3p Contributor: Andrew Burger
Recent Articles
Helveta: Supply Chain Software Firm Tackles Deforestation by Digitizing Trees, Timber
From its office near Oxford, UK supply chain management software specialist Helveta is taking on a big sustainability challenge: that posed by illegal logging and deforestation.
It’s estimated that deforestation accounts for anywhere between 1/6 and 1/4 of global carbon emissions, yet the drive to make money and promote economic development continues to result in the loss of vast areas of forest around the world. Despite a drive toward more sustainable forestry, illegal logging is rife in what remains of the world’s large forests. Helveta’s solution: digitizing trees so that timber can be tracked, and its origins authenticated, from forest to market.
Best estimates are that forests cover some 30% of global land area (nearly 4 billion hectares), providing numerous valuable, and some invaluable, ecosystem services and goods for millions of people. They also provide habitat for millions of plant and other animal species with which we share the planet. There’s more carbon stored in these forests than there is in the Earth’s atmosphere–some 638 billion metric tons as of 2005, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Funding Closes on First Nationally Focused Impact Investment Fund
SJF Ventures and Citi Community Capital, Citigroup’s community lending and investment group, announced the closing of SJF Ventures III LP, the first nationally focused Impact Investment SBIC fund. Licensed by the US Small Business Investment Corp. (SBIC) under its new Impact Investment Initiative, the SJF Ventures III fund will make equity investments in growth-stage cleantech and “positive impact” companies.
Durham, NC-based SJF has been successful in raising and investing capital in smaller, community-oriented businesses with an environmental ethic for 12 years. To date, its investments have helped finance 34 young businesses focusing on efficiency and infrastructure, reuse and recycling, sustainable agriculture and food safety, and technology enhanced services.
Launched in April, 2011, SBIC’s $1 billion Impact Investment program is part of Pres. Obama’s “Start-Up America Partnership.” The program “seeks to increase the SBIC program’s economic impact by 1) proactively collaborating with institutional investors to identify and capitalize experienced private equity fund managers to make ‘impact investments’ into small business concerns and 2) providing expedited licensing and capital to fund manager who qualify to organize and operate an ‘Impact Investment SBIC.’”
One More Time: Clean Energy Standard Act Introduced in Congress
With November elections approaching, national energy policy is moving to the forefront of the political agenda, and the contrasts between Republican and Democratic priorities couldn’t be more stark. While Pres. Obama and supportive Democratic Congressional representatives are intensifying their push for a long overdue overhaul of federal policy focused on clean energies that will be the key to future prosperity and quality of life, Republicans continue to pander to the interests of the oil, gas and coal industry by pushing for continued reliance on fossil fuels.
Shot down repeatedly in the past, a key piece of clean energy legislation–the Clean Energy Standard Act of 2012– is nonetheless expected to be introduced in the Senate today, Thursday, March 1. New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is expected to announce the bill Thursday morning. Joining him will be Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), as well as the president of the American Wind Energy Association and the executive director of the U.S. Clean Heat & Power Association, according to a news report from The Hill.
Top 5 Triple Bottom Line US Utilities
Sempra Energy (SRE), Xcel Energy (XEL), PG&E Corp. (PCG), Edison International (EIX) and Avista Corp. (AVA) are the top five US utilities when it comes to Triple Bottom Line business practices and operations, according to Hauppauge, NY-based Target Rock Advisors. The five publicly owned utilities are among a total 15 “high performance” US utilities comprising the Target Rock High Sustainability Index, which is based on using Target Rock’s proprietary system to systematically score and rank publicly listed US companies across the three pillars of Triple Bottom Line business practices and operations: environment, economy and society.
Testament to the ability of Triple Bottom Line businesses practices to flow through to the traditional ‘bottom line,’ Target Rock found that the 15 High Sustainability Index companies as a group outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 for the ten-year period ending Dec. 31, 2011.
US Solar CEOs’ Letter Urges President to Focus on Solar Energy Trade with China
Xi Jinping, China’s vice-president and the expected successor to current President Hu Jintao, is in the nation’s capital today to meet with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Their discussions are bound to cover a wide range of topics, and rising trade tensions is certain to be among them – particularly with regard to Chinese silicon solar PV subsidies, its export-driven trade policy and its tightly controlled currency management system.
Keen to see the solar PV trade dispute settled through diplomatic negotiations rather than through international trade legal channels, 45 US solar energy company CEOs sent a letter to the President strongly urging him to “discuss the mutual benefits of renewable energy development, especially solar photovoltaic (PV) technology” in his meeting with Vice President Xi.
Averting a solar trade war
Upsolar Launches Advertising Campaign Design Contest on Facebook
A developer of brand name mono- and polycrystalline silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, Hong Kong’s Upsolar continues its efforts to ‘walk the walk’ as well as ‘talk the talk’ when it comes to sustainability and ‘Triple Bottom Line’ business practices. The ‘fab-less’ solar PV design, engineering and marketing company in mid-January completed an initial Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of its two best-selling PV modules, making it one of the first solar PV suppliers in China to carry out a comprehensive study of the environmental impact of these operations.
A multinational enterprise that’s doing business across Europe, as well as in Japan, the U.S. and China, Upsolar’s increasingly looking to its social media presence to help grow its business. On Feb. 8, Upsolar used its Facebook site to launch a public contest to create its 2012 advertising campaign.
Shareholders Press Oil & Gas Companies on Fracking
Representing shareholders, investment management organizations are increasingly pressing US oil and gas companies to take stronger actions and increase public disclosure of information regarding the ‘other’ two core aspects of ‘Triple Bottom Line’ business practices: environment, labor and community.
Investor groups, coordinated by Ceres, on Feb. 8 announced they’ve filed shareholder resolutions with Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Chesapeake Energy, ConocoPhillips and 14 other oil and gas companies, “pressing them to disclose their plans for managing environmental and workplace challenges such as hydraulic fracturing, greenhouse gas emissions and woker safety.”
“The common thread of these resolutions is stronger management focus on environmental and social challenges that will have real bottom line impacts,” said Mindy Lubber, director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) and president of Ceres. “These investors are telling companies they expect to see real progress on climate change, clean energy and other sustainability fronts, despite the policy paralysis in Washington.”
Report: Solyndra had Limited Impact on VC Solar Investments
2011 was a difficult year for the US solar industry, but venture capital activity in the sector did more than hold its own. Oversupply, a precipitous price drop and high-profile bankruptcies notwithstanding, venture capital (VC) investments in the US solar sector set a record in 2011, with 182 different VC firms participating in 111 transactions. Conditions might well get worse before they get better, however, according to Mercom Capital Group’s “2011 Solar Funding and M&A” report.
2011 VC investment in the solar sector also rose in terms of dollar amount, with VC firms investing $1.9 billion in 2011, up from $1.7 billion in 2010 and $1.4 billion in 2009. “The United States was the top venture capital investment destination in the world, with $1.5 billion in venture capital investment in 84 deals. All VC investments in other countries combined to $340 million in 24 deals,” according to Mercom’s in-depth report.
Strong finish to 2011
VC activity continued strong despite the Solyndra ‘scandal’ and subsequent bankruptcies. VCs invested more than $700 million in over 40 solar industry deals since Solyndra announced its bankruptcy filing in August last year. The year closed out strong, with VCs investing more than $511 million spanning 29 deals.
VC Cleantech Investments Down 4.5% in 2011
The number of US venture capital (VC) investments in cleantech companies didn’t increase in 2011, but they didn’t decline either. They did decline 4.5% by dollar amount invested, however, reflecting the difficult economic and market conditions that prevailed, particularly during the latter half of 2011, according to an Ernst & Young report based on data from Dow Jones VentureSource.
Total VC cleantech investment amounted to $4.9 billion in 2011, according to Ernst & Young. There were 70 financing rounds in the fourth quarter of 2011, in which a some $940.5 million of capital was raised.
Though down year-to-year, 2011′s totals are best viewed from a longer term perspective, Ernst & Young LLP Americas Cleantech director Jay Spencer commented. Looking back another year and comparing 2011′s total amount invested to that in 2009 shows that the amount of VC capital invested in cleantech companies was 29% greater in 2011 than the $3.8 billion raised in 2009.
Renewable Energy Mergers and Acquisitions Surge 40% in 2011
Merger and acquisition activity in the renewable energy sector surged 40% in 2011, reaching a record-high $53.5 billion, according to global consultancy PwC, which has been producing an annual review of renewable energy M&A for four years now. Large, billion-dollar deals dominated “as solar, wind and energy efficiency deals overtook hydropower as the driver for big deal values for the first time,” PwC noted.
M&A activity in the solar energy market was particularly “hot,” accounting for 1 in every 3 transactions last year, with overall M&A transaction values in the solar sector jumping 56% to $15.8 billion in 2011, from $10.2 billion in 2010. Falling solar photovoltaic (PV) panel prices have made solar power more economic, with prices in some markets having fallen to the point of grid-parity, PwC noted.
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