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SAN MATEO, Calif.--Catering to a rising tide of socially-conscious shoppers, eBay this summer plans to help publicly launch WorldofGood.com, a marketplace for buying fair-trade products, according to Robert Chatwani, eBay's general manager of the project.

eBay, in partnership with a separate fair-trade company World of Good Inc., has already built a community site for people interested in goods that are made of recycled materials or produced by fairly treated workers, for example. But the two organizations plan to open a shopping site that will cater to these "social change consumers," Chatwani said here Tuesday at the Dow Jones Environment Conference.

That segment of shopper spends as much as $45 billion on green products annually, he estimated.

"Those people aren't on eBay. We believe only between 7 and 12 percent of these social change consumers are eBay users now ... so this could be accretive to the business," Chatwani said on a panel at the two-day conference.

Chatwani helped conceive of the idea for the WorldofGood.com marketplace three years ago while traveling to India with fellow eBay employees. There, they found some sustainably made artisan products they believed would sell online, and could give some money back to the creator. They tested the idea and it worked. Bay teamed up with World of Good, a group designed to alleviate poverty in third worlds by helping sell local artists' goods globally.

Chatwani said WorldofGood.com is only one project inside eBay that's focused on social change. Historically, eBay has been what he called a low-carbon company, built with more efficient online practices and an emphasis on technologies that are good for the world. But eBay also operates explicitly more charitable projects.

Those include MicroPlace, a micro-finance site for people to invest in entrepreneurs in the developing world. It also runs eBay Giving Works, a shopping site that lets buyers and sellers donate a percentage of sales to a charity. Chatwani said that that site has raised more than $120 million for charities.

For its part, WorldofGood.com will focus on giving people more information about products--where they come from, how they're made, and how they effect the environment, Chatwani said.

"Our challenge is not so much about getting people to spend more. It's about introducing alternative forms of consumption," he said.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--The practice of playing up a company's green policies for show was the new black for the past few years. But now actually making and selling green products is what's hot because of its potential to put a business in the black.

At the 2008 Consumer Electronics Emerging Technologies Summit held here in Silicon Valley, venture capitalists, business consultants, entrepreneurs, and representatives of some of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world discussed the new wave of innovation in a rapidly commoditizing industry. It basically comes down to two words: energy efficiency.

And the reason it's important? Because it can make a product stand out. And if consumers can see a real benefit to using products that are environmentally conscious, they'll buy it. And that's potential profit for vendors and manufacturers.

"Before it was something (consumer electronics companies) just said to make themselves look good. Now it's a business imperative," said George Bailey, general manager of IBM Microelectronics.

That's because flashy, visible new breakthroughs in technology in the CE space aren't providing the same profitable bump for as long as it used to. High-definition televisions are a prime example.

"TV manufacturers are troubled in terms of profit," said Bailey. "They're asking, 'How can I add value, recapture profit?' Before it was larger format LCD screen. If yours was bigger you'd make more money. Now we know that's not true."

When the big TV manufacturers come to his division of IBM he says they are all looking for greener, more energy-efficient chips that will make their TVs consume less power because that's a way they can differentiate their product from others on the shelf. New technologies include High-K Metal Gate chips that IBM is working on that "leak" less power and can power smaller devices for longer.

But green-friendly products can be more expensive, which can deter certain types of consumers. A representative from Samsung in the audience said the company has yet to see that consumers are willing to pay for products just because they are "green."

That's why you have to give them a real benefit, not an imagined one that makes them feel good, said Steve Westly, who runs the clean tech venture capital firm The Westly Group.

"You have to give customers a real value proposition. A 'green' truck that gets 16 miles per gallon? Consumers will see through that," he said. A green product "has to have an added benefit."

Even if energy efficiency doesn't attract consumers in the numbers that these manufacturers and investors hope, businesses will be forced to green their products one way or another, Westly said.

"You'll see (environmental standards) dialed up in a government-mandated way," he said. "Government regulations and mandates are only going to increase. Not just here, but globally."

Wind energy company Noble Environmental Power has filed to raise as much as $375 million in an initial public offering, according to a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission that was filed Thursday.

The Connecticut-based company, which plans to list its shares with the Nasdaq under the symbol "NEPI," operates in the booming wind power market. But the company will still have to brave a weak IPO market.

The 4-year-old Noble runs wind parks in New York state that generate about 282 megawatts of electricity; and later this year, it plans to open added parks in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Maine, and Texas. Noble is seeing demand for wind power in the Northeast partly because of renewable energy mandates in the area. But the wind-power industry is hampered by a shortage of wind turbines.

Noble plans to use the money from the IPO to develop its business, invest in new technologies, and ink future turbine supply agreements. Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan Securities, and Credit Suisse Securities, are underwriting the IPO.

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers is joining the virtual stage with Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday morning to talk about climate change and technology innovation.

Al Gore

Chambers and Gore will use Cisco's telepresence system to communicate with a live audience at the VoiceCon trade show in in Orlando, Fla. They will discuss how unified communications technology, like the telepresence platform, can play a role in reducing carbon emissions, which are impacting climate change.

John Chambers

They'll also discuss other ideas for how businesses can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through innovative technologies and how the technology industry can create a sustainable model for addressing climate change.

The event will be Webcast live starting at 11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT. And anyone interested in tuning in can register at the Cisco Web site to sign up in advance.

My colleague Martin LaMonica, who covers green technology, will be listening to the Webcast. So look for a blog post from him later Wednesday.

This entry was updated on January 28 to reflect the film's award status.

PARK CITY, Utah--On one end of the documentary spectrum, you have films that are akin to extended works of journalism. They are in-depth, objective examinations of issues, personalities or phenomena that often leave you thinking that truth really is stranger than fiction.

A still from the film, Fields of Fuel, which is screening at Sundance.

(Credit: Fields of Fuel via Sundance)

On the other end are advocacy films, which seem increasingly popular here at the Sundance Film Festival, particularly when it comes to politically charged issues such as the war in Iraq and the environment.

The latter type of documentary can be just as informative as the former, if done right. Take Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, a 2006 festival film, which many people credit with having woken up the general public to the potentially grave consequences of global warming.

Another such example at this year's festival is Fields of Fuel, which received a long standing ovation at its first public screening here Monday. (Update: It turned out that Fields of Fuel won the festival's audience award for documentaries). In the film, director Josh Tickell tells the story of his life as an activist pushing for the use of biodiesel and other alternative fuels in an effort to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and protect the environment.

I tend to be wary of advocacy docs for fear they'll be feature-length brainwashers. But Tickell's film is fair, honest, informative and--a biggie for me--nicely edited. And I suppose it was convincing, too--it got me thinking about buying a car with a diesel engine and I went online to find the nearest biodiesel fuel pumps.

Josh Tickell has traveled the country trying to persuade consumers to switch to biofuels or other alternatives to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil.

(Credit: Fields of Fuel via Sundance)

Tickell's efforts have already been well documented. (Click here for my colleague's story on his efforts.) He's written two books on biodiesel, done countless interviews and is perhaps best known for traveling the country in his biodiesel-powered "Veggie Van" to promote alternative fuel. But the documentary might just appeal to consumers in a different way.

I was a little turned off, especially at first, by the fact that he's telling his own story in scripted pseudo-interviews. I'd prefer someone else doing the interview, exposing us a little more to Tickell the person, as opposed to Tickell the activist. Viewers get a little of that, however, when he reflects upon his frustration at one point in the film when it seemed all his efforts had made no difference. "If anything, the U.S. slipped backwards," he says, reflecting on the early Bush years.

The audience was totally charged after the film as Tickell took the podium for a quick Q&A. He also brought up a huge cast and crew who he said had put "blood, sweat and tears," into the film.

Director Josh Tickell addresses the audience before the first public screening Monday of his Fields of Fuel at Sundance.

(Credit: Michelle Meyers/CNET News.com)

Among the cast members were Jonathan Wolfson and Harrison Dillon, founders of a South San Francisco company called Solazyme, which makes biofuel out of algae. Solazyme demonstrated a car powered by its fuel at the festival and also announced a partnership with Chevron.

No word as of yet about Fields of Fuel getting picked up for distribution. Last year a similarly interesting activist documentary on global warming call Everything's Cool also got a warm Sundance reception, but never made it nationally to the big screen. (Thanks to a News.com reader who pointed out that the film had a small theater run in New York and Los Angeles.)

Among the other feature-length films at this year's festival with green themes are Flow: For the Love of Water, about why water is a dwindling resource; and Up the Yangtze, a film that quickly got bought for distribution about the building of the Three Gorges Dam and its effects on the lives of the locals and the environment.

There are also many environmental shorts screening, including Mr. W, by a Germany based filmmaking team called The Vikings. Mr. W, which preceded Fields of Fuel, is much better on the big screen but is totally worth a couple of YouTube minutes.

Twelve percent of Americans are willing to pay more for greener electronics, according to a Forrester Research survey of 5,000 people. The study forecast that electronics companies will learn to target this segment of the population, equivalent to 25 million consumers.

The report broke down shoppers into three categories: "bright" green, green, and un-green. Another 41 percent may care about environmental woes, but not enough to pay more for greener gadgets, while green issues were of little or no concern to another 47 percent of people surveyed.

"Bright" green consumers are otherwise known by the marketing acronym LOHAS, which stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. Generally well-off, well-read and particular about what they buy, their predecessors include those who may have bought tofu from a "health food store" before Whole Foods ushered in an era of eco-supermarkets and Wal-Mart stocked organic broccoli.

However, in electronics there is no equivalent green brand to Whole Foods. Green labels on gadgets are not prominent, and products made by companies with ecologically aware practices generally don't cost more than others. People interested in buying more efficient products will see the EnergyStar seal on products. EPEAT ratings of energy-efficient electronics, on the other hand, do not mark goods in stores.

Electronics with EPEAT ratings don't usually cost more than others.

(Credit: EPEAT)

The latest Greenpeace guide to greener electronics, released quarterly since August 2006, gave low marks last week to Nintendo, Philips and Microsoft. Apple, long the target of a Greenpeace campaign, improved its ranking. LG Electronics, HP and Sony also made significant gains in the environmental watchdog's rankings.

Making buildings greener is key to fighting climate change, Clinton told a packed audience.

(Credit: Gregory Wenzel)

CHICAGO--Fighting climate change requires making the nation's homes, offices, and schools healthier and more energy efficient, former president Bill Clinton told thousands attending the Greenbuild conference on Wednesday. Sweeping efforts to reduce the carbon footprints of buildings, which emit three-quarters of most cities' greenhouse gases, can measurably benefit the environment, he said.

"The sale's been made," Clinton said. "Otherwise Al Gore wouldn't have gotten the Nobel Prize. Now what we have to do is...to prove that this is not a big bottle of castor oil that we're being asked to drink."

To that end, the Clinton Climate Initiative has been engaging businesses and leaders of 40 cities to plot ways to reduce carbon emissions. The project launched in August 2006 as part of the William J. Clinton Foundation.

"This is the biggest economic opportunity that our country has had to mobilize and democratize economic opportunity since World War II," he said.

In partnership with Clinton's effort, GE Real Estate announced on Wednesday that it will "green" all of its operations, which comprise $72 billion worth of assets and 385 million square feet of property in 31 countries.

Clinton also announced efforts to help make the nation's schools more sustainable by retrofitting existing buildings to use less energy and fewer hazardous materials. A quarter of American students attend school in dangerous buildings, but renovations can save money and create long-term health and educational benefits, he said.

Clinton noted the efforts of Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, and other school leaders from around the country who joined him onstage. Chicago is retrofitting all of its schools to attain certification through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED ratings are run by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council, which produces Greenbuild. Other speakers lauding the benefits of sustainable design noted that there are more LEED-certified prisons than schools.

Audience members swarmed Clinton as he left the stage.

(Credit: Gregory Wenzel)

Clinton insisted that the United States and emerging superpowers should embrace a successor to the Kyoto Protocol by 2010. Clinton blamed the failure of Kyoto in the United States on both Congress and the Bush administration.

"If the coming giants India and China and those coming behind them--Vietnam Ukraine, all these emerging countries--if they insist on the old industrial society's patterns of energy use, it is true that the most calamitous consequences of climate change will occur," he said.

"We have no idea what we can do in terms of reducing greenhouse gases because we just got started."

The Eco-Earth Yacht displays wind turbines and solar panels.

This classic Airstream trailer outfitted with off-the-grid features got people thinking back to the future at the 18th Bioneers conference this weekend. The sustainability convention in San Rafael, Cal., brings together "bio-pioneers" including scientists, artists, clean tech investors and nonprofit activists.

The 22-foot Safari model, circa 1958, incorporates a composting toilet, wind turbine and solar panels. It has bamboo floors, trimmings and cabinet skins as well as an Alaskan yellow cedar couch bed. Countertops are recycled stainless steel and the bathroom floors are marboleum, derived from flax oil.

From the bed-couch inside, you can peer out of a window or up at a skylight.

Owner Tim Blair, who runs a green design consulting firm, offers a few restored "Eco-Earth Yachts" for sale or rent. He has shown them off at events including Burning Man and SolFest. He hopes to repurpose the streamlined trailers as mobile learning, communications and medical "command centers."

Towing an Airstream around the country may be less than green if hitched to a gasoline-powered car, but the trailers have come to symbolize efficient, vintage design. Visionary Buckminster Fuller owned one. Trendy Airstream trailers can fetch many tens of thousands of dollars from loyal devotees.

The kitchen and bathroom are efficient, naturally.

People are converting trailers into eco-friendly abodes and using them as components in modular homes.

Stewart Brand, who founded the Whole Earth Catalog and The Well online community, said at Bioneers that trailer homes deserve to lose their stigma, because dense, urban communities like trailer parks can make ideal centers for sustainable development.

Brand lives in a houseboat in Sausalito, Cal. Many of his neighbors have stayed for decades in the waterfront community because they view their dwellings as homes rather than investments, he said. Prices for houseboats, like trailers, don't tend to rise at the same speed as real estate.

SAN FRANCISCO--This year in design, green is the new black.

That line has easily been trumpeted by everyone from design trade magazines to consumer media moguls like Oprah. But here at Connecting '07, the annual trade conference of the Industrial Designers Society of America, it's even more obvious.

Headlining the opening day keynote Thursday was Martin Eberhard, co-founder of Tesla Motors, in a talk he called "sleek and green." Eberhard was accompanied by Barney Hatt, designer of the Lotus and the Tesla Roadster, a $98,000 electric-powered sports car that's due at the beginning of next year. (Of course, Tesla's sports car has appeal beyond environmentalists, and this year, it's been the zeitgeist of Silicon Valley.)

Eberhard, who founded Tesla Motors in 2003 because of worries about foreign oil dependence and global warming, said he wanted to design a "Porschius," a cross between a Porsche and a Toyota Prius. By building an all-electric car, he hoped to double the efficiency of the Prius, he said. "The 'Porshius' would appeal to people who love cars and care about the environment."

Still, environmental journalist Alex Steffen took the Tesla Roadster down a notch in a follow-up talk. He said that although they're "great," consumers must consider the manufacturing, maintenance and disposal costs of any car when they buy it.

"Tesla cars aren't the solution," he said. Instead, he said, people must reduce their consumption if they want to improve the trends toward global climate change.

Eco-design talks are also woven into the three-day confab, through a track of presentations on sustainable product design, as well as featured speakers. Dell, for example, is touting its international green computing design competition at the conference. Janine Benyus, the founder of the nonprofit Biomicry Institute, will speak Friday about how designers can look to nature to improve the efficiency of products, for example.