Gallagher Group Communications

The stench of your local landfill is about to become the smell of sweet success.  One of the most important sources of alternative energy is piled high in the millions of tons of organic and inorganic garbage being dumped into landfills year after year.  Cleantech start up Sierra Energy has figured out how to convert municipal solid waste and biomass—as well as the abundant reserves of coal and oil-shale -- into zero-emission, high-quality synthesis gas that can be used to produce cost-effective alternative energy and transportation fuels.

How?  The company is commercializing a breakthrough technology that is converting traditional iron-making blast furnaces into “thermal gasifiers.”

Sierra Energy's patented FASTOX™ (Flexible Accelerated Steam/Oxygen Injection) process turns an existing blast furnace into a massively scalable gasifier of multiple feedstocks.  FASTOX can profitably convert a wide variety of problematic wastes into a clean and high-energy synthesis gas which can then be used to produce energy and transportation fuels.

While there is constant chatter about “emerging” clean technologies that are going to change the world’s carbon footprint or redefine our approach to energy efficiency, precious few have made their way to market as commercially available products.  

An exception to this is “dynamic glass” technology that is forecast to reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings by a whopping 28 percent.  To put this in context, that’s an energy reduction to the tune of 5 – 8 quads per year — a single quad being equivalent to 8 billion gallons of gas, 293 billion kWh, 36 million tons of coal, or 970 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

So what is dynamic glass?  To throw out a fancy technical term, it’s electrochromic glass. Translation: electronically tintable glass utilizing a breakthrough glazing technology that regulates sunlight while managing heat gain.  This has a dramatic impact on reducing heating, cooling and lighting costs.  It’s a deceptively simple sounding technology that actually has had a long development history.  Why?  Because it’s a very complex combination of semiconductor, materials science, glazing and glass technologies that, for nearly 30 years, have proven extraordinarily difficult to perfect, especially in large format windows that are required by commercial buildings who have the dubious honor of being among the world’s biggest energy gluttons.

Leading the charge in dynamic glass is SAGE Electrochromics, Inc., which today announced that its SageGlass® product is being deployed at the new Community Student Service Center at Chabot College in Hayward, Calif. This is an amazing facility featuring complimentary sustainability technologies designed to achieve aggressive energy efficiency levels.  To appreciate the aesthetic and functional beauty of SageGlass just take a look at how these dynamically tintable windows work.

In an industry rife with overpromising and under-delivering, it’s refreshing to work with a company that prides itself on bringing a commercially viable product to market only when it performs as advertised.  In view of this, it’s no surprise that SAGE has been offered a $72 million loan guarantee by the U.S. Department of Energy.  When you couple this with the $31 million Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit the company was awarded earlier this year, SAGE has secured in excess of $100 million in federal funding.  Armed with this war chest, SAGE is now in a commanding position to provide large scale manufacturing of its dynamically tintable SageGlass product.

Yesterday, our client Contour Energy Systems (formerly CFx Battery) made its long awaited emergence from stealth mode to shed light on its highly anticipated breakthrough advancements in new fluorine-based battery chemistries, nanomaterials science and manufacturing processes.  Our value proposition tagline for the company, “Reshaping Portable Power,” sets the bar high for the battery industry writ large, and with good reason.

With a Nobel Laureate co-founder, a management team that reads like a battery industry “Who’s Who” and ties to CalTech and CNRS, the French National Center for Scientific Research, Contour eschews incremental improvements to advanced and next-generation primary and rechargeable batteries.  With more than 60 patented and patent-pending technologies in its IP portfolio, Contour’s innovative technology will achieve unprecedented levels of performance with higher power and energy densities, extended service life, and uninterrupted operation under extreme temperature conditions.

This has gotten the attention of NASA which has awarded Contour two technology transfer contracts.  The first engages Contour to develop high-energy primary batteries that can perform under wide temperature ranges for manned space missions.  Potential commercial applications include advanced primary lithium carbon fluoride battery systems that can be used for exploratory missions and power to support outposts and habitats.  

NASA is also engaging Contour to fabricate a new class of electrodes fabricated from nanostructures to improve the electrochemical performance compared to traditional electrodes.  Translation?  By achieving this goal, Contour will be positioned to address critical NASA applications that can take advantage of innovative rechargeable cell chemistries and advanced electrode materials to serve as power sources for Landers, Rovers and extravehicular activities.

Summing up what makes Contour different in a battery industry that is likely to see consolidation and/or some shake out in the foreseeable future, Frost & Sullivan analyst Sara Bradford observed “Contour Energy’s focus on and expertise in fluorine electrochemistry really distinguishes the company from other battery companies.”

We recently met with a prospective new client whose motivation to look for a replacement agency stemmed from the fact that they hadn’t heard from the principals of the company in literally months.  After sending in the “A” team to secure the business, the senior members left the client in the hands of an account executive who—after spending over a year on the account—evidently had no clue about the client’s underlying technology, let alone the ability to convincingly advocate the value proposition in a way that mattered to the media and analyst communities. Sound familiar?

Bait and switch practices are hardly new and PR agencies are not alone.  The service industry at large is often guilty of this approach in an effort to maximize margins, especially if a client’s budget is perceived to be too small.  It’s a slippery slope because hand-in-hand with this model goes the strategy of loading up junior resources with three, four or even five accounts, which often have no synergy between them.  This typically means that your point PR person—your voice to critical external constituencies—provides little or no value at the point of contact.  This is one of the reasons why many journalists scorn PR folks.

In an economy as tumultuous as this, we’re seeing tried and true business practices go completely sideways, if not upside-down.

See if this scenario rings a bell.  For years, startups have followed a formulaic approach with their go-to-market strategies.  Craft a well articulated business plan supporting an innovative technology and shop it to the venture capital community to secure a significant round of Series-A funding to support product development, sales and marketing.  Flush with $5-10 million in freshly minted capital, stealth companies could then focus on marketing, hire a veteran PR firm to amplify market presence and signal long term strength, resiliency and valuation—ultimately accelerating sales.

Those days seem to be over and done with.  What hasn’t changed is that pre-launch startups—be they “Cleantech,” “Green” or “IT” concerns— continue to find themselves trolling from venture firm to venture firm, often making three or four presentations per VC as part of the due diligence torture test.  But in this economy, many companies have reached a boiling point of frustration, especially in the Cleantech community where more often than not the VCs they are pitching have little or no direct experience in the energy industry whatsoever.

Energy efficiency. Going green. Sustainability. Are these corporate feel-good buzzwords ready to make the leap from platitudes to profits? At the risk of trotting out a few more “PR-isms,” we are indeed at a tipping point, being fueled by a perfect storm of key business drivers. But in order for emerging companies to cash in on fast moving market developments, they are going to need the sphere of influence and market education reach provided by PR and marketing professionals.

So what are the key market drivers in alignment for this Cleantech perfect storm?  First, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) that has already passed the House and is now a bill standing before the Senate.  If you buy the fundamental premise, this will be a major catapult that will create nearly two million jobs when coupled with the economic stimulus package passed by Congress this past winter.  And if you want to look through blue-sky lenses, MIT has projected that passage of the ACES has the potential to triple the GDP by 2050.

Published by the Cleantech Group
March 23, 2009

Two years ago, business plans with the concepts of 'green' and 'solar' were generating as much buzz as the dot.com glory days. How quickly things change.

Even with a pro-Cleantech Obama administration, innovators in the renewable energy and green IT sectors have their work cut out for them. Aside from the swarm of companies striving for viability and leadership, there is the withering effect of the economy that is forcing organizations—notably startups and early-stage companies—to tighten belts to the extreme. The question on the table is: “What part of a company budget is expendable?”

All too often, the first and most significant casualties are marketing and PR. Regrettably, that is a strategic blunder.

Why? As a marketing tool, PR represents the best return on investment for companies of all sizes. In fact, early-stage companies that mature into dominant players share something in common: an ongoing commitment to strategic marketing and PR services that are vital to gaining and sustaining industry recognition, differentiation and market validation. This is especially true for companies that strive to capitalize on tough economic times, instead of just enduring them.

A dirty little secret of the “smart building revolution” is that commercial buildings start bleeding energy as soon as they are commissioned...from day one.  The impact of this energy drift is profound: “energy drift” can reach 17 percent within 18 months.  At $2.00 per square foot, commercial building annual energy spending is way above what it needs to be—often over $100k/year in energy bills.

On June 29, Scientific Conservation Inc., (SCI) emerged from stealth mode to do something about this enormous problem, which constitutes a $5 billion market opportunity for energy efficiency diagnostics.

Founded by veteran energy industry visionaries, SCI automatically performs all of the heavy lifting involved in predicting, detecting, diagnosing, prioritizing and monetizing system faults and anomalies, which can quickly “turn green buildings grey” due to unforeseen sources of “energy leakage.”  Early customers include Neiman Marcus and Santa Clara County, Calif.

At Santa Clara County, for example, SCI was instrumental in providing $126,000 in energy savings a year.  On top of this, they received a $93,000 PG&E rebate with another $20,000 expected shortly.  And this is for a single building—the County has over 250 facilities plus over 700 other structures comprising nearly nine million square feet.

“Energy efficiency” has become the new mantra in this greening economy. But who is the biggest culprit when it comes to energy consumption? In what seems like the blink of an eye, data centers are now among the leading “energy guzzlers.”

We're at a tipping point of unparalleled dimensions with respect to data center energy consumption: In 2006 data centers consumed $7.4 Billion in electricity (61.4B kWh) annually, and according to the EPA this will double by 2011—and every five years thereafter—leapfrogging the auto, metals, chemical and petroleum industries. In the U.S. 120 billion gallons of water are required to cool these power-hungry data centers each year, according to the National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL). And in California—a state with historical water shortage issues—the hydro-electric draw is 3x the national average.

Having worked in the high-tech PR field for over 25 years, one develops a keen appreciation for how valuable good communicators are—especially when it comes to market education for difficult-to-understand technologies.  The fact is, it’s an art to explain to mere mortals the intricacies and business significance of various technologies ranging from WAN optimization, network access control, centralized storage caching or Gigabit Ethernet switch fabrics.

And we’re finding it’s no different with Cleantech clients.  Case in point: GGC just launched a revolutionary data center cooling solutions provider, Core4 Systems, to great fanfare.  The big challenge was finding a way to make a seemingly arcane set of “plumbing” technologies compelling and of vital importance.

While Core4’s value proposition is awfully compelling—with claims of 72 percent energy savings and 28 percent water usage savings for data center cooling—those metrics require some seriously heavy lifting when it comes to crafting proof points and talking points.  I invite you to read our Core4 press release and then examine the media coverage.  See a great deal of overlap?  That’s called message control.  And it’s a cornerstone of GGC’s approach to positioning its clients as credible market experts.