Green Daily

Although solar energy is again making waves decades after its introduction to the consumer market, alternative energies like wind power are becoming just as popular for that personal power production some of us crave. It would not be a stretch to imagine the roofs of many cars in the near future be outfitted with solar panels to charge those in-car batteries. Well, once electric vehicles reach the mainstream, that is.

Until then, we'll have to start on a smaller level and prove the concept. As Don Adams used to say, "would'ja believe" -- a backpack outfitted with a miniature solar array for powering that laptop you take with you each morning to the coffee shop and to the subway? Voltaic Systems recently unveiled a rather neat backpack that has just this feature.

It's never a bad thing to begin alternative power consumption with the personal electronics market that could lead to larger and more forceful green power in many marketplaces. The backpack model to the right pumps out four watts -- enough to charge that laptop PC or iPod if you give it a few hours in direct sunlight. It also comes with 12 adapters for a wide variety of personal electronics. Chances are your laptop PC's charging port will work with it. And the backpack fabric? It's made from recycled soda bottles.

Personal alternative power products like these are a great way to introduce the concept of being green to those that really have not had experience with green energy before. A great next step would be to contact your electricity provider and see if it offers green credits for buying power generated by the wind (if available).

2007 saw energy prices (like gasoline) climb to all-time recent highs along with food prices increasing and the overall inflation rate being the highest in 17 years. Consumers are becoming more skittish with their money and compact cars are selling at a rapid clip compared to gas-guzzling SUVs.

The penchant Americans have for the muscular V8 engine could b e waning as a result. Detroit's large three automakers are making smaller engines and promoting alternative fuels and propulsion methods (like electric vehicles) at an unprecedented rate. Is the gas-hogging V8 engine doomed after many decades as the showpiece for horsepower in the domestic vehicle market? Perhaps.

There will be a need for V8-powered vehicles for quite a while in my opinion, but over the short-term, the engine design may be used in an ever-decreasing amount of vehicles. Normally, larger cars, trucks and full-size SUVs contain these larger V8 engines. Customer sentiment for lower gas costs, though, will probably overpower horsepower bragging rights to your neighbor.

Ford's recent CEO and current chairman, Bill Ford, Jr., even said that "It's pretty clear that the V-8 is on its way out of the mainstream." Add that to the fact GM recently canceled a $300 million V8 development project, and large engines may never return to the American consumer vehicle market in any large way.

Although ethanol and biofuels are all the rage in the alternative fuel media right now, there are some that believe the cost to manufacture and refine such fuels would equal or even surpass fossil fuels that power almost every vehicle on the global roads today.

Is there a crop that is plentiful but that doesn't need mass-scale planting and can be refined into a fuel that could work its way into newer eco-concept vehicle engines. How about switchgrass?

Native to quite a few hundred thousand undeveloped acres on the plains of North America, switchgrass is being looked at by eco-engineers due to it growing so tall and already being so plentiful. Could switchgrass outdo corn for the fuel-plant of the future? A recent study indicated that the plant harbors five times more energy than it takes to grow it. Sounds promising, yes? It has for just over a few years now.

Check out Iberdrola Renovables to see what company has been pouring in huge money into ethanol alternatives like switchgrass-produced energy. Is it worth adding to your portfolio? You make that call.

Gadgets are everywhere these days. From the iPod to the video-capable cellphone to the wireless mouse, all those cutting-edge electronics gizmos will someday find their way to eBay or the garbage can. Pause that -- I meant, recycling bin.

Product cycles and obsolescence in the consumer electronics industry is almost instant. This posits a main question: What do we do with all those used gadgets to ensure they don't contribute to the chemical-leaking landfill somewhere near your town? That's right -- there is, more than likely, toxic substances lurking inside that favorite gadget of yours.

This is a reason I'm a fan of companies that actively solicit business from major consumer electronics companies to have those old digital music players and cellphones recycles once their useful life is over.

Resources such as electronicsrecycling.org provide information on many companies that are glad to ensure gadgets turn into green once they are done for. You may have seen some companies (manufacturers and retailers) soliciting you to recycling those empty printer ink cartridge (such as Staples and Hewlett-Packard), but there are over a thousand companies that will gladly let you recycle those used electronics once you're done with them. Find one of your choice and pin it to your computer's calendar -- then use it once the time comes.

The awakening many U.S. adults are having about the invasion of synthetic (and often, carcinogenic) chemicals in those everyday personal care and cleaning products is enlightening to many an eco-head. After all, none of these chemicals is really needed. We don't need them to shampoo our hair, wash our hands, deodorize ourselves or clean up that kitchen table. The reason for all those personal care product chemicals? Low manufacturing costs.

The all-natural product renaissance is well underway, and there are some companies out there really paving the way for these products. Seventh Generation, Aubrey Organics and Avalon Organics are just a few smaller companies that manufacture natural personal care products. But, seeing the trend towards eco-living, many large manufacturers are getting into the game as well. No surprise there.

With all-natural personal care products, the price carries a retail premium. Are most customers willing to pay that to keep chemicals off themselves and out of their homes? Many are, but it's far from the majority in an age of subprime mortgage defaults, inflation, rising energy prices and other economic quagmires. But, as more and more customers learn about the toxic waste sites inside their own shower stalls, many will find that going natural is better from themselves and the environment as well. Does your portfolio hold any companies with an interest in ecologically sustainable and all-natural personal care products? Maybe it should.

When it comes to green technology, the chips that run all those PCs at your place of business and in your home are generally not thought of as "being green." In the recent past, this was true -- PC processors were huge wasters of energy, from using 40 watts or more (just for laptop processors) to generating a huge amount of waste heat, central processing units (CPUs) were not really designed to save energy. Times, though, are changing.

Intel's newer dual-core CPUs operate with a huge drop in wasted heat energy as well as using quite a bit less power while not really losing performance. Since PC users never want a performance downgrade with that newer PC, the challenge for Intel and other companies has been to up the performance ante while simultaneously reducing energy waste and power consumption. Ever hear of the Core 2 Duo chip? That's a great example of the above premise in current CPU manufacturing techniques.

Intel is not the only one into making green PC chips, though. VIA, a Taiwanese chip company, markets its C7-D processor for entry-level desktop and laptop computers -- and that chip can consumer as low as two watts of power in many states of operation. That's way less than the smallest light bulb or curling iron found anywhere in your home. Soon, the standard PC may be one of the greenest and most versatile products found anywhere -- and that's a good thing.

Once in a while, the efforts to take advantage of a globally sustainable business trend just doesn't work. When it comes to producing products that conserve resources and give something back to the environment, one would think financial results (as in, stock price and annual returns) would measure up right along with effort. It doesn't turn out that way in some cases. Want some examples? Continue reading.

In the green space, there is a slew of news every week about which companies are inventing new eco-sustainable technology or which investment firms and capital houses are doing to help lift green technology of the ground. It's a great investment in the future -- saving resources as a business model, that is. What about the companies that try to execute on this mission, but fail?

Toyota was on top of the automotive world many years ago when the Prius hybrid vehicle was announced, and within a short time after the compact passenger car was made available to the public, there was a waiting list at nationwide auto dealers for the car. Nothing like creating a new market from scratch, eh?

While Toyota has a slew of hybrid vehicles on dealer showroom floors now -- like the Highlander Hybrid -- the Japanese automaker has just as many gas guzzlers to match its eco-optioned vehicles. So much, that some environmentalists are chastising the automaker for making unleaded gas hogs like the Toyota Tundra and Sequoia.

Toyota, you've joined the Ford and General Motors club of being tossed in the media's big salad of grilling large automakers for their production of extremely un-green vehicles. Is Toyota losing its luster as the car company that invented the term green when it came to gas-saving vehicles?

Toyota set the bar long ago int he hybrid automobile category with the compact Prius passenger car, and since then, the largest automakers have all wanted to take a cautious look at this market. Although 100% electric cars can't come close to servicing the needs of American drivers and automobile owners globally -- yet -- hybrid cars and trucks are the stopgap at this point in time.

So, while Toyota's marketing muscle behind the Prius has been ultra-successful, it's been odd to not see that much in terms of hybrid advertising and marketing from the Japanese automaker's two domestic rivals -- Honda and Nissan. In what could be seen as a major announcement this week, Honda Motor said that it's working on releasing a version of the Civic with the "GX" trim line nomenclature that will run on natural gas. Going one step further, Honda is also working on the "FCX" version of the Civic that will run on a hydrogen fuel cell.

Whether or not one or both of these products will actually make it to market is unknown, but Honda also stated in releasing the new Civic information that it wants to be the world's cleanest, most efficient manufacturer. That's a tall order indeed. Honda also gave information on how to solve the supply problem for the hydrogen needs that would required for its fuel cells.

How about individual refueling stations that provide heat and electricity for the home in addition to hydrogen for all those new fuel cell-powered vehicles? With Honda having reduced C02 emissions from its factories by 5 percent from 2000 to 2005, it wants to achieve another 5 percent from 2005 to 2010 -- and we're more than halfway through that period now.

There you have it -- you could have picked almost any alternative/green energy stock from this list and would have done quite well compared to the coal lumps referenced previously. How did you do with your green investments this year?

Check out the Top 5 Investments of 2007

You lost money this year

Finally, we have that old green stalwart, General Electric. GE, which stepped up to the plate in 2007 with so many green press releases and initiatives it's hard to count them all, saw its shares start the year at $38.00 per share.

Today, GE stock trades at $37.11 -- a tiny drop from this past January. GE stock only made it to $42 in 2007, despite the company's plethora of green announcements from CEO Jeff Immelt stretching all the way back to 2005.

The company makes eco-products like windmill turbines, water filters and even nuclear reactors. Investors, so far in 2007, seem to have cared less about the hype and want to see sustainable and growing results from GE's green actions.

GE may be all green when it comes to the mainstream media, so it's too bad that it's returns in 2007 were not green but a non-desirable red instead.

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No return at all

Next, we look at ZAP (Zero Air Pollution). This company produces one of the only commercially available 100% electric vehicle lines in the U.S., but its stock just doesn't get the bad luster off its sheen.

ZAP started the year at $.89 per share (it trades on the OTC boards), and right now stands at ... $0.89. In other words, no growth at all, even with some peaks of $1.41 per share during 2007.

ZAP makes an impressive array of green transportation products and struck some neat partnerships this year, but also produces quite a few vaporware press releases along with it -- which does not impress investors apparently.

In this case, you could have socked away a wallet in a safe deposit box for the year and came out equal. That is, no gain but no loss either.

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A slightly positive return

So, here we go. Want to see which companies just didn't deliver this year? We'll start off with a heavy-hitter: Wal-Mart.

The world's largest retailer continued switching its nationwide trucking fleet to gasoline alternatives, installed automatic timers on refrigerated grocery cases to save energy, required vendors to reduce plastic packaging and use small packages and planned two prototype green stores partially powered by solar energy.

Despite all that effort (and good publicity), Wal-Mart shares started the year off at roughly $46.01 ... and stand today at $47.86. That's barely a return at all -- you could have done better in the real estate market in some areas of the country. Well, except for Florida or California, anyway.

A 12-month CD down at your local bank would have gotten you more for your investment money, but only by a percent or so above Wal-Mart's 3.9% return in 2007.

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There have been many companies with large and green ambitions in the recent past, like General Electric and Google. Google, with its $10+ billion cash hoard, has what is considered to be the corporate world's largest solar array, generating in excess of 1.6 megawatts of electricity throughout its Bay Area campus buildings.

But, some other tech titans want to get in on the green action as well. On that note, the world's largest PC maker -- Hewlett-Packard -- has announced its intention to build a 1-megawatt solar array on its San Diego campus in an effort to do its share of conserving electricity generated through traditional means and take advantage of free sunlight for some of its power needs.

HP has been a darling of Wall Street this year as it smashed sales and profit targets and trounced competitor Dell in the consumer retail PC marketplace. Topping off a tremendous year is this renewable energy commitment, which will make many other Fortune 500 companies most jealous.

The details? A company called SunPower will install and operate the solar panels, and HP will buy the electricity under an energy consumption contract. Financially speaking, the PC maker will save three-quarters of a million over 15 years while decreasing its carbon dioxide output by one million pounds per year. Impressive. If you're considering investing in HP, it's not only the company's financials that should get your attention, but its burgeoning commitment to renewable power sources.

If you're looking to put some of your hard-earned money into a company that is trying to do right by the environment, the choices are a tad slim considering the sheer number of public companies available today.

The good news is that the top two discount retailers in the U.S. -- Wal-Mart and Target -- are indeed making headway in reducing environmental impacts while conserving energy and ensuring recapture of certain materials is a priority.

Wal-Mart instituted a program this year that requires vendors to make packaging smaller (way smaller) for certain items as an introduction to reducing the amount of waste customers will see when tossing those impossible-to-open gadget clamshells.