Best green businesses to start

Rich

I am no expert on the best green businesses to start today. But I want to be. Can anyone here start listing out what they believe are hot businesses to start up that have green written all over them?

sdlewis

I not sure what is hot to others but I know what I am excited about.My business will focus on dealing with the ever increasing e-waste stream by reusing, remarketing and  properly disposing of  electronic trash.
sdlewis2007-6-26 23:54:18

rossb

First let me say that I totally believe that we need to do what we can to be wise with our resources and be conscious of how our actions affect the world at large regarding renewable resources and pollution...Having said that, I believe there are a number of "green" initiatives out there that may actually do more harm than good.  Ethanol is a great case in point.  I have yet to make a personal determination about ethanol but I think it is unwise to blindly assume it`s the answer to all our fuel problems just because there is so much noise saying it is.  I acknowledge the apparent benefits, but have the proponents truly given the potential negatives any consideration.  Here`s just a couple links that bring up questions:Wikipedia - Ethonal Fuel  - Wikipedia seems to be fairly balanced noting the benefits but also noting that the manufacture of ethanol is more polluting than previously disclosed...Ethanol`s Growing List of Enemies - An interesting article on businessweek.com Please don`t assume I am anti-green because that`s the furthest from the truth.  I`m just tired of all the knee-jerk reactions these days without any honest consideration for both sides of an issue.  I believe that we can be responsible and take care of the planet and everything so long as we are all willing to consider that maybe, just maybe, we`ve missed something and should at least give serious and honest regard to the another viewpoint.Then of course there are times when the each argument has it`s merits and the final determination is 6 of one, half dozen of the other.  You just have to make your pick and hope your side wins, but don`t be angry if you loose, acknowledge the other side and continue to try and convince them your view is best.  Just be civil about it...R-

thrgreendgagon

If we put all the available farm land into growing corn (or other crops) to produce ehtanol, it still wouldn`t make much of a dent in what is needed to replace fossil fuels.  And what energy would we use to produce the ethanol?  What would we do with the waste from its production.
We CAN produce all the hydrogen needed to power this entire planet using existing,replenishing, totally "green" resourses and clean up the poluted enviroment in five years!
Mike 

rossb

If we put all the available farm land into growing corn (or other crops) to produce ehtanol, it still wouldn`t make much of a dent in what is needed to replace fossil fuels.  And what energy would we use to produce the ethanol?  What would we do with the waste from its production.
We CAN produce all the hydrogen needed to power this entire planet using existing,replenishing, totally "green" resourses and clean up the poluted enviroment in five years!
MikeIf this be true, what`s the holdup?R-

thrgreendgagon

My holdup is the $250,00 needed to build a prototype to "prove" to the DOE that will work!  Then they would approve and fund a test to verify it works.
I don`t know what roadblocks the oil industury might create.  Every time someone talks about installing the "Hydrogen Highyay", the subjest quickly goes away.
Mike

rossb

Mike -You might find this interesting:  GM Hy-WireR-

sdlewis

Taking all the wonderful discussions and very  passionate opinions into consideration, what are the..."Best Green businesses to start"? 

sdlewis

I have read a lot about recycling clothes. Reusing the fiber used to make clothing could be an area of focus.What do you all think?

thrgreendgagon

Ross,
Thanks, I already knew about that. Like he said "years away and BIG bucks"  Mercades has an internal combustion engine car running on Hydrogen.  Most people can`t get past the concept that massive amounts of Hydrogen can be produced NOW, using only available natural resources!
Mike

rossb

Chet -The first questions would be "for what use?"  From where would it be imported?  What kind of governmental reg`s and importation fees would be incurred?  Are they so high that the costs involved outweigh the benefits?R-

rossb

Chet -I love your passion and you`re obviously serious enough to have done your homework on this subject.   But I`ve got to tell ya... you just gave me way too much information in such a short amount of time.Any chance you can summarize with some major bullet points, keeping the supporting data to a bare minimum unless it`s essential to the discussion?  If the other entrepreneurs on this forum are even remotely like me, they love a great discussion, but need to keep it to bite sized portions!Now, to your question:Is it really better to promote renewable resources if in order to use
them fossil fuels are being burned at alarmingly inefficient methods?My answer would be of course not, it doesn`t make any sense to promote something if, in the end, you are creating more of the very problem than you are trying to address.Having said that, the measures necessary to make that determination will need to be as close to indisputable as possible because there will likely be someone on the loosing side who cries foul!  Of course this could be an entirely separate discussion, couldn`t it?Do you have other "green" aspirations or is this one keeping you busy enough?Also - are there multiple forms of hemp?  In other words, is there a type that can be grown that doesn`t get you high when you smoke it?R-
rossb2007-7-6 21:5:25

rossb

My assumption being that the "high" issue is the major concern, and if there is a variety that doesn`t get you high, what`s the problem?R-

sdlewis

chetI appreciate the depth of your post and I agree that Hemp should be utilized as a crop plant for so many reasons.  

sdlewis

rossb I think the problem lies in many areas. One is probably the emergence of petroleum based products, i.e. nylon rope.Also I think that Hemp is not a panacea to our challenges in the U.S. but one more tool to overcome them. We are already seeing a negative effect of corn based ethanol by our beef and poultry prices going up due to the competition between feed corn and ethanol corn.

rossb

Steven -Did I read Chet`s post wrong?  I thought he said it was currently illegal to grow hemp in the US...  that was where my "what`s the problem" questions lies.But even if I misread and it`s not illegal, I still have to ask, what`s the problem?  Petro products not withstanding... if it really holds as much potential as Chet makes it sound like it does, then I have a hard time believing there isn`t an opportunity for someone who has the knowledge and passion to make it happen.There must be some other reason it hasn`t happened yet.  And if there`s not, then get on it and as the SuN motto goes "Start it up!"R-