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Green Light Distrikt
Green Light Distrikt is about entrepreneurship focused on the cleantech sector. Edited by Chris Williams with frequent guest posts from friends, experts and industry insiders from clusters across the globe. Our goal is to provide a place where cleantech entrepreneurs in various clusters across the globe can learn from one another. Green Light Distrikt is creating the "Hitchikers Guide to Clentech" to provide a resource for cleantech entrepreneurs. Read more
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November 3rd, 2010
My 15 Favorite Insider Green Blogs (And You Pick the 16th)
BOSTON -
If you’re like me, and you really love this stuff, “green” stuff that is, you’re always looking for great information sources. Places where you can find little bits of news and insights about a particle region, industry, company, interview or new trends that’s totally, completely AWESOME but that’s not going to make it on the mainstream news. This is my list of those source.
I call them my green brain food. What’s your brain food?
As you’re reading, if you remember that you have some specific pieces of brain food that are totally awesome, but that I didn’t include or that I don’t know, PLEASE share them with everyone in comments section.
My Green Brain Food
The Green Skeptic - The Green Skeptic is run by Scott Edward Anderson. Scott’s the founder of Verde Strategy and has worked with Ashoka and The Nature Conservancy. What I love about Scott’s blog is its clear he’s into the “mission”. That is, using business to decrease our impact on the environment. However, it’s also clear by the name “green skeptic” that he’s constantly questioning and challenging how we’re trying to accomplish the mission so it’s done the most effectively. This leads to great content.
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September 8th, 2010
Top 3 Books for your Clean Energy Library
TOPICS: BOSTON, Government Policy, Industry Insiders, Resources
The academic highlight of my grad program was a directed research thesis with Boston College IS professor, Rob Fichman. Disrupting the Carbon Quo was an exploration of the role innovation economics can play for a comprehensive response to climate change. For a few months, it was my job to get schooled in energy transitions, up to speed with climate science, and comfortable with the notion of techno-economic paradigms. In the process, I built up a small “new energy” library, a selection of which I’m featuring here.
A few months back, GLD Insider Walter Frick featured cleantech web resources in his post, How to Become a Clean Energy Infovore. So after you’ve munched on those, check out some of these books for a deep dive in climate science, the commercial response, and potential economic impacts. The Prize and The End of Nature are next in my Kindle queue, what’s in yours?
Earth: The Sequel – If there is ever a Hall of Fame for the environment, Fredd Krupp will surely be an inductee. At times, he is controversial for his market-based proposals for environmental change, but it’s hard to argue with the Environmental Defense Fund’s results, which include a successful implementation (1990 Clean Air Act) of a cap and trade mechanism for sulfer dioxide, and demonstrable sustainability campaigns with Fortune 500 enterprises — where impacts are quantifiable, scalable, and margin-enhancing.
August 10th, 2010
UPDATE: Top 10 US Cleantech Cities, Is Your City Falling Behind?
TOPICS: BOSTON, CleanTech Guide, Resources
I created the ‘TOP 10 US Cities for Cleantech Report” about a month ago. The goal is simple: crowdsource the research on cleantech resources across the US, then rank the information from 1 to 10, then provide it free to the community for people to use.
Story and Purpose of the Report
At first, the goal was selfish and for my own purposes. I know what’s happening in Boston very well because I’ve lived here for 2 years. But I wanted to be able to go to NYC, Boulder, San Fran, or (insert any US city here) and get plugged into the cleantech scene in a week, instead of the 3 months it would normally take. + Continue Reading
July 21st, 2010
Getting Social in the Boulder Sustainability Scene
-I moved to Boulder, Colorado a little over a month ago from Madison, Wisconsin. All I had to my name was a few hundred bucks, a Toyota Yaris packed with everything I (decided) to own and a drive to make a fresh start on my career and overall life in a beautiful, thriving place.
Luckily I had some resources already in the area where I was moving to: my girlfriend, a cousin and some friends from the Boulder Startup Week that I had met when visiting in May. I’ve become somewhat of a proficient social networker with my past experiences in social media, so I figured that the strong base I had established when visiting Boulder Startup Week would help me get into a renewable energy or cleantech company easily. + Continue Reading
June 30th, 2010
SURVEY: Who are the Top 10 US Cities for Cleantech? Need Your Input
BOSTON -
Here’s a question I’ve been getting asked a lot about lately and have been personally wondering myself: What is the best city for the cleantech industry in the United States?
If you work in the cleantech industry, I need your help for a couple moments! We’re going to crowd source the compilation of the information that will be useful to everyone in the industry and then make it free to the community. I know a lot about the information in Boston, but not so much about other cities, that’s where you come in 
Goal Of the Survey
Based on your responses to my little survey, I’m going to publish a yearly report and make it free to the community. The goal is that the survey will rank each city based on a simple criteria and provide a complete list of cleantech resources, government policies, companies, and investors in each city. We’re going to continue to collect the information and release the report every year, which will be especially useful as the industry grows and changes.
In this context, I’ll define cleantech as anything associated with; renewable energy, energy efficiency, water, green building, clean transportation.
Story
Two years ago it seems like the answer might have been pretty straight forward, but things have changed a lot since then. Cities and states are passing new policies aiming at attracting new investment, large companies are investing in CSR, and many more universities are beginning to change their curriculum.
My first thought was to answer this question by creating an as-you-go type documentary and travel to a bunch of cities and do interviews with companies, city official, and at universities and continually write and post photos and videos on my blog.
Information We’re Looking to Collect
I’ve created a simple form below with some basic information that I’m looking to collect. I tried to keep the survey very short and simple for the first try.
If you have a second, here’s how you can help:
- Depending on the city where you are located, please fill in any and all information that you have.
- If you have colleagues in other cities please forward it to them.
- If you can just fill in one part, no problem, any and all information will be useful. You’ll be asked to rate each criteria for the city you’re located in and then provide SPECIFIC examples to back up your rating. These examples will be used to compile the resources in each city that we’ll provide in the report.
City Specific Information:
1) Quality of Investor Community:
-Cleantech specific investors in your city (angel networks, VCs, etc)
2) Cleantech Talent
-Universities with cleantech oriented programs
-Think tanks
-Local training programs
3) Resources
-Government Polices
-Green Incubators
-Non-profits/Industry Associations
-Business Plan Competitions
-Local Events
4) Existing Cleantech Companies. Please list companies you’re aware of located in your city.
-Large Companies (Public)
-Middle Size Companies (Large but not public)
-Small Businesses
-Startups
I’m very excited about this project as I think we’ll be able to collect some great information, but I can only do it with you help
Thank you in advance for your help!
Chris
