Companies Planning to Grow Cleantech Investments Despite Slowdown, Says Ernst and Young Survey
The global economic crisis have led to massive lay offs and drastic budget cuts but one things that’s emerging relatively unscathed is the amount of money companies in the U.S. and abroad are planning to invest in cleantech over the coming years, according to a survey released yesterday by Ernst and Young.
The survey polled 308 executives working across all industry sectors and for companies with revenues raging between $1 billion and over $5 billion.
Two-thirds of the survey’s respondents indicated that investments in cleantech are championed by senior management, and 85 percent reported accelerating their company’s response to climate change issues compared with two years ago.
How does this goodwill translate in hard dollar investments? A majority of respondents said their companies will spend at least $10 million on cleantech investments by 2010; 22 percent predicted their companies would spend at least $100 million.
Now, “cleantech” is a vast umbrella word that can mean a lot of different thing. For some companies it could mean buying carbon offset programs and for others installing PV panels on the rooftop of a factory.
Obviously, companies are also more likely to answer positively on green issues, (it’s good corporate social responsibility/PR). But let’s be fair, at the very least the survey is a reflection of the growing adoption of green-focused policies by global corporation.
Gil Forer, head of Ernst & Young cleantech practice, notes:
The increasing interest and activity of multibillion-dollar companies around the globe underscore the growing market opportunities in cleantech. Making good on those opportunities will likely depend on identifying new partnership models that enable corporations and emerging cleantech companies to meet their own objectives while facilitating the arrival of a low-carbon and resource-efficient economy.
Nearly 55 percent of respondents indicated that recovering from the current crisis would speed the implementation of their company’s cleantech strategy.
