… The road to SELCO’s success, however, has not always been smooth. Hande cofounded SELCO (with Neville Williams) in 1995 to sell and service photovoltaic (PV) systems in his home … Investors put pressure on Hande to lay off employees and contract the organization. With the help of the World Bank’s commercial finance arm, the International Finance … SELCO remained a for-profit business, but Hande was able to seek new investors more aligned with its mission. In addition, Hande was able to keep his sales and service organization …
… substantial contributor of CO2 to the atmosphere, scientists at General Motors, the world’s largest automaker, had started looking at the greenhouse effect in the mid-1980s. The wide-ranging discussions within GM had led to an ambitious program to improve the efficiency of internal combustion … more efficient diesel engines on the U.S. market. Meanwhile, international efforts to prevent global warming had accelerated. A series of UN-sponsored conferences, bringing …
… in the U.S., would use aluminum1 rather than sheet steel in the truck bed and cab. Starting with the 2015 model year, the F-150 would be the first mass-market vehicle to be built with major body construction from aluminum. Alcoa spent $300 million expanding its Iowa … vehicle mass, allowing a smaller, more efficient engine to produce the same performance with increased miles per gallon. For example, the F-150's switch to aluminum for 2015 was a …
… of Gifford Pinchot State University (GPSU) Foundation**, called Robert Farrington, a Managing Director at Commonfund. The GPSU student government had just presented the Foundation with a resolution urging them to divest of all fossil fuel companies from their portfolio. … find a sufficient pool of managers that fit their usual criteria and who were interested in managing carbon free or carbon light funds? Could they find consensus among their university …
… wind turbines, Tanti discovered that wind energy was an even better business than textiles. Within six years of its incorporation, Suzlon had become the dominant player in the Indian … manufacturer of large wind turbines, for $1.8 billion. REPower built some of the world’s largest wind turbines, including a 6 megawatt model under development. REPower’s large … was set to double its manufacturing capacity by year’s end. The company was the fifth largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world, but had designs on moving into the top …
… project received a significant boost. While the proposed wind farm was located in an area with abundant wind resources, absent a creditworthy off-taker the project would not have been able to line up financing. With Walmart de México’s 15-year PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) in hand, the developers were … México could consider. Any project that Walmart de México undertook had to work in concert with Mexico’s electricity grid and rate-making structure. Mexico’s political leadership had …
… and provided over half of the country's crop insurance. Crop insurance provided farmers with a hedge against climate, environmental, and other risks. Around 40% of grain farmers in … their livelihoods, but also helped stabilize the region's food supply. However, many small landholders were priced out of the market for crop insurance. Unlike the government of many … expertise and decades of weather-related data to estimate the frequency of major weather events. It was widely acknowledged that climate change was likely to increase the frequency …
… companies that were in financial and operational distress and had difficult relationships with labor and government. In early 2008, as the economy was entering a recession, a … some significant problems: financial, environmental, political, labor, and operational. With the bursting of the housing bubble, the lumber industry had gone into a severe … companies that were in financial and operational distress and had difficult relationships with labor and government. In early 2008, as the economy was entering a recession, a …
… enacted a series of laws promoting the use of alternative fuels in gasoline, beginning with ethanol from sugarcane. This meant that the national oil company PEMEX had to find ways … as 8% of the vehicle fuel blend at the pump, the maximum amount that could be incorporated without requiring changes to vehicle internal combustion engines and station pumps. Brazil … crop had provided 55% of vehicle fuel, either in gasoline blends or as pure ethanol. With all these positive indications, in 2009 and in 2012 PEMEX introduced two tender offers …
… make. Garcia is a member of the Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3), a group charged with creating a comprehensive climate strategy for the State of Connecticut. As of September … generated in Connecticut and supplied about 15% of the power required for the New England regional grid. The operating licenses for the two reactors were set to expire in 2035 … financial viability. For these reasons, one of the other two nuclear plants in New England had already announced its early closure in 2019. With compelling arguments on both …