Author: Richard Youngman

Keep Calm and Carry On: A very British response to Trump’s withdrawal?

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
When President Trump was elected last November, and again when he was inaugurated in January, I found lots of people wondering and asking out loud how detrimental would this seemingly anti-climate change, pro-fossil fuel President be to the more positive momentum the sustainable innovation world has been feeling of late. Such momentum was built on improving economics and market dynamics for the solution set, built on improving technology and lessons learned from the “gold rush” mentality of cleantech 1.0. The... Read More »

Charting the Future Towards 2032: Why affordable technology can trump the future

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
Charting the Future Towards 2032 was the theme of our recent 15th Cleantech Forum San Francisco. Some focus was given to the idea of imagining out how things might develop over the next 15 years given our 2017 starting point, itself a result of where the last 15 years has taken us. This three-part blog series was intended to provide some perspectives to help you get set for the year and the years ahead, drawing on my own keynote at... Read More »

Breakthroughs: Just what does it take to make it?

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
Last week , we were both very surprised and disappointed to hear the news that Aquion Energy, the US battery company who ranked top in our Global Cleantech 100 Expert Panel’s summer assessments, was forced to voluntarily file for chapter 11 to provide the breathing-room to allow it to find a buyer who could take the impressive achievements of the last few years and provide the capital to scale up the manufacturing to finish the job of getting a breakthrough... Read More »

Charting the Future Towards 2032: Three industries to keep an eye on over the next 15 years

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
Charting the Future Towards 2032 was the theme of our recent 15th Cleantech Forum San Francisco. Some focus was given to the idea of imagining how things might develop over the next 15 years, given our 2017 starting point, itself a result of where the last 15 years has taken us. This three-part blog series is intended to provide some perspectives to help you get set for the year and the years ahead, drawing on my own keynote at Cleantech... Read More »

Charting the Future Towards 2032: Funding the next wave of industrial innovation companies

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
“Charting the Future Towards 2032” was the theme of our recent 15th Cleantech Forum San Francisco. Some focus was given to the idea of imagining out how things might develop over the next 15 years, given our 2017 starting-point, itself a result of where the  last 15 years has taken us. This three-part blog series will provide some perspectives to help you get set for the year and the years ahead. It will draw on my own keynote from the... Read More »

Scale and speed: China’s USP in cleantech. Solving urban wastewater challenges.

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
For some years, we have been monitoring the growing number of examples of where Asian and western organizations are coming together to address environmental challenges for mutual economic benefit. In the past 12-18 months, we have felt that there is a definite uptick in the activity levels. This has been confirmed by an analysis we just completed on the 100 companies we will release as the latest edition of the Global Cleantech 100. In the 6th edition, 20 of the... Read More »

Scale and speed: China’s USP in cleantech. Tackling China’s polluted arable land problem

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
For some years, we have been monitoring the growing number of examples of Asian and western organizations coming together to address environmental challenges for mutual economic benefit. There is a definite uptick in the activity levels in the past 12-18 months. Here is the latest example, and some interview-style thoughts from the CEO on tackling the China market as a small foreign innovation company. The Deal. Today, NexSteppe, founded in 2010 and twice a Global Cleantech 100 company, announced a new partnership... Read More »

Back to the Future, Back to Cleantech Group

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
Back to the Future day (October 21, 2015) recently came and went, another reminder if we needed one of the impossibility of seeing how things will truly pan out in 30 years’ time. Back to the Future is a good way to describe my feelings today, as I take on the challenge of leading the next chapter for Cleantech Group (CTG).  (If you have not already heard, I have teamed up with Enovation Partners, a fast-growing consultancy platform focused on... Read More »

Chapter 3 for Cleantech: The Deployment of Innovation Chapter? Thoughts and Wishes for 2016+

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
The start of 2016 feels like a good moment for a reflective piece, on the one hand, and a look forward one, on the other. I have a real sense that momentum is building towards a defining and breakthrough 2020’s. COP-21 has just passed. Perhaps our global leaders will take climate change seriously after all, now that the scientific evidence is stronger, the runway for mitigation shorter, and business and finance has been taking some early steps down the multi-decade... Read More »

More with Less: The Makings of the 2020s are with us Today

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
The concept of “More with Less” was always central to the founders of Cleantech Group’s vision of the emergent innovation theme they coined as cleantech in 2002. Doing more with less (less inputs, less costs, less environmental impacts), aka resource productivity and efficiency, was highlighted in the first presentation I ever saw from Cleantech Group in 2007 on its explanation of the cleantech innovation theme – and why it mattered. “More with Less” is as relevant today as then –... Read More »