They say, “Follow your passion and the money will come”. In the tech world, a similar proverb might be, “Build it and they will come.”
I will tell you from experience that this is a lie. Well maybe not entirely. Sure, if you are passionate about something and work really hard at it, you can develop skills and expertise that have marketable value. But unless you have a way of marketing your passion, you can just as easily spend a lot of money on it, and never make a cent.
This is not a business. The IRS allows you to write off 2 years of business losses, after which the IRS considers your “business” to be a hobby. And continuing to write off business losses beyond these 2 years will only increase your risk of being audited.
Some of the staunchest, bright eyed, crystal wearing Law of Attraction gurus might say, “Well, you weren’t attracting success because you weren’t focusing hard enough about it, you haven’t activated your personal power,etc…” And if you did so:
Well you know what?
“Fuck you.”
It’s important to keep passion and the Law of Attraction in perspective. Yes! Passion is a powerful motivator. Yes! The Law of
Attraction has worked for me many times.
Self help books, life purpose workshops and motivational seminars abound to siphon away your hard earned dollars so you can connect with your inner power, true calling and even help you vision board / mind map your path to fulfillment and success. But a vision board is no substitute for a business model. And a business plan does not guarantee business success.
And you know what? Those feel good workshops are awfully addictive. There’s nothing more awesome than coming out of a transformational workshop feeling like you can change the world. And once that feeling starts to ebb away, there’s this other transformational workshop by another guru who has just we you need. But at a certain point, the reality starts to sink in – who’s the one making all the money? The guru holding the workshop, perhaps?
There’s nothing wrong with following your passion. You owe it to yourself to be a passion-based entrepreneur. But passion-based entrepreneurship is made up of two components: passion and a monetization plan.
As a person with a corporate day job, a strong entrepreneurial streak and various side hustles, I’ve been reflecting a lot about when it makes sense to quit your job and follow your passion. I’ve talked to all kinds of entrepreneurs about this. Here are the different camps and my thoughts about them:
take the plunge and follow your passion
Most entrepreneurs I’ve spoken to strongly recommend keeping the day job as long as humanly possible until the side hustles generate a sustainable income. This is a very wise and safe approach. However, you need to be aware of the tradeoffs:
I’ve met a few entrepreneurs who have done this successfully. One thing I noticed they all had in common was the presence of a supportive life partner. You see, this is much easier to do if you have a partner who agrees to take on all responsibility for life drudgery – cooking, cleaning, making sure the car gets fixed, kids get to school, etc. so that the other can 100% focus on getting the side business to monetize.
Better yet, if your life partner also happens to be your business partner, not only are you able to cohabitate and share chores, if he handles all the web development and she handles all the online advertising and customer relationships, that can work out nicely too.
If you are single and under 30, chances are, you can still tap into the stamina of youth to work all the time, get minimal sleep, and not have your body demand payback at a later date.
A minority say, if you have a business idea you believe in, it not only deserves 100% of your attention, you owe it to yourself to believe 100% that you can make it successful. Because, unless you are able to devote yourself 100% to your green business idea, you will not fully give it the chance it deserves. Your creativity will be impacted by the level of exhaustion you may currently be operating in, and your time to market will be impacted because it will take you longer to get things out the door when you are working cobbled together late nights and weekends, and your competition is working full time.
Sure, the day job provides nice cash flow. But you can always take out a business loan to get started, or hustle friends and family for seed capital. An entrepreneur I recently spoke to who now earns over a million a year suggested that the best thing I could do was lose the day job, because employment was an opportunity cost to successful entrepreneurship. A life circumstance forced him to choose between his family and his 6 figure job. He chose his family. After leaving that job, he went on to make even more money as an entrepreneur.
You will never make more money as an employee as you can as an entrepreneur. Your upside at a day job is a 5% annual salary increase. Big fucking deal. If you hop companies, you can negotiate a 30% salary increase. As an entrepreneur, there is no limit. But of course, there is more risk and uncertainty.
Around the world, an estimated 700,000 people die every year thanks to counterfeit medicines, and up to 1 in 3 medicines sold worldwide may be counterfeit or otherwise defective. The counterfeit medicine industry is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, with anti-malarial and anti-HIV/AIDS drugs the most common to be counterfeited.
Fake medicines can kill either passively, by not treating the condition they are intended to treat, or actively, if they have been deliberately or accidentally contaminated by a poisonous or harmful substance. For example, last year at least 34 children in Nigeria were killed by a batch of counterfeit teething medicine that contained antifreeze. Counterfeit drugs containing small but insufficient doses of the drug they are intended to copy also threaten future public health by encouraging disease organisms to develop resistance to the drug. Drug resistance is already a problem with certain diseases such as tuberculosis, MRSA, and malaria, and counterfeit medicines can speed the development of resistance.
Fighting Counterfeit Medicines With Cell PhonesA new social enterprise named Sproxil is aiming to end the scourge of counterfeit medicines in the developing world with cell phone technology.
How Sproxil Works
Founded by Ashifi Gogo, a native of Ghana, Sproxil hopes to incorporate a scratch-off authentication label into the packaging of all drugs sold in the developing world. When a drug is sold, the consumer can send a free text message to a number posted on the label, and within seconds, he or she will receive a message authenticating the drug or warning that it is fake.
Sproxil recently underwent a successful trial in Nigeria, which has 70,000,000 cell phone users, the highest number in Africa, and is also known as a center of the counterfeit drug trade. In 2008, a survey found that an estimated 80% of all drugs sold in Lagos, the biggest city in Nigeria, were counterfeit. Attempts to bring the situation under control, though they ultimately succeeded in reducing the percentage to an estimated 16%, were met with vandalism, death threats, fire bombs, and even an assassination attempt.
Sproxil hope to defuse this dangerous situation, and others like it around the world, by, in effect, crowd-sourcing pharmaceutical inspections.
This benefits the drug companies, who do not need to worry about their brand being diluted by ineffective or poisonous fake medicines, the consumers, who do not need to worry about purchasing ineffective or fake medicines, and law enforcement, who are able to track “fake drug” text messages in an area and can make targeted pharmacy inspections instead of relying on inefficient random sampling. (The tracking is done anonymously in order ot protect the privacy of the consumer and reduce danger to him or her from counterfeiters. Sproxil also believes that the technology will benefit telecom companies, by encouraging more consumers to purchase cell phones.
Sproxil is a for-profit social enterprise and the service is supported with fees from drug companies and consulting. In the future Sproxil may also offer analytics services and delivery of targeted ads with each authentication text message. In the future, Sproxil also hopes to target counterfeit cell phones and counterfeit CDs and DVDs.
Statistics show that 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide are released into the air each year in the US. This is as a result of driving cars and light trucks around the country. Cars and light trucks, usually for private uses, are driven over about 2.6 million miles each year. With each car consuming at least 600 gallons of gas, the impact to the environment is huge.
Driving cars not only affects the environment, but it is also very expensive for the car owners, especially if you consider the traffic problems experienced in different cities. Many individuals are discarding their cars and going for more affordable and safer alternatives. With this move, the electric scooter is gaining favor among many automobile users. These scooters provide an opportunity that those interested in business can venture into.
Electric scooters are easy to operate. In most regions, insurance is not needed for a scooter, and neither is a driving license required. Modern scooters are engineered with stronger batteries to last between 30 and 50 miles when charged. Again, charging them takes about an hour.
Contrary to cars, electric scooters release no carbon to the atmosphere. In the case of a scooter charged with electricity from wind or solar, pollution on the environment is reduced completely. This helps users save on gas bills, reduce congestion on roads and enjoy reduced maintenance costs.
There are different businesses you can start, that relate to electric scooters. First off, you can start selling electric scooters. At least a third of all Americans have considered using an electric scooter at one point in their life. This saw the sale of these scooters triple from 1998 to 2004. The number of buyers has continued growing.
Scooter rentals are another popular business idea. You can start your rental business near college campuses, downtown areas, and tourist destinations. Any locality with a high population comes in handy for an electric scooter business.
Another viable option is to venture into repairs, maintenance, and parts. As the number of scooters in the market continues to increase, so does the demand for electric scooter repair and maintenance.
Provision of power stations is another business opportunity to consider. Electric scooter owners will require a safe place to keep their scooters and recharge them. This is where a power station and scooter safekeeping comes in.
To diversify the business, you can sell, rent or service other scooters, electric bikes, electric motorcycles, and electric mopeds. The number of automobiles that your service will depend on the location of your business, local laws, and the local market. Your personal preferences will also determine the types of automobiles your service.
This is a business serving San Francisco Bay area. It has been in operation since 1996 selling bikes and scooters. In their shop, they offer a wide collection of automobiles including bicycles, scooters, tricycles and golf carts among others. Besides sales, the business runs Electric-Bikes.com, a website on which they offer extensive information on electric automobiles.
Eco-Scooter is a rental service operating in Parksville, Vancouver, Canada. It targets tourists who flock the area. The business has electric and biodiesel scooters and rents them for up to eight hours. Besides rentals, Eco-Scooter retails 500w electric scooters. Buyers have their scooters assembled and inspected on a purchase.
This is an e-commerce website retailing bicycles, motorcycles and electric scooters among other automobiles for children and adults.
Looking for blogging inspiration? Need a little boost for getting the content rolling for your green content strategy? Finding interesting, valuable information to convey to your readers can be a challenge, especially when you’re trying to balance all of the other green marketing strategies for your eco business. But with these 12 sources for green blogging inspiration, you should be writing – and moving up Google rankings – in no time at all.
Make people laugh
One of the easiest ways to get your readers to engage in your blog content is to make the smile or even laugh out loud. Perhaps you don’t consider yourself the funniest person around, but even the most mundane things can be humorous when presented in the right light. After all, the world of eco-friendly living can be pretty serious at times.
Try out these strategies:
Keep an eye out for current events that are pertinent to your green business. For instance, if you work in the field of eco-friendly cosmetics, find out what recent chemicals have been banned or legislations established that impact your industry. If you produce solar panels, blog about the most recent green tech innovations. Or if market interested has recently shot up in your electric bike industry, talk about that. You get the idea. Keep it current, relevant, and interesting. Treehugger.com, Planet Green, and Grist.org are all great sources.
Draw connections between your green business and other eco fields
There are always interesting ways to connect the dots and these connections often make for interesting conversations. For example, if you produce toys that get kids outdoors, talk about the psychology of being in touch with nature. Does your home energy efficiency monitor rely on software development? Then talk about the latest advances in that field.
Look deep into the eyes of your email
Newsletters from similar organizations or personal messages from friends can often be a source of interesting ideas for your next blog post. Perhaps you can share a personal experience about your client’s recent product marketing through a cross-promotion. Or talk about a nonprofit organization trying to solve a similar problem as your green business.
Green media for blogging inspiration
Have you recently run across an interesting photograph or video that pertains to your green business? Media such as these can be a great source of inspiration and may spark some dynamic conversations with your audience if they’re thought-provoking enough. Again, sites like YouTube and Flickr.com can be great sources for inspiration. Do a quick search on your topic to see what you find!
Offer free content give-aways
Freebies like ebooks and white papers that provide practical, up-to-date information on your green business or the field in which you work are a great way to get people really engaged in your content. If you’re not a writer yourself, hire a freelance writer through a site like Elance.com or Guru.com where you’ll be put in touch with dozens of green writers and communications experts. You can then do several spin-off blog posts on the content within your ebook or white paper to increase the likelihood of being found by potential readers.
Come back next week to read more blog inspiration ideas to get you writing for your green business with ease.
Green living is not only fashionable, it’s also smart, and for nobody is this more true than for families with young infants.
Nobody is more sensitive to the harmful chemicals and toxins surrounding us in the modern world than young babies, and as awareness grows of the harm we are doing to our children with products we use around the house every day, green baby boutiques are growing in popularity around the country.
Green baby boutiques carry safe, eco-friendly clothing, bedding, furniture, toys, and other gear for young babies and toddlers. They may also carry clothing and products for pregnant and nursing mothers. In addition to shopping, many green baby boutiques provide education for families to help them make the safest and healthiest choices for their children as they grow.
Examples of the types of products carried by many green baby boutiques include:
In addition to choosing eco-friendly and socially-conscious products, green baby boutiques can go green in many other ways as well.
Printing advertising materials and educational pamphlets for parents on recycled paper with non-toxic inks is a great way to spread the word about your green baby boutique and its products.
Building or remodelling your store with eco-friendly building materials, low VOC paints, and other beautiful, safe green construction materials is another way to extend your commitment to green living beyond the products you carry. Some green baby boutiques even use wind or solar powered electricity, or purchase carbon offsets to reduce their carbon emissions.
Another way to go green is to skip the storefront altogether and open an online boutique using green website hosting. This allows most employees to telecommute, reducing carbon emissions. You can reduce environmental impact even further with green shipping and packaging choices, such as recycled boxes and wrapping paper.
Happy Green Baby is an online green baby boutique with an extensive collection of eco-friendly and non-toxic clothing, begging, toys, gifts, and gear. The site also offers a green baby gift registry, a learning center with information about green baby products and green living for families, and a blog.
A Mother’s Haven, located in Encino, California, is a green maternity and baby boutique that carries an extensive line of organic and eco-friendly gear for expectant mothers and babies. The store also offers a variety of classes for new and expecting parents, including prenatal yoga, infant massage, and infant sign language.
Jilly Bean Green is a hip eco baby boutique located in Studio City, CA and focusing on stylish and eco-friendly organic, “upcycled,” and handmade products for babies and young children. The store offers an online gift registry, green living tips, and a page dedicated to celeb favorite green products.
Taking care of a lawn organically leads to, not only a beautiful and healthy lawn, but also one that is safe for your family and pets.
Americans have a love affair with green and lush lawns, and many use various products to achieve them. Awareness is, however, growing regarding the environmental damage, and health risks that arise from the various chemicals spread across their yards each year. This has led to more lawn owners switching to organic lawn care methods and making organic lawn care a viable business opportunity.
A normal suburban lawn, compared to a normal agricultural field, requires three times as much chemical herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides per acre.
Among the thirty most common pesticides applied to lawns, thirteen have links to birth defects, nineteen contain carcinogens, and twenty-seven are irritants. Herbicides and pesticides are particularly dangerous among pets and children because of their smaller physical sizes. Applying pesticides on gardens and at home increases childhood leukemia risks by as much as seven-fold, while dogs exposed to lawns treated with herbicides double their rate of canine lymphoma infections and bladder cancer chances rise sevenfold.
A need to make that switch to organic lawn care procedures does not rest on health risks alone. Chemical fertilizers tend to contaminate surface and groundwater supplies and remain a major cause of pollution in the water today. Harmful insects are the principal pesticide target, but beneficial insects die too, and so do creatures such as mammals, amphibians, and birds. Furthermore, organic lawns tend to consume lower amounts of water, thereby making savings on water bills.
Taking care of an organic lawn represents a win-win situation for the lawn-care service provider, the property owner, the lawn itself, and the environment. Since organic lawn care procedures focus on attacking the core problem rather than using chemical shortcuts, organically managed lawns are greener, healthier, and more lash over time compared to conventional lawns.
For an entrepreneur on a budget, an organic lawn care business is a great business opportunity since it needs relatively low starting capital. To start an organic lawn care operation may simply involve taking your lawnmower around to your neighbors, friends, and relatives’ lawns and asking them to make recommendations to their respective neighbors, relatives, and friends.
Numerous options exist for incorporating green procedures into a lawn care business besides avoiding harmful herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides.
For small yards, you could help in reducing carbon emissions through using electric or the old-fashioned reel mowers. In addition, using electric mowers reduces noise pollution by as much as seventy-five percent compared to gas-powered mowers while rotary powered mowers go even further in reducing noise.
An organic lawn care enterprise, besides lawn care, has other services to offer such as landscaping. A commitment to green gardening may be enhanced through offering xeriscape design services, butterfly gardens, rain gardens, and habitat restorations all of which would provide fascinatingly beautiful surroundings for visitors while conserving water, giving food to and sheltering wildlife, while reducing urban heat island effect. Furthermore, you could make contributions to local food movements through assisting property owners design beautiful and edible landscapes.
Numerous institutions provide accreditation and other diverse services for those who practice professionally in the organic lawn care industry. Founded by Paul Tukey, the author behind The Organic Lawn Care Manual, SafeLawns is an organization focusing on the organic lawn care industry. For the aspiring organic lawn care professional, their website provides an avenue for listing and approval. NOFA, The Northeast Organic Farming Organization is another institution offering accreditation and classes for professionals in the organic lawn care industry, via their program on Organic Land Care, in addition to an enlistment in their accredited professional and searchable directory.
Based in Wells, ME, TLC for Safe Lawns offers a full set of services in lawn care. TLC for Safe Lawns begins by testing the soil, thereby determining from the onset the specific requirements for a lawn, and proceeds to apply customized mixtures of organic manure onto a lawn making it the best it can be. Other services offered by TLC for Safe Lawns include regular lawn pest inspections and tick, deer, over-seeding, and core aeration control.
Soil Alive from Texas has a service on offer called Its Possible Soil-Building program that covers scheduled liquid compost treatments, regular inspections, and an entirely organic weed, disease, and pest control. In addition, Soils Alive provides soil management services that enable plants to develop healthy and deep root systems needed by plants to survive Texas hot summers, while making savings on water bills through prevention of overwatering.
Clean Air Lawn Care operates offices powered by wind, and its lawn mowers are powered by solar or biodiesel. All grass clippings and various other organic waste is composted at local composting venues or on site, while all herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers are entirely organic and natural. Clean Air Lawn Care was founded in Colorado, and its services are available in several other states, such as North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Washington, California, and Oregon.
Recycled designer handbags are all the rage in the fashion world right now. Celebrities and fashionistas alike are sporting beautiful handbags made from repurposed materials such as candy wrappers, automobile seatbelts, and even soda pop tops!
The process of creating recycled fashion is often known as “up-cycling.” Recycling waste products saves natural resources, reduces air and water pollution, cuts carbon emissions, creates jobs, and saves space in landfills. Up-cycling waste products has all the same environmental benefits as recycling, while also turning what was once a discarded piece of garbage into a beautiful, fashionable, and functional work of art. Recycled fashion is often handmade by artisans in disadvantaged countries, so they even help fight poverty around the world. Recycled handbags are an accessory that you can truly feel good about!
Waste products used in designer recycled handbags are salvaged or donated and cleaned. An astonishing variety of products can be turned into recycled handbags.
These are some of my picks for the most stylish recycled designer handbags:
1. Chica Tutti Frutti Bag
The Chica Tutti Frutti Bag is a bright, stylish clutch bag made from recycled candy wrappers! It is perfect for carrying keys, IDs, and other small things. The Chica Tutti Frutti Bag is handmade in Mexico and fair trade certified, which means that in addition to the environmental benefits, the workers who produced the handbag are guaranteed fair wages and safe working conditions.
2. Mandala Handbag
For an offbeat look, the Mandala Handbag is a funky creation made from soda pop tops. The pop tops are hand crocheted into spiral patterns by Neide Ambrosio of Brazil for a unique and creative accessory. The handbag has a polyester lining and zipper top. It come in baby pink, black, blue, and terra.
3. Woman Warrior Purse
Another of Neide Ambrosio’s glittering creations is the Woman Warrior Purse, a recycled designer handbag made from golden zipper pulls. The zipper pulls are woven into a mesh and linked together with aluminum rings and the purse is then lined with satin and closed with a secure lobster claw clasp. This eye-catching handbag is also available in a style called Silver Treasure, which features silver zipper pulls and a sturdy polyester lining.
4. Red Star Tote
The Red Star Tote (shown above) is a popular design made from recycled sailboat sails. This handsome tote bag is lined with blue denim on the inside and has contrasting bright orange trim, with an inside pocket designed to keep small stuff like keys, IDs, and cash organized and easily accessible. The orange nylon webbing strap is 26″ so it fits comfortably over your shoulder but is short enough to tote, and the back of the bag is decorated with a diagonal sail seam. The Red Star Tote is handmade in the United States.
5. Carriage Hobo Handbag
The stylish Carriage Hobo Handbag is made from recycled auto seatbelts with an eco-friendly organic hemp lining and antique nickel hardware. The lining is silk screened with environmentally friendly water-based inks and has four internal slip pockets and one zip pocket. Designed by Harveys and made in the United States, each Carriage Hobo recycled handbag is completely unique and one-of-a-kind.
These are just a few of the amazing variety of beautiful recycled handbags available today. Other popular designs include handbags made from art posters, newspapers, truck tire inner tubes, carpets, skateboards, and even bamboo chopsticks! The creativity and skill that go into crafting recycled designer handbags is truly unmatched.
Many enterprises profess that they are green, but how true is this? What qualifies an enterprise to be termed green? A clear definition of what constitutes a green business is key to identifying enterprises that have a true environment-friendly mindset.
A green enterprise chooses earth-friendly operations as their core way of doing business. They create products that are safe for the environment and/or ensure that their policies, principles, and practices are eco-friendly. They aim to create smaller environmental footprints.
Green enterprises have altered their manufacturing operations to make eco-friendly products. The triple bottom line, a concept coined in 1994 by John Elkington, often features as a benchmark that measures how far an enterprise has adopted environmentally friendly sound practices and policies.
In essence, the triple bottom line places prominence on serious social and ecological performances, building it through a three-part model of organization that functions in three axis; planet, people, and profit. This means that instead of mere profit making as a measure of success, the requirements of triple bottom line call on the enterprises to think beyond profit to its environmental and social impact as well.
This means a truly green enterprise should take into consideration a number of environmental and societal strategies.
Conservation of Water: A green enterprise understands that fresh water supplies are limited and therefore careful usage is important. As such, not only should every stage in its manufacturing and product distribution process, reduce the amount of water consumed, but also the product should consume less water during its lifespan.
Conservation of Energy: Conservation of water goes hand in hand with energy conservation where green enterprises feature. A sustainable business must recognize climate change has a profound effect on the world; including business success. By building energy conservation into its long-term plans, a green enterprise minimizes the risks and impact of rising energy costs and saves money. It also demonstrates to and garners support from its stakeholders and affected populations that it takes a serious interest in climate change. For a manufacturer, this means making factory-floor energy savings and emphasizing on making products that need less energy.
Solid Waste Recycling and Reduction: The amount of waste coming out of a start-to-finish product production process calls for limitation. A production process that minimizes waste through the entire process while having in place waste re-usage and recycling procedures needs to be a cornerstone of a green business. In addition, the finished product must reduce waste emissions.
Prevention of Pollution: A truly green business will have pollution prevention operations as part of its practices. Many manufacturing businesses tend to use toxic ingredients or spew toxic waste and effluent into its environment, resulting in either ground, water, or air pollution. Green enterprises are those working to reduce toxins that go into their products, lessen toxins in their production processes, and make products that function toxin free too.
A truly green enterprise may decide to go above and beyond through giving back to the environment. It can come up with products and processes that will actually help in making the environment better, e.g., high efficiency solar panels or new water filtration processes that have a less negative environmental impact.
Supposing the company does not manufacturer directly. How would such a company be described as green? In general, a green enterprise that operates within an office or distribution center needs to apply similar principles outlined above although with slightly different applications as outlined below.
Conservation of Energy: Green office buildings need a construction that minimizes how much energy occupants consume. Such buildings should incorporate efficient cooling and heating systems, natural or low energy lighting. Having policies that ensure energy efficient appliances and electronics are purchased and used also defines a green enterprise. For such, energy efficiency also spreads to corporate fleets through the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles.
Solid Recycling and Waste Reduction: A truly green business will use resource reduction strategies, including minimizing the waste that comes out of operations. This means a reduction in wasteful packaging or making orders in bulk. It also means having policies that reduce waste and encourage proper waste handling. Employees should be encouraged to conserve the environment through strategies such as using fewer disposables and less paper. In addition, comprehensive recycling programs must be put in place.
Conservation of Water: Any green business will be keen on how it utilizes water with the aim of cutting back consumption and wastage. This means putting measures in place to conserve water; from the washroom fixtures to their cleaning practices.
Prevention of Pollution: Green enterprises will endeavor to reduce pollution through eco-friendly practices in landscaping methods, the use of green janitorial provisions, and even going much further and purchasing carbon offsets that mitigate greenhouse gas pollution created.
Below are two examples of enterprises whose eco-friendly practices are making a difference on the planet.
Charles Thibeau wished to make his own version of colonial-style furniture created using old-fashioned techniques and therefore opted to go for milk paint. By devising a formula made of clay, lime, earth pigments, and milk, all readily available and natural ingredients, he created a product applicable on furniture and wall interiors and exteriors.
He consequently incorporated the Old-Fashioned Milk Paint Company once he realized he could make a business venture out of the high demand for his creations. The products are made with renewable and sustainable ingredients. This is in contrast to conventional paints, which are often made of non-renewable petroleum by-products. They have no volatile organic compounds, chemical preservatives, fungicides, and pigments, all of which are toxic ingredients contained in conventional paints. This truly green business is making truly green products.
In recognition of the millions of toothbrushes disposed of in American homes yearly, Eric Hudson decided to build Recycline, a company making eco-friendly products such as the Preserve Toothbrush. This toothbrush is green as its handle is made of purely recycled plastic and practical as well.
Every product from their production line, including Preserve Toothbrushes, is recyclable from waste plastics. That, right there, is a perfect example of the triple bottom line in real life.
From Silicon Valley to Frankfurt, Germany, green tech companies are making their mark globally. I wanted to highlight a few of them that really stand out from the rest. Most of these are companies that are providing innovative technologies for harnessing solar energy into the mainstream market.
1. Fuel Tech
Fuel Tech 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnDespite its emissions, coal is still widely used in industries all over the world. Since it’s an accessible resource for a number of countries, including India and China, very little work has been done to find alternative non-polluting (yet abundant) sources of energy. That’s when companies like Fuel Tech step forward. They help coal-powered utilities to reduce the amount of pollution and operate more efficiently.
Established in 1987, FuelTech has come up with a technology that reduces nitrogen emissions in boilers and furnaces. It’s specialty is cleaning up coal and thereby reducing the resulting pollution.
Since there are over 550 coal power plants in the US alone, FuelTech has come up with a solution to a very pressing problem.
2. Solar Century
Solar Century 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnSolar Century is a UK based solar energy company that provides an alternative source of energy to residential and commercial buildings. Their solar energy products provide their customers with electricity and water heating facilities.
Solar Century has the potential to generate 4 million kWh of electricity every year and has won various business and design awards for its work.
The thing that sets Solar Century apart is that they integrate solar energy systems with standardized building components, making solar part of the fabric of the buildings.
3. Swetree Technologies
Swetree Technologies 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnSwetree is a forest biotech company that improves the productivity of seedlings and trees.
They are primarily discovering new ways of increasing the speed of forestation, without using harmful chemicals or fertilizers.
SweTree uses its technology to assist reforestation programs to preserve the natural habitat. With so much deforestation going on around us, such technology can help a lot in expediting the replanting process.
4. Odersun
Odersun 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnBased in Germany, OderSun has been making thin film solar cells since 2002. Instead of using silicon for their solar cells, they use a combination of copper, indium and sulfur and have the advantage of being able to produce energy in a wide variety of sizes & power capacities.
The solar cells made by OderSun were used in the Beijing Olympics. They provided their thin film solar modules for the Olympic Park. Their flexibility of form and power makes them the perfect candidate for providing solar cell energy to buildings.
5. NanoSolar
NanoSolar 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnWhile talking about Solar tech, we can’t ignore NanoSolar‘s role in this field. They manufacture solar electricity panels for cost-efficient energy.
The technology used by NanoSolar aims to make solar cells that last as long as silicon solar cells. It has operations in both US and Germany.
NanoSolar mass-produces in a global scale, and can thus cater to large projects anywhere in the world. With the rise of sustainable construction in middle eastern and European countries, access to their technology is highly valued.
6. Polyfuel
Polyfuel 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnPolyFuel designs, develops and manufactures hydrocarbon based fuel cells for increased performance of fuel cells in automotives and electronics.
Established back in ’99, PolyFuel’s technology is used in laptops, cell phones and other portable electronic devices manufactured by CE companies.
Because of the abundant availability of the raw material, this is an opportunity for us to move away from traditional fuel sources that are driving the world mad, as it is. This makes Polyfuel a move in the right direction.
7. CPower
CPower 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnCPower delivers energy management services and products enabling its customers to reduce their power usage effectively.
In short, they teach companies and organizations how to reduce their electricity consumption through energy management and sustainability technologies. Their clients include businesses, factories and industries with high rates of energy consumption.
To encourage companies that are not yet running on renewable energy, clean energy is a good step in the right direction. They give incentives to companies to optimize their energy consumption and earn market payments for those reductions.
8. SunPower
SunPower 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnSunPower is another solar product and services company which produces solar cells and panels. It claims to be able to reduce the cost of solar power by 50% bringing them down enough to compete with retail electricity rates by 2012.
The solar cells technology produced by SunPower is used by some high profile companies such as Honda and Nasa. With such clients in their portfolio, they’re bound to create some more stirs in the industry in the years to come.
9. Solar City
Solar City 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnSolar Century also provides solar panels as an alternative source of energy for home owners and businesses. Established in 2006 by brothers Lyndon & Peter Rive, it has become the largest solar power provider in California.
The company aims to make solar panels easy to install at reduced rates so that more and more people switch over from conventional electricity to solar power. Their SolarLease option reduces the installation cost making it an attractive option for customers.
SolarCity has now extended its business into Oregon and Arizona with plans to extend to 10 more states by the end of 2010.
10. First Solar
First Solar 10 Green Tech Companies to Keep an Eye OnSolar Century prides itself in producing technology that lowers the cost of solar power. It builds thin film solar modules and by the end of 2009 will have the capacity to produce 1 GW of solar power.
Established in 1999, the company didn’t start producing commercial products till 2002. It aims to lower the cost of solar power enough to make it comparable with fossil fuel based energy sources. Considering the fact that its per watt cost is already at $0.87, I’d say it’s well on its way to doing that.
Certain nonprofit organizations not only raise awareness and funds for their cause through campaigning, they also use and develop cutting edge technology to help save the world. Here are a few ventures that are using hi-tech solutions for social or environmental causes:
1. InSTEDD
InSTEDD, which stands for Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters, is a nonprofit organization committed to saving lives and reducing suffering through use of innovative technology.
InSTEDD has developed a number of free and open source technologies that can be used by other non profits working towards improving early detection and response to natural calamities. Here are some of their products:
InSTEDD GeoChat A mobile communications service which enables its users to communicate via sms, internet, satellite phone and even twitter. It connects field and local communities with the nonprofits headquarters.
InSTEDDMesh4x designed to share data information over any chosen network. For instance, if a natural calamity hits a region, hospitals can immediately notify the number of beds available for the victims. All the hospitals on that network will then know where to send patients.
InSTEDD Evolve An early detection system of diseases, disasters and emergencies.
2. Africa Aid
Africa Aid runs a program called MDNet, a low-cost, high-impact healthcare initiative which aims to improve communication between health care professionals in Africa. Africa bears over 24% of the global burden of disease, but has only 3% of the global population of health care workers. This means an average of two doctors per 10,000 people, which is by far the lowest physician density in the world.
MDNet creates free mobile phone networks between physicians working in African countries, which improves the transfer of medical knowledge and emergency response, which increases access to healthcare for larger populations of people and ultimately saves more lives.
3. Amazon Conservation Team
The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) works to preserve and protect the rainforests of Amazon. It does so with the collaboration of the local governments and the indigenous people of Amazon.
Using modern technologies, such as Google Earth, GPS, and online mapping tools, ACT enables indigenous tribes to monitor their territories for illegal incursions such as mining, logging, and cattle ranching. Through GPS mapping, the tribes create maps of their ancestral territories which they then use in legal disputes over boundaries and natural resources. A byproduct of this practice is the creation of ethnographic maps, which document the culture & history of the different tribes, from locations where epic battles occurred, to places where medicinal plants can be found.
4. Save The World Technologies
Save The World Technologies is all about saving the forests. However, their approach is a little different. Instead of preserving fast dwindling forests that the world has, they are in the business of reforestation.
They’ve developed Super Kiri Trees” through advanced cloning technology which they plant in an effort to balance the environmental deterioration done by mining.
They plant their forests near coal mines in Australia as they believe that mines do the most damage to the environment. The Super Kiri Tree grows fast, reaching maturity in just seven years and has the highest level of Carbon Dioxide sequestration.
5. Makani Power
Makani means wind or breeze in Hawaiian. Makani Power uses technology to harvest high altitude winds for producing renewable energy. Their aim is to produce renewable energy at a cost that’s cheaper than coal powered energy plants.
High altitude wind is found at a height twice as a high as birds fly. The good thing about it is that it’s present everywhere. High altitude wind produces more energy than wind turbines and is also more dependable.
Makani Power is developing technologies that will enable it to extract high altitude winds for producing cheap renewable energy.
6. Solar Aid
Solar Aid is a UK based charity that aims to combat both climate change and poverty by bringing clean, renewable energy to the poorest people in the world. The organization accomplishes this ambitious goal by setting up DIY solar projects in Sub-saharan Africa, where the need is greatest. Solar Aid trains local communities to build small scale solar devices, such as solar powered radios and lanterns, and helps install small solar systems for community centers, medical clinics, schools and other such communal infrastructure. Solar Aid enables small scale entrepreneurs to set up solar microbusinesses, by providing micro-finance loans to purchase equipment that can be used to build and repair small solar products as well as training in business management. These small scale solar businesses help reduce the community’s dependence on harmful and expensive kerosene, while jumpstarting local entrepreneurship.