Green Business is Good Business

For years, conventional wisdom has held that environmental laws and restrictions cause job declines and stifle growth... making some wonder if they are truly the wave of the future. Now, a study by a VC group called Creating the California Cleantech Cluster is showing that VC interest in environmentally-friendly products and services is growing, leading them into the mainstream, and with them, dollars and jobs. In 2003, California received a record $339 million in "green" VC investment. If investment stays on track, it could lead to between 50,000 and 110,000 jobs, and up to $25 billion in annual revenue in California alone. Other states are also looking at "clean" clusters to grow green businesses, so this will surely be looked to as a model and a barometer of success.

Meanwhile, an article in Wired states that Nova Scotia is saving anywhere from $25 million to $125 million every year by recycling... contrary to beliefs that recycling efforts cost more than traditional landfilling. Nova Scotia is a world leader in recycling, with a recycling rate approaching 50% of its total waste. Recycling plants have also created jobs in the Canadian province. The data comes from a Canadian research group called GPI Atlantic, which specializes in conducting research using hard-to-measure metrics.