Green Gold: Japan, Germany, the United States, and the Race for Environmental Technology

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Summary: Wake-up call for industry!
Review: Authors Curtis Moore and Alan Miller provide a wake-up call for industrialistswho have yet to respond to the rise in the number of new markets forenvironmental technologies. Geared to inspire and catalyze U.S. entrepreneurs, the book offers insight to any business interested in the growing market. Environmental technologies range from consumer to industrial products. The authors write that: "Two of the largest markets are for machines which consume the vast majority of the world's energy and generate most of its pollution as well: motor vehicles and electric power plants." Increasingly stringent vehicular emissions testing, such as in Mexico, create a market for new products. Writing about Japan's investment in air quality improvement in Mexico City, the authors conclude that altruism alone is not a sufficient explanation. "The benefit to Japan is access to enormous markets for pollution control equipment," the authors write, pointing to $246 million which Japan budgeted in 1993 for its international energy programs. The authors are well-regarded in the public policy arena. Moore served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. Miller currently is the director of the Maryland-based Center for Global Change. Numerous illustrations of successful business practices help guide the reader to understanding the forces at work. AT &T, for example, foresaw the approaching worldwide ban on CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and developed its own substitutes for ozone-destroying chemicals. Environmental protection can be beneficial to the economy. Nations which have spearheaded their own environmental safeguards now have the technologies to sell abroad. Green Gold provides the framework for understanding how countries and businesses can work together to protect both the environment and the economy.