71
QuantaSol
London, UK
Private
Clean tech
Kevin Arthur, CEO

QuantaSol is an academic spinoff company that aims to become a world leading supplier of high efficiency solar cells. Company cofounder Keith Barnham believes that more than half the UK's electricity demand could be met by covering all south-facing roofs with the current 14%- efficient solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, even ignoring small wind turbines and new technology. The PV cells QuantaSol is commercialising, says Barnham, have twice this efficiency and can be much less obtrusive. Last summer, Low Carbon Accelerator (see entry 34) made an investment of £480,000 in QuantaSol for a 15.34% equity stake.

72
Fri-El Green Power
Bolzano, Italy
Private
Renewables
Josef Gostner, CEO

Italy's defining pure-play renewable energy company, now branching out from its 10 wind farms to biomass and biodiesel projects. Overshadowed this year by a long-touted IPO shelved at the last minute last November owing to the credit crunch, the company originally founded in 1994 is today worth approximately '€1bn and will probably turn to private equity to raise its next round of financing. Founded in 1994, Fri-El is outgunned by larger utilities such as Enel, except that Enel is not a pure-play renewable company. Fri-El's Biomar project plans to generate biodiesel onboard an oil tanker while at sea ' blue sky thinking at its best.

73

Lighting is responsible for about 40% of business electricity bills and much of the current lighting stock is vastly inefficient. Cree's Light Emitting Diode technology cuts costs and energy consumption in lighting for everything from buildings and street lighting to digital camera flashes and traffic signals. Installing its products in its own headquarters cut energy consumption by 48%. Plans to phase out incandescent bulbs from Australia to the EU will drive its business forward. Having bought Hong Kong-based group COTCO Luminant Device, its products will be showcased by lighting the startling 'Water Cube' Aquatic Centre for the Beijing Olympics. White LED technology is on the verge of becoming mainstream.

74
Impact
Windermere, UK
Private
Support services
David Williams, CEO

Specialists in behavioural change and leadership training, Impact is a thriving global exec education organisation whose USP is sustainability. Truly a pioneer, the company was started in 1980 in the UK to introduce experiential learning as opposed to classroom techniques. Opening a Japan office in 1989 led to a thriving Asian/ Pacific network followed by six mainland European offices and finally a US business. Sustainability is what the company teaches, now rooted in a decadeold, annual 'Leadership for Sustainable Enterprise' conference. One solution for companies that want to go green but don't know how to change their spots.

75
Climate Care
Oxford, UK
Private
Carbon management
David Wellington, CEO

Arguably the leading offset company in the UK and in certain respects ahead of its peers across Europe. Pioneering founder Mike Mason has done much to rebut ill-informed critics of offsetting over the past year and is involved in the regulated CDM market as well as the voluntary offset sector. Sister company Pioneer Carbon is based in Nairobi and secures offsets consistent with the new voluntary offset standard introduced by The Climate Group last November. Climate Care offers classleading rigour on offset practices and remains a pioneer in this regard. It also remains a reliable source for small scale, retail offsets aimed at the public.

76

Keith Abel and Paul Cole set up this pioneering grocery delivery company 20 years ago, and turned it organic in 1991. Initially delivering potatoes, today it offers a full grocery service with impeccable environmental and social credentials including very carefully worked out reduction of air miles focused around weekly deliveries of in-season, locally produced organic vegetables. Foreign produce is shipped not air freighted. Like all such enterprises it doesn't compete on price but it has pioneered an environmentally sensitive supply chain at a time when the supermarket giants are only just starting to re-engineer theirs. More of a pioneer in the UK than in Italy and France, where slow and local food never went out of fashion.

77
Impax Group
London, UK
Public
Financial
Ian Simm, CEO

Impax (see page 23) was launched in 1994 and directs several funds in the fields of clean tech and renewable energy, with approximately '€1bn under management. As well as the investment trust, it runs white label funds for SNS Bank in the Netherlands and BNP Paribas. There's a New Energy Leaders fund focused specifically on renewable energy projects and associated infrastructure. Director of investments Bruce Jenkyn- Jones is a widely respected guru on what to back and more importantly what to avoid ' Impax's recently formed hedge fund demonstrates that there's serious money to be made from the failures.

78
Greenstone Carbon Management
London, UK
Private
Carbon management
Dr Belinda Howell, CEO

Only founded last March, Greenstone has evolved rapidly under Howell's leadership, with a slew of senior recent appointments. Alongside advisory and offset arms, Greenstone has evolved carbon footprint-tracking software called Acco2unt. Greenstone's USP is getting into the nitty-gritty of procurement and supply chain management in complex sectors such as retail. It has just won contracts with supply chain company Bagir, an Israeli-based global clothes supplier and ZBD, the creators of a zero-power, point of purchase display solution. Presumably the tip of a very large iceberg.

79
Ludgate Environmental
London, UK
Public
Fund Management
Nick Pople, CEO

Ludgate Environmental Fund is a Jersey domiciled closed-ended investment company launched last August with '€37.38m raised on London's AIM market. Prior to this parent company Ludgate Investments had already helped seven clean tech companies raise funds via listings and was a lead investor in Ceres. The broad scope of investment of the fund headed by Nick Pople is energy efficiency and renewables, waste management and recycling, industrial process advances and emission reduction technologies. One its earliest investments was in sustainable oil refinery Hydrodec Group.