SunChips Debuts Compostable Packaging

This is awesome. Today SunChips started a media campaign for their new compostable packaging initiative, which will be rolled out bit by bit this year, with a fully compostable bag making its debut on Earth Day next year.

A huge pet peeve of mine is un-necessary packaging, and individually wrapped goods (ketchup packets really take the cake here). Hopefully we'll see more of this type of thing happening across industries.

The bag is made out of polylactic acid, which is trade named Ingeo, and print ads in People magazine will feature swatches of the material as part of the marketing campaign.

Pepcom Green PR Lunch

So I'm heading to a Pepcom green PR lunch today, and am excited because I haven't met a lot of pr folks out there working in the green space. I know there are a lot of us - as the green segment has obviously ballooned over the past 2 years - but nonetheless, I think it will be good to meet some more folks in the trenches, see what they are seeing and compare notes.

I also think that its going to be interesting because it just goes to show how many of us there are - the mere existence of this lunch is telling. What inspired this post is not that however.

Last night I was thinking about what made me jump into green PR, and my early experiences in high school including AP English and a paper I wrote on endangered species. Moving on to college, I kept listening to that part of me that was interested in the environment. I read a book called "The Heat is On," by Ross Gelbspan.

Ross was a great inspiration to me in college - I was also thinking about a journalism career, and if there was anyone writing about the things that mattered, it was him. Not only did he write a book that foretold the consequences of global warming well before "An Inconvenient Truth," but he also covered things like renewable energy. A concept that stuck with me since back then was that if we don't take a leadership role in developing these technologies, we will be stuck purchasing them from foreign developers. Instead, we can be putting Americans to work on these projects here and creating a clean energy infrastructure. Indeed, if we take a back seat and we're purchasing these technologies from Europe - we might as well continue to import foreign oil too.

But truly what inspired this post (to get to the point) is that back then, when Ross wrote his book, he discussed the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is set up by the UN and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Many who are new to the green movement may have heard of the IPCC recently as they released a fourth climate change assesment report in 2007. The IPCC released their first report in 1990, and the second in 1995. What I took away from what Ross and other sources wrote about the IPCC's findings in their early reports was that despite the scientific evidence for global warming, businesses were mostly resistant to change as business-as-usual economics continued to take precedence.

That all needs to change.

I also concluded in an independent study of the environmental movement that because of the profit motive, their power to mobilize individuals and resources, and their grand scale and reach, businesses would have to be the true creators of change. Now - we have a phenomenon called green business. Some iterations can be less green than others - but the efforts are a needed start. And Hunter Lovins will tell you something to that effect at one of the Presidio School of Management's open houses.

But getting to my point - what dawned on me last night was that the mere fact that the IPCC issued their first report in 1990 means that, for some years, research was apparent enough to motivate the United Nations to create the IPCC in the first place. Fact is we have known that there is a need for a greening of operations in this world for quite some time, and so I think we are deeper into this storm than most of us may know.

So, today I'm putting on my green hat, inspired once again to spout out and hopefully inspire some other folks. Seems like a lot of capability has been built into Silicon Valley for supporting green action - and I'm glad to be a part of that. I look forward to meeting others with the same goal.

IT and Communications Technology Energy Efficiency Workshop in Silicon Valley

Telecommunications and IT experts participated in a vision and roadmap workshop for energy efficiency over the past two days in Sunnyvale. The Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), and Yahoo! sponsored the event.

According to the US DOE office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the electricity consumed in data centers and telecom systems is already 3 percent of the U.S. total and growing rapidly.

Input provided at this workshop will be circulated to participants and additional members of the sectors for review and comment. Upon final incorporation of the feedback, a vision and roadmap will be released to the wider research community, where the delineated research pathways should help to align public and private technology investment, lead to collaborative activities between industry and DOE, and accelerate progress in reducing power demand.

RETC Legislation Update, and more

The United States Senate on Tuesday voted by an overwhelming majority to extend the Production (PTC) and Investment Tax Credits (ITC). The tax measure was passed by a vote of 93-2. Now it goes back to the U.S. House of Representatives where it could be approved later this week.

Get the details at Renewable Energy World.

Residents in the city of Berkeley may be able to apply to finance solar power systems through their property taxes thanks to a new program the city is working on in conjunction with Renewable Funding.

Finally - Greentech media will be running their Third Quarter Greentech Venture Summary next week. Here's a sneak peak at their data with the top Greentech VC deals of '08.

Inside Renewable Energy: Renewable Energy Finance Forum

This week's Inside Renewable Energy podcast featured interviews with leaders in the financial community, from the 5th Anniversary Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York City, June 18-19, 2008.

Editor and host Stephen Lacy discussed the latest trends in cleantech investments with Michael Liebrich, CEO of New Energy Finance, Nancy Floyd, Founder and Managing Director, Nth Power, Kevin Walsh, Managing Director of Renewable Energy at GE Energy Financial Services, and John Geesmen, former California energy commissioner and Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE).

Topics focused on industry consolidation, tax equity financing, carbon cap and trade schemes, venture capital, and the impact of the political stalemate in Washington over federal tax incentives.

A Changing World, Indeed

Here's a revealing story from the WSJ this morning. With oil futures hitting a record $100 yesterday, setting a new US benchmark, and surging demand in developing nations such as China to blame, economies, the balance of power and culture as we know it is changing.

The region's new wealth has triggered a bout of deal making that has bankers rushing to the petrostates of the Persian Gulf. McKinsey & Co. estimates that the world's biggest investors of petrodollars -- including state-owned vehicles known as sovereign-wealth funds -- now manage as much as $3.8 trillion in assets. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which McKinsey estimates manages $900 billion in assets, is today among the world's largest financial-market participants -- about the same size as the Bank of Japan.

Underscoring the region's new global financial heft, Abu Dhabi recently swooped to the rescue of Citigroup Inc. with a $7.5 billion cash infusion as it struggled with write-downs from this year's credit crisis.

The piece goes on to illustrate how oil prices are lessening the US's effect in Darfur and Sudan, as well as with Iran's nuclear ambitions, and also touches on air fares. A good read.

Key Provisions for Renewables Removed from the latest Energy Bill

Renewable Energy Access reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi decided to remove a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and tax-based incentives for the stimulation of renewable energy production in order to pass an energy bill through Congress before Thanksgiving break on Friday, November 16.

Stephen Lacy writes:

Without a long-term extension of the PTC [production tax credit], which expires in December of 2008, [wind power] developers will be unsure about the financial viability of their projects. If the market starts to slow down in the U.S., manufacturers will be unwilling to scale up production or enter the country all together.

There's only one week left before Congress leaves for Thanksgiving recess - renewable energy lobbyists are pushing along at full-steam to support the addition of renewable energy provisions, however at the moment, old dirty energy like coal, oil, biofuels and natural gas will receive continued attention.

There are several emerging technologies that aim to make energy from coal more environmentally viable, and undoubtedly this abundant domestic resource deserves attention as it is not dissapearing anytime soon.