Green design

Just have look at the steep curve with certification as an indicator ( State of Green Business, p59 ). More stuff: greenerdesign.com

Chart from "State of Green Business Report" 2009 (stateofgreenbusiness.com)

Green investments

• Venture capital investment in green technologies soared to a record $7.6 billion
• There were about 350 “funding events” in 2008 ( State of Green Business, p28 )

Chart from "State of Green Business Report" 2009 (stateofgreenbusiness.com)

Green jobs

• United Nations predicted that renewable energy could create 20 million jobs by 2030
• Apollo Alliance (NPO) concluded that a $500 billion investment over 10 years on a range of energy, education, construction, building, and manufacturing programs would create 5 million jobs
• University of Massachusetts at Amherst, found that $100 billion would yield 2 million new jobs (State of Green Business, p4)

For deeper insight concerning green collar jobs: Worldwatch Report: Green Jobs | Worldwatch Institute, Green Jobs Reality and Rhetoric | Nick Ellis on GreenBiz.com 

Get the report here: stateofgreenbusiness.com

Google getting serious

There is this new book “What would Google do?” from Jeff Jarvis. Actually ask yourself: “What is Google doing right now (in the energy sector)?” – while others are talking. Last time the philanthropic department google.org impressed us with the ambitious project: “Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (RE<C)”. Now you have heard from the Google PowerMeter … BTW, tomorrow there will be an event announced at google.org/powermeter/: GE and Google to host: ”Plug into the Smart Grid”. Feb. 17, 2009, Washington DC. 

Early switchers at earth2tech.com

Fears and hopes

Guess you know Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (youtube). When the wall came down in Berlin some 19 years ago it happened that this easy swinging a cappella sound was the somehow perfect soundtrack for the ambiguity in the mood of the reunified Germans. Ambiguity of fears and hopes – and what followed really was political “change management XXL” – with the inevitable pains of transformation.

Now, this is end of October 2008 and I feel a certain resemblance to the situation of 1989. In these days a lot of commentators suppose that the financial crisis is just the beginning of a longer lasting downturn of the global economy.  

One last look back

Futurists and scenario planning people are prepared for the discontinuities of complex systems. This time the wild card was to expect. Warnings date back to 2006 (nypost.com) and even 2004 (abajournal.com). By the way recession cycles of market economy are observed since its beginnings. And Talebs book about the improbable “black swan” has been written in 2007. But who wants to hear bad news? We have to. That’s why we are implementing early warning systems and pay experts, even futurists. 

Looking forward – Opportunities in times of transformation

This is the time of cutbacks and layoffs, but that is only the one side. At O’Reilly’s Web2Expo Europe some days ago I heard Robin Daniels (Salesforce.com / Cloud Computing: Freedom to Focus on Innovation”). One of the messages was: “Don’t optimize, but innovate!”. So don’t worry to much, for example sustainability will be a sustaining issue. The economy has to be transformed – and on a global scale. There is no alternatiIve – world economy has to go eco, better sooner than later (see my solar stuff posts). This is a time of decisions, actions and making a brave jump. Need more arguments? Look for example to the change in the valley, where bright minds started switching before spring 2008. 25 Who Ditched Infotech for Cleantech « Earth2Tech

Some 3.0? Yes, emerging.

You are still focused in ICT, GPS, graphs, the web, mobile and stuff? No problem, green and IT make a good couple: Energy efficiency, monitoring, sensors, recycling, new mobility solutions … And “Web 3.0″? Whatever the next innovation wave will be called, with its clouds, tweets, id managment, semantics, sensing, mobility, ubiquity – it is knocking. Microsoft just tries to start a  bit of new thinking: Windows Azure: Microsoft mainstreams the cloud | Software as Services | ZDNet.com