Who We Are > Cleantech Defined
Clean is more than green. Clean technology, or "cleantech", should not be confused with the terms environmental technology or "green tech" popularized in the 1970's and 80's. Cleantech is new technology and related business models offering competitive returns for investors and customers while providing solutions to global challenges. Where greentech, or envirotech, represents the highly regulatory driven, "end-of-pipe" technology of the past with limited opportunity for attractive returns, cleantech is driven by market economics therefore offering greater financial upside and sustainability.
The concept of cleantech embraces a diverse range of products, services, and processes across industry verticals that are inherently designed to,
• Provide superior performance at lower costs
• Greatly reduce or eliminate negative ecological impact
• Improve the productive and responsible use of natural resources
Cleantech spans many industry verticals and is defined by the following eleven segments,
• Energy Generation
• Energy Storage
• Energy Infrastructure
• Energy Efficiency
• Transportation
• Water & Wastewater
• Air & Environment
• Materials
• Manufacturing/Industrial
• Agriculture
• Recycling & Waste
Establishing what is a cleantech company and deal
Determining what is cleantech isn't always easy. CN researchers established and continue to refine criteria which are applied to the technology to ensure consistent reporting of the data for the North American, European, Israeli, and Chinese markets. This criteria has been applied to all North American venture deals done from 1999 and European and Israeli deals since 2003 and North American, ...