Green Entrepreneur Handbook: The Guide to Building and Growing a Green and Clean Business (What Every Engineer Should Know)

436 Pages·2010·4.48 MB·English

GREEN
ENTREPRENEUR
HANDBOOK
THE GUIDE TO BUILDING AND GROWING
A GREEN AND CLEAN BUSINESS
WHAT EVERY ENGINEER SHOULD KNOW
A Series
Series Editor*
Phillip A. Laplante
Pennsylvania State University
1. What Every Engineer Should Know About Patents, William G. Konold, Bruce Tittel,
Donald F. Frei, and David S. Stallard
2. What Every Engineer Should Know About Product Liability, James F. Thorpe
and William H. Middendorf
3. What Every Engineer Should Know About Microcomputers: Hardware/Software Design,
A Step-by-Step Example, William S. Bennett and Carl F. Evert, Jr.
4. What Every Engineer Should Know About Economic Decision Analysis, Dean S. Shupe
5. What Every Engineer Should Know About Human Resources Management,
Desmond D. Martin and Richard L. Shell
6. What Every Engineer Should Know About Manufacturing Cost Estimating,
Eric M. Malstrom
7. What Every Engineer Should Know About Inventing, William H. Middendorf
8. What Every Engineer Should Know About Technology Transfer and Innovation,
Louis N. Mogavero and Robert S. Shane
9. What Every Engineer Should Know About Project Management, Arnold M. Ruskin
and W. Eugene Estes
10. What Every Engineer Should Know About Computer-Aided Design and Computer-
Aided Manufacturing: The CAD/CAM Revolution, John K. Krouse
11. What Every Engineer Should Know About Robots, Maurice I. Zeldman
12. What Every Engineer Should Know About Microcomputer Systems Design
and Debugging, Bill Wray and Bill Crawford
13. What Every Engineer Should Know About Engineering Information Resources,
Margaret T. Schenk and James K. Webster
14. What Every Engineer Should Know About Microcomputer Program Design,
Keith R. Wehmeyer
15. What Every Engineer Should Know About Computer Modeling and Simulation,
Don M. Ingels
16. What Every Engineer Should Know About Engineering Workstations,
Justin E. Harlow III
17. What Every Engineer Should Know About Practical CAD/CAM Applications, John Stark
18. What Every Engineer Should Know About Threaded Fasteners: Materials and Design,
Alexander Blake
19. What Every Engineer Should Know About Data Communications, Carl Stephen Clifton
20. What Every Engineer Should Know About Material and Component Failure, Failure
Analysis, and Litigation, Lawrence E. Murr
21. What Every Engineer Should Know About Corrosion, Philip Schweitzer
22. What Every Engineer Should Know About Lasers, D. C. Winburn
*Founding Series Editor: William H. Middendorf
23. What Every Engineer Should Know About Finite Element Analysis, John R. Brauer
24. What Every Engineer Should Know About Patents: Second Edition, William G. Konold,
Bruce Tittel, Donald F. Frei, and David S. Stallard
25. What Every Engineer Should Know About Electronic Communications Systems,
L. R. McKay
26. What Every Engineer Should Know About Quality Control, Thomas Pyzdek
27. What Every Engineer Should Know About Microcomputers: Hardware/Software Design,
A Step-by-Step Example, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, William S. Bennett,
Carl F. Evert, and Leslie C. Lander
28. What Every Engineer Should Know About Ceramics, Solomon Musikant
29. What Every Engineer Should Know About Developing Plastics Products,
Bruce C. Wendle
30. What Every Engineer Should Know About Reliability and Risk Analysis, M. Modarres
31. What Every Engineer Should Know About Finite Element Analysis: Second Edition,
Revised and Expanded, John R. Brauer
32. What Every Engineer Should Know About Accounting and Finance, Jae K. Shim
and Norman Henteleff
33. What Every Engineer Should Know About Project Management: Second Edition,
Revised and Expanded, Arnold M. Ruskin and W. Eugene Estes
34. What Every Engineer Should Know About Concurrent Engineering,
Thomas A. Salomone
35. What Every Engineer Should Know About Ethics, Kenneth K. Humphreys
36. What Every Engineer Should Know About Risk Engineering and Management,
John X. Wang and Marvin L. Roush
37. What Every Engineer Should Know About Decision Making Under Uncertainty,
John X. Wang
38. What Every Engineer Should Know About Computational Techniques of Finite
Element Analysis, Louis Komzsik
39. What Every Engineer Should Know About Excel, Jack P. Holman
40. What Every Engineer Should Know About Software Engineering, Phillip A. Laplante
41. What Every Engineer Should Know About Developing Real-Time Embedded Products,
Kim R. Fowler
42. What Every Engineer Should Know About Business Communication, John X. Wang
43. What Every Engineer Should Know About Career Management, Mike Ficco
44. What Every Engineer Should Know About Starting a High-Tech Business Venture,
Eric Koester
45. What Every Engineer Should Know About MATLAB® and Simulink®, Adrian B. Biran
with contributions by Moshe Breiner
46. Green Entrepreneur Handbook: The Guide to Building and Growing a Green
and Clean Business, Eric Koester
GREEN
ENTREPRENEUR
HANDBOOK
THE GUIDE TO BUILDING AND GROWING
A GREEN AND CLEAN BUSINESS
ERIC KOESTER
Boca Raton London New York
CRC Press is an imprint of the
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Contents
Series Preface ............................................................................................................................... xix
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... xxi
Author ......................................................................................................................................... xxiii
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ xxv
Part I The Great Green Opportunity
1. Why Are We Going Green? ..................................................................................................3
Green: The Big Opportunity for Green (as in Money) .......................................................3
How Did We Get Here: The Roots of the Environmental Movement ..............................5
What Is Clean Tech, Green Business, Eco-Tech, EnviroTech or Just Plain Green? .........7
The “Green” Horizon ..............................................................................................................9
2. Becoming a Greentrepreneur (a.k.a. Green Entrepreneur) .......................................... 11
Putting the Green in Greentrepreneur ................................................................................ 11
About Green Business Entrepreneurs ............................................................................ 13
About the Green Business Sector .................................................................................... 14
Putting the Entrepreneur in Greentrepreneur .................................................................... 15
Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs ................................................................................. 15
Challenges of Building a Green Business .......................................................................... 17
3. Drivers of the Green Revolution ....................................................................................... 21
Driver #1: Green ($) ................................................................................................................22
Driver #2: The “Gore” Effect ................................................................................................23
Driver #3: Europe ...................................................................................................................23
Driver #4: Energy Security ................................................................................................... 24
Driver #5: The First “Green” Bubble....................................................................................25
Driver #6: Health and Wellness ...........................................................................................25
Driver #7: The “Dark Greens” and the LOHAS ................................................................ 26
Driver #8: Worldwide Stimulus Funds ............................................................................... 26
Driver #9: Venture Capital .................................................................................................... 26
Driver #10: The Internet and the PC .................................................................................... 27
Driver #11: Bush-nomics and Obama-nomics ....................................................................28
Driver #12: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs ...................................................................28
Driver #13: Localization ........................................................................................................28
Driver #14: China ................................................................................................................... 29
Driver #15: Carbon ................................................................................................................. 29
4. Markets for Green Products ...............................................................................................33
Interpreting Green Sentiment ..............................................................................................33
Understanding Green Consumers ......................................................................................35
Getting Green Consumers to Buy ..................................................................................36
Learning More about Green Markets and Consumer Attitudes ...............................38
vii
viii Contents
Part II The Green Startup
5. Green Ideas, Inventions, and Businesses ........................................................................43
Recognizing Your “Green” Opportunity ...........................................................................44
What Comes First: The Business Idea or a Decision to Start a Business? .................44
Where Do Business Ideas Come from? ..........................................................................45
The First Idea Might Not Be the Best Idea .....................................................................46
Finding “Green” Ideas .......................................................................................................... 47
How Green Is Green Enough? ......................................................................................... 49
Development of Your Green Business Concept ................................................................. 49
To Business Plan or Not To Business Plan .....................................................................50
An Idea versus an Invention ........................................................................................... 51
Deciding on a Startup or a Small Business ........................................................................ 51
The First Few Months Ahead … .........................................................................................53
6. Forming and Founding ........................................................................................................ 59
The Basics ................................................................................................................................ 59
Why Do You Need to Think about These Choices? ..........................................................60
The Question of When: When to Legally Form Your Green Startup .............................. 61
Can You Wait Too Long to Incorporate? ..........................................................................63
Running a Startup “On the Side” ...................................................................................63
7. Assembling Talent ................................................................................................................ 71
Founders .................................................................................................................................. 71
Famous Founders .............................................................................................................. 71
Size of Founder Teams .....................................................................................................72
Identifying Cofounders .................................................................................................... 73
Identifying Green Collar Talent ...........................................................................................75
Government “Green” Training .......................................................................................75
Sustainable MBA Programs .............................................................................................75
Employees and Consultants ................................................................................................. 76
Board of Directors ..................................................................................................................77
Advisory Board ...................................................................................................................... 78
8. Raising Green (Money) ....................................................................................................... 87
Starting Out ............................................................................................................................ 87
How Much Does It Take to Get Started? ........................................................................ 87
Where Does the Initial Funding Come from? ..............................................................88
Deciding to Raise Money ......................................................................................................90
Sources of Funds .................................................................................................................... 91
Your “Right” Source of Funds ............................................................................................. 92
Fundraising Process .............................................................................................................. 93
What Are Investors and Partners Looking for? ............................................................ 94
9. Green Intellectual Property ............................................................................................. 103
Green IP ................................................................................................................................. 103
Basics of Intellectual Property ........................................................................................... 104
Patents ............................................................................................................................... 105
Copyright ......................................................................................................................... 106
Contents ix
Trademarks ...................................................................................................................... 106
Trade Secrets .................................................................................................................... 107
Fast-Tracking Your Green Patent ....................................................................................... 109
Eco-Patent Commons .......................................................................................................... 110
Litigation of Green IP .......................................................................................................... 110
10. Making the Sale .................................................................................................................. 115
Selling as a Green Startup .................................................................................................. 115
Positioning Green Products ................................................................................................ 116
Greenwashing ...................................................................................................................... 118
Electricity Sales .................................................................................................................... 120
Power Purchase Agreement .......................................................................................... 120
Net-Metering .................................................................................................................... 123
Third-Party Marketing Agreements with Utilities .................................................... 124
Renewable Energy Certif cates ...................................................................................... 126
Selling Your Products Abroad ........................................................................................... 127
Understanding International Issues.................................................................................. 127
Identifying International Markets ..................................................................................... 128
Part III The Green Playing Field
11. Understanding Utilities..................................................................................................... 137
The Electricity Business ...................................................................................................... 137
Structure of Electric Utilities .............................................................................................. 139
Types of Utilities: POUs, IOUs, and Rural Co-Ops .................................................... 139
Electricity Generation .......................................................................................................... 140
Fossil Fuels ....................................................................................................................... 140
Nuclear ............................................................................................................................. 142
Renewable Sources .......................................................................................................... 142
Electricity Transmission and Distribution ....................................................................... 143
Electricity Consumption ..................................................................................................... 144
Organization and Regulation of Electric Utilities ........................................................... 145
Summary .......................................................................................................................... 145
FERC: Federal Regulatory Authority over the Entire Transmission System.......... 146
NERC: Overseeing the Reliability of the Power System............................................ 146
The Western and Eastern Interconnections: An Interconnected Power System.... 146
Regional Entities: Supervising the Power System in the Region ............................. 147
Control Areas: Coordinating the Day-to-Day Operation of the Power System ..... 148
PUCs: Regulation on the State Level ............................................................................ 148
Electricity Industry Restructuring and Deregulation ............................................... 148
Regulation of Pricing of Electric Utilities ......................................................................... 149
FERC: Regulating Wholesale Electricity Rates ........................................................... 150
PUCs: Setting Retail Rates for Electricity .................................................................... 150
Process for Rate Setting: Allowing an Appropriate Rate of Return ........................ 151
PURPA: Encouraging Renewable Energy .................................................................... 152
Environmental Regulations: Encouraging Renewable Energy ................................ 153