The Clean Tech Revolution by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder. Collins Business 2008. 314pp

 This is my top pick of green investment books. The authors are respectively co-founder (Pernick) and contributing editor (Wilder) to Clean Edge, the cleantech research and publishing firm, and they know their material inside out. The 2008 paperback edition charts the seismic shift which has recently taken place in global business consciousness and offers a clear, well-written perspective on the prospects for eight major cleantech sectors. The authors note, however, that the road ahead won’t always be smooth, and that there are challenges ahead. “Cleantech’s rising tide won’t necessarily lift all boats; individual technology niches, companies and investors will no doubt see some stormy times”, they say. But the bigger picture is that all eight of these sectors will see growth and expansion. “For the first time in modern history environmental stewardship and economic creation are not separate but intricately linked”, they claim. The eight sectors covered are solar, wind, biofuels, green buildings, personal transport, smart grids, mobile technologies (including fuel cells), and water filtration. Each chapter features short profiles of ten companies worth watching (and these are worldwide, not just US-listed). My main gripe is that in this explosive universe, 80 companies is only just a taster and the profiles are short (check out our Company Directories for more extensive listings and detailed profiles). Overall, this is an insightful book with a wealth of clearly-presented background information and ideas.

Green Investing – A Guide to Making Money through Environment-Friendly Stocks by Jack Uldrich. Adams Media 2008. 266pp.

This concise paperback guide sets out the case for cleantech investment in a short introduction and then plunges straight into the various sectors, with a brief overview followed by 1-2 page write-ups of listed companies in solar, wind, biofuels, energy conservation etc with very clear ‘bull’ and ‘bear’ points for each company. Unfortunately it’s restricted to US and Canadian stocks, and there are big gaps (waste-to-energy, for instance, doesn’t even get a mention) but this is a good snapshot of some of the competing technologies. Uldrich also offers individual investors a timely reminder to do your homework – there’s no shortcut to ‘due diligence’. His company profiles are a good starting point for further research.

Clean Money – Picking Winners in the Green-Tech Boom, by John Rubino. John Wiley 2009. 274pp.

This is the best of the current crop of hardbacks. Global warming is a big problem, requiring big solutions – which is why trillions of dollars are flowing into cleantech, making this “an investment theme with long, long, legs”, says Rubino, who runs the financial website GreenStockInvesting.com. Clearly-written, with enough technical detail to inform the average investor without blinding you with science, it also sets out why the hottest green sectors are also the most complex and risky. There’s some careless proof-reading (EG ‘Frod’ for Ford, ‘Asura’ for Ausra) and coverage is lightweight in some areas (only 6pp on smart grids, for example) but overall this is a very convincing book. Each section contains a brief list of stocks and the final chapters offer advice on how to build your own cleantech portfolio.

Investing in Renewable Energy – Making Money on Green Chip Stocks by Jeff Siegel. Angel Publishing 2008. 257pp

Lead author Jeff Siegel is managing editor of Green Chip Stocks (an investment advisory service which has been running since 2004) so he is very well informed and turns out very readable copy. This substantial hardback leans heavily on peak oil, and even peak uranium, as the rationale for a renewable future and says that “there is little doubt that companies operating within this industry today will ultimately become the dominant players in the overall energy generation and transportation mix of tomorrow...welcome to the greatest investment opportunity of the twenty-first century!”. The main sectors covered are solar, wind, geothermal, marine & tidal, waste-to-energy, and energy efficiency. There’s no mention of hydrogen or fuel cells. There are profiles of a decent smattering of companies, the majority US-listed. A solid, well-referenced work although it lacks any consumer guide on the ‘how to’ of investing.

Profiting from Clean Energy – A complete guide to trading in Solar, Wind, Ethanol, Fuel Cell, Carbon Credit Industries and more, by Richard Asplund. John Wiley 2008. 370pp.

This book starts off with a good overview of the different ways individual investors can get into cleantech (from buying publicly-traded stocks to Exchange-Traded Funds, green Mutual Funds and so forth) and then sets out the background case for growth, including peak oil, government incentives, and rising energy prices. The different chapters then move through solar, wind, fuel cells, geothermal, energy efficiency, smart grids, power storage, clean transport, biofuels, and carbon trading. As you’d expect from an equity analyst, this is a well-researched book and contains mini-snapshots of listed companies on various markets. Asplund concludes that “investors still have plenty of opportunity to get in at the early stages of this transition [to clean energy], which has only just begun. The bulk of the money in this sector has yet to be made”. There will certainly be some bumps along the way, says Asplund, but the clean energy sector has all the earmarks of proving to be one of the best investment trends ever due to the sheer scale of the task in moving from a fossil fuel economy into a sustainable future.

Sustainable Investing – the Art of Long-Term Performance. Ed Cary Krosinsky. Earthscan 2008. 244pp.

With 25 academic and institutional contributors, this hardback is around 125,000 words long with masses of charts, references, and graphs. It’s an excellent, thorough study with some interesting monographs. Although a little heavy-going for the average investor, there’s much wisdom and insight in these diverse contributions. I was particularly taken with Julie Fox Gorte’s chapter on ‘Investors: A Force for Sustainability’ in which she argues that investors are capable of creating change by voting with their money. “Investors have a unique role to play in shifting the engine of commerce into sustainability gear”, she says. “The Sustainability Revolution in investment thinking is underway – the only question is whether it can grow fast enough to avoid the unmanageable consequences of unsustainable operations”, she concludes. In another chapter, Nick Robins echoes this theme: ‘Investment provides the bridge between an unsustainable present and a sustainable future”, he says, “placing finance squarely at the heart of solutions to issues such as climate change and human rights”. This is not some leftie’s plea: Robins is head of HSBC’s climate change centre for excellence. The core of the book can be summed up in a sub-head taken from another chapter – the climate challenge to investing as usual. There’s still a huge distance to be travelled but what we’re seeing is a structural shift and “for sustainable investors, this is a moment of immense opportunity”, say the lead authors. “The scale of the investment transformation ahead demands a new paradigm”, they conclude. “The challenge for sustainable investing is not to become like today’s mainstream but, rather, to replace it”. The book also contains a useful list of resources on sustainable and responsible investing.