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About Me

Hi, I'm Pete Clutton-Brock. I am currently working for DECC on a new cap and trade scheme.
I am also the founder of www.Sustainable-Jobs.com.
For more info check out my profile (www.clutton-brock.com).

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Cleantech startups - where are they based?

Everybody is talking about cleantech - but where is all the action happening?

Earth2tech have knocked up a great map of 101 cleantech startups. While this is a strongly US-centric view of cleantech it is still interesting to see where the hot companies are based.

A lot of these companies need significant funding to set up so there is an expected correlation between cleantech developments and sites of existing venture capital activity such as Silicon Valley.

My guess is that there will be further geographical consolidation of cleantech companies as geographical network effects start creating competitive advantages both for the entrepreneurs and investors. The Valley will be one - and if the trend here continues they may well corner the market in a similar way to their web startup cousins. Whether or not Europe is able to create a viable alternative is debatable and really the most interesting area to watch is China - home of the first solar billionaire. So far China has struggled to develop their cleantech industry as they are still a step behind US companies that control most of the IP in this space.

Comment (1)
Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock 

Thar' she blows! Google invests $5 million in high altitude wind

Google.org is looking more and more like a cleantech venture fund as it ploughs $5million into high-altitude wind startup Makani Power, earth2tech reports. The money is part of a series B round of investment (Google already stomped up $10million for them in series A).

Makini Power was founded in 2006 by MIT serial inventor Saul Griffith and former World Cup windsurfer Don Montague, the company has nearly 30 employees, many of them kitesurfers. By putting a kite or similar structure up 5 to 10 kilometers in the air the company could tap the strong winds at high altitudes. The power of wind is related to the cube of its velocity, meaning you can get way more energy out of faster blowing wind. The real advantage of high altitude wind is the reliability. Whereas traditional wind is only 33% reliable, high altitude wind could provide an energy source that is 75% dependable, making it far more viable as a base-load energy source.

Google.org now has a growing portfolio of cleantech investments which are all part of its Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal campaign. Other investments include deep geothermal energy investments and investments in electric car maker Aptera and battery developer ActaCell.

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Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock 

Red Deer are having sex earlier due to climate change

The latest data from a Cambridge University study shows that Red Deer births in Scotland have moved forward in the year significantly in a trend that correlates very closely with temperature increases over the last 30 years. Earlier births means earlier conception date. There is no evidence, as yet, that there will be any adverse impact to the deer or their diet - vegetation studies are being carried out at the moment, however if I was in charge of tourism in Scotland this is something I would be looking into very carefully.

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Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock 

How much CO2 is your website responsible for?

Do you manage a website or a blog? If so, do you have any idea how much CO2 goes into keeping that website online? How much energy do your hosts' servers use? How much electricity is used by all the people viewing it?

The answer for most websites will be 'not much'. However considering the size of the web these days, collectively all these small sites are having a big impact.

To help you find out how much CO2 your site is responsible for you can embed a widget from CO2 Stats. Designed by academics from MIT and Yale, this widget automatically calculates the greenhouse gas footprint of visits to your site, based on locations of your visitors and servers, computer types, window and monitor sizes, local fuel mixes, download sizes and times.

For sites with less than 100 impressions a month CO2 Stats will automatically offset the emissions for free. There are then a series of packages for larger sites to offset their emissions.

This is a web app to watch out for as it doesn't have any competition at the moment so it could become very big very quickly.

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Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock 

How to make people want to be part of the 'sustainable' clan

As part of my masters degree, together with a team of friends, I designed and created a social news website. It was all created using various free web apps. It was great - fully functional, easy to use and with an attractive user interface - but no one used it. Why - because I made too freely available. At the time I had no understanding of the principle of the value of scarcity. It got to the stage where I changed the 'home' page of the communal computers to the site in an attempt to get people to use it. I was forcing it down people's throats and they weren't interested.

The scarcity principle suggests that things that are scarce are more valuable.

Why is this relevant to the sustainability movement generally? Because the sustainability movement wants to get everybody on board. It wants to be seen as grass roots. It wants to be something anybody can get involved in. There are few barriers to entry. There is little scarcity value placed on being part of the 'sustainability' clan.

Now, I'm simplifying the scene quite a lot. There are many counter examples. Cars like the Tesla have made environmental driving something that only the very rich can be involved in. This has automatically given it scarcity value. The Forum for the Future masters course has created a pretty exclusive alumni network that has a very high scarcity value.

So how can the 'sustainability' clan make itself seem scarce and accessible at the same time? The answer: by having offerings at all levels, be they products, networks and services, but by focussing on the scarce ones. By talking and enforcing the idea that many of these things are highly scarce people will want to be part of it. So there you have it: focus on the scarce but have offerings at all levels.

Oh and by the way, there are only 20 spaces available on my social news site. If you want one of them you need to write to me at pcbrock (at) gmail dot com and explain why you think you should be allowed to participate.


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Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock 

Economic downturn hasn't stopped cleantech: A123 IPOs

This, in a microcosm, is why the economic downturn won't cripple the environmental movement like it did in 1991. When A123, a nanotech battery company filed its IPO documentation this morning it proved that all the environmental action that has taken place since the last recession has been much more substantive than it ever has previously. Back in 1991 The Economist's editorial signed off with “Bye bye greens, see you in the next boom.” Today it is the environmental companies that seem to be doing well despite the downturn.

A123 Systems is an exciting company for many reasons. The company makes next-gen lithium ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles as well as for smaller portable devices and has already raised £68.7m in venture funding from Sequoia, General Motors, Motorola, Qualcomm, and others. It's business model is to license its technology to anyone interested which includes any car company interested in producing an electric car (ie all of them) and any hand held devices.

Apparently it is opperating at significant loss at the moment which should really be expected for an early(ish) stage company that is developing a very new technology.

Because it is a big story IPO it will probably do well, however despite all the potential this company offers, more needs to be done to reassure people that the nanotech batteries can be disposed of in a safe and and environmentally friendly way.

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Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock 

Why have I only just heard about the new carbon trading scheme for businesses/schools?

I have just got back from an assessment for a job at DEFRA working on a new carbon market the government is setting up for energy users that are too small to be in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme but still large enough to have half hourly energy monitoring.

The job aside, this is a huge development! A new carbon market! It will include 10,000 organisations and the majority of the UK economy within its remit. It's just starting to get going and the first year of trading won't be until 2010 with a mandatoy cap introduced in 2013 but this is still huge!

So why the hell haven't I heard about this before? Has it slipped by in the press without me hearing or is the press so target obsessed that it isn't interested in initiatives like this that will really make a difference? Either way DEFRA needs to work on its comms strategy. A blog might be a good start.

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Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock 

Advice from Evan Davis: How to win an argument on radio 4

I have been looking back on my graduation day and the one piece of advice Evan Davis gave me that sticks out was 'if you want to win an argument on radio 4 you must make the case against your argument more articulately and persuasively than anyone has ever done before - and then go on to say that despite all that you still disagree with that argument for the following reasons...'.

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Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock 

Does fear persuade or paralyse?

I read an interesting piece the other day about fear messaging. Apparently Howard Leventhal has been studying fear messaging in the context of public health since the sixties. In one study he got students to read a public health pamphlet explaining the dangers of tetanus infection. The pamphlet was either filled or not filled with frightening images of the consequences of contracting tetanus. In addition, the students either did or did not receive a specific plan for arranging a tetanus injection. The results showed that the high-fear message motivated recipients to get a tetanus injection only if it included a plan of specific actions they could take to get an injection.

The research goes on to show that the action plans must provide a clear, specific and effective means of reducing the danger. This is relevent for climate change communications as the solutions for climate change are rarely able to meet these three criteria in a way that is simple to understand.

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Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock 

Job hunting

I've been thinking about the criteria for choosing a job. Here are the criteria I have come up with so far:

1. People - I have to be able to relate to the people
2. Opportunity to develop - I want a job that will stretch me and help me grow
3. Options - I want to take a job that opens more doors for future jobs than it closes
4. Content - I want to enjoy the actual work I would be doing and feel it is worthwhile
5. Change - I want to feel I am in the place where I can use my skills to create the most amount of change possible
6. Energy - I want the organisation I am working in to provide a charged, energetic experience

Comment (1)
Posted 1 year ago by Pete Clutton-Brock