Green Shoots, 8 April 2008
Event report

Thank you to all who came along to The Green Shoots with Jeremy Leggett, the founder and Executive Chairman of Solarcentury and Ashley Seager, the Guardian's Economics Correspondent for what, we hope you all agree, was a very inspirational and thought-provoking conversation.

Companies on the guest list included: Ofsted, TreeHugger, UK Trade & Investment, First Capital , Shell, The Spectator, Bridges Ventures , Heidrick & Struggles New Energy Finance, Smartly Green Ltd, The Climate Group, The Global Sustainability Challenge, walkit.com, Close Ventures, Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd, Cape Verde Capital, Clean Capital, DIY Kyto, Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, Edenbee, Venturing Unlimited, The London Development Agency, Moixa Energy, Actics, Natural Collection, Carbon Clear Limited, Arkism, Venture Business Research, We Hang Here, Otodio, Pi Capital, Point Break Partners, Topman, Unchainedguide, Jansa K&L Gates, Flying Buttress, Foxley Consulting Limited, Generation Heat, Greenvoice, Gong Communications, Green Homes Concierge, 123Live, 41 Days, 4ecotips.com and The Green Thing.

You may also be interested in reading Leonora Oppenheim's article on the event on Treehugger.com

The evening was one of a series of events and online conversations that we will be hosting in London, New York and beyond to explore entrepreneurial trends, successes and opportunities in the sustainable economy. We'd be delighted to hear from you if you have any feedback on the event, suggestions for future events or if you'd like to be involved in our future programme of events.

Please see our clips of the evening which we know will be of interest: 

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Q&A Part 1:

Q&A Part 2:

 

about the event

Entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett, described by Time Magazine as, one of the key players in putting climate change on the world agenda, joined The Guardian’s Ashley Seager for a fireside chat.

Jeremy provided insights to his success as an entrepreneur and the challenges and trends in the sustainable economy. He also discussed his current work in climate change and peak oil and the implications and opportunities this has for entrepreneurs and investors.

about Jeremy Leggett

Entrepreneur, Jeremy Leggett , is founder and Executive Chairman of Solarcentury, the UK’s largest solar solutions company and winner of multiple awardas for innovation and sustainability, including the 2006 Sunday Times/Microsoft TechTrack 100 R&D Award. He is also the founder of SolarAid and founding director of the world's first private equity fund for renewable energy, Bank Sarasin's New Energies Invest AG (2000-present) in which Solarcentury have a stake.

Going forward is a pipeline of new and exciting products which have helped in raising funds from venture capital firms including Unotec, Good Energies, Zouk, Foursome in Europe and Vantage Point in Silicon Valley. This capital has helped the company expand into Spain, France, and Italy.

Jeremy was recently appointed a CNN “Principal Voice”, and is described by the Observer as “the UK’s most respected green energy boss.” The Sunday Times said his first book, The Carbon War, was "the best book yet on the politics of global warming," and his second book, Half Gone previews the looming global energy crises, while signposting a safe exit opportunity. The 21st century, he says, must be the solar century.

As an 'aide memoire' to the evening please see attached Jeremys' article on The Economics Of Energy as published by Time and Fortune magazines and sponsored by Shell.  Jeremy is also available for the ocassional indepth corporate briefing which help towards the brilliant research conducted by Solarcentury. Please do get in touch with him on how he can work with you going forward via jeremy.leggett@solarcentury.com

The Economics of Energy
by Jeremy Leggett
617kb PDF

about Ashley Seager

Ashley Seager is The Guardian's Economics Correspondent with a special interest in the economics of, and policy response to, climate change. He has written extensively on renewable energy and has pursued the Labour government constantly for its poor response to the need to reduce carbon emissions and boost renewable energy; exposing how the Low Carbon Buildings Programme was failing and the impact of grant cutbacks renewable energy. Last summer he broke a story showing that DTI officials were quietly telling ministers that Britain had a hopeless record on renewables, had no chance of meeting EU 2020 targets and should work to undermine those targets.

was hosted by

Connecting leaders around the globe is what Heidrick & Struggles does best. Unleashing the creative power of ambition for over fifty years, the elite executive search firm helps the world's most successful companies – from iconic giants to new market disruptors – to build relationships with the world's most talented people. Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Alternative & Renewable Energy Practice focuses on senior-level search in the alternative energy generation, distribution and efficiency sectors, clean tech, carbon and the sustainability and climate change sectors.

 

Heidrick and Struggles are encouraging nominations from the Glasshouse membership for a project which will be launched at Davos 2008 to highlight entrepreneurs and individuals who have created positive social, politican or environmental change. To find out more, click here.

www.heidrick.com

media partner

TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. Partial to a modern aesthetic, we strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information. We also extend our expertise to companies looking for a little green guidance. Past clients include Domino, Sundance Channel and House & Garden.
www.treehugger.com

featured member

Our very first Glasshouse featured member is Simon Daniel, CEO and founder of Moixa and Moixa Energy, who make the award eco-friendly USBCELL rechargeable batteries.

other mentions

Glasshouse is a proud supporter of The Green Thing, a new not-for-profit community that makes it easy and enjoyable to be a bit greener. Every month you'll get a different Green Thing to do. All you have to do is do it! Since launch in October 2007 Green Thing users in 150 countries have saved over 1,500,000Kg of CO2!
www.dothegreenthing.com

Glasshouse India

We are pleased to announce that Glasshouse India will be launched in June in both Mumbai and Bangalore. More details to follow, however if you are interested in getting involved please do contact susan@theglasshouse.net

 

sponsorship opportunities

A series of tiered sponsorship packages are available to businesses and members wishing to support our events. The sponsorship packages benefit from a variety of marketing and communications strategies and offer branding at events and on all event marketing and promotional materials, links to a web site, acknowledgement during event welcome, guest passes, advance guest list information, priority matching with attendees and much more.

For more information about the full range of sponsorship opportunities with The Glasshouse events, please contact:
susan@theglasshouse.net