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Money likes green technology. According to the latest data from Thomson Reuters, American greentech startups landed four of the five top grossing venture capital rounds of 2010. But for Twitter, eco-tech companies would have cleaned up the top five spots. The top spot was taken by Better Place, an electric car charging startup which took in $350 million in May. That investment beat last......read more
President Obama pledged last week to pull back oil and gas subsidies in order to direct more dollars toward renewable energy. But can he pull it off? This will be Obama's third attempt at eliminating the subsidies; previous efforts have fallen victim to partisan politics in Congress and the overwhelming influence of fossil fuel lobbyists. So who exactly are these lobbyists?A simultaneously......read more
Sneaker shoppers will be taking home their next pair of PUMAs in something sustainable. The apparel company's new eco-conscious packaging and distribution system, which was unveiled on SHFT last year, will start hitting stores soon. Designed by Yves Behar's fuseproject studio, the so-called "Clever Little Bag" is part of PUMA's footprint reduction strategy. It's claimed that the packaging......read more
With many European and Asian countries pushing forward with policies that promote the development of green tech, the U.S. continues to lag behind, stuck in the mire of partisan politics and climate change skepticism. The result is that U.S. businesses are missing out on a booming, $5 trillion industry. Writing in the New York Times, Elizabeth Rosenthal tracks the case of the Mark Group, a......read more
A GE bigwig is calling the political battle between economy and environment "nonsense." At a clean energy investment conference last week, Mark Vachon, Vice President of GE's Ecomagination program, said "environmental performance" is a key driver for business. "There’s this theory that you have to pick one: economics or environmental performance. That’s......read more
With rising population growth and global climate change putting stress on the consumable 1% of the planet's water, the global water crisis may just be the most critical threat facing our existence on earth. With his Facing Water Crisis project, Dallas-based photographer Balazs Gardi takes the issue head on. In his words: The unfolding water crisis is causing social tensions and......read more
With most industries in California cratering under the weight of an intractable recession, green businesses have proven to be most resilient, according to a new report. The nonprofit Next 10, which is focused on improving California's future, found that the overall state economy shrunk by 7 percent from 2009 to 2010. During the same span, the "core green economy" -- made up of......read more
Solyndra be damned. The well-publicized failure of the solar energy company is but one black mark on an industry that is actually booming. According to the 2012 edition of Clean Edge's Clean Energy Trends report, things look very bright indeed. At Co.Exist, writer Ariel Schwartz sums up the findings: 2011 was the largest year for global wind power installations ever. Wind power is projected......read more
If necessity is the mother of invention, then the state of the environment should be driving innovation around the world. And indeed it is. In our new series "The Big SHFT: 10 Innovators Changing Our World," we team up with Ford Motor Company to profile leading innovators who are shaping new sustainable businesses and influencing positive change around the world. Executive produced by SHFT......read more
Tom Szaky is the quintessential eco-entrepreneur. While a freshman at Princeton, Szaky founded a company that recycles garbage into plant fertilizer, then packages it in discarded soda bottles. Fast forward five years, and TerraCycle Plant Food is available in every Home Depot, Target, Wal-Mart, and more than 3000 other locations. Today, TerraCycle is finding new uses for trash, creating products......read more
