"Eco barons Lead the Way " - review on article published in "The Sunday Times " (March 1, 2009)

Résumé du document

Green commitment seems to be trendy in today's companies' strategy, but tycoons are more and more involved in environmental concerns too. The Sunday Times listed the 100 most environmentally involved tycoons, and these philanthropists are worth nearly £267 billion. Maybe thanks to Barack Obama's incitement measures, thirty five per cent of them are Americans. We notice that Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, probably the most famous tycoons in the world, are respectively first and second in investment in Wind power and renewable fuel. There are also many investors from the Silicon Valley, for example the Googlers Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Extraits

[...] Indeed, such huge amounts of money invested in green business will certainly help companies to innovate even more in this field. In addition, this could have a great impact in political speeches, in particular, this could enable Obama to take more radical measures, although he has already taken considerable measures. The energy is a major issue for the United States, indeed, many politicians and businessmen would like to stop the American dependence on foreign energy, that's why investment in green energy is all-important in this country. [...]

[...] "Eco barons lead the way", article publié dans "The Sunday Times" (1er mars 2009) From The Sunday Times. March THE global rich are going green as never before. This first Sunday Times Green Rich List shows that the enthusiasm among the world's wealthiest for investments in areas as diverse as electric cars, solar power and geothermal energy is unaffected by the recession. The Green List has unearthed 100 tycoons or wealthy families worth £200m or more who have made either serious investments in green technology and businesses or hefty financial commitments to environmental causes. [...]

[...] The seven German tycoons are largely involved in wind turbines and the like. This is a bespoke market meat and drink to the German industrial sector. Bespoke: sur commande, sur mesure meat and drink: une source de plaisir German entrepreneurs who have made their fortunes elsewhere are also moving into green technology in a serious way, defying the prevailing economic gloom. Elsewhere: ailleurs prevailing: dominant gloom: marasme America's wealthy are not just investing in new technology, they are also spending their fortunes on direct environmental activism, saving large tracts of wilderness from developers, endowing university research into green energy, climate change and the like. [...]

[...] Microchips: Puces éléctroniques zeal: zèle It helps that the Obama administration is committed to a huge stimulus package involving the very technologies that investors are focusing on. Even tycoons who are not in President Barack Obama's camp have moved into alternative energy, none more so than T Boone Pickens, oil explorer, corporate raider and a Texan Republican to his core. He is using part of his 1.8 billion fortune on filling the huge and windy Texas Panhandle with turbines as part of his Pickens Plan to wean America off its dependence on foreign energy. [...]

[...] Is this general trend a real commitment? Or is it nowadays the most profitable field for well-off investors? As far as I'm concerned, I believe that green business is almost the only field which is not affected by the current economic gloom, in the future, it may be a major item of the western countries' business. More over, although I think this phenomenon isn't a real commitment on behalf of the wealthiest businessmen in the world, it's a great improvement. [...]