Cement and lumber will never be as sexy as an electric sports car, but there are still plenty of business opportunities in developing innovative materials for the growing green building market. A report published this week by NextGen Research estimates the global green building materials market will grow about 5 percent per year to reach $571 billion by 2013, up from about $455 billion last year. The sweet spots in this growth are cement, engineered wood and insulation products.

“This is the way the market is going,” said Larry Fisher, research director for NextGen. “Increasingly when people are forced to make a choice on which building materials to use, they are going toward the more environmentally responsible approach.”

The study assessed the worldwide outlook for the use of greener building products, which the report defined as those having less of an environmental impact than standard building materials. Fisher said the drivers behind the trend were many: shifting attitudes among builders and consumers, government mandates, and the higher prices that green buildings often fetch on the market. The study didn’t look at the prices for green materials relative to their conventional competitors. But Fisher said he believes the cost savings — from recycling waste materials or using less energy-intensive manufacturing processes — in making greener products will often offset higher costs elsewhere in their production.

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Corporate social responsibility reports are often a company’s beachhead effort on sustainability, and most focus on relatively easy-to-achieve metrics, such as employee volunteerism rates, corporate giving and supplier diversity. Advocates say even this kind of transparency can spur companies to further action. That’s the logic behind the Global Reporting Initiative, which provides a framework for companies to evaluate their own CSR reports. The GRI Framework doesn’t give points for good or bad outcomes, however; companies earn points simply for disclosing information.

Sounds easy, right? Wrong. CSR data is notoriously complex. Putting together a report can mean pulling data from environmental health and safety departments, community and education programs, philanthropic giving records, supply chain partners and operations records. Historically, companies have pulled that data into Excel spreadsheets to create new data sets for CSR reports. But as stakeholders — and shareholders — show more interest in sustainability concerns, companies are beginning to eye more sophisticated software to help them manage and report that data. 

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A draft rule that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled Tuesday about how emissions should be measured has the corn ethanol industry in an uproar, while newer next-generation biofuel startups seem to be more welcoming of the move. The rule calls for the inclusion of emissions from “indirect land use change,” which could include the impact of farmers cutting down trees or switching crops to grow corn for ethanol. The additional emissions would be calculated into a total emissions calculation that would determine whether specific biofuels count toward the renewable fuels standard.

The draft rule was announced the day before a show of support from the Obama administration for both corn and cellulosic ethanol. The administration held a call this morning with reporters to discuss not just the EPA rule but also $786.5 million in stimulus funds that will be allocated for biofuel research and commercialization and a task group called the Biofuels Interagency Working Group that will work on development programs and policies.

The EPA rule is the most controversial of the three. While many biofuel advocates favor an emissions standard, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Tuesday morning cited an estimate that biofuels only reduce emissions by about 16 percent compared with fossil fuels. Other studies put the number closer to 60 percent, said General Wesley Clark — an enthusiastic ethanol proponent and chairman of ethanol trade group Growth Energy — and Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis, during a conference call today. Growth Energy’s board of directors includes corn-ethanol companies POET, Western Plains Energy, Amaizing Energy, Hawkeye Renewables, and Green Plains Renewable Energy.

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Ever since the Wall Street Journal reported last week that IBM was in talks to buy Sun Microsystems for $6.5 billion in cash, the tech media has tried to dissect every potential reason for — and outcome of — such a deal. But little mention has been made as to how it could affect the two companies’ green initiatives. IBM and Sun both have jumped into the green IT fray over the last few years, albeit from different angles. So would a combined company double their efforts in the world of green IT, or halve them?

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In the economic downturn, “green jobs” has become one of the hottest political catchphrases. President Barack Obama has promised 5 million new green jobs as part of his energy and stimulus plans. Here in California, the mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as the governor have made green jobs a priority. And states across the country, from Indiana to Washington, are considering bills to develop more green jobs.

This week as the sold-out Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference kicks off, and Congress sits down to vote on a new, pared-down stimulus package that includes billions for jobs in energy efficiency and clean power, “green jobs” are at the forefront of everyone’s minds. But the cleantech industry hasn’t proved to be recession-proof, and layoffs and hiring freezes are leading would-be green employees to question just how soon the jobs will arrive, and what kind of cleantech companies will be hiring. Here’s what we see:

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You might think the investment world is pinning some hope on cleantech to perform better than the rest of the market, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, only half of the investors and analysts focused on alt-energy seem to be feeling bullish on it at all.

The survey (via AltEnergyStocks) was conducted by PR giant Waggener Edstrom, which polled 81 people around the world: 47 institutional investors, 26 sell-side analysts, and another 8 who were independent researchers or others in the industry. The results suggest that the climate for alt-energy companies may improve this year, but their stock prices may not outpace the broader market.

A survey from a PR firm sounds a little suspicious on the face of it – especially since these kinds investor-sentiment surveys are often regarded by some as a contrarian indicator for stocks. But it’s worth noting because Waggoner filtered out individual investors and because there is already a sense that the whole stimulus rally may be passing already.

According to the results, just “50 percent of respondents expect alternative energy stock to outperform the broader markets in 2009, largely due to the expected impact of the Obama Administration’s energy policies. Respondents also overwhelmingly expect oil and gas prices to stabilize or increase in 2009.”

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For years, energy-management technologies have played second fiddle to energy-generation technologies such as solar power, wind power and biofuels. But in an economic downturn, the so-called “smart grid” sector, which often has been labeled “not sexy” by investors and analysts, is becoming ever more attractive.

On Monday, eMeter announced that Texas utility CenterPoint will use its meter-data-management system for a rollout of 2 million smart meters starting in March and finishing up in 2013. The system, called EnergyIP, will help CenterPoint’s Houston-area customers monitor and manage their electricity use and cost, as well as provide outage, restoration and connection and disconnection services for the company. While he didn’t say how much eMeter will earn from the contract, Chris King, chief strategy officer for the San Mateo, Calif.-based company, said that the IT system will make up less than 5 percent, or $32 million, of the cost of the $640 million program.

eMeter’s software essentially helps the utility’s older systems, like billing, work together with the new smart-grid systems, King says. The network includes automated controls for different appliances, and it will keep track of the appliances and report power outages. The software — and the smart meters it works with — enable peak-pricing and time-of-use programs, in which utilities charge more for electricity used during times of high demand, as well as demand-response programs, in which utilities ask a group of customers to reduce their usage during critical periods to avoid outages, in exchange for lower electricity bills.

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Office buildings account for 17 percent of CO2 emissions in the U.S., or about 1-billion tons per year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Thanks to an agreement between property manager Cushman & Wakefield and the EPA, some of those emissions could get cut over the next few years. Using energy efficient technologies and practices, Cushman & Wakefield is aiming to reduce energy consumption 30 percent at its managed properties — currently more than 3,000 buildings — by 2012. The total square footage of those buildings was not available.

Cushman & Wakefield plans to work with EPA initiatives such as Energy Star to analyze its buildings’ energy use and to look at energy-efficiency solutions. Energy Star is a voluntary program, with Cushman & Wakefield getting technical assistance, as well as some public recognition, by partnering up with the EPA on cutting emissions.

The announcement didn’t list specific technologies, but getting to that 2012 target will likely take a wide range of cleantech systems covering lighting, heating and cooling, and smart devices.

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Researchers at Portugal’s Technical University of Lisbon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on a device to tap the power of waves, which was designed using millions of calculations in order to capture the maximum amount of energy possible in a specific location. The research (which was detailed in a recent issue of MIT’s EnergyFutures newsletter) was done to maximize the energy capture of a device called an oscillating water column (OWC) that has been used in water-power systems before, and is meant to be placed on or close to the shore; as waves hit the OWC the water level increases and decreases in the chamber, and in turn pushes trapped air into an opening, which drives a turbine.

The team plans to pilot the maximized OWC at the entrance of the Douro River in Porto, in northern Portugal, and eventually put three of them there, which together would generate 750 kilowatts of wave power. The group says the icing on the cake is that the OWCs can actually calm the waters of the area by absorbing some of the wave energy. The Portugal team is made up of Technical University of Lisbon Professors Antonio Falcao, Antonio Sarmento and Luis Gato, and MIT’s Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chiang Mei.

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Following in the footsteps of U-Haul and Enterprise, Hertz rental cars is rolling out its car-sharing program in December, starting with New York, London and Paris. Unlike Enterprise or U-Haul, though, Hertz will be going after consumers.

“Hertz’s car sharing is located in city environments and is available directly to consumers. In addition, it is going after B2B business as well as B2C, government and universities,” says Paula Rivera, a spokeswoman for the company.

Called Connect by Hertz, the Hertz car-sharing service will mimic existing car-sharing services by providing access to cars in lots throughout cities as opposed to merely offering the service through its existing rental lots. “We’re starting out in neighborhood parking locations, specifically parking garages and on-street parking areas,” Rivera says.

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