San Francisco may have shaken some flowers from its hair since hosting the first Earth Day 38 years ago, but the city continues to be named one of America's greenest. Satirists mock its politically correct "smug cloud" of eco-hipness, but many other regions tend to follow the city's environmental lead. For instance, more than a handful of U.S. cities are now mulling a ban on plastic grocery bags, first passed in San Francisco last March.
Fresh into his second term, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newson in January set goals for the city to become carbon-neutral by 2020 by retooling laws and taxes related to energy, transportation, buildings, wildlife, waste, and environmental justice. He has come under fire for dedicating more than two dozen city jobs to fighting climate change. However, the mayor maintains that government can't be aggressive enough in cleaning up its part of the planet. Newsom discussed the promises and pitfalls of green technology with CNET at City Hall on Friday.
Don't believe politicians' environmental numbers, Newsom says.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)Q: You talked at the Cleantech Forum (last week) about how much work remains to be done, that we're "playing in the margins."
I was just down in L.A. talking to an environmental crowd and Indiana Jones, Harrison (Ford) was there. He was sort of the original celebrity on environment. Now everyone's trying to get on the cover of Vanity Fair. Right now we're almost seeing the movement increasingly trivialized by everything turning green...every single magazine and newspaper and TV program.
It's important and powerful because it raises awareness, but it misses the point that needs to be raised, one of accountability, transparency and measurement, the hard work that needs to be done. And it's not just buying organic cereal with a recycled tote bag. So when I talk in terms of (San Francisco's) 70 percent recycling rates, the highest in the nation, I feel good about that but not great.
When I talk about how we have the most aggressive green building standards of any city in the United States of America I feel good but not great.
When we think about what we've done a day or two ago, the solar incentives we just passed--it's really landmark--I feel good but not great.
When we do what we've done with plug-in hybrids or alternative fuel and biodiesel and hybrid buses--and partnerships with information communications and technology with Cisco--and all the things we've done on hybrid taxis and congestion pricing that we've been fancying, it just feels still in the margins.
I get a little nervous when I show up at these conferences and everyone's jumping all over me to give me their plans and talk in global terms. The 'what' is never measured, the 'how-to' is never measured. Everyone's got a plan. Who cares about these damn plans? What are you doing and how did you get there? How did you really roll back your (carbon dioxide) emissions?
It's great to have green building standards but how do you get (them) into those older buildings? It's more than just lights and tailpipes of the car. It is about deforestation, which is potentially 20 percent of the CO2 problem in the world. That's pretty profound, as much as the automobile and plane and travel CO2 problem.
A big study came out about (carbon emissions of raising) cattle and meat. At all these environmental events they're all eating meat and drinking bottled water.
Not at the Cleantech Forum.
Last night--I don't want to say which bottled water because they'll get offended, but it traveled a long way. How are we environmentalists when a billion of these go into our waste stream and they last 10,000 years? Plus, there's the environmental footprint of packaging this stuff, all the oil consumption of producing the bottled water, let alone transport it.
We say we have offsets and then I find out maybe that tree was never planted...That's why we're creating a local offset thing.
Shai Agassi is an old friend. He used to be at SAP and he's doing this incredible thing. He raised a couple hundred million bucks to take the entire country of Israel and take every single automobile out of the country, converting an entire country's fleet to electric vehicles. Now we're having a conversation about real change.
We're starting to make bolder advances on (tidal and wave energy). The plug-in hybrid commitment in terms of open orders, saying. "Look, we'll commit 250 vehicles. What will you commit Oakland, San Jose, Larkspur, Corte Madera, Greenbrae, Novato and Sonoma?" And how do we get the U.S. Congress of Mayors to say, "We'll (order) 100,000 plug-in hybrids to create a market?"
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has been pushing green building and manufacturing incentives.
(Credit: Elsa Wenzel)What other regions or cities in the United States or around the world are getting it right? If San Francisco's a leader, who are you looking to?
Look what Berlin's done on solar. I never see the sun in Berlin but Germany has leapfrogged us. With congestion pricing in Singapore, they're getting it right. Portland's doing some progressive things. In Chicago Mayor Daley's done a lot of wonderful things, like work on green roofs, really raising the bar, taking an old industrial city and really increasing awareness.
Austin's done some exciting things, and New York. What Mayor Bloomerg's offering is real exciting. Mayor Nickels in Seattle, what he's trying to do is connect the dots with our local climate plans.
What kinds of "green" things do you do in your life?
My last car was an electric car, I was one of those EV-1 sad souls. We watched it get stolen, or taken back, or returned to its owner GM, and destroyed.
My next new car is the Tesla, the new green one. I can't believe I spent that much money on a car. I did it purely for the technology, out of appreciation...I'm not sure if I want to be seen driving it.
The house is energy-efficient. I got rid of water bottles not just for the city--and plastic bags--but I do that at home...I buy offsets and couldn't figure out where they were going so we set up a local offset plan, to give it back to the city.
There have been so many efforts by mayors and other regional leaders to pick up where Washington has left off. What do you hope to see with the next administration (in Washington)?
I'd like to see a prolific foreign policy that goes like this: That we are going to be energy-independent in five years. That would be the most profound foreign policy commitment that would dominantly change the face of our planet.
How likely is that?
I don't think it is. I don't care who we've got. You could have Nader or Obama or whoever you want, I'm not convinced they can do that.
Look, Democrats were jumping up and down...on CAFE standards that get our miles per gallon up to where China has been in a few years, and that's great progress and historic? We've got some problems here. You've got to be kidding me. We're talking 30, 35 miles per gallon. Technology can get us to 125 miles per gallon on these plug-in hybrids today. It's real.
We've got the biggest plug-in hybrid fleet in America, by on--a whopping three vehicles. Three. That's embarrassing. To me the big game changer will be plug-in, if you can get on the grid. We have 65,000 vehicles a year the federal government purchases. As president, open order: all plug-in hybrids.
Do an executive order: We want all LEED Gold (ratings), not Silver, on every municipal building in the United States of America. We want a carbon tax to replace the payroll tax in this country.
That's fundamental today. You get serious about a massive investment, not $5 billion--although Hillary has been specific about (that), more than others--but even more massive R&D in green tech. Get serious about subsidies in solar, wind, tidal, geothermal exploration expansion.
That's how you start. Require every gas station in the United States to offer a menu of alternatives. A gas tax, ladies and gentlemen, yes a gas tax. There's the end of my political future. Now you're getting serious.
With the Bay Area being the epicenter of clean-tech start-ups, do you see any danger of a clean-tech bubble?
It's the third largest venture capital market. It's exciting, the promise, but I don't know if we've caught up to where the money is. I'm not sure if there's a bubble per se, but we might be overexuberant in all things green.
With new technologies there may come unanticipated side effects.
You're seeing that (with the growth of biofuels)--corn's gone up by X percent and we're hurting poor people.
What new technologies might give you pause and concern that down the road there may be harmful side effects?
We should encourage failure because that's how we learn.
Now we're talking about cellulosic ethanols, switchgrass. We're getting a little smarter about it so it's not corn-based. We may not have gotten there if we hadn't made a big mistake and gotten a little crazy on corn subsidies.
I love the debate. Five years ago, we had Gov. Schwarzenegger saying, "I want to do a hydrogen highway." I went out and drank out of the tailpipe. It didn't taste that great but it was trying to make the point that hydrogen's the future. That doesn't look like it makes any sense now. But it was exciting.
Environmental justice was one of the key items on your roadmap last month. The Bay Area is an extremely expensive place to live. What kinds of things could be done here?
The key is workforce training. As we spend all this VC money, we have billions of dollars, disproportionate up here in Northern California. Where's that money going? Who's the beneficiary? Who are the folks on the frontlines? Green-collar could replace that blue-collar job that's outsourced. Someone's got to install it, someone's got to install it here.
We're doing it with our City Build Academy, with our partners in community colleges really focusing on clean tech.
I want to create new tax incentives for businesses that hire folks coming out in these green-tech fields, not just a payroll tax incentive if you're a green-tech company, but specific credits...with heavy recruitment, emphasis, heavy focus, getting it in the high schools....I work with Van Jones, he's just the best on these things.
Four out of five toxic waste dumps are in African-American neighborhoods in this country. Even in San Francisco, where's our sewage treatment plant, our power plant? Where is the shipyard and all the contaminants?...It's an outrage.
The fact that you go (out) to dinner tonight, the meal has traveled 1,800 miles to get to your plate, is ridiculous in agriculture-rich northern California. We've got to create a narrative of health and well-being, you know, with edible schoolyards, and getting our kids good salad bars this year.
Mayor Will Wynn of Austin, Tex., is also recognized for policies to curb carbons.
(Credit: Gregory Wenzel)What do you wish reporters would ask more about? You talk about running the numbers.
Even people like me, I don't believe some of my own numbers. It's not as if it's intentional. It's not as if my folks are just making it up--they're not.
We had this whole focus on cap and trade. You can't have a cap-and-trade system unless you have measured what you're going to trade and cap, and how you independently determine with veracity what you're admitting. There are a lot of fits and starts but how do you aggregate it?
There's the California Climate (Action) Registry and we're the first city to participate. It's not perfect but it's a great start.
(You should) say, look: "I'm impressed that you came up with a global climate action plan in 2008. Now show me the implementation plan."
We've got to walk our talk and support these emerging economies in leapfrog technologies so they don't make the same mistakes we did. But we can't do it with a straight face unless we demonstrate leadership, and this country has not.
(China is) building these green cities that are completely 100 percent net neutral carbon, hell, with some generating energy. They've still got too many power plants, too many cars now but in many respects they are leading.
With threats looming of stagflation and global recession, what role could Silicon Valley play?
What's the primary force of inflation right now? It's gas, oil. I mean, jeez, if you want to deal with stagflation, get back to the energy independence thing and not $102 dollars per gallon.
You want to deal with stagflation, then let's get serious around sustainability, about building homes where energy costs are not higher, they're lower, so people can stay in their homes even when their mortgage goes up.
The yellow dots represent buildings with solar power in San Francisco.
(Credit: San Francisco Solar Map)To play devil's advocate, even at the Cleantech Forum some people were saying, "Maybe global warming isn't happening." If it's not true, then what good is all of this new technology?
Why should we breathe the fumes of other people's cars? Why not clean the air? Even if there's not global warming, there's an inherent benefit that accrues in terms of health care costs. Taxpayers are all the beneficiaries.
Why wouldn't we do green buildings to reduce our energy costs? Do we like not being able to develop on Hunter's Point Shipyard? Why wouldn't we want to invest in technologies to clean up toxic waste so that at least we can create an economic stimulus and take back some of those problems?
There's nothing we're doing that we shouldn't be doing anyway. Period.
What kind of gadgets do you have?
The only thing I have is an iPod, which is my iPhone, for no other reason than I really think it's cool. I used to have a BlackBerry but then the press sunshined my e-mails. I got rid of it: no computer, no BlackBerry.
We had everything exaggerated with the Wi-Fi thing with Google. On the front page of the newspaper was the actual e-mails between Google and myself. It was horrible. Now they won't e-mail back here, I can't even communicate, it was that bad..
Are you going to get a Macbook Air?
I am. I want that.
SOMS Technologies says that its engine filter will extend the life of engine oil by 30,000 miles, enabling drivers to use 75 percent less oil and save hundreds of dollars in maintenance per car.
"You could say this would be terrible news for Jiffy Lube, but we don't look at it that way," said company CEO Miles Flamenbaum, who presented at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco on Wednesday. "It would allow them to charge a little bit more, take more of a margin from oil change costs, and do it less often."
The company, based in Bedford, N.Y., has raised $900,000 in angel funding and seeks another $4 million.
Flamenbaum aims for the company to snag a share of the $7 billion U.S. market for oil filter and engine treatment products while also helping to reduce the demand for petroleum and cutting pollution from waste engine oil, which contaminates groundwater when improperly disposed.
Engine oil passes through conventional filters in one swoop, but SOMS Technologies' system diverts some of the oil flow from the main filter into a finer filter.
"It's more passive," Flamenbaum said. "We're just taking a little bit of the oil and treating it separately, without affecting pressure in the engine."
The filtered oil comes out as clean as or even cleaner than new engine oil, he added.
The filter would cost about $15 and work with any combustion engine, including those in gasoline, biofuel, biodiesel, and hydrogen cars.
It uses off-the-shelf components as well as an "advanced material" the company won't disclose. Unlike many filtration systems being developed in labs, such as for purifying water, however, it does not involve nanotechnology.
There are 470 million filter changes each year in the United States, and 1.6 billion around the world, according to the company.
Flamenbaum sees the filter fitting into a growing green trend in automotive services. For instance, in November AAMCO launched its "Eco-Green" certification program to promote alternative fuels and reduce emissions at service centers.
Within a month, Green Earth Technologies' motor oil made from animal fats instead of petroleum will hit the shelves of big box stores, according to its CEO Jeff Marshall.
In April, SOMS Technologies' filters will be tested in some 30 New York City taxicabs, followed by 20 school buses in upstate New York. SOMS Technologies plans to target such fleets first, with long-term sights on selling its filters in automotive service stores and big-box retailers.
Flamenbaum sees a huge opportunity in developing countries where there's little infrastructure for waste oil recycling.
"I was in China last week and literally saw somebody draining oil and dumping it on the ground," Flamenbaum said. "If that guy was doing it there are probably another million like him out there."
The company is working on agreements to distribute the product in China, as well as with the United States Postal Service.
"We have excellent timing," Flamenbaum said. "There has been very little advancement in filter technology. Since the spin-on oil filter was invented in 1953, the biggest innovation is the pleated filter from the round filter to increase the surface area."
SOMS stands for spin-on microfilter system.
Microsoft's chief environmental strategist, Robert Bernard, spoke publicly for one of the first times this week, giving some insight into Microsoft's "green" strategy.
Bernard was named to the position about four months ago after working with Microsoft for 10 years on partnerships with other IT companies.
While other IT companies have launched "green IT" initiatives, Microsoft has been relatively quiet.
Robert Bernard
(Credit: ZDNet)For example, IBM's Big Green Innovations, launched last year, is focused on data center energy efficiency but also includes consulting activities, such as advising companies on how to reduce carbon emissions within their supply chain.
During a session at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, Bernard indicated that reducing energy consumption of software in the industry overall is one of his primary objectives.
He said that between 3 percent and 5 percent of energy consumption comes from software and that Microsoft is looking to work with its partners, notably hardware providers, to address the other 95 percent. (See a video of his talk at ZDNet.)
Windows Vista has power-management features that will automatically take a computer that's not being used from consuming over 100 watts to 3 watts to 5 watts within 10 to 30 minutes, Bernard said.
"Most people perceive that when they are running a screensaver, they are using less energy. The reality is they are still using between 100 and 250 watts to power that screensaver," he said.
In corporate data centers, energy consumption has become a significant concern for corporations because of rising electricity costs. Businesses are also increasingly trying to measure and reduce their carbon footprint.
Windows Server 2008, which was launched on Wednesday of this week, has embedded intelligence to match a given workload with the appropriate amount of energy.
"I don't need a Ferrari to get across San Francisco," Bernard said. The energy-management in Windows Server allows it to operate more like a Prius.
Consolidating servers, often through virtualization, is also a major push at many corporations, which lowers electricity use.
Software plays a crucial role in managing the energy grid as well, particularly as distributed forms of power generation are added to existing centralized power plants.
"Imagine if you have (a huge increase in) micro generation and the existing macro generation. The software required to manage that system and tie it to us as individuals is massively complicated," Bernard said.
Speaking to investors and entrepreneurs, he said that a software infrastructure to integrate their inventions into existing energy networks needs to be created.
Is making machines more efficiently as simple as folding paper cranes? Industrial Origami is betting that its technologies for folding sheet metal will help manufacturers cut costs and waste on the factory floor.
Industrial Origami's metal forming techniques work with existing manufacturing equipment but slash costs by 70 percent, said president and CEO Rick Holman. It offers a software add-on for CAD design systems.
Corner creases called "smiles" are key.
(Credit: Industrial Origami)Industrial Origami focuses on car parts and home appliances as well as heating and air conditioning system. It licenses its fold-and-cut technologies to Whirlpool and Eaton Electric, which makes enclosures for electric equipment.
Key to reducing the amount of materials, joints and fasteners are indentations punched into the folding edges of the metal. Shaped like an upturned mouth, these "smile" shapes also help the metal forms to bear weight, according to Industrial Origami.
The San Francisco-based company, which presented at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco Tuesday, is seeking to add $10 million to the $15 million it has already raised.
Driven by fears of laptops and cell phones spontaneously bursting into flames, the U.S. government this year banned checking loose lithium batteries in luggage on flights. But that won't be an issue if Nanoexa has its way.
The company is taking a closer look at lithium-ion batteries to design a better, more stable breed. It's eyeing the growing energy storage market, especially for batteries used in hybrid and electric cars.
Nanoexa's software examines the ingredients of batteries at the atomic level. Computer modeling scrutinizes the contents, such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel, to determine the safest and cheapest combination.
The goal is to get highly stable electrodes to ensure that batteries won't explode, with novel combinations of cathode and anode materials improving efficiency and dropping costs, according to the company.
"It's high power, lower price," said Richard D'sa, Nanoexa's chief operating officer, at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco Tuesday.
For instance, Nanoexa has figured out how to cut the use of cobalt and the cost of nickel in batteries by two-thirds. What might take decades to formulate in a chemical lab can be perfected in a matter of years with computer modeling, he added.
Nanoexa's batteries for power tools can last between 350 to 500 cycles and have reached 1,000 cycles for coin batteries, the type used in digital watches, D'sa said. And now the challenge is to get bigger batteries for vehicles that will last 1,000 cycles.
The self-funded company, based in Burlingame, Calif., earned $2.9 million in the last year and is seeking $50 million.
It has licensed technology from the Department of Energy and has partnered with Argonne National Laboratory.
Nanostellar, co-founded by Nanoexa CEO Michael Pak, has used computer modeling to cut the use of platinum in catalytic converters by 20 percent.
If Simbol Mining's plans work out, within a decade it will deliver one-fourth of the world's increasing demand for lithium, used in batteries of hybrid and electric cars without creating waste or pollution.
The start-up eventually aims to mine more than 100,000 tons of lithium carbonate each year from geothermal sources. That's more than the current annual market for the compound; the company expects demands for it to quintuple by 2013.
Current mining methods won't provide enough for the future need for lithium-ion batteries, according to Meridian International Research.
Geothermal power plants bring silica, lithium, zinc, manganese, and other valuable materials in a hot stew of brine from 10,000 feet underground to the earth's surface, then inject them back down.
"It's equivalent to a glass of lemonade," explained Simbol Mining's president and co-founder, Luka Erceg. He likened the valuable ingredients to lemonade powder mix that dissolves in water but can be recovered when dried out.
Simbol Mining would use off-the-shelf nanofilters, like those in water-treatment systems, to extract minerals and metals from the salty water.
Attendees of the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco voted Simbol Mining's technology the most promising at the show on Tuesday. Erceg and the start-up's six geochemists and engineers seek $5 million to get off the ground.
Simbol Mining plans to pay energy companies royalties to access the brines. However, Erceg hopes eventually to extract materials without piggybacking on power providers.
The start-up says its zero waste process doesn't threaten drinking water because brine comes from beneath the level of groundwater.
Simbol Mining has licensed from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory a silica-extraction process that could make it easier to recover other materials geothermally. Because silica clogs pipes and filters, removing it clears the way for getting lithium and other ingredients.
Mining silica, abundant in the earth's crust, is a goal in its own right. The water-absorbent compound is used in toothpaste, dehumidifiers, and even high-end automotive tires.
Erceg believes his company's singular focus can help it succeed in geothermal mining where an energy company preoccupied with producing power could not.
CalEnergy abandoned in 2002 its attempt to extract zinc from aquifers beneath the Salton Sea in Southern California. The power provider said it wasn't able to get zinc at the right "purity."
Simbol Mining, based in Houston, Texas, aims to start working with plants in Nevada and southern California.
Most lithium comes from South America, where the cheapest extraction method evaporates salty brine in ponds lined with toxic PVC, Erceg said. And in lithium-rich regions of Chile, mining the material uses two-thirds of the area's drinking water.
Erceg described another exploratory method--of piping in ocean water to mine minerals--as inefficient because it requires treating the saline water first.
Simbol Mining's technology, on the other hand, even could make use of the materials otherwise wasted by water filtration and purification systems, he said. And it could grab minerals and metals left behind in tapped-out wells of oil and natural gas, which are filled with water that is commonly trucked out and left to evaporate.
"This is almost a convergence of technologies," Erceg said. "We're taking one person's problem or effluent and creating additional value."
The Department of Energy announced on Wednesday its choice of three venture capital firms to send promising clean-tech entrepreneurs to collaborate with national laboratories.
The government's new Entrepreneur in Residence plan is designed to speed the development of the green technology sector.
"Government has to cultivate the conditions for these technologies to thrive," U.S. assistant secretary of energy Alexander Karsner told attendees of the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco. "We felt very strongly we had to build bridges over the commercialization valley of death."
The venture capitalists include Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers to work with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado; ARCH Venture Partners to partner with Sandia National Laboratory in California; and Foundation Capital to collaborate with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
"This is the most exciting time I've seen at the lab for commercialization," said Tom Williams, director of technology transfer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Col.
Each firm has 12 months to assist one start-up at a time in working directly with laboratory staff, aiming to spin off successful clean-tech companies. The Department of Energy will offer $100,000 per entrepreneurial round for overhead costs, with additional funds provided by venture capitalists. After each year-long period ends, the government will newly select venture firms for the ongoing program.
"This is a brilliant program," Paul Thurk, principal of Chicago's ARCH Venture Partners, told CNET. "It forces us to focus on one particular institution."
Areas that interest Thurk include energy efficiency, green building and smart-grid systems.
Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers of Menlo Park, Calif., has some 30 clean tech companies in its portfolio, with a particular emphasis on solar and biofuels, said managing partner Ray Lane. And his firm would also likely consider for the national labs effort entrepreneurs in energy efficiency and storage, among other technologies.
Steve Vassallo, a principal at Foundation Capital of Menlo Park, noted that it usually takes up to six months to help a start-up get its feet off the ground, but he hopes that the program can spin off successful companies in half that time.
The sooner a new venture can be established within the year-long residency program, the sooner a new entrepreneur can be sent to a national laboratory.
"We've had that inertia for quite a long time, so much so that many of you turned away from Washington," said Karsner, telling the conference nevertheless not to consider the government's commitment to reducing greenhouse gases as too little, too late.
He called the public-private partnership the first of its kind in the world. The United States and Japan--whose ministry of trade's clean tech support most echoes that in this country--are responsible for 80 percent of global research and development, Karsner told CNET.
Co-eds enrolling at the University of Washington at Seattle this fall should be able to zip to class on electric bikes rented through Intrago Corporation's self-serve system.
The company plans to launch its first stable of 40 rental electric bikes at four stations around the campus around August.
Coming to a campus near you?
(Credit: Intrago)Intrago's goal is to offer rental wheels around the world at transportation hubs like train stations, so people can reach their final destination without having to cab it, hoof it or pedal uphill on a manual bike.
Each user will get a key that works on any Intrago bike. They can pick up and return a bike from any docking station, unlike car rental services, which require a round trip. GPS tracking of each vehicle should prevent rush hour parking bottlenecks, according to Intrago.
The bikes will be locked to stations through a cable that also bundles data wires feeding information about customer usage patterns to Intrago's servers.
Intrago is developing a franchise business model to spread its technology around the country and abroad. It would sell or rent its systems to regional operators and take royalties from use of its software.
At the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, Intrago founder Dan Sturges said Tuesday he plans to establish rental systems at college and business campuses, followed by cities.
The next Intrago stations are due to be set up at a business park later this year in Walnut Creek, Calif.
Sturges said he hopes to see bike rentals become even popular in U.S. cities as they are in Paris, where 1,400 stations offer 20,000 foot-pedaled two-wheelers for rent.
London earlier this month unveiled a plan to make 6,000 bikes available for rent every 300 meters starting in 2010, as part of that city's $1 billion effort to encourage cycling and walking,
As oil costs $100 per barrel and traffic increasingly clogs roads, Sturges said he foresees a future era of "restorative mobility," in which people can give up their cars without feeling stranded or adding to global warming. He finds encouragement in the growing popularity of Zipcar car-sharing service, which serves more than two dozen cities. It bought rival Flexcar in October.
In the 1990s Sturges invented the GEM NEV electric "golf cart" car, which General Motors later bought.
Intrago has raised $1.2 million and is seeking another $5 million.
Most owners of the 13 million recreational boats in the United States dump their waste in the water, fouling fish and coral reefs with sewage and fuel, according to Klean Marine. The start-up plans to help boaters clean up their act.
Its founders aim to launch a service that would clean sailboats, motorboats, and yachts in ports of harbor around the country. Klean Marine would thus be able to serve, say, traveling snowbirds whether they're docked in Chicago in July or Miami in December. An annual subscription would start at $250.
Company president Kean Fulton, presenting Tuesday at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, hopes to attract $3 million in equity funding in the near term. He aims to raise another $25 million from government freshwater grants and other sources. There are about 35 private boat sewage cleanup companies, mostly mom-and-pop operations that haven't attempted to expand nationally, Fulton said.
"Most people don't want to deal with their sewage," Fulton said. "They're waiting until the night, then flipping the switch, and it's gone."
It's illegal under the Clean Water Act to dump raw sewage into interstate waterways. Boaters could take their waste to pumping stations, but many don't. The Environmental Protection Agency has tried to repeal boat pollution rules, which Fulton believes will prevail, driving demand for Klean Marine's services.
The company is launching a beta test run in South Florida later this year, collecting data about the types of waste it removes and reporting to the EPA. Fulton hopes that the information gathered will help the government to control marine sewage pollution.
Fulton believes he has the right connections to do the job, and it helps that his brother owns a large marine waste management company. (And both men claim boating in the blood, being descendants of 19th century steamboat pioneer Robert Fulton.)
For many new green-tech ventures, Wal-Mart is the ideal customer, sitting on top of the economic food chain of environmentally friendly products.
Which "innovative ideas" Wal-Mart is seeking is instructive because it points to large corporate demand for clean-tech products.
The list:
• Alternative battery technology for forklifts.
• Wind harvesting.
• Closed-loop water processing.
• Sustainable building materials.
• Organic waste.
• Oil-based waste.
• Household hazardous waste.
Noticeably absent from the list are solar energy products and biofuels, two areas that have received most venture capital investment over the past two years.
Wal-Mart is investing in solar power at 22 stores in California and Hawaii. It is also developing energy-efficient stores, which Wal-Mart says use 25 percent less energy than its typical retail outlets.
The tool, called Cleantech Accelerator Project, will let entrepreneurs make submissions to Wal-Mart, which will be fielded by the Cleantech Group.
The goal is to identify between two and four solutions that can be used by Wal-Mart within the next two years.
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