Is it Green? Louis Vuitton Solar-Powered Suitcase

‘High-tech suitcase’. ‘Sustainable Louis Vuitton’. The words in each of those phrases don’t seem to jive, yet put them all together and you’ve got this monstrosity, reportedly commissioned by a Chinese millionaire.

From the Alternative Consumer:

This luxury suitcase contains an assortment of gadgets and unnecessary tripe like a TV, DVD player, coffee maker and a handy solar panel to keep it all percolating.  Just the array of stuff you’ll need if your private jet should go down in the jungle or that third world country you’re visiting to exploit just doesn’t have enough juice out at the diamond mine.  Plenty of storage for you fancy underoos and such.

It’s hard to imagine the sort of people who would pay out the ass for Louis Vuitton in the first place even sitting in the sun. I suppose Mr. Mystery Chinese Millionaire makes his servant take the solar panel out to get some rays while he sips tea in the parlor.

Although, it would probably come in handy when you’re hankering to surf the internet sustainably while lounging on a luxury yacht. Hmm, I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m in the market for some ridiculously overpriced, ugly luggage and solar-powered gadgets.

Link [Alternative Consumer]

Who’s Who in Green: Anita Roddick

When Anita Roddick started The Body Shop in 1976, she just wanted to find a way to support her two young daughters. She didn’t realize at the time that her decision to open up this modest little shop, which sold natural bath and body products, would revolutionize the way businesses integrate ethics into their everyday operations.

Born Anita Lucia Perilli in Littehampton, England to Italian immigrant parents in 1942, Roddick married her husband, Gordon – a poet – in 1971 and soon after, while pregnant with their second child, found herself the sole breadwinner after Gordon set off on a horseback trek from Buenos Aires to New York. The Body Shop started out as one little store in Brighton, England offering a handful of creams and body-care products inspired by her travels to places like Tahiti, Australia and South Africa. Within 10 months, before her husband returned from his travels, she opened a second store to meet the unexpected demand. Over the next 15 years, The Body Shop quickly grew into a large business with over 2,000 stores in about 50 countries.

Roddick had discovered that there was a hunger for natural products inspired by the earth that were made ethically – supporting community trade, protecting the planet, defending human rights and never, ever testing on animals. She laid out these core values for The Body Shop in the belief that companies needed to take responsibility for their actions, from acquiring the raw materials used to make their products to packaging them and marketing them.

That was one of Roddick’s secrets to success: she rejected conventional marketing practices and instead, used The Body Shop as a platform to spread her philosophy about green consumerism and how it could help the world.

Roddick told Third Way Magazine in 1993,

The original Body Shop was a series of brilliant accidents. It had a great smell, it had a funky name. It was positioned between two funeral parlours–that always caused controversy. It was incredibly sensuous. It was 1976, the year of the heat wave, so there was a lot of flesh around. We knew about storytelling then, so all the products had stories. We recycled everything, not because we were environmentally friendly, but because we didn’t have enough bottles. It was a good idea. What was unique about it, with no intent at all, no marketing nous, was that it translated across cultures, across geographical barriers and social structures. It wasn’t a sophisticated plan, it just happened like that.

The Body Shop has had its fair share of controversy over the years, with many raising questions about the company’s greenness since it did use petrochemicals, synthetic ingredients and preservatives in its products and was taken over by cosmetics giant L’Oreal, which is anything but green and engages in animal testing, in 2006. But, these things don’t change the fact that The Body Shop was a pioneer in calling for fair trade and offering recycling programs for product packaging, among other contributions to the green business world.

Anita Roddick passed away in 2007 at the age of 64, spurring an outpouring of sympathy, support, and dedication to keeping her cause alive all around the world. This Dame of the British Empire changed business for the better, and has inspired many people to follow in her footsteps and improve upon the value-based system she incorporated into her own business.

Anita Roddick’s Green Score: 59,443

Photo credit: PA/The Daily Mail

The Ultimate Fantasy Green Holiday Wish List

There are a growing number of green millionaires and billionaires out there, who have amassed their fortunes by doing good things for the earth. And, after giving a good portion of that money to charities that help preserve the environment, they’ve still got plenty of money to spend on ultimate eco-luxury items like the 7 on this ultimate green holiday wish list. But even if you’re not among the eco elite, you can dream that someday Santa will bring you a few of the following green fantasy gifts.

Tesla Roadster

Why not splurge on a James Bond-worthy, 100% electric, $100,000 Tesla Roadster, the sexiest eco-friendly car on the market? It can travel 244 miles on a single charge of its lithium-ion battery pack and goes up to 125 miles per hour. The 100th Tesla Roadster was sold just last week to the guy whose shoulder Oprah cried on during Obama’s victory speech, and if you get one for yourself, you’re joining the company of fellow owners George Clooney, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Luxury Eco Vacation to Dubai

The Presidential Suite at the Al Maha Eco Resort in Dubai will set you back a paltry $8,400 a night, appointed with all the luxuries an oil baron might enjoy – only they’re eco-friendly. Guests that stay here will enjoy three large bedrooms, a lounge, a private courtyard and swimming pool, fully appointed kitchen, two mini bars and your very own private staff including housekeeper, security and chef. A trained naturalist acts as your own private guide, taking you on tours of the Al Maha reserve. Al Maha preserves the desert habitat of Dubai and its native species, and has helped protect the formerly endangered Arabian oryx.

Biodegradeable Diamond-Studded LCD TV

The world’s most expensive television is available to you for just $130,000, and the good news is, its glass, aluminum and iron components are all either biodegradable or reusable. The bad news is, it doesn’t seem to use any less power than a normal television. But, hey, it’s studded with brilliant white V VS1 diamonds and white gold, such an important feature to have on a television. When you’re done with this luxury TV by Shaub Lorenz, you can strip it down and have them made into a necklace or something. It’s entirely handmade and has a 40-inch LCD display.

EcoMobile

If you’ve already got a Tesla Roadster and need something a little more streamlined to get around in, you might want to check out the EcoMobile by Swiss automaker Peraves.  This enclosed motorcycle, which can reach a top speed of 202 miles per hour in turbocharged mode, is ultra exclusive: Peraves only manufactures 100 per year. The $77,000 EcoMobile has stabilizing ‘training wheels’ that retract once the vehicle gets moving. It features a gull wing door with integrated sunroof and inside you’ll find everything you would expect from a luxury car, including air conditioning.

Lab-Grown Diamond Stud Earrings

Get the sparkle of diamonds without the guilt by purchasing eco-friendly, conflict-free lab-grown diamonds. These man-made diamonds are actually pretty rare, as only a handful of gem-quality diamonds are grown each month. No giant pits in the earth, no slave labor. This set of Ritani ‘Endless Love’ lab-grown diamond stud earrings feature .67 carat fancy blue diamonds surrounded by .15 carat white micro-pave diamonds set in platinum for $5,160.

Solar-Electric Hybrid Robot Lawnmower

The Husqvarna Automower runs on solar power and electricity to automatically roam your land and cut your grass for you while you lounge around sipping organic cocktails. Depending on light conditions it can handle 1,100 square meters without you lifting a finger. It’s ultra-quiet, can manage rough terrain and it even returns to its charging station on its own. It’ll set you back around $4,000.

Nature Preserve

(image via Forbes Traveler)

For the green millionaire who has everything, perhaps a parcel of land that you can turn into a nature preserve is just the thing you need this year. Follow in Leo DiCaprio’s footsteps by purchasing a private island with the intent of turning it into an ecotourism destination – Blackadore Cay in Belize only cost $1.75 million. Or, you could buy a few hundred thousand acres of rainforest and either manage it yourself or gift it to the country’s government for use as a national park.

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.

25 Rich Ass Greenies Who Made Their Fortune Saving the Environment (#10 – #6)

All this week, EarthFirst.com will be counting 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.

Next up on our countdown of 25 of the richest green businesspeople in the world are a husband and wife team, two eco-friendly cosmetics pioneers and a man who wandered into the lucrative world of wind power by accident.  Today’s list starts at $100 million and ends around $1.4 billion, incredible fortunes made while simultaneously doing good things for the earth.

10. Tom Chappell and 9. Kate Chappell, Tom’s of Maine

Tom and Kate Chappell began making eco-friendly personal care products in the late ‘60s, when they were unable to find any on store shelves.  Taking out a $5,000 loan from a friend, they started Tom’s of Maine with ‘Clearlake’, the country’s first phosphate-free laundry detergent.  In 1975 they introduced the first natural toothpaste, which cemented their future as a leader in the natural personal care industry. Tom and Kate share in the $100 million fortune they made from selling Tom’s of Maine to Colgate in 2006, and remain the CEO and VP of the company, respectively.  Tom’s of Maine pulls in about $45 million in annual sales.

Of the green industry’s future, Tom told SFGate, “The current consciousness for environmental sustainability is different from anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s coming from industry, from companies, for the first time. You’ve had small companies doing a grassroots effort for decades, along with consumers and nonprofit groups, but now you’ve got large companies with senior leadership saying we’ve got to take this seriously. That’s terrific. We know that green solutions are possible. We just need to have green solutions become more available and affordable.”

8. Anita Roddick, The Body Shop

One of the pioneers of the natural beauty industry, Anita Roddick amassed a fortune of $200 million through her cosmetics and toiletries business, The Body Shop, making her one of England’s richest women.  Anita began The Body Shop with the vision that all types of businesses could be run ethically, and that every ingredient has a story.  Anita passed away in 2007, and her husband, Gordon, now manages her fortune.

Of her inspiration to start The Body Shop, Anita said, “My early travels had given me a wealth of experience. I had spent time in farming and fishing communities with pre-industrial peoples, and been exposed to body rituals of women from all over the world. Also the frugality that my mother exercised during the war years made me question retail conventions. Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as she did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could. The foundation of The Body Shop’s environmental activism was born out of ideas like these.”

7. Roxanne Quimby, Burt’s Bees

When Roxanne Quimby met Burt Shavitz (#23 on our countdown), she was a single mother of twins living in a cabin in the North Woods of Maine. Her husband had just left her and she was desperate for income.  Burt, who had been selling jars of honey out of the back of his pickup truck, had hives labeled ‘Burts Bees’ and pounds and pounds of beeswax, and that spurred an idea: making products like lip balm, shoe polish and beeswax candles.  Over time, her efforts paid off in a big way: Burt’s Bees is now the most successful natural care products company in the world.  The company sold to Clorox in 2007 for $1 billion, and Roxanne made an estimated $300 million from the sale.

Roxanne told Hilary Career, “I think it takes a lot of hard work, persistence, and belief in one’s vision to build a successful company. That sounds sort of trite but one must possess these basic traits to carry on when faced with the daily challenges and sheer exhaustion of running one’s own company. Good luck and good timing also play a role in one’s success. For a product-driven company like Burt’s Bees, I think it’s important to stay ahead of the curve with product innovation and listen closely to what the consumer tells you she wants, and remain faithful to your mission and values.”

6. Tulsi Tanti, Suzlon Energy

Tulsi Tanti, an Indian businessman, didn’t set out to save the environment.  It sort of happened by accident. In 1995, when he owned a fledgling textile company called Suzlon, he received a shocking electric bill that made him wish he could do something about the price of power.  That led him to decide to provide for his own energy needs, buying two wind turbines to power his company – a risky and expensive move, but one that he felt strongly was the right thing to do.  Then, in 2000, Tanti read an article about global warming that predicted that some of his favorite tourism destinations, including the Maldives, would be underwater by the year 2050.  He told TIME Magazine, “I had a very clear vision. If Indians start consuming power like the Americans, the world will run out of resources. Either you stop India from developing, or you find some alternate solution.”

That’s when Tanti decided to sell off his company’s textile manufacturing and enter the field of wind-turbine generators. Suzlon is now the fourth largest wind-turbine maker in the world, with annual profits of about $850 million. Tanti is now worth an estimated $1.4 billion.

Check out the rest of the Rich Ass Greenies: #25-#21, #20-#16, #15-11

25 Rich Ass Greenies Who Made Their Fortune Saving the Environment (#15 – #11)

All this week, EarthFirst.com will be counting 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.

Today’s 5 rich ass greenies include three organic foods moguls, a wind company executive and a hero that has helped spread the message of environmental responsibility more than anyone, perhaps aside from Al Gore.  Though we don’t know the exact net worth of all of these businessmen, we do know that it’s in the double-digit millions or higher and that they’re now enjoying the high life after dedicating their careers to helping the planet.

15. Chuck Marcy, Horizon Organics

Charles ‘Chuck’ Marcy is the former president and CEO of Horizon Organic, one of America’s largest organic milk producers. The company had been around since 1992, but didn’t start major marketing efforts until 2004 when acquired by Dean Foods for $246 million.  Marcy also owns Healthy Food Holdings, a private-equity backed company that buys organic and healthy food brands including Van’s International Foods and Breyers.

14. Mike Gilliland, Wild Oats Market

Mike Gilliland helped kick off the natural foods industry when he founded Wild Oats Markets with then-wife Libby Cook in 1987.  The Boulder, Colorado-based company quickly became the second largest natural foods chain in America.  Gilliland left Wild Oats in 2001 when the company’s sales suffered after an acquisition spree.  Wild Oats was purchased by rival Whole Foods in 2007 for an estimated $565 million.  Gilliland then went on to found Sunflower Farmers Market, a chain of natural foods outlets in the Southwest.  His fortune hasn’t been disclosed.

13. Michael Skelly, Horizon Wind

Michael Skelly is the former CEO of Horizon Wind Energy, a renewable energy company located in Houston, Texas.  Horizon is a wind energy developer and independent power producer which as developed wind farms all over the country, and is the third largest wind company in the United States.  The company was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2005 for an undisclosed amount and then sold to Energias de Portugal for $2.15 billion.

Skelly, a Democrat, is now running for Congress in Texas’ 7th congressional district against three-term incumbent John Culberson.

12. Steve Demos, White Wave

Steve Demos has had an interesting life, to say the least.  He’s a Buddhist, and once lived in a cave in India. He spent a lot of time traveling, and that’s when he had a revelation: that he wanted to construct a “right livelihood”, making money and doing good for society at the same time.  He set out to make healthy vegetarian foods, with a particular focus on soy.  It was quite a battle, though: for 20 years he struggled to get soy products accepted into mainstream society through his company, White Wave.  It wasn’t until 1996 that he realized that tempeh and tofu weren’t likely to end up on most Americans’ plates, but soymilk was a product that could be accepted more easily.  After that, sales rose dramatically and Demos spent the next 8 years helping the company grow. In 2005, Demos was unexpectedly ejected from the company he founded by the board.

We don’t know exactly how much Demos is worth, but consider this. When White Wave sold to Dean Foods in 2002 for $295 million, Demos ensured that the company’s 100 employees who had worked there for at least 2 years each got a share of $15 million of the profits.  So, we’re sure he made out pretty well – in the double-digit, if not triple-digit millions, most likely.  At the time of his ousting, White Wave was worth $1.2 billion.

11. Captain Planet

For years, Captain Planet educated the world about environmental issues, showing off his incredible skills as he flew, blew hurricane force winds, shapeshifted, moved objects with his mind and performed amazing feats of matter transmutation.  As we all know, the smog, radiation and toxic waste that continue to pollute the environment at alarming levels harmed Captain Planet’s health, so it’s only natural that after his show was canceled he retired to the island of Taos to build his strength back up.  Captain Planet invested his money wisely and now lives in an off-grid home on the island, relaxing and taking in the fresh air and clean water.

Check out the previous installments:

25 Rich Ass Greenies (#25-#21), (#20-#16)

25 Rich Ass Greenies Who Made Their Fortune Saving the Environment (#20 – #16)

All this week, EarthFirst.com will be counting 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.

Today’s 5 green businessmen are a diverse bunch: two energy moguls, the founder of a carbon mitigation firm, a tea titan and the man who changed the face of natural food stores. Each of these men has made $7 million or more off of their eco-friendly ventures, and they’re all likely to keep on hauling in cash by the truckload for the foreseeable future.  These 5 rich ass greenies help prove that environmental responsibility and reaching millionaire status aren’t mutually exclusive.

20. David Scaysbrook, Novera Energy

When David Scaysbrook founded Australian firm Novera Energy in 1998, he was convinced that unlike other forms of renewable energy that were available at the time, wind power had real potential.  He became a millionaire when cashing in $7 million worth of shares in the company, and is still a non-executive director on the board. He’s also a founding shareholder of Viridis Energy Capital, a specialist green energy fund with a global focus and a portfolio of investments in landfill gas, biomass and hydro power.

David is confident that we haven’t seen anything yet when it comes to the success of the wind power industry, telling Reuters that he believes fears about energy security, the rising price of oil and growing concerns about the environment will push the scale of investment in wind to far greater proportions, which will undoubtedly continue adding millions to his bank account.

19. Pedro Moura Costa, EcoSecurities

EcoSecurities is an Irish carbon mitigation firm that has developed more projects than any other similar business, and co-founder Pedro Moura Costa got $10 million richer last year when he sold some of his shares in the firm.  Moura Costa knew that the carbon market could be big business, especially once the Kyoto Protocol was established.  It may have taken longer than he expected for the market to become very profitable, but he’s done well and will continue to make even more: his remaining shares are worth an estimated $83 million.

When asked by Reuters whether the thought green business was a bubble, Moura Costa said, “It’s become quite obvious we do something now or it will be an irreversible trend with catastrophic consequences.  The only chance of it being a bubble is if we lack the political commitment to drive emission reductions worldwide — and if we do that we might as well forget about any environmental effort whatsoever because climate change is hitting us hard and the trend is likely to accelerate. I think it’s very unlikely political support will go away.”

18. Steve Hughes, Celestial Seasonings

Often referred to as an ‘organic mogul’, Steve Hughes is a veteran of the natural foods industry and had already held several high-profile positions before becoming CEO of tea company Celestial Seasonings in 1997.  Serving for just 3 years before Celestial Seasonings was sold to natural foods giant Hain in 2000, Hughes made a whopping $20 million from the merger. He’s credited for reinventing the brand after four years of stagnant sales, resulting in the interest from Hain.

Hughes is now CEO of natural margarine producer Smart Balance, which analysts predict could become a billion-dollar company over the next decade, especially as more people turn to products that don’t contain trans fats.

17. Ryan Turner, Pacific Ethanol

Ryan Turner co-founded Fresno, California-based energy company Pacific Ethanol in 2002, and after just four years, became a multimillionaire. After the company went public, its stock price quadrupled and Tuner, who had been acting as the company’s chief operating officer, cashed in $29.5 million worth of stock.  At just 31, he resigned and set out to enjoy his new fortune. Pacific Ethanol may or may not continue to see the same success and support as it has over recent years, depending on what the future of this biofuel holds. But, either way, Turner’s got it made – if he resists the temptation to spend it like Hammer, he’s set for life.

16. John Mackey, Whole Foods

Way back in 1978, John Mackey dropped out of college and borrowed $45,000 from family friends to open Safer Way Natural Foods, a small vegetarian health food store in Austin, Texas.  After experiencing some difficulty in his first few years in business, Mackey approached the owners of another Austin health food store about a merger, and together they became Whole Foods, which later became the most successful natural foods chain in the world.

Mackey has declined to disclose his personal net worth, but we know that prior to 2006, when he announced that he was no longer in the business to make money and would henceforth only make $1 per year, he was netting $400,000 annually.  He reportedly has enough money now to give at least $1 million away to charity every year, and as CEO of such a huge company, we’re sure he’s pretty damn comfortable.

Check out last week’s installment of ‘25 Rich Ass Greenies Who Made Their Fortune Saving the Environment (#25 – #21)‘.

25 Rich Ass Greenies Who Made Their Fortune Saving the Environment (#25 – #21)

All this week, EarthFirst.com will be counting 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 starting off the list with a few entrepreneurs for whom no actual numbers are available in terms of personal fortune, but who undoubtedly have very well padded bank accounts. These five guys are rich and getting richer, and their companies are worth staggering quantities of cash. They’re making the big bucks off their eco-friendly ventures, and we hope they’ll inspire all of you wannabe entrepreneurs out there to get out and do something for the environment – and make a truckload of money, too.

25. Neil Eckert, Climate Exchange

Neil Eckert is the CEO of Climate Exchange PLC, a leading provider of exchange-based carbon-emissions trading products. Climate Exchange PLC owns both the European Climate Exchange and the Chicago Climate Exchange. Climate Exchange provides emissions reduction credits in Europe under the mandatory European Emissions Trading Scheme. Neil’s personal net worth hasn’t been disclosed, but it’s thought to be in the millions.

24. Ray Anderson, Interface Inc.

Ray Anderson has been called ‘the greenest chief executive in America’. Founder and CEO of Interface Inc., a carpet tile company, Anderson wasn’t always interested in environmental issues, but in the summer of 1994 he was asked to give a speech to Interface employees about the company’s approach to the environment. He told The New York Times, “I was running a company that was plundering the earth. I thought, ‘Damn, some day people like me will be put in jail! It was a spear in the chest.’”

After that, Anderson set out to make Interface a sustainable operation, an effort that has saved the company more than $336 million since 1995. Today, the company makes more than $1.1 billion in annual sales, and Anderson has undoubtedly taken home a hefty portion of that.

23. Burt Shavitz, Burt’s Bees

Burt Shavitz could have been a hell of a lot richer than he is. Roxanne Quimby, co-founder of popular natural care products company Burt’s Bees, bought out the iconic beekeeper way back in the late ‘90s before Burt’s Bees hit it big for a low six-figure sum. Today, she enjoys a fortune of more than $300 million, while Burt’s got about $4 million to his name. He doesn’t seem to mind too much, though – the 72-year-old lives in the same rustic turkey coop he was shacking up in when he met Roxanne back in 1984, when he was selling honey out the back of his pickup truck.

Burt’s Bees was purchased by Clorox in November 2007 for nearly $1 billion.

22. Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farms

Gary Hirshberg is chairman, president and CEO of Stonyfield Farms, an organic yogurt producer. Hirshberg has been interested in sustainability since he was a teenager, and studied ecology in college. He started Stonyfield Farms as an organic dairy farming school with partner Samuel Kaymen in 1983, and today the company pulls in more than $300 million in annual sales. Hirshberg is also author of the book ‘Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World’.

Hirshberg wrote in Newsweek, “At Stonyfield, we have factored the planet into all our decisions. We are a 100 percent organic manufacturer, which means we avoid the production and use of many tons of toxic chemicals. We were America’s first manufacturer to offset 100 percent of our carbon-dioxide emissions from our manufacturing facility. We’ve mapped our climate footprint (by figuring out just how much greenhouse gas we emit), installed the largest solar photovoltaic array in New Hampshire and converted our yogurt waste into bio-gas, avoiding the generation of truckloads of sludge.

These kinds of green improvements have not only reduced our company footprint on the planet, but have saved our company so many millions of dollars that I’ve come to think of them as the “First National Bank of Conservation.”

21. Bruce Khouri, Solar Integrated Technologies

Bruce Khouri, age 49, co-founded Solar Integrated Technologies in 2001 and made a personal fortune of $5 million by cashing in shares in the company. Khouri saw a market for solar panels long before most other entrepreneurs saw it as a viable revenue source, in the 1990s. He realized the value of sun-baked rooftop real estate, and says that 50 years from now, he expects that every sunny rooftop will be covered in solar panels.

Of his path to fortune, Khouri told Reuters, “It hasn’t been easy but we transformed an old-world roofing material into a renewable energy technology. It’s a miracle Solar Integrated is still here but a pioneer charging across the prairie is bound to get hit by a few arrows.”