Efficiency to surpass $100B by 2017

Energy efficiency is poised to become a $103.5 billion industry by 2017 if current trends continue, according to a Pike Research study cited by the GreenBiz article linked below. The growth is being fueled by the fast spread of Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and equally fast-spreading government incentives and programs.

Puerto Rico jumped into the act this fall when the legislature passed the island's own ESCO law, expected to be signed by the governor in the coming days. The law mandates that government agencies contract ESCOs to implement efficiency measures, a moved widely expected to catapult the spread and growth of ESCOs on the island.

Building efficiency fast becoming a huge industry

New business group proposes solutions at Durban

Innovation, technology, new products and other solutions stemming from the world's companies ought to feature far more prominently in the climate negotiations taking place at Durban, South Africa, according to a new global business group set up to counter the biggest threat they and all of humanity face.

Making the case for business climate solutions

Caribbean represented at climate talks

Representatives of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) are pushing hard for a global deal on climate change that would take effect immediately, citing deep concerns over the risk posed by rising sea levels. That includes the Caribbean.

Island nations raise voice of alarm

Durban climate talks, day one

Day one is over at the Durban, South Africa climate-change talks, and the going was rough, as participating countries used the day to establish their positions, which were mostly at odds. Following intensely are companies around the world hoping for a breakthrough that will fuel further growth of the green economy.

Rough start at Durban

Green energy outinvests oil, coal, gas

In a stunning turn of events, green energy (wind, sun, biomass and others) received more investment capital than fossil-fuel energy sources (oil, coal and gas).

Green energy trumps fossil fuels for the first time

Debate intensifies over green consumption

One of the biggest business opportunities in the green economy is the massive conversion of every manufactured product to green across the entire value chain, followed by the equally massive challenge of getting commercial and individual consumers to embrace the change and purchase the green products instead of the unsustainable ones. This Unilever conference shed some light on the subject.

The imperative to green everything made

Study points to great opportunities in biodiversity

Climate change and resource depletion have placed the world's biodiversity at serious risk, according to a recent study. Saving it will require business and entrepreneurial ingenuity and action. The opportunities are as deep as a forest.

Business opportunities in saving biodiversity

A new way of looking at the green economy

The United Nations has just come out with a landmark report that segments the global green economy into ten sectors. Combined, the sectors reflect what has increasingly become the modern way of understanding sustainable business around the world: as an integrated, multifaceted, global & local industry that spans many fields and includes countless companies, all of which interrelate one with the other with the ultimate result of reducing environmental impacts, lowering warming emissions and otherwise helping to reverse climate change.

UN launches 10-sector initiative

Secretary Chu readies to persuade the country

Energy Secretary Steven Chu goes before congressional Republicans tomorrow (Thursday) to field questions on Solyndra. But the question is: will he take advantage of the opportunity to speak beyond Solyndra and address the bigger energy issues facing the nation and the world.

Will Chu hit it out of the ballpark tomorrow?

Russia develops cutting-edge R&D center

Russia has joined the race to discover the latest planet-saving solutions with the creation of the Skolkovo Innovation Center outside Moscow, a cutting-edge R&D center focused on cleantech. Places like Puerto Rico that are striving to get their own R&D centers up and running should take note.

The emergence of Skolkovo

Time to accelerate business solutions

The latest (and scariest) report from the International Energy Agency says the world has until 2017 to reverse climate change before the opportunity door closes "forever". That's barely six years away, which given today's growth momentum and stumbling global climate talks, might seem an insurmountable challenge.

Perhaps. But what it certainly represents is an opportunity for green-economy companies everywhere to step up their efforts and bring massive-scale solutions to market. The IEA report, like others before and no doubt after, only raises the stakes and the urgency for those solutions to work. FAST.

Dire global warming warning from the IEA

Met the future? It's in composite cars.

For those of you in the auto business (manufacture, parts, mechanics, sales, any role), or for those of you into cars, welcome to the future. They're called composite cars: all-electric, light-weight, great-performance vehicles perfectly suited for the urban dweller of today and tomorrow -- especially climate-conscious urban dwellers. This article provides a preview.

Composite all-electric cars are here

Group seeks deeper understanding of green consumer behavior

An interesting paradox has emerged in green consumer behavior: the more knowledgeable American consumers become about climate change, the less active they are willing to become. One group has decided to explore further the reasons why, which stands to help all green companies seeking higher market penetration for their own goods and services.

The more we know, the less we act

To ignite your green, ignite your employees

Numerous studies have shown that employees fully engaged in a company's sustainability efforts tend to become more passionate, productive and last longer at their jobs, aside from enhancing the company's sales, service and savings results from the green practices. The broader-based the implementation of this employee engagement -- that is, the more business units, departments and stores engage their employees -- the deeper and bigger the bottom-line benefits.

In this story, leading sustainability consulting firm BBMG shares three steps to getting the job done.

BBMG: 3 steps to a more engaged workforce

The climate solution begins with our children

As with most social challenges, the solution to climate change is made far easier when children are taught by parents and schools to understand the ecosystem, minimize their environmental impacts and influence their peers to do the same.

How to make kids care about climate change

As emissions worsen, opportunities grow

While intuitive to view record hikes in global warming gases as catastrophic, one alternative is to see the business opportunities behind the story. Rising emissions means a rise in the urgency and pressure to reduce them, which in turn translates into policies that create greater consumer and corporate demand for all products and services that reduce emissions on both the mitigation and adaptation fronts.

The concern, naturally, is timing. Will the solutions come on time to avert the worst consequences of climate change? According to the latest data presented in this article, time certainly seems to be running out, which means that businesses must act faster than ever.

Biggest jump ever seen in global warming gases

More on hitting 7 billion people

The 7 billion figure may be just a milestone, but the implications of and business opportunities in a rising population in developing countries today and long-term are dramatic, as we find in this series of recent blogs by Sustainable Cities Collective.

Growing population and the city of the future

Good news for the price of solar

Thinking of installing solar power in your home or business? This may be a good time, as prices have begun to drop further as a result of a glut for panels in the global market, as this Reuters story indicates.

China to slow solar output

Desertec solar project alive and well

For those of you wondering about the future of solar power and other forms of renewable energy, take a look at the biggest such project in the world.

Desertec (HUGE Solar & Clean Energy Project) Moving Forward | CleanTechnica