Surprising Efforts By Companies In Alternative Energy (PHOTOS)

While some corporate entities push back against any meaningful climate action, there are companies quietly investing in new technology and alternative energy to do their part.

We've picked out a few companies that you know well and whose efforts to green their energy use and spur innovation may surprise you.

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Deutsche Bank

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We know it’s easy to vilify the financial sector, but it does have redeeming qualities. For example, when a bank helps get alternative energy off the ground with financing. In May Deutsche Bank announced it would finance National Wind’s power portfolio. But even better than that, the well-respected financial services institution took aim at climate skeptics with a report that took apart the twelve common claims of skeptics. Deutsche aimed to debunk any doubts investors would have about being heavily invested in climate-related ventures. With more than $5 billion invested in the business of mitigating climate change, Deutsche is literally betting that it will pay to be on the right side of the argument. Deutsche bank even served up a warning to the US when it actively started looking outside of our borders for alternative energy investments, citing the US’s inability to pass meaningful climate legislation or alternative energy incentives.

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We know it’s easy to vilify the financial sector, but it does have redeeming qualities. For example, when a bank helps get alternative energy off the ground with financing.

In May Deutsche Bank announced it would finance National Wind’s power portfolio.

But even better than that, the well-respected financial services institution took aim at climate skeptics with a report that took apart the twelve common claims of skeptics. Deutsche aimed to debunk any doubts investors would have about being heavily invested in climate-related ventures. With more than $5 billion invested in the business of mitigating climate change, Deutsche is literally betting that it will pay to be on the right side of the argument.

Deutsche bank even served up a warning to the US when it actively started looking outside of our borders for alternative energy investments, citing the US’s inability to pass meaningful climate legislation or alternative energy incentives.

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Alternative Energy Effort

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Comments

[Durian Weng]

03:36 PM on 10/14/2010

Every company can do much better than these gap filling stats. Of course, anything is much better than nothing at all.

[Kenz300]

08:41 PM on 10/11/2010

It's too bad the US Chamber of Commerce is so beholden to the oil and coal industries.

Clean, sustainable energy is the future. It will be produced here by American workers
or we will be buying the materials from China.

[JamesJerico]

11:08 PM on 10/09/2010

Going green and importing your entire inventory from halfway across the globe in fossil fuel burning ships from a country that has terrible environment regulations do not go hand-in-hand.

[sheila]

02:19 PM on 10/10/2010

exactly - that's one of many issues with Big Solar and Big Wind, too. If you emit ton after ton after ton of GHGs manufacturing and transporting the component parts, then you kill off thousands and thousands of acres of CO2-sequestering habitat, then you emit ton after ton of GHGs constructing the industrial power plant (for 5 yrs!), then you emit ton after ton of GHGs constructing and operating SF6-spewing transmission, you start out at such an AWFUL environmental place, you can never recover. never mind the tens of millions of gallons of desert water wasted every year for each "air cooled" plant because they have to rinse the mirrors all the time.

just one transmission line, the Sunrise Powerlink in San Diego, pretending to be for "clean energy" (never mind they refused to commit to carrying ANY clean energy), will take 12 years of constant transmission of "clean energy" JUST TO OFFSET the emissions from the powerline!!! 12 years! that doesn't even count the projects themselves, which are hugely emissive as noted above. and since solar and wind cannot offset coal due to intermittency (coal has to run at the same rate 24/7), then we are only offsetting gas (half the emissions of coal) and hydro (no emissions).

So, then you start looking at the options and you see CLEARLY that US manufactured ROOFTOP SOLAR installed in the built environment requires NO death, destruction, transportation, construction, wasted water, transmission, etc. THAT makes sense.

[mamacat]

06:28 PM on 10/09/2010

Haven't checked into the stats for a few years, but UPS (United Parcel Service) recently had over two thousand "green" delivery vans and over-the-road tractors. I don't know what the stats are today, but they probably have even more.

[sheila]

12:41 AM on 10/09/2010

GAH! HOW CAN YOU PRETEND THE WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER OF DESERT ECOSYSTEMS IS WORTHY OF PRAISE????

I am truly disturbed that you think investing in Big Solar and Big Wind is good for the planet - all day today these cretins at Bright Source (aka Chevron, BP, Morgan Stanley, etc) were DIGGING ENDANGERED TORTOISES OUT OF THEIR BURROWS SO THEY CAN DIE IN TRANSLOCATION. Why? Because they want to make damned sure that the exact people they are selling power to in SUNNY CALIFORNIA can't use our tax dollars (which they are hogging nearly $2 BILLION of) to install solar panels on our sunny, baking roofs and instead now we have to power our homes on massacred tortoise blood.

Get it together, Huffpo. You can't kill huge, huge sections of critical habitat for endangered species when there is a cheaper, cleaner, more productive alternative and still pretend it's "green." SHAME ON BRIGHT SOURCE, PG & E AND SCE FOR KILLING THESE BEAUTIFUL, INTELLIGENT CREATURES FOR PROFIT.

Local clean energy and efficiency solutions IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT. THAT is what we need, not a hundred thousand acres of pristine wilderness destroyed forever for Big Energy monopolists. I'm spitting mad right now.

[mamacat]

06:31 PM on 10/09/2010

Are you sure that what is happening is the wholesale slaughter of desert ecosystems? A hundred thousand acres of pristine wilderness? Sure of your facts?

[sheila]

08:57 PM on 10/09/2010

yes, I am. why do you ask?

There are over a million acres in the permitting queue so far, and roughly 35,000 acres in CA for Big Solar alone are already permitted, with more on the "fast track" to come through in the next few weeks plus Big Wind and Big Transmission, plus the projects going through in other states (Colorado, NM, AZ and NV are all under siege as well).

The site is bladed to the ground and everything is killed, then herbicides are used for the duration of the project. The habitat can never recover, ever, so these are now permanent wastelands when they were gorgeous old growth creosote forests and other functioning, healthy ecosystems.

Never mind that there are thousands of acres of fallowed ag land right nearby, or that all the power is going to EQUALLY SUNNY places in CA that can easily produce far more clean solar power from their rooftops than these boondoggles ever will for the same price. Because what Chevron wants, Chevron gets.

they make half-hearted attempts to sell some of the mature yuccas, but all plants, insects, birds, reptiles and animals are killed (except for a few tortoises, which will be put in pens until they either die or are relocated and half of those die), and except for whatever can escape to try and live somewhere else. The desert is not exactly crammed full of extra food and water so the surrounding areas can't automatically accommodate more creatures.

[kiki1966]

08:10 PM on 10/08/2010

It would be nice to see municipalities get credit, too. Austin has the largest green building program in the country and many of the city's auto fleet are Priuses or other hybrids. Austin is part of the Climate Protection Program, as well. And so forth and so on.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/acpp/businesses.htm

[rikster]

05:06 PM on 10/08/2010

these Korporates are just trying to cash in on "green" as a marketing buzz word....

[EcoCatLady]

06:20 PM on 10/08/2010

Agreed. But if that's what it takes to make them do it, then it's not such a bad thing!

[jacobomorales]

04:29 PM on 10/08/2010

Maybe the US can be shamed into action.

[Tom95134]

01:02 PM on 10/08/2010

The main question you have to ask of PG&E is, "What is PG&E doing to redesign their part of the national grid system to reduce the transmission losses?" AC transmission over long distances is simply not efficient and as more and more generation has to be located where the energy is, e.g., desert, the further you have to transport the energy.

The other question is, "Does PG&E encourage interconnect with other companies developing solar and wind power plants?" Often, the hassle of getting an interconnect so you have someone to sell the energy to is a major issue.

[Silverwolf72]

01:01 PM on 10/08/2010

And at the same time half of the companies on the list produce tons of junk that has to thrown away.
How much electronic stuff gets thrown away every year to just being out of date?

[barrada nicto]

09:13 AM on 10/09/2010

They call it capitalism.

[StopMakingSense2]

01:00 PM on 10/08/2010

I have 150K on my 03 BMW 330i. Love the car and the company. Am stating to have to replace things that you would expect to wear out like suspension and cooling system stuff to get back peak performance. Glad I can do it my self or it would be very expensive. I'm planning on 250K or more out of it. The car is very practical yet can do 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds and get an all around average of 26 miles per gallon while being driven hard. The new 335D is the pinnacle of diesel technology and you can't hardly tell it has a diesel while getting close to 40 mpg. The torque is intoxicating.. Why bother with a hybrid penalty box? May pick one up used in a couple of years.

[Vegasyankee]

01:07 PM on 10/08/2010

140K on my 02 330i and I've already replaced anything that can leave me stranded. When you do the cooling system, go with an aluminum water pump instead of OEM. I redid the entire suspension (Bilstein), cooling system, fuel system and gaskets. The paint still looks brand new and no one can believe it's an 02. The wife's 03 X-5 4.6is is the champ of the family @ 85K.

Have been and will be a BMW owner for life.

[oilfield]

01:26 PM on 10/08/2010

benz fan here.... 2003 s55 the only thing i have found that is positive with a bad economy ....used cars that are so sweet have no value.

[oilfield]

01:20 PM on 10/08/2010

diesel is the way to go...my wife had a diesel benz that got around 40 mpg in 1999.....hybrids make no sense compared to todays diesels with urea injection. they polute next to nothing. not to mention that it will go until you die in life expectancy. i dont see a good future for car manufacturers as 250k is not uncommon in life expectancy.

[barrada nicto]

09:17 AM on 10/09/2010

Electric cars will last much longer. Much fewer moving parts. Less vibration. Much less noise.

[Tom95134]

12:55 PM on 10/08/2010

And just where is Wal-Mart getting the technology to put solar on its buildings? My bet is that it is being purchased by one of their operations in China and shipped here for installation. It makes one wonder if Wal-Mart also has a deal to bring "technical workers" to the United States to install these green energy products thus cutting out even the local labor component.

[oilfield]

01:27 PM on 10/08/2010

not a surprise that someone would say but you need to be green and complain on how they may or may not have gotten there.

[jahzilla]

12:29 PM on 10/08/2010

If anyone were to actually dig a little deeper, aside from BMW, absolutely all of the corporations listed continue to have substantial environmental violation and abuse histories.
Every "green initiative" undertaken (here) is simply for the benefit of public perception . . . as these violators know that a majority of Americans NEVER research any deeper than what they are told on TV through agenda-driven corporatists such as FOX, CNN, etc.
AND through advertisers that no longer have to worry about a powerless FCC watchdogging their blatant misdirections.

For those that have always been curious as to what "creeping neo-fascism" looks like . . . well, hello !!

[Rucio]

12:06 PM on 10/08/2010

Did someone say "greenwashing"?

[mrm3]

11:54 AM on 10/08/2010

BMW is the ultimate green company - unlike 99% of companies, they make cars that are beautifully engineered for performance over their entire 200k+ mile lifespan.

I have friends with 30 year old Bimmers that get 30+ MPG, have no rust, handle better than any other car on the road, and are very very fun to drive.

[DuKeT]

12:22 PM on 10/08/2010

Oh really! How come BMW has paid more than $200 million in fines for NOT meeting U.S. fuel efficiency laws since 1983? How come they have lobbied the DOT to receive an exclusion from the 2015 CAFE (Corp Average Fuel Efficiency) regulations? The same regs that all other manufacturers have to meet. Where is all of that wonderful engineering?

And in case that you say CAFE is a 'load of _____", there is a very good probability that by that time oil/gas prices will double what they are now.

[mrm3]

12:56 PM on 10/08/2010

I would rather own a car for 30 years and have it perform than save a few MPG