By Ronny Bell

Let’s just get this out in the open. I’m no expert. I started one business, ran it well, and was lucky enough to sell it and make some money. With that said, I made so many mistakes that it sometimes makes me laugh.  

Mistakes, though sometimes costly, are the necessary evil to a successful business. Actually, I’ve always said that a successful business is one that could make mistakes, because if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger. Of course too many mistakes and you’re dead in the water. It is a fine line. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying go out and do it wrong. No, what I’m saying is that when it’s done wrong, embrace it, learn from it, and most importantly, if it is something you could communicate with your customers without undermining their confidence, share it.  

At Pioneer Organics, the business I founded, our customers trusted us with the task of selecting the finest produce and groceries available. Occasionally, as is the case with produce, it may look and smell good in the warehouse, but after a day or two in the home it turns to mold. Sometimes, rather then wait for the avalanche of customer complaints to come in, we chose to proactively contact our customers and let them know that we dropped the ball and we would credit them whether the item in question turned bad or not. 

What we did was take a problem, and turned it into an opportunity to share in our willingness to stand behind our products.  More often then not when we sent out one of those emails discussing our error, our customers would say how refreshing it is to hear a company admit they made a mistake. Rather than looking weak, this communication, in the eyes of our customers, made us look strong and confident that we could learn from our errors and make it right the next time.

Lucky for us there was always another mistake in the not too distant future that we could learn from. Success sometimes isn’t what you have done right, but rather how you handle what was done wrong. 

Ronny Bell founded Pioneer Organics, the nation’s largest home delivery service of organic produce and natural groceries. He recently sold the company, and since then he’s been consulting with businesses in the environmental space while keeping open to any new ventures that may come his way. Originally from Long Island, he relocated to Seattle in 1996. He lives with is girlfriend and their two dogs.

Check out Yale’s FREE iTunes downloads. Once you get there click on, “Yale Environment”. There are some helpful and interesting discussions like: “Business and Environment”: Trends and Challenges, or the equally informative, “Green to Gold”: The Current Environmental Revolutions.

HomeSavvi.com is a new and local start-up. Bootstrapped to date with friends and family cash, and poised to take advantage of the wave of existing-building, energy retrofits soon to strike land.

Serious Materials, a “similar-yet-different” site that takes on the materials used in green new-construction and retrofits. It is equally well positioned to capitalize on the green building trend.

One more to trade on and to illuminate… VU1 is a start-up that is creating a new, super-efficient light bulb. Check them out, and buy some shares if you’d like. They are pre-revenues, but publicly traded on the Over-The-Counter market (OTC). New regulation has set efficiency standards for incandescent light bulbs to be 30% more efficient starting in 2012. Today compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are being pushed by utilities and are 75% more efficient, but with a host of problems from flickering to delayed lighting and bad dimming technology. VU1 has created a bulb that is equally efficient as a CFL, but functions the same in every way as an incandescent bulb, without the toxic mercury found in CFL bulbs.

Look for more to come…

Aaron Fairchild is a local entrepreneur working in residential energy efficiency on several fronts. He manages to juggle working with GreenWorks Realty and several CruxVentures contracts while holding a full time job in the residential energy efficiency group at Puget Sound Energy. In addition to writing for and promoting nPostGreen, Aaron volunteers with several organizations and enjoys being in mountain spaces with his wife and new baby girl.

Last week was an amazing week in the financial markets by any standard. As I rode the train from Portland, OR with a local energy angel investor, we checked market up-dates on our cell phones and talked in-between throughout the entire ride. The nut of it: he was feeling poorer every day and likely to invest less and scrutinize more, I agreed.

Since then I’ve talked to a handful of investors and entrepreneurs that are looking to start funds or are continuing to ramp up companies in the green and energy conservation space. I had similar discussions last week with the CEO of one local green bank that is flush with capital, and is still combing the area in search of good sustainable investments. The market is sending mixed messages…

The current market environment is anything but clear and will take time to settle down. A recession is likely heading our way, but good ideas with good management teams will prevail. Venture capital must still invest, and renewable / sustainable early stage companies are good bets considering that energy and natural resources are core issues at the heart of our nation’s economic concerns.

If you are an entrepreneur that isn’t fully capitalized hold-on if you can. After the election, with more certainty in the markets, capital will begin flowing toward the solutions that renewable and sustainable companies provide. Deregulation is taking a hit, which may mean that government will be more open to regulatory initiatives that help green markets, such as cap and trade. Unfortunately, big investment banks will be using hundreds of billions of government capital that could have been put to work stimulating the renewable and sustainable markets that will have a more positive outcome for generations to come.

Aaron Fairchild is a local entrepreneur working in residential energy efficiency on several fronts. He manages to juggle working with GreenWorks Realty and several CruxVentures contracts while holding a full time job in the residential energy efficiency group at Puget Sound Energy. In addition to writing for and promoting nPostGreen, Aaron volunteers with several organizations and enjoys being in mountain spaces with his wife and new baby girl.

Green technologies in existing / new building energy conservation and generation are on the cusp of a Vesuvius sized eruption. I’m currently sitting on Mayor Nickel’s Green Building Task Force as well as Built Green’s energy audit task force. The Mayor’s Task Force was created to review and give informed policy recommendations designed to achieve at least 20% greater energy efficiency in existing and new buildings by the year 2020. Built Green is looking to enhance their existing retrofit checklist in anticipation of the market ahead. Earth Advantage in Portland is rolling out a home energy and carbon audit with the pilot of their Energy Performance Score (EPS). Governor Gregoire has similar teams dedicated to exploring and recommending thoughtful policies designed to enhance solutions for our climate and energy challenges.

The vibe in these groups is energized with the hope that policy will help carve out markets and create jobs in the green building / retrofit, green tech, and renewable / sustainable sectors. If these policy recommendations become regulation, and if you are in working in these fields, hold on for an electric ride, it’s going be exciting. Washington and Seattle aren’t the only locations in the nation to be considering such regulation, so don’t worry if you don’t live in Washington. Energy conservation is proliferating policy agendas nation wide.

Aaron Fairchild is a local entrepreneur working in residential energy efficiency on several fronts. He manages to juggle working with GreenWorks Realty and several CruxVentures contracts while holding a full time job in the residential energy efficiency group at Puget Sound Energy. In addition to writing for and promoting nPostGreen, Aaron volunteers with several organizations and enjoys being in mountain spaces with his wife and new baby girl.

A while ago I read on Grist.org an article opposed to biodiesel. The quote that really got to me was, “…biodiesel from food oils like soybean or palm oil have traditionally created environmental negatives, they are unscalable and likely to be fundamentally uneconomic.” This caught my eye because you hear similar arguments coming out of the right wing when they talk about opening up areas currently closed for oil drilling. Grist? go figure…

Biodiesel has traditionally NOT created environmental negatives. When food for fuel was done on a smaller scale it was sustainable. To rephrase that in the present: when food for fuel is done on a small scale it can be sustainable. Biodiesel created from food, for mass consumption was a first generation approach, and is a stepping stone to second generation solutions that do not use food as a source for fuel. There are many examples of non-food and sustainable sources of bio-fuels: switch-grass and other non-food fibers such as algae (massive carbon sink bonus), industrial and production waste oil re-constitution as feedstock for bio-fuels, and food-for-fuel on a small-scale, with high-output, biodiesel refineries, designed for local villages and municipalities using local feedstock.

However, biodiesel is unscalable to the degree that is can replace non-renewable fuels entirely. As outlined in the “End of Oil” and the “Winning the Oil Endgame” we are moving toward a latticework of fuel sources, where no one solution fills our needs. Once fuel-cell technology moves away from precious metals and becomes a viable solution it will also help provide another non-carbon emitting solution. There is also electric vehicles, mass transit, biking, walking, telecommuting, Carbon Capture and Storage coupled with coal electric generation, etc… These are all potential solutions that the government should be spending billions of dollars on, but it isn’t doing that just yet.

However, hold tight, massive government funding is coming and don’t buy into the non-subsidy, right wing frame. Embrace subsidies and regulation as applied to non-fossil solutions for conserving energy. Waiting for markets to react create unnecessary pain on the consumer which has a negative impact on the over-all economy, the security of our nation, and postpones solutions that are needed today.

Smart entrepreneurs will be looking to provide one of the many solutions to our energy needs… there is no one silver bullet or panacea. We are moving away from fossil fuels as the sole source, to a multitude of solutions that combined have the ability for national scale, and can individually provide double digit returns.

Aaron Fairchild is a local entrepreneur working in residential energy efficiency on several fronts. He manages to juggle working with GreenWorks Realty and several CruxVentures contracts while holding a full time job in the residential energy efficiency group at Puget Sound Energy. In addition to writing for and promoting nPostGreen, Aaron volunteers with several organizations and enjoys being in mountain spaces with his wife and new baby girl.

I thought I would take this first blog to briefly lay out key trends that will impact green enterprises. One such trend that is going to have a great impact on the green sector is the current economic downturn. This threatens most businesses throughout the economy, but less mature sectors, such as green technology and services companies, will suffer more because they depend heavily on angel and institutional investment capital to exist and survive.

As the national economic environment continues to deteriorate consumers don’t spend, lenders don’t lend, politicians in a campaign year point fingers and become risk adverse, and all of this tends to keep capital out of the marketplace. As the above picture continues to develop, investors consider more patient and reliable returns. Pre-revenue and early stage companies are far less enticing especially in immature sectors such as the green sector at large. A campaign year ensures pontification but thoughtful legislation designed to stimulate burgeoning sectors will NOT be enacted. Upon consideration the scenario feels bleak, but there is a silver lining!

All of the economic headwinds only push back the head of steam which continues to build. With the wars in Iraq and Georgia being fought with eyes on oil supplies and routes, the argument tying national security to renewables and conservation looms large. This argument gains validity every time a consumer frets over the price at the pump. After the election and the dust settles there will be a consumer, economic and national security outcry for conservation, and renewable, national fuel sources. The outcry has already begun, but it has yet to reach a crescendo that elicits recognition and action. Cites such as Seattle and Portland are considering legislation designed to entrench the green business sector as a means to create jobs and stimulate the economy while touting good stewardship of the planet. Saving our environment, not just jobs and the economy at large, is the cherry on the top and humans can be the beneficiaries of healthy markets, skies, and rivers. When surveying the horizon I can only draw one conclusion, if you are an entrepreneur in the green business sector your in the right place assuming you can weather through the current cycle well into Q3, 2009.

Once the political dust settles and markets have a chance to regroup from the current downturn, one obvious place investors and politicians will be looking, is the direction of clean energy, technology and service companies that tout green collar jobs, energy independence, and environmentally friendly business practices. Look to conservation applications in consumer electronics, residential and commercial real estate and transportation to lead the way. Renewable energy sources are important too, but a lot has already begun in that arena and project financing for major megawatt initiatives is already in place or identified. New capital will be looking for the crafty garage group that finds conservation solutions where others have not thought possible. Conservation measures routinely pencil in the positive NPV zone so begin now to position your green company as providing conservation solutions to our energy, national security, and environmental issues.

Aaron Fairchild is a local entrepreneur working in residential energy efficiency on several fronts. He manages to juggle working with GreenWorks Realty and several CruxVentures contracts while holding a full time job in the residential energy efficiency group at Puget Sound Energy. In addition to writing for and promoting nPostGreen, Aaron volunteers with several organizations and enjoys being in mountain spaces with his wife and new baby girl.