Green becomes Clean becomes $$$

At Harvard Business School’s Cyberposium 2007 in Palo Alto today(11/10/07), the final panel topic of the day was Clean Tech. However, the message sent was quite different from what we have become used to.
The spirit of green has evolved through the years. Originally, efforts to be green were aimed at achieving results independent of financial goals. It was essentially, a philanthropic endeavor.
More recently, green efforts have become at least financially neutral. A company can pursue operations in a manner applauded as green with minimal disruption to the bottom line. Given the positive PR impact of visible green practices, doing so becomes easier and easier.

But that will not be enough for green to find widespread adoption.

Interestingly, the change is already in play, and is flagged by a change in terminology: “green” to “clean”. The change in terminology seems to indicate an emphasis on smartness and efficiency rather than solely on environmentalist lifestyle. (A similar transformation has occurred, changing "alternative energy" to "renewable energy".)

At a Conference of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in September 2007, each session was rich with new technologies and approaches heralding a new era of Clean Tech. Although these technologies certainly were environmentally friendly, that was not the main discussion point among the assembled mechanical engineers.

Think about it: Clean Tech solutions are low power, lightweight and durable. Clean Tech uses the most advanced materials and the most precise and intelligent control systems.

For engineers, Clean Tech is cool.

With a new generation of engineers flocking to Clean Technology, important breakthroughs are being made. No longer the province of philanthropy, Clean Tech is profitable.

The Cyberposium panelists, representing Intel (Mac Agan), SAP (Tobias Dosch) and the city of San Jose (Mayor Chuck Reed) each expressed the priority of pragmatic bottom line results in their respective Clean Tech Efforts. As Mac Agan put it, profitability is at the root of sustainability. No company can embrace Clean Tech solutions unless they lead to market results.

Tobias Dosch contrasted SAP’s Clean Tech endeavors with the elsewhere-popular “Greenwashing” by pointing out that the solution products they produce supporting Clean Tech solutions are market driven and are value added features of their full product offering. Its not green for the sake of being green. Its good business.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed also made it clear that (even as a government entities) we cannot simply throw money at Clean Tech because its popular. He outlined his comprehensive plan for the City of San Jose to become a model to the World for how smart implementation of Clean Tech can help a city be more efficient, more livable and at the same time foster this blossoming new industry.

Something else was evident in the panel discussion that is a legacy from the philanthropic roots of Green: esprit de corps. An earlier panel on the state of the cell phone service market revealed enormous barriers to innovation in “big guy” vs “little guy” non-cooperation. In contrast, the Clean Tech space seems to radiate cooperation among large and small players. The incumbents are welcoming entrepreneurs with open arms to partner on solutions. This might be best evidenced by Intel having brought not one, but TWO representatives from Intel Capital to network the audience of entrepreneurs for investment opportunities in order to foster the sloutions it will need in the near future.

Our global industrial infrastructure is inefficient and aging -ripe for reworking. It is a fortunate thing for all of us that Clean Tech has arrived at just the moment when the reworking can begin. The opportunity for investment is extraordinary.

You just might have to bully your way into line ahead of the likes of Intel Capital.