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The Greenbuild celebration at Phoenix’s Chase Field last night was the best conference presentation I’ve seen, bar none—this from someone who’s been attending about 15 tech industry conferences a year for the past 20 years.

Why? Yes, there was the star power of Al Gore, looking trim and fit and delivering his usual inspiring talk (“We must make it easier for our elected officials to do the right thing and harder for them to do wrong.”). The concert by Sheryl Crow concluded the evening on a great note. The huge projection of the speakers was attractively winged by a split screen image of video footage of nature at work, exceptional green building projects, and people in communities. All good stuff, but what really impressed me was the presentation by the organizers—the last thing you’d usually expect to be exciting.

Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of the US Green Building Council declared, “We need not only change we can believe in but change we can build on. We need not only a tipping point but a leverage point.” The audience agreed: It’s time for a green building revolution. “It’s time to move from aspirational green building to informational green building.”

The zero-carbon buildings movement could solve the energy, economic and quality-of-life challenges for the world. If anything can. The 27,000 attendees, including the friendly, funny and hospitable CB Ellis brokers who shared their table and great view with me, all seemed to agree.

Still, what impressed me was the superbly coordinated presentation, first by Fedrizzi, then interweaving many more Green Building Council leaders from around the world: Australia, UK, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Taiwan, Brazil and Italy. Each presenter was perfectly on message and smoothly handed off to the next, like the old friends and long-time collaborators they actually are.

At the heart of most conferences lies someone trying to make money. At the heart of Greenbuild is a huge and growing global network of designers, builders, policy-makers and humanists trying to make a better world. I loved every minute of it.

As part of the 2nd Annual InterSolar conference held this week in San Francisco, Antenna Group worked with the Solar Gigawatts team to organize a panel of experts to discuss leveraging your brand in the US solar market.

The panel included PR, marketing and branding experts:

• *Caroline Venza, Vice President, Antenna Group
• *Dr. Isabelle Christensen, Senior Director Marketing & Public Relations, REC Solar
• *Angeline Johnson, Manager, Climate Change and Sustainability Services and Advisory, Ernst and Young
• *Jocelyn King, Director of Worldwide Marketing Operations, National Semiconductor

A full copy of their presentations will be available online after July 21st at: http://solar-gigawatts.com/

Climate change and a shift in global policy favoring renewables has yielded widespread venture capital investment in the cleantech sector. Over the past 2-3 years, it seems that most VC firms have naturally evolved and now have a “cleantech portfolio” on their Websites. These firms have combed through the scientists and Ph.Ds at the world’s premier learning institutions, appointing the best and brightest to their cleantech advisory boards to round out intelligent investing with deep industry knowledge. Allotment of money, especially in the energy efficiency space, is now mainstream. It appears that all the tools are in place, yet VCs are still getting knocked when it comes to cleantech investing.

Two of the hottest areas now in VC investing are smart grid and energy efficiency, a clear advancement from ten years ago, before the term “cleantech” was even coined, when risk-taking individuals or large corporations gambled on unproven science projects. Could it be that the people doing the investing have not developed as quickly as the technology has? That might be part of it, but an explanation that I heard at a recent conference is much simpler: Cleantech investment “rules” are counter-intuitive to what VCs know.

Traditionally, a venture capitalist will search for or get pitched with a new idea or technology, thoroughly research the markets and become an expert on the innovation that they hope will spawn returns ten times that of what they put in. Investments in the Internet, enterprise technology or IT move very fast, as do advancements in those areas. Cleantech, especially energy efficiency, doesn’t have the same rule book. Energy is colossal—it’s bigger than any other area VCs have invested in before. Two-thirds of the planet uses it. It’s also slow, with R&D moving at an intense yet more measured pace than other technologies that VCs are accustomed to. Policy also plays a large part in cleantech investing, something that has not been a big issue in other types of tech.

Fortunately, investing in the cleantech space still has a lot of room to grow. I think that the success it promises to yield needs a more appropriate measuring stick as expectations are adjusted. Cleantech is still a fairly new game to VCs, and I think it will take time for the returns to roll in the same way they have in the traditional sectors that VCs are very experienced with.

Don Solo/Flickr

Cleantech companies are particularly prone to intellectual-property paranoia. Caution is reasonably called for: do get those patents filed before gabbing.

Industrial innovators burn a lot of capital before reaching healthy revenues. Some directors cut cost corners by keeping portfolio companies in stealth mode for years. A small executive team is expected to reach key customers and get sites installed with little more marketing than a cursory website. Supposedly, this not only saves money but also hides their brilliant innovation from imitators.

Companies may be lingering too long in the shadows, simply because their leaders don’t understand the power of the strategic communications sword. How many VCs or board members do you know who have a strong marketing background? Yet history shows the best technology does not always win. The good-enough solution that is fastest to penetrate the market and relentlessly defends its leadership will win the lion’s share.

Even in situations where staying under the radar might give an edge versus competitors, it also brings a downside: it hides the company from customers, potential talent and the investors needed for each new round. A company that does show market momentum also has a better shot at winning approval for its ARRA application. Smart PR accelerates all those initiatives. So, what is not invested in public relations may instead be lost on a longer sales cycle, larger sales force, costlier executive-recruiter effort, more expensive capital and far more CEO time spent courting reluctant investors.

Shut off from a real market response, a company can get trapped in a self-referential box. Unable to outgrow its anti-marketing culture, it may be on its way to cleantech Betamax, to being Novell instead of Microsoft.

The transition from hiding your light under a basket to being able to dazzle your customers is as difficult for a company as puberty is for a teenager. Luckily, unlike puberty, you can hire people to help you through it.

When Congress returns to Capitol Hill from its two week recess next week, it’s expected to tackle the energy bill in earnest. A major provision in the bill that could drastically increase growth in the renewable energy sector is the concept of a national renewable portfolio standard, or RPS. The RPS tactic has been successful in 28 states in creating a market for renewable energy, and if the U.S. is serious about building a carbon neutral economy and reducing global warming, a national RPS is not only necessary, it is vital.

Essentially, an RPS requires utilities to purchase a percentage of the energy they provide to customers from renewable sources.  The current energy bill making its way through Congress eases into the process by starting the renewable energy requirement at 6% in 2012 and increasing it steadily over the next decade. The schedule is as follows:
More than half of U.S. states already have RPS requirements of their own and this national schedule would not override those state provisions. In fact, many states today are already meeting the 6% standard proposed for 2012, and in some cases, far exceeding it. What may rustle some feathers among utilities in states without current RPS mandates is the swift progression of the proposed schedule. Moving from 6% to 11% in four years might be tough for states not already in the renewable energy game, especially in the midst of a major economic downturn.

Despite the growing pains associated with a national RPS, it is a requirement for a healthy renewable energy market in the U.S. Across all sectors, from solar to wind to biomass, the renewable energy industry has gained significant market traction, despite inconsistent federal support. But with a national RPS in place the U.S. government can provide the stability the industry needs to achieve economies of scale and mass adoption, which are critical to bringing the costs of renewable energy down and achieving grid parity, the point at which the price of electricity generated by renewable sources is equal to or cheaper than grid power.

The renewable energy industry will still experience growth without a national RPS, but it will be slower.  If America is serious about reducing its use of fossil fuels, it should set benchmarks to meet its goals.

Green jobs have been a particularly hot topic of late, especially in today’s conversations about job creation through the recently passed stimulus bill.  But what is a green job?  Truth is, no one really knows, and the jury is still out in the definition debate.  From a PR perspective, the lack of a definition creates challenges for those wishing to promote green jobs.  Having a clear understanding of what does and does not qualify as green is critical for making strategic outreach decisions.  Companies participating in green job conversations risk making fraudulent claims in an environment where definition changes rapidly.  Understanding the dynamics of the green jobs story may help companies avoid damaging relationships with key stakeholders and audiences.

Many are attempting to reign in this debate and come up with definitions that are general enough to be all-encompassing, but specific enough to be credible.  Critics point out that a lack of what constitutes a green job allows questionable businesses and industries to claim green job creds and potentially greenwash their activities.  This has some of us out there asking, will green jobs become the new greenwash?

Some argue that everyone is too caught up in defining green jobs and instead should just be focusing on creating good jobs, while others feel that only the narrowest definition will suffice to avoid greenwashing.  Kevin Doyle’s two part post at Grist on his findings and reactions from the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference recently held in Pittsburgh, reveals that current definitions of green jobs focus primarily on jobs in clean energy and efficient green buildings.  Within these areas, specifically jobs in manufacturing and building trades seems to be agreed upon to be the greenest of the green.  But surely there are more green jobs out there than this definition offers us.

Here is my favorite definition so far from the UN’s Green Jobs Report:
“We define green jobs as work in agricultural, manufacturing, research and development (R&D), administrative, and service activities that contribute substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality. Specifically, but not exclusively, this includes jobs that help to protect ecosystems and biodiversity; reduce energy, materials, and water consumption through high-efficiency strategies; de-carbonize the economy; and minimize or altogether avoid generation of all forms of waste and pollution.”

Until a definition that is both broad enough to be inclusive, yet narrow enough to avoid greenwashing is agreed upon, companies will be reluctant to publicize their green job offerings for fear of public backlash.  Arguably, if the US is to truly shift to a green economy, then all jobs will be green jobs, but until we get there, it is important to understand the definition debate when reaching out to media around your company’s green job opportunities.

This week Think Equity LLC and Antenna Group welcomed cleantech industry investors, executives and policymakers to the Think Green Clean Technology and Alternative Energy Forum, in San Francisco. Attendees spanned every sector of the industry from wind and solar, to biofuels and batteries. At the cocktail reception, as in the sessions, people gathered to exchange the biggest breakthroughs of 2008 and get the scoop on what lies ahead for in 2009.

I was struck a few weeks ago by an atypical article in the Wall Street Journal – “The Return of Captain Planet.”

The children’s cartoon from the early 90s was indeed nostalgically familiar, as the green-haired eco-hero with a signature mullet was easily a personal favorite as a child. I had previously been stumped at the show’s vanishing act from the public sphere – in this era of compilation DVDs, rabid online fan communities, and ubiquitous streaming video available, how had the show never made a come back? So while thrilled the show was going to be available again, I had to wonder – is this really Wall Street Journal material?

Working with a reporter at the Journal on another story at the time, I was acutely aware of the publication’s need and desire to cover major, breaking news of global relevance to large, billion dollar markets. Did Captain Planet really meet this threshold?

Turns out, my musing as to the illogic of a show as popular Captain Planet, which based on a very un-scientific polling of my friends and compatriots was easily one of the most loved cartoons of the 90s, not having made a resurgence was apt, and allowed the Journal to explore serious marketing trends – how the nostalgia factor can mean big bucks for past brands (something Sony was trying to capture with other shows) and the power of social networking communities to build audiences.

We always advise clients who want coverage in the Journal to offer an exclusive angle or large financial numbers and specific details around deals and market opportunities. However, the trend story is a tried and true method, allowing a journalist to explore several important market changes simultaneously. Tapping into this is PR at its best.

So while I may not be linking any of my clients up with Captain Planet anytime soon, it’s a strong reminder of the power of the trend pitch.

When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.  While I won’t try to put a positive spin on the economic turmoil that we face today, I will say that there is something to gain by seeking the positive. Without losing sight of that light at the end of the tunnel, we can alter our course temporarily while we wait for the storm to pass.

For some (including a number of my friends who have been laid off), this means applying to graduate school and “skipping out” as wage-earners altogether for a few years.  For others, it means delving deep into their creative and entrepreneurial spirits and seeking innovation at a time when nothing seems harder to do. There are many options to consider when presented with a roadblock, but the point is that the worst thing you can do is throw your hands up in despair and quit, for that could mean missing out on a golden opportunity.

It’s hard to believe, but the current $17 billion global drywall industry faced a supply shortage ten years ago as a result of the 1998 “building boom”. Building projects were stalled for months, new home construction stopped mid-way through production, and many families were left homeless. Yet, drywall factories were still running at capacity.

In this situation, the demand for drywall was directly related to the strong economy and consumer confidence. It also meant that drywall manufacturers were elated because they could sell 100% of their production, and the scarcity of the product meant that they could charge premium prices. As a consequence, it made economic sense for drywall companies to import the product from overseas instead of producing in the US. Shortly thereafter, the residential housing market collapsed, and an under-supply situation turned into an over-supply practically overnight–volumes and prices went into freefall.  Now, in 2009, the drywall market is the worst it has ever been.

This catastrophe within the building materials industry was an incentive for change. With oversupply in the local market and prices at an all-time low, it didn’t make sense to keep importing drywall. Instead of packing up and going home, people like Rod MacGregor, CEO of Antenna client CleanBoard, identified one segment of the market that was still growing: green building materials.  The drywall shortage gave way to expansion within this industry, and advancements in green/sustainable building materials market were born out of this disaster. According to McGraw-Hill Construction, green construction will grow from $12 billion in 2008 to $60 billion in 2010.  That’s the type of growth that the PC saw in the 80s and the Internet saw in the 90s.

Another popular Chinese saying is “be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.” While many markets are tumultuous right now, it’s worth remembering that there are numerous examples of technology and innovations that were developed in the face of hardship. Turning a crisis into an opportunity isn’t just a good idea, its good business.

Not a day goes by that we are not reminded of the economic recession plaguing businesses. Recently, the Silicon Valley Venture Capital Confidence Index reached its fifth consecutive quarterly low. In the last quarter of 2008, it dropped to 2.77 out of a five-point scale.

Wall Street Journal 1/28/2009

“The macroeconomic conditions have become so dire that it’s tough environment to operate in,” says Mark Cannice, executive director of the University of San Francisco Entrepreneurship Program, who compiled the report.

The Index measures and reports the opinions of professional venture capitalists in their estimation of the high-growth venture entrepreneurial environment in the San Francisco Bay Area over the next 6 - 18 months.

Presenting to Venture Capital firms is always tough, but recent events are making this crucial step to getting your business off the ground even more pivotal.

Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
–Henry Louis Mencken, American Journalist (1880 - 1956)

No matter how exciting and important your new idea may be, if you can’t help others understand it they won’t invest their time or money.  Here are some initial guidelines. Above all, be mindful of your audience’s experience, and let go of your love affair with the minutiae of your plan.

1. Prioritize and streamline your thinking. VCs are really, really smart. Chances are they will have looked at many similar plans before you walk in their door. They may feel impatient, even insulted, if you dwell too long on the basics. Frame the issues succinctly then quickly move on to your solution. Listen to your listener.

2. Prioritize and streamline your data. You want the VC to get the picture quickly, not be struggling to make out tiny numbers on your spreadsheet. Slow down when presenting detailed data and projections. Check to make sure graphs and tables can be easily read on your portable from five feet away, a guideline that assures effective projection to most screens. As technical insurance, carry a copy of your presentation on a memory stick, and a spare battery.

3. Keep it visually simple. Don’t use a busy background or distracting special effects. Exclude anything that does not add value and increase meaning. Avoid even a single extraneous word or image! Make the fonts larger than look right to you on your computer. Light-colored text on a dark background must be boldface. Use capital letters sparely and appropriately. Check grammar and spelling, so as not to distract your audience from your real message with minor annoyances. The first time you introduce an abbreviation or acronym be sure to speak and/or define the entire term.

4. Assume you will have one hour maximum with the partner. Arrive 10 minutes early to get your preso set up. Discipline yourself to get through your basic presentation in half an hour, even with questions along the way. This way there will be time for the partner(s) to simply engage with you and make the story their own.

5. Do your homework and make the choice easy.  If you’ve researched their portfolio and have a rationale for why their company is a good fit, they will be more interested. Are there parallels with their experience? They will like the deal best if they feel they can add some value and thus have a competitive edge.

6. Turn your audience into your advocate. Your first goal is for the VC to remember this first meeting so positively and clearly that he bothers to pitch you with some enthusiasm in the weekly practice/partners meeting. Only if your story (without you) passes will you get to the next stage.

7. Utilize your new advocate. If you make it to the next meeting, it will be with a larger group for a longer time and they will drill down much harder on your facts. Make your advocate look great. Soliciting his guidance also increases his investment in you winning. The many factors at work include whether your advocate has sufficient political clout within the group. Of course, you don’t know whether the group is actually actively investing or just keeping busy scouting. Knowing how to pick which VCs to approach is another topic altogether.

8. Survive Due Diligence. If you make it past that meeting, they will engage someone to perform due diligence. That choice is pivotal. If there are things about your idea or business plan that may not stand up to these pressures, fix them before the first big meeting.

9. Negotiate. If you make it past DD, then it’s all about negotiating the deal. Antenna does not participate in that process, so it’s crucial to have a good attorney on board at that point.