Money

The 'Queen of Green' sets eyes on China

By Lara Farrar (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-25 07:50

In 1995, Morgan Stanley published "The Internet Report," a groundbreaking study that became known as a Bible for investors during the dot-com revolution in the United States.

Fifteen years later, China Greentech Initiative has produced a similar report. However, instead of focusing on the future of the web in the West, it centers on the potential of green technology in China. It is called the China Greentech Report.

"China is going to be one of the most important green tech markets in the future," said China's "Queen of Green", Ellen Carberry, co-manager of the China Greentech Initiative, a Beijing-based group made up of more than 80 companies and organizations with interests in the environmental sector.

"People are ready to dive in, but they have to figure out where to go and what to do," she said.

In 2002, while working for IBM, Carberry moved to Beijing. Several years later, she left the company to help Red Hat, an open source software provider, set up its business operations here. Her latest venture is the China Greentech Initiative, producer of the groundbreaking report.

Carberry said she sensed that one day green technologies would be one of the biggest business opportunities, since, well, the Internet. It turns out she was right.

And she was also right in her feeling that China is where a cheap, clean tech industry would emerge.

"The urgency is here," said Carberry, who is also a partner with Hao Capital, a private equity firm in Beijing.

"Because the needs are great and because the government is clear about moving forward the agenda around the policy environment that will create these markets."

Last year, China became the world's largest producer of wind turbines. In the past two years, the country has become the biggest producer of solar panels.

The situation with green solutions in China today is similar to the intangible potential of the Internet in America in the 90s.

Widely quoted by media and environmental blogs, and used by Chinese and foreign companies for understanding China's burgeoning clean ecosystem, the document projects a $500 billion to $1 trillion market for green tech in China annually.

Yet even with this explosive growth, it is still challenging for companies to figure out how to enter China's green technology market. Government regulations can be tricky, the business possibilities opaque, industry sectors expansive and technology transfers difficult.

No doubt, other similar reports are out there. Yet what makes this one unique is the way it was compiled. More than 80 large companies were recruited by Carberry and her business partner, Randall Hancock, and representatives from the businesses met in numerous working sessions held in Beijing and Shanghai, sharing their knowledge of China's green sectors.

The information collected by Carberry's team was analyzed to form a comprehensive roadmap of the industry.

Carberry calls the process "open source commercial collaboration." Open source refers to an online production model in which numerous parties contribute information to create freely shareable software or other information. The idea is that collective knowledge results in better solutions.

Carberry and her team were invited to showcase the project at the World Economic Forum annual meeting of New Champions held last September in Dalian.