brainstorming

ASPEN, Colo. -- Two titans of industry took to the stage at a dinner and debate event here attended by a few hundred entrepreneurs and techie types, but the sparks that flew were more befitting of a program with a title beginning with "Real Housewives of..."

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and super-investor Peter Thiel took aim at each other over the seemingly benign topic of the role of technology in society on the opening night of the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, with moderator Adam Lashinsky of Fortune attempting to moderate, often in vain.… Read more

When it comes to sharing ideas and communicating stories, sometimes it's just easier to present your thoughts by drawing them out. Not just for Pictionary, online whiteboards are great collaborative tools to help you visualize your thoughts and brainstorm ideas. These Web apps not only throw out the smelly dry-erase markers, but also add a few tricks to make sharing your works faster and easier than ever.

A Web Whiteboard (AWW), developed by Senko Rasic, was designed to be minimalistic and simple to use like a real whiteboard. Coded in HTML5, AWW not only performs smoothly, but leaves little … Read more

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.--In the absence of leadership from the federal government, businesses are the best vehicle for slowly transitioning society away from fossil fuels.

That's one of the themes from the Fortune Brainstorm Green this week, a conference to explore environmental sustainability at corporations.

Innovation is the only way to address the "technology gap" that exists between the price of fossil fuels and clean-energy technologies, such as solar, wind, and electric vehicles, said Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute.

"This huge gulf that still exists between fossil fuels and clean tech has got … Read more

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.--Six years into green-tech venture investing, Kleiner Perkins continues to see the potential for green technologies to leapfrog incumbent energy systems, according to tech luminary Bill Joy.

In an onstage interview today at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference here, Joy said Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he is a partner, seeks out disruptive technologies that could change energy much the way that technologies, such as PCs and mobile devices, shook up the IT industry.

The famed Silicon Valley venture capital company, which funded Amazon, Google, and many other IT companies, has made about 60 green-tech investments, … Read more

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.--The key to avoiding the worst effects of global warming is to make money while doing so, says iconic entrepreneur Richard Branson.

The chairman of the Virgin Group, which oversees 350 businesses, is involved in dozens of efforts to reduce carbon emissions linked to global warming, both in Virgin's business operations and through spin-off efforts.

Branson was interviewed at the Fortune Brainstorm Green business conference here yesterday, where he argued that entrepreneurs, investors, and corporations need to take the lead on addressing global warming. Government policies should set ground rules, such as taxing dirty fuels, but … Read more

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.-- Waste Management wants your waste for more reasons that you might think.

The company, which hauls garbage from 22 million customers, is in the midst of a strategy to invest in technology start-ups in an effort to get electricity, chemicals, or liquid fuels from municipal solid waste. Already, the company generates two to three times more energy than the entire solar industry.

"We took the venture capital route. We make lots of small investments because you don't know what technology will ultimately will win. We need to spread out bets," Waste Management CEO … Read more

It can be tempting to dismiss talk of sustainability in business as greenwash. But after spending a few days moving among the green-business elite, I feel like people are proving that concern for the planet is a source of innovation every day.

I spent the earlier part of the week at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference in Laguna Niguel, Calif., where representatives from leading-edge companies shared stories of how they profit from green technologies or products. This group is hardly representative of the business world as a whole and people well-versed in corporate sustainability probably didn't walk away with … Read more

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.--By Keshav Sondhi's telling, the handful of electric vehicles that FedEx is testing are wonderful, offering sufficient range and one-third the operating cost.

But because an electric truck costs three or four times more than a conventional truck, FedEx's worldwide fleet of all-electrics is only 19 out of about 40,000 trucks.

"We want those trucks. We believe in energy independence," said Sondhi, FedEx's chief engineer for electric vehicles. "We have a deep belief in electrification, but the capital (needed) has inhibited us to what we have now."

So it goes for so many consumers and businesses considering electric vehicles. The smooth and peppy acceleration of electric motors makes for a good driving experience, fueling up is cheaper, and owning a plug-in reduces imported oil and carbon emissions.

But for electric vehicles to break out beyond early technology adapters, battery prices need to fall dramatically--to about half where they are today in the coming years--said auto executives at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference here. Cost reductions are expected to come from higher scale manufacturing and technology improvements.

"By mid-decade I have high confidence that we (as an industry) will establish (battery) cell production in the U.S.," said Tony Posawatz, the vehicle line director for the Chevy Volt. "The simple fact of producing cells with shorter transport takes likely hundreds of dollars out of the cost of pack." … Read more

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.--The U.S. auto industry needs to "go green" in more than one way, says Bill Ford.

Ford is committed to making its vehicles more fuel efficient by investing in a number of technologies, including electrification, biofuels, fuel cells, and more efficient gas engines.

But auto manufacturing itself needs to be "reconsidered" so that it's not all about smokestacks and environmental hazards, Ford said Wednesday during a talk at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference here. Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford, is the executive chairman of the company's board of directors. … Read more