It seemed so promising - a place to hold and make searchable all the random bits and pieces of your life, work, business. But for me, Delicious, with it’s simple interface and singularity of focus - tag enhanced bookmarking - fit and continues to fit the bill. For me.
And yet, last night when the internet was out, I began looking through the things I’d collected on Evernote - images of business cards, email articles from the network of Presidio, the sustainable MBA program I’m a graduate of, bits of wisdom from the web on management, and clips from articles I’d found about an advance in nighttime storage/alternate use of solar technology - all of which got me inspired to create new possibilities in my business, GreenSmith Consulting.
But it was the final, earliest note, that brought it all together.
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Meraki is a San Francisco based private start-up company that was born out of a research project initiated by Sanjit Biswas and fellow Harvard PhD students. Meraki’s Wi-Fi networking technology drastically reduces the cost of deploying reliable Wi-Fi networks. The start-up has successfully implemented its networks in a variety of situations already, both residential and educational. As part of a multi-year agreement, One Economy will deploy Meraki solutions to low-income communities in every location it provides services to starting with major U.S. cities including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and eventually throughout the globe.
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