Upon speaking on the GreenEconomy panel for Earth Day SF, I compiled a brief list to share some of the trends occurring and where people can spend their money to help nudge the needle. In tribute to Earth Day,
What I am seeing with many companies is refinement of processes internally to eliminate waste upstream and downstream – in the manufacturing process and how they deliver to their clients.
LIGHT BULBS
GE made $25 billion on clean tech last year. You can buy the light bulbs on the shelf and save years of energy for yourself. This helps economy as they are investing in small business as well as helping your own pocket book by saving you energy with an affordable bulb.
CARS
Ford uses old fabric in their floor mats reducing waste from landfills. Why? To soften the noise from the ride. No more foam.
Most car companies operate zero waste facilities. General Motors last year was able to reduce their waste to practically zero through sustainability practices is an amazing accomplishment.
CLOTHES
PUMA products are cradle to cradle – meaning all levels of their product impacts from start to finish are addressed – to the point they collect the waste and recycle it through programs
Oat Shoes from Amsterdam actually bloom when you plant them, as they are designed with biodegradable materials and have seed embedded, so at the end of life, they are meant to be planted and turned into a flower garden.
FOOD
Chipolte has a great sustainable success story. Early on they saw a relationship of poor sales with standard pork. The chef was wondering why people weren’t eating the pork dinners. After exploring the pork industry and seeing the fact that pigs live up to their waste in manure in cages too small to turn requiring more antibiotics than a human, it was apparent they needed to go organic and free range. When they did this, their sales turned around, so did their profits, and the direct relationship of family farms with Niman Ranch where they sources the pork also increased. Once only a handful of farms they now source from over 600 family farms and have to find their pork elsewhere because Nieman’s Ranch can’t keep up with demand. They started with a few stores and are now a publicly traded company with shares continuing to rise and 1400 stores.
Annie’s Food is organic and their due diligence means no GMOs and healthy food for you – also meaning they are saving hundreds of tons of pesticides from entering the ecosystem
Safeway is doing a great job providing over 700 organic items including fresh produce and gluten free breads–which is a new trend for the standard grocery chain outside Whole Foods. Although it is still a small percentage of the store and I would like to see far more products, Safeway is responding to public demand.
CARPET
On the carpet space, Interface is an amazing company and have set the standard. They are primarily industrial but have created an entire industry where most carpets are now ecofriendly.
CLEANING PRODUCTS
Clorox mentioned in an interview that 40% of their revenue is being derived of their products which represent the eco friendly ones. Brands they have developed or purchased in response to the demand and trend in green for these products. Their intention is to work on reducing the footprint of the other 90%
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
eBay has a fascinating story on how they continue to reduce their footprint. For one, purchasing online has radically changed the landscape of needing a store (heating, cleaning, storing, all the carbon costs associated). The carbon costs related to eBay and PayPal are energy storage.
They do this by using alternative energy, and increasing the capacity of their technology, as well as optimizing processes, memory and space. So if there is extra memory not being used, they optimize it. As more users come on line with more transactions and more demands, they retain a flat line with the fact that technology increases. The speed of servers, memory and capacity continues to increase exponentially.
The only issue they faced was at their facility in Utah a law prevented them from using alternative energy…which mandated 95% of the energy be derived from coal. They created a coalition among peer companies and forced the legislation to change the law and are now able to manufacture their own solar energy.
eBay has been able to reduce their carbon footprint of energy consumption by almost 95%!
HAPPINESS
G Adventures focuses on the happiness factor where they see a direct relationship in profit based on the engagement, input and inspiration of their employees. Encouraging ingenuity among their employees and allowing autonomy to create programs around NGO concerns and other programatic content–like adventure tours–has proven incredibly profitable.
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Autodesk provides software and education to empower architects, designers and engineers to find the most sustainable solutions, and to experiment with materials with 3D models in the prototype stage–before ever touching the foundation or prototype.
NEW COMPANIES
Many emerging companies and technologies are erupting that are dramatically changing the face of our world. Some are on their way to us, others require infrastructure to weave into place, and others may not make it due to leadership required to get there. But the fact is, we are on our way to the future at lightening speed. Sprouting at accelerators such as Cleantech Open, we can catch a glimpse of the future.
Some of these companies include new engines that completely change the way engines are made, for example Rotary Wing Engine and HEVT offer a new paradigm in hybrid engines like we’ve never seen before and will completely disrupt the current marketplace.
Or lighting made with nano particles where tiny microscopic particles illuminate your way with Navillum.
Many of these new companies represent trillions of dollars in opportunity with new investments. Investing early can be risky so if you want to stick to a mutual fund model, yet get a competitive yield, one company who vets investments in this space is HIP Investor led by R. Paul Herman.
DISRUPTIVE ECONOMIES
How can we explore the new evolution of the market place without exploring the amazing acceleration of what has become known as the “sharing economy”. Companies such as Relay Rides are putting car companies on their ears–even Zip Cars–with an entirely new paradigm.
IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU
You make it happen. Your voice, your dollar is trending sustainability up and the cost of doing business in this space down every time you buy products that are created in a smart conscious eco friendly way versus a toxic polluting globally selfish way. And clean tech will–and is– earning us a lot of money! Transparency and demand is what it’s all about. So keep demanding!
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
Noble Profit™ is an authentic source for discovering innovation, trends and investment in clean tech, and sustainable business.