25 Rich Ass Greenies Who Made Their Fortune Saving the Environment (#5 – #1)

All this week, EarthFirst.com has counted down the world’s richest green entrepreneurs who have amassed fortunes ranging from the low millions to an incredible $3.4 billion mostly from doing good deeds for the planet.

We’re down to the top 5 – green billionaires who didn’t just start helping the environment after they became billionaires, they made the bulk of their fortunes from helping the environment. These industry giants range between $1.5 billion and $3.4 billion in net worth, and the top three are all from a country that might surprise you: China.

5. Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello, Cosan

The world’s first ethanol billionaire, Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello has seen his fortune decrease dramatically over the past year due to the decline of sugar and ethanol prices and rumors of a takeover of his company, Cosan S.A. Of course, $1.5 billion still ain’t bad.

Cosan is one of the world’s largest producers of ethanol, which they brew from sugar cane. Mello has been described as ‘the world’s first biofuel tycoon’. Cosan began way back in 1936, when Mello’s family established a sugarcane mill in Piracicaba, Brazil, outside Sao Paolo.

4. Frank Asbeck, SolarWorld

Frank Asbeck founded SolarWorld, a company that manufactures solar cells and modules which are then installed as solar panels, in 1998. Asbeck has proven to be an innovative leader for this family-owned German company, taking an aggressive entrepreneurial approach that many predict will help the company grow by 25% each year. SolarWorld is at an advantageous position right now, since the manufacture of solar cells will likely be somewhat of a bottleneck in the solar power industry and his company will be able to step in and meet much of that demand.

Asbeck, worth an estimated $1.6 billion, said in a 2007 press release, “Solar energy is on the way to attaining full competitiveness with grid power in the next few years. This means that a major factor for a climate-friendly turning of the tide in the energy sector would be achieved. Yet, in order to actually achieve this ‘grid parity’, the solar industry must continue to invest in the expansion of its capacities and also earn these investments. Because only mass production and efficiency improvements can make prices drop further.”

3. Peng Xiaofeng, LDK Solar

A relative newcomer in the field of solar energy, Peng Xiaofeng’s wealth soared dramatically over a period of only a few years. Just last year, he was worth a whopping $3.85 billion, but his net worth decreased to ‘just’ $2.5 billion in 2008 after allegations by a former employee that his company, LDK Solar, had inflated inventory figures of a key raw material, polysilicon.

Peng’s business began as a safety-product manufacturing plant, until he realized that no Chinese company as of that time was producing solar wafers, a key component of solar panels that make up 25% of their cost. He poured millions of his own fortune and $80 million in venture financing into his new operation, and soon LDK Solar began its rocky journey through the solar industry.

2. Shi Zhengrong, Suntech Power

This China-born Australian citizen is the world’s richest solar tycoon, with about $2.9 billion to his name. Shi Zhengrong runs Suntech Power, which he founded in China in 2001. Suntech makes the photovoltaic cells used in solar panels, and was the first Chinese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Shi, born in poor rural China and given up for adoption by his parents so that he could have a better life, is now one of the richest citizens of both China and Australia.

Suntech Power has a current market value of about $6 billion, and Shi is confident that his company will grow to the size of the world’s largest oil conglomerates as we shift toward renewable sources of energy.

1. Cheung Yan, Nine Dragons Paper

Reported by some sources as the world’s richest self-made woman, Cheung Yan gained her fortune in what many might find a surprising place: recycled paper. Cheung (her name is often spelled Zhang Yin as well) is worth an estimated $3.4 billion based on 2007 revenue figures (2008’s aren’t in yet), and she’s made it over the span of just a few years. Nine Dragons Paper takes post-consumer paper from the U.S. and processes it in China into new paper goods. Cheung held the title of world’s richest woman for nearly two years before being toppled by a young woman who inherited her father’s vast fortune (Yang Huiyan, worth $16.1 billion), but is still richer than both Oprah and J.K. Rowling.

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