By David DeFranza
Washington, DC, USA
//Part of Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill is targeted at new “clean tech” industries, many now located in California. The idea behind clean tech is simple: improve the efficiency of information-based businesses, while at the same time reducing their consumption and pollution. These businesses, it is thought, can lead the way towards eco-minded industry and, with the help of the government, create jobs and begin the economic recovery process. But what companies are considered clean tech and what are they doing to help the environmental and economic situations?
Finding out who these companies are is easy. Many of the 100 representatives in attendance at a recent White House meeting to discuss clean tech came from the Information Technology Industry Council. This includes companies like Adobe, Microsoft, eBay, and more.
What they do is a bit more complicated. At the moment, these companies are focused building jobs and converting shuttered factories into new, active, business spaces. In addition to this, companies are investing, both time and money, in clean energy. The hope is that they will eventually power their business on renewables but also that their research and development efforts will yield new technologies that will help businesses and individuals across the country.
