Virgin’s Green Fund Gets $199M

We swoon over Sir Richard Branson. /swoon. The billionaire ‘British adventurer’ (that term again!) pledged to invest $3 billion in alternative energy projects over a decade back in September ’06, and he’s pulled in his first round of funding to the tune of $199 million. He set up the Virgin Green Fund (VGF) as a way to make investments in renewable energy and resource efficiency.

From the Financial Times:

VGF has raised $199m from Virgin and institutional investors in its first close, according to a filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. The fundraising followed a global roadshow and a second round of investment, targeting a similar size of funds, is expected. Virgin has a minority stake in the VGF management company.

The presence of a UK local authority pension fund among VGF’s investors comes as British pension funds are allocating an increasing proportion of their assets to so-called alternative investments.

VGF is close to finalising a deal worth more than $40m to buy DuraTherm, a Texas-based petroleum and metal recycling business, from its founding shareholders. The transaction would mark a rare leveraged buy-out for the clean technology sector.

It’s so refreshing to see sickeningly rich people use their money and power to do something good for the world, instead of just building a ridiculous collection of yachts and automobiles.

Link [Financial Times]
Photo credit: David Yellen

EarthFirst Blog Week in Review March 17 - 21

Well we are just shooting up faster than Bio-tech corn here at EarthFirst! We’ve added a bunch of hot new writers (Professor Scott Herring and token Swede Anders Porter) and features (Mr. Cranky Green!) and are getting more hits than Tony Soprano during tax season. We’ve covered Green Fire Works, a terrifying robotic pack mule, and celebrated World Water Day like eco-rockstars! We also have two EarthFirst birthdays coming up under the Aries symbol; our wide-eyed editorial intern and writer Caroline turns 23 on the 28th and our fearless leader Jordan will rock out on the 27th when he turns…old. Yippee-Ki-Yay!

• Q&A With Mr. Cranky Green: Send Us Your Questions!!!!!
• Five Killer Bug Swarms to Avoid If You Can
• Uh…What’s That Green Shit… On Your…Head?
• No More Eco-Guilt on July 4th- Chemists Developing Green Fireworks
• Watch Five Hours of Cable News, Get One Minute of Environmental or Science Coverage
• This Day in Green History: March 18th, 1974- Arab Nations End Oil Embargo
• The March of Incompetence: Climate Change Denier James Inhofe Also Hates the Troops
• If We Can Build BigDog, We Can Engineer a Green Society
• Hulu Opens to the Public with Three Green Video Shows
• New See-Saw Technology Harnesses The Power of Children
• The Eco Drop Shower Invites Pain Into Your Daily Routine
• Weeds Season Three Coming Out in Green (Legal) DVD Packaging
• Hospitals Are Saving Millions and Reducing Their Landfill Load By Reusing Single Use Medical Devices
• Heidi Fleiss is Opening The Greenest Little Man-Whorehouse in Vegas
• Solar-Powered Boat Does Not Come With Sexy Mannequins
• Getting High: Climbing the Tallest Red Wood Tree in the World
• Green Extreme Sports: Paddling Across the Atlantic in a 23 Foot Coffin (Kayak)
• BBC Puts Reality TV Show Stars Out With the Trash- Literally
• The Green Bohemian Grove- Richard Branson Hosts Meeting of Green Gurus on His Private Tropical Island
• The Oracle of Omaha Loves Him Some Railroad Stocks
• Guy Kawasaki Wants to Invent 500 MPG Car But Fears Valleywag and TechCrunch Won’t Like It
• Inventor of Virtual Water Honored by Stockholm International Water Institute, Wins 150 Large

Fake Steve Jobs is Mad He Wasn’t Invited to Join Richard Branson’s Secret Planet Saving Club

 

Fake Steve Jobs just went off on a tear about Richard Branson and his not-so-secret cabal of planet saving green moguls. He thinks Richard Branson is a con man, Global Warming is probably a crock of shit (he should have lunch with Bob Lutz), and even throws in a dig at Al Gore for good measure.

It’s good, here’s a snip:

Here’s the thing. Everyone who’s ever dealt with Richard Branson realizes that he’s a complete con man, and his involvement in anything is a sure sign that it’s a crock of shit. Honestly, no matter where you are, if Branson gets on board you know there’s something profoundly wrong with the project. It’s the business equivalent of finding out that some movie has Donald Sutherland in it.

Truth is, Goldilocks does not really believe the world is about to burst into flames. What he does believe is that the global warming “crisis” is the next big way to make money off hype and fear. It’s the Y2K scam all over again. Truth is, the photo above and the ones on the linked page show a bunch of lucky rich bastards scheming to get even more rich. I’m telling you this because I’ve talked to these guys. I’ve been invited to invest in these funds. And I’ve done it. Why not? If the ducks are quacking, as they say.

Every VC in the Valley has a hard-on for greentech because it’s the first market they’ve ever seen where they can mitigate their risk by laying it off onto governments (ie taxpayers). The trick is to spread lots of hype and put pressure on governments (hence Kleiner hires Al Gore) so that governments will provide subsidies to keep these venture-funded startups alive until they can be flogged off onto the public markets. They’ll sell these stocks to dentists and they’ll use the same pitch that Toyota uses on the Prius — sure it’s overpriced, but think how good you’ll feel. These will be IPOs as a form of therapy, and the Birkenstock-wearing suckers will sing Kumbaya and talk about how capitalism is saving the world.

I’m guessing Fake Steve Jobs didn’t get an invite to Branson’s meeting. Poor fake guy.

Link [Fake Steve Jobs]

The Green Bohemian Grove- Richard Branson Hosts Meeting of Green Gurus on His Private Tropical Island

Never in my life have I wanted to be a rich green guru mogul more than I did after reading a story in the International Herald Tribune about a gathering Richard Branson threw on his private British Virgin Island island. He invited some of his smart green pals over, people like Elon Musk, one of the founders of PayPal, Tony Blair, Larry Page, Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, my favorite designer William McDonough, Vin Khosla, and Microsoft founder Paul Allen, even technically he didn’t actually step off his 200 foot long yacht moored off the island.

Great Flying Spaghetti Monster. It’s an green Bohemian Grove. It sounds like heaven.

And it’s exactly what the world need.

Small groups of rich and powerful men have been controlling everyone below them since we stepped down from the trees. Recently it’s been rich ass industrialists and energy barons who have tinkered and massaged the system to suit their extractive drive to generate wealth and maintain control. The future belongs to the big green players, people like Branson and his friends who are working together to get richer by saving the world.

Green Greed is right.

Green Greed works.

Green Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Green Greed, in all of its forms — Green Greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — will mark the upward surge of mankind.

And Green Greed — you mark my words — will not only save this malfunctioning country called the USA, but the world at large.

My apologies to Gordon Gecko.

Link [International Herald Tribune]