Green Startups Likely to Stay Strong

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2008-12-22 08:16:00 UTC
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The National Venture Capital Association's MoneyTree Report paints a pretty gruesome picture of the probable state of venture funding for startups in 2009. According to the some 400 venture capitalists surveyed, cleantech is the only sector where we are likely to see increases in investment.

Still, there remains a high level of excitement about companies that are trying to solve some of societies biggest problems, and financially speaking, the rewards for those who succesfully bring to market new solar technologies and other clean and green products could be great.

Triple Pundit speculates about whether the cleantech boom could actually be a solution to rather than a victim of the recession:

By now you've heard about the new economic stimulus being formed by leaders of Congress and the President-elect. At last tally, the price tag on that stimulus is topping out at $850 billion, though some experts say upwards of $1 trillion is needed.

The bulk of that money, as indicated by Mr. Obama himself, will go to infrastructure projects that fall in the realm of electricity transmission and energy efficiency. This has led to emergence of numerous titles for this pending piece of legislation like “The New New Deal,” “The Green New Deal,” and the “Green Recovery.”

BusinessWeek also writes about startups who have the magic to turn economic plight into opportunity. One of the entrepreneurs the story mentions is RecycleBank. RecycleBank rewards individual households that recycle by giving them points which can be redeemed at local retailers. Their vision:

Our goal at RecycleBank is to progress societies' view of the product lifecycle from linear to cyclical. Since the discarding of product in a linear lifecycle destroys value, then the reuse and recycling of that product should create value. [We] believe that in order for a cyclical product lifecycle to be created and remain sustainable, value must be passed back to the entity, households, who are responsible for providing each product a cyclical lifecycle...Our goal at RecycleBank is to create incentives for households to recycle by giving them a large portion of the value derived from their giving birth to a cyclical product lifecycle.

According to BusinessWeek, founder Ron Gonen sees the downturn as an opportunity as people are looking for any extra income they can get your hands on. A household could make up to $400 a year with a RecycleBank account.

Check out more entrepreneurs who are succeeding in the downturn here.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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