Head: (5 of 5)
Heart: (3.5 of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (4 of 5)

Consultant Ron Pernick and Business Journalist Clint Wilder argue in The Clean Tech Revolution that developing clean technologies is no longer only a social issue championed by environmentalists; it's a moneymaking enterprise moving solidly into the business mainstream.  And as energy prices continue to rise, oil resources diminish, and social pressure increases for companies and governments to address climate change, clean tech is poised not just to increase rapidly but to become the very engine of economic growth.  

The authors define clean tech as those technologies designed to provide superior performance at a lower cost while creating significantly less waste than conventional offerings. Clean technology comprises a diverse range of products and services that harness renewable materials or reduce the use of natural resources by using them more efficiently, cut or eliminate pollution and toxic wastes, and deliver equal or superior performance compared to conventional offerings. They are already beginning to provide increased returns, reduced costs, lower prices, and quality jobs. 

The authors have identified six major forces that are pushing clean tech into the mainstream that they call the six C's: falling Costs of clean tech against rising fossil fuel costs, an unprecedented influx of Capital; Competition for dominance between governments as well as between companies; the explosive demands of developing nations such as China and India; savvy Consumers demanding cleaner products and services, and the increasing certainty of Climate change. 

For businesses and investors, the climate-change issue is providing two increasingly-hard-to-ignore pressures:  the increased regulation of greenhouse gases is pumping up demand for technologies that deliver reduced or zero emissions, and investors are increasingly assessing companies in all industries on their downside risk from carbon emissions and their upside potential from reducing them.  Even if your company is not in the clean tech industry, they claim, it will still be evaluated for how well and fast it cleans up.

The book is divided into eight parts, highlighting the eight major clean-tech sectors: solar energy, wind power, biofuels and biomaterials, green building, personal transportation, the smart grid, mobile applications, and water filtration.  In each section they address the major forces propelling the sector and discuss how investors, entrepreneurs and individuals can get involved in the action.  They also offer their educated opinion as to which technologies and companies are likely to be the ultimate winners.  As such, the book serves as an excellent primer to this rapidly rising industry.  Buy it.