Capitalism to the rescue

On Sand Hill Road, the wide avenue in Silicon Valley lined with some of the country’s most powerful venture-capital firms, hundreds of millions of dollars pours into green technologies, according to a feature in the New York Times.

Doing well has always been about timing. Many a sound plan has failed because it was too early or too late. But progressive investors could see this day coming, and a few of them now will make a lot of money.

In a stint a little over ten years ago with the Environmental Business Council of the US, we labored to rally the business community around the Clinton-Gore environmental technology strategy (Bridge to a Sustainable Future: National Environmental Technology Strategy) which we helped shape. Its gratifying to finally see the investor interest.

Some dismiss the greening of venture capital as their latest effort to make a lot of money, not to save the environment. Others are saying that the venture capitalists are recklessly betting the firm on perhaps an idealistic quest. If the results are positive, I say: What’s wrong with doing-well-by-doing-good?