If you had been asking yourself how to benefit from the biggest business revolution of our times – the clean technology revolution. Cleantech includes recycling and renewable energies like: wind power, solar power, biomass, hydropower, biofuels, etc., as well as information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, greywater and many other appliances that are now more energy efficient.
What is CleanTech?
Clean tech is any service or product that improves operational performance, productivity or efficiency. The goal is reducing costs, raw materials, energy consumption, waste and other environmental pollution.
From infoDev.org, a global innovation and entrepreneurship program of the World Bank Group. This infographic is part of a report that assesses the potential market for 15 emerging clean technology sectors in the developing world:
Recycling is a part of cleantech and a worldwide trend. It helps cut down on waste but is also big business. This infographic breaks down some of the basic numbers of recycling, for example how many tons of electronic equipment are thrown away each year, and highlights the countries that are best at recycling:
Renewable energy creates jobs! An estimate 800,000 new clean tech jobs were created globally in 2013. According to a study green energy creates more jobs than fossil fuels.
How to finance a clean tech startup?
The issue of financing has become a major concern for many green start-ups and started to limit the growth within the cleantech industry. Due to plumping oil price and unimpressive returns, venture capitals are getting less interested about investing in clean-tech companies. So what other options are left than government subsidies?
Many financial institutes are trying to nurture innovative tech startups to transform their industry. Among these, Wells Fargo is about to help startups tackle their daunting business journeys in an area where traditional venture capital financing has been drying up. They introduced the “Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator” , a 5 year, $10 million program to foster innovative environmental technologies. The program is co-administered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The East West Bank (www.eastwestbank.com) calls themselves the “to go” bank for commercial scale renewable energy projects.
According to the Financial Post new clean technology funding portal in Canada, Sustainable Development Technology Canada (www.sdtc.ca) could give businesses in the sector the chance to connect with industry partners.
Infographic clean technology credit –&– Recycling graphic
