Tony Perkins: AlwaysOn 2009 & What's Next?

At the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit yesterday in Palo Alto, Tony Perkins gives a recap of the event, talks about new innovations over the past year and what's next with his upcoming conferences GoingGreen West and AlwaysOn OnDC in Washington, both in the fall.

Chahil & Perkins Chat: Webcasts, The Old Days, Sustainability

Tony Perkins and Satjiv Chahil talk about early days of webcasts they did together, which included a guest appearance of a model. Apple Days. Palm Days. HP Days. Satijiv on HP's commitment to sustainability. Below taken yesterday at AlwaysOn Stanford Summit.

Do the Green Thing

I met Andy Hobsbawm, who I feel as if I must have run into at TED over the years.

Andy established the first international Internet agency in 1994 and was a founding director of leading British new media company Online Magic which merged with Agency.com in 1997. He is currently European Chairman of Agency.com, which sponsored a Traveling Geeks dinner at Soho House in London earlier this month.

His big passion is Green Thing, where he is co-founder. Green Thing is an award-winning non-profit service that inspires people to lead a greener life. With the help of brilliant videos and inspiring stories from creative people and community members around the world, Green Thing focuses on individual behavior change.

People from 200 countries have tuned in to Green Thing's content nearly 3.5 million times, told over 46,000 stories and saved 9.58k tonnes of CO2.

Andy did a brief talk at TED about their mantra of "Creativity vs. Climate Change."

You can learn more by viewing a few of their very compelling videos, including:

1. You get from A to B without any C when you Walk The Walk

2. Instead of jetting your way around the world, Stay Grounded

3. Resist the urge to buy the latest and Stick With What You Got

4. Don’t leave it on or even put it on, Plug Out

5. Turn down the central heating and turn up the Human Heat

6. It’s delicious but it causes more CO2 than cars so go Easy On The Meat

7. The art of wasting nothing and using up everything: All-Consuming

Green Thing's nine environmental advisors include Nobel Peace laureate Professor Wangari Maathai, Satish Kumar, founder and editor of Resurgence magazine, Alex Steffen, co-founder and executive editor of WorldChanging.com, and Cathy Zoi who's just been named Obama's Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy.

Updates From the Folks at Think London

A few updates from the folks at Think London.

A topic which is currently hot in is clean tech. London's Mayor Boris Johnson (one of THE TIME 100 Most Influential People) has declared he wants to make London the 'electric vehicle capital of Europe.'

Many of Think London's clean tech clients, such as Tesla Motors, are setting up in London because of the Mayor's clean tech and renewable energy policies.

They are planning quite a few events this year in the US, all based around business opportunities for US companies and the London 2012 Games. See the event schedule.

Another interesting development they are seeing, is the amount of Chinese companies setting up or expanding in London. They seem less affected by the economic crisis 'angst' and see it as a great opportunity to invest elsewhere.

Big Chinese financial services companies are particularly keen to set up or expand their operations in London, such as China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank.

And, Think London is adopting all the social media tools to keep tabs on and in touch with people. More from them in the coming weeks and months.

Cambridge Consultants UMI Lowers Energy Consumption & Saves Money

Below, I'm talking to Eric Wilkinson at Cambridge Consultants in the UK to better understand their UMI (Universal Metering Interface), a new low power board-to-board wired interface. UMI is primarily aimed at smart metering of meters (electricity, gas, water, heat), displays and gateways.

Many metering product developments are being held up because the communications standards have not yet been finalized by the relevant national authorities.

UMI solves this problem by separating the metrology and communications functions into modules with a wired connection between them. This unbundling is useful because the metrology standards and regulations are stable.

Manufacturers can develop smart-ready MID-approved meters today by including one or more UMI ports. These meters can actually be installed in the field now; the primary aim is at ultra low power applications.

UMI will be launched as an open standard later in 2009. The below video shows how this technology can be used to regulate kitchen appliances.

By monitoring energy consumption, UMI can automatically turn off higher energy consumption appliances during expensive times and run lower priced appliances when absolutely necessary, saving consumers money.

Consumers can actually select what they are 'prepared to pay' on a dial on their wash machine or other appliance. Click play to learn more.

An Early Reading of Eve Ensler's New Play O.P.C.

Pat Mitchell moderated an on-stage chat with playwright Eve Ensler and Global Green's CEO Matt Peterson after an early reading of Eve's new play O.P.C. at Santa Monica Bay Woman's Club earlier this month.

The cast includes acclaimed actress Stockard Channing, a favorite of mine, who as always, managed to add charm to her character, the mother of the lead, who is running for Senator.

O.P.C. is short for Obsessive Political Correctness, which combines all things green or lack thereof, over consumption, alternative energy, the ozone, wildlife, carbon footprint meets addiction to Prada, politics and the questions we face during our 'coming of age' and beyond.

Below: Eve with Pat and Matt in a discussion after the reading

Israelis Talk Green Tech

The Israel Conference had a 'green tech' discussion in LA this past week. Isaac Applebaum who is a partner at at clean-tech VC fund Westly Group was on the panel with Ron Hadar of Tigo Energy, who raised a $10 million round. Think efficiencies in solar installation.

Also on the panel was Assaf Barnea, the CEO of Kinrut Ventures which is an incubator for projects of all aspects of water technologies, and David Nahai, CEO & GM of LA Department of water and power. Isabel Maxwell moderated.

Isaac thinks where technology was roughly ten years ago is where clean tech is now. They discussed alternatives, such as geothermal, solar, aggressive water recycling, which is now at 1%. Compare to coal at 46%, gas at 30%, and hydro, renewable and nuclear which are all at 8%.

On direct comparisons, David reminds us that we need to take into account future "taxes" on carbon fuels and the cost of 'not doing business.'

Takeaways for the audience:

Ron: "do better for the community and make good personal choices."

David: "crisis and opportunity are two sides of one coin."

Assaf: "don't try to duplicate whatever you got used to in the high-tech industries. This is a totally different market and with different models."

Isaac: "find exciting companies run by passionate people and make money."

Matter Network Has Most Engaged Green Audience, According to comScore

comScore shows Matter Network is attracting the most engaged green consumers (as measured by total page views and minutes) leading the charge towards a sustainable future.

According to the March 2009 comScore Media Metrix Extended Categories report, readers of Matter Network’s alliance of sites spent 26 million minutes with Matter Network content, compared to eight million minutes with the content of the next highest scoring entity, Yahoo Green.

Matter Network informs and enlightens readers about sustainability topics -- including renewable energy technologies and social responsibility – via online rich media syndication.

A key ingredient in Matter Network’s recipe for success has been its focus on working with advertisers and partner sites to develop innovative, informative engagements beyond banner advertising.

NY Venture Summit: Where Innovation Meets Capital

The New York Venture Summit is 2.5 months at the Digital Sandbox on June 17, 2009: Where Innovation Meets Capital.

Start-ups seeking capital and/or partnerships should submit their plan for the opportunity to present at The 2009 New York Venture Summit, an easy coast avenue for connecting emerging growth companies with active venture capitalists, angel investors, Corporate VCs and investment firms.

Now in it's 9th year, the program will feature thirty leading VCs on timely panel discussions and presentations by 50 cutting edge companies and high-level networking opportunities.

Areas include: Technology, Cleantech and Life Sciences. In addition to VCs, there will be Private Investors, Investment Bankers, Corporate Investors, and Strategic Partners.

The deadline for presenting company applications is May 6th, 2009. Email submissions to: iwant2present@youngstartup.com or contact Adam Negnewitzky at adam@youngstartup.com.

Deal Making in the Energy Sector

Of the $787 billion in government spending passed into law last month, roughly $100 billion will go to new energy transmission projects and another $30 billion will fund tax credits for energy related investing.

As deal making slows down in almost every sector, investing in energy stands out as an obvious opportunity for many private equity investors in 2009.

Check out the 2009 Deal Making in the Energy Sector on June 16 in New York, an invite-only event to engage in that discussion.

Speakers include execs from American Electric Power, CCMP Capital Advisors, Energy Investors Funds, Madison Dearborn Partners, Babcock & Brown, Starwood Energy Group, BP North America, Good Energies and numerous others.