The Green Enterprise

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Online video from TechRepublic features quick peeks at new technologies and hot products, tips and hacks for improving IT and digital living, and technology news and analysis from ZDNet.

The future of clean-tech investing

May 15, 2009, 4:48pm PDT

At the Greentech Media and Groom Energy, Enterprise Carbon Accounting Summit in Burlingame, Calif., venture capitalists discuss the outlook of investing in smart grids, carbon management, and energy-monitoring tools. At debate is how to invest capital in an efficient way.
Counting carbon to find bottom-line benefits

May 15, 2009, 12:34pm PDT

What could your business do better? At the Greentech Media and Groom Energy, Enterprise Carbon Accounting Summit in Burlingame, Calif., panelists explain what "The Climate Registry" is, and how business leaders can benefit from carbon accountability. Panelists include: James Sullivan, former director of the EPA Climate Leaders Program and current vice president of Clear Standards; Elise Zoli, partner and chair of energy practice at Goodwin Procter; and Tyman Lodder, western regional director of The Climate Registry.
The Green Enterprise: HP

April 15, 2009, 4:05pm PDT

Hewlett-Packard plans to cut its global energy use 20 percent by 2010. Correspondent Sumi Das looks at "green" strategies the company is implementing to accomplish its goal, such as designing new energy-efficient datacenters and helping make cities more eco-friendly through IT. She also talks to Bonnie Nixon, HP's director of sustainability, about the company's recycling efforts and its plan to eliminate unsafe materials inside its PCs.
Revving up the electric-car industry

March 26, 2009, 1:19pm PDT

At the Green:Net conference in San Francisco, John Clark of GridPoint and Richard Lowenthal of Coulomb Technologies discuss how the largest obstacle for next-generation electric cars is standards. The executives believe that standards in IT infrastructure and the power grid are necessary for any successful large implementation.
Getting green consumers to take action

March 26, 2009, 8:33am PDT

At the Green: Net '09 conference in San Francisco, Erin Carlson, director of Yahoo for Good, breaks down the demographics of green-minded consumers who visit the Web site. She says most people need something exciting to grab their interest--what she calls the dessert. Then the service can slip in useful information (the broccoli) to educate and inform readers on real issues.

What is the smart grid?

March 25, 2009, 3:29pm PDT | 8 | Latest comment by Tony Hopkinson

At the Green: Net '09 Conference in San Francisco, Jesse Berst, managing director of Global Smart Energy, breaks the smart grid down into three components: smart devices, two-way communication, and advanced control systems. He explains what each component adds but says it's not just about the components--it's also the value you can build on top of them.
From Internet to enternet, creating the energy network

March 25, 2009, 2:43pm PDT

At the Green: Net '09 Conference in San Francisco, Bob Metcalfe, a general partner at Polaris Venture Partners, explained how Washington actually helped the Internet, and where the best place to look for green innovations now are. He says that as the enternet--the energy network--develops, creators will look to the structure of the Internet as a guide.
San Francisco's green plans

March 25, 2009, 2:33pm PDT

At the Green: Net '09 Conference in San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom lays out the city's future plans for reducing emissions even further. He explains the city's current electric-car project, and the coming green initiatives of wave technology and tidal-flow generators--a steady stream of energy, he says, that will come right from San Francisco Bay.
Will cheap oil affect green innovation?

February 12, 2009, 2:58pm PST | 1

At a Churchill Club event in Santa Clara, Calif., Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, calls on the government to require using alternative fuels to protect biofuel innovators from the cyclical nature of the oil market and to make it easier to invest in wind, solar, and geothermal energy.
Bill Joy's green investing ideas

February 12, 2009, 2:26pm PST

At a Churchill Club event in Santa Clara, Calif., Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, explains how his company came up with 26 "grand challenge areas"--areas where the company, along with Al Gore and his staff, can make the biggest impact on the environment. Joy says for an idea to excite him, it has to be able to make a significant change in the world, but it also has to have been researched enough to prove it viable. Moderator: Brent Schlender, Writer/Editor/Consultant, former FORTUNE Editor at Large.
The Green Enterprise: Autodesk

December 8, 2008, 2:01pm PST

Autodesk tools aim to help designers conceptualize projects on a computer before starting the costly (and energy-intense) production process. ZDNet correspondent Sumi Das takes a tour of Autodesk's new design gallery in San Francisco, where exhibits ranging from church models to chair designs illustrate how its customers are reducing their carbon footprint. Das also talks to John Kennedy, senior manager at the Green Building Studio, who demonstrates how architects are able to measure solar, thermal, and airflow effects on building performance early in the design process.
Car-friendly outlets pave way for electric driving

December 5, 2008, 3:37pm PST

At the AlwaysOn Venture Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Praveen Mandal, president of Coulomb Technologies, outlines the difficulties in finding places to plug in rechargeable cars and balancing the grid, once automakers release their new lines of plug-in vehicles. He introduces his company's networked "Smarlet" system, which that monitors usage, and can be installed in pedestals and streetlights.
Foam finds new life

December 5, 2008, 12:10pm PST

At the AlwaysOn Venture Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif., J. Brian Hennessy, chief marketing officer of Mobius Technologies, explains how the company has found a way to turn industrial waste--things like old insulation and the foam from car seats--into resins and glues. These glues are strong enough to be used to manufacture OSB (oriented strand board), a building material used in everything from houses to furniture, and at very little extra cost to the manufacturing companies.
Refining vegetable oil into diesel fuel

December 5, 2008, 11:50am PST

At the AlwaysOn Venture Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Peter Bell, co-founder of Renewable Fuel Products, explains that his company's reactors are small and mobile enough to be loaded onto the back of a truck and taken wherever the waste oil is being created. They process an end product that can be used wherever people use diesel, with no special modifications. Through money from carbon credits, he says that developing countries will soon be able to gain access to this reactor as well.
The cost of creating solar cells

December 4, 2008, 1:28pm PST

At the Always On Venture Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif., a panel of solar energy executives debates whether or not silicon prices will fall as the industry matures. While they all think margins will narrow, they disagree on whether there will be an industry wide shakeout, or if the polysilicon and silicon wafer markets will move up and down separately. Panelists include Suvi Sharma, CEO of Solaria, and Peter Nieh, managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners. The moderator is David Chen, managing director of Morgan Stanley.