2001: $714 million

2002: $899 million

2003: $1.7 billion

2004: $1.8 billion

2005: $2.5 billion

2006: $3.6 billion

2007: $5.18 billion

No, this is not how much money Bill Gates has made. It is the investment in Green-tech over the last few years (in North America and Europe).

Sounds promising at first glance. But one detail Cnet News Green-tech Blog added struck me:

“Energy generation was the most active sector with 172 deals, totaling $2.75 billion.”

It struck me, because of another post in there:

“Do environmentalists contribute to global warming?”

It is about how clean nuclear energy is. So I am wondering how much of those $2.75 billion went into nuclear power. Is it clean? Maybe when you look at greenhouse gases, even though I have read that the sourcing of the uranium produces quite a lot (but I do not really know).

My main objection to nuclear power comes from the fact that the decisions we make today, affect our children’s children for thousands of years. It is proof of the short-sightedness of humans. If we are not directly affected, there is no problem.

Maybe I am biased by the decision made in Germany to phase out nuclear power (after it was in operation over 40 years).

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Alexander

One of the organisations on my list is ecoBiz, a government run consultancy service that helps businesses implement sustainability in 3 areas: Energy, Waste and Water.

They facilitate a 6 step process:

1. Company applies to join ecoBiz
2. Company develops baseline to compare eco-efficiency improvement against
3. Site survey to identify opportunities for positive ecological impact
4. Development of action plan of how to implement these solutions
5. Implementation (There is also the potential of a rebate of up to 30% of the investment)
6. Reassessment (after one year) to assess the savings.

No overall financial analysis available

I asked Michelle Olivier whether they had statistics on the financial impact on businesses. It would help figure out whether sustainable solutions bring a positive financial return. Due to their workload and staff shortages, she does not have these figures and is not planning to develop them either.

So answer here to my question: Are sustainable solutions more competitive than their “traditional” counterparts.

Sustainability involves Action

What their website did remind me off is that a change in actions is essential to achieve reduced impact on the environment. Reduce, re-use, recycle, switch off lights, etc.

So I am sure how far I get with my goal to improve the convenience. After all, this whole process ties up some internal resources (even though there is the payback of additional motivation).

On their website, they publish their complete toolbox for anyone to use. This includes detailed Excel spreadsheets to work out the financial and ecological impact. It also gives may ideas of what actions can be taken in each of the 3 areas (water, waste, energy).
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