Happy new year!

Things are a bit hectic right now, so let me simply point to a few interesting articles and news items from the last few days...

1. A couple of interesting articles in VentureWire over the past couple of weeks. The first one was on the topic of green buildings. VentureWire continues to stymie efforts to promote their good work by not providing links to their articles, but here's an excerpt:

In the last two quarters of 2006, investors including DFJ Element, NGEN Partners, Nth Power and Rockport Capital Partners have invested in companies that are looking to create more ecologically and economically efficient tools for the construction industry.

"Because of the turnover in buildings, and the demand for new buildings, there are a lot of opportunities in the sector," said Peter Grubstein, a founder and managing partner for energy and materials investment firm NGEN Partners.

"Is the green building business a revolutionary business? I don't think it is," he said. "But there are evolutionary changes in a large market that is ready to change."

Helping pull investors into the construction market are reports like the one from McGraw-Hill Construction and the National Association of Home Builders published in June. That study indicated that the residential green building marketplace is expected to boost its market share to between $19 billion and $38 billion by 2010, up from $7.4 billion in 2005.

"We're going to industrialize the next 40 million people on the planet, and they're going to take a big step up in housing," said Erik Straser, a general partner in the energy and materials practice group at Mohr Davidow Ventures.

2. Another interesting VentureWire article (also by Jonathan Shieber), on the topic of green media. Again, an excerpt:

The market for consumers seeking lifestyles of health and sustainability is about $226 billion, according to an industry tracking non-profit group called Conscious Wave Inc. Of that, the projected market for environmentally sustainable products and services is projected to be about $187.6 billion, including organic foods, environmentally sustainable products and green building.

"There's a lot of investment interest in who is going to be the Amazon.com of green," said Joel Makower, the co-founder and principal of Clean Edge, a research and publishing company focusing on cleantech markets, and a senior adviser with the sustainability strategy firm GreenOrder.

Makower also serves as an adviser to billion-dollar venture capital firm VantagePoint Venture Partners, one of the first investors to back a green presence online. According to Stephan Dolezalek, a managing director with VantagePoint and the co-head of the firm's cleantech practice, VantagePoint has invested in the Beam Inc. Based in Cambridge, Mass., the Beam is a start-up whose first online property, GreenBuildingBlocks.com, is a directory for architects, developers and suppliers who work with green materials.

3. We've talked recently about the role of the London AIM for cleantech investments (link req's scrolling down a bit). Now comes an interesting study from New Energy Finance on the subject. Click here for a pdf summary of the study.

4. Other interesting news items: A useful update on ethanol production figures, and some provocative thoughts as well... A stronger IPO market is good for all venture investment sectors, including cleantech... Finally, here's a great summary of green business stories in 2006 -- haven't seen any 2007 predictions of relevance anywhere yet, however.