By Amanda Groty
  Global Client Services Director &
  Vice President, Technology
  Hill & Knowlton EMEA

Amanda Groty points to the companies attracting investment capital – and capturing the imagination of the public and media in Britain's emerging clean tech sector.

Clean tech website, Greenbang, opens its report on UK clean tech start-ups in no uncertain terms:

"Take one planet.
Add a rising human population.
Stir in a food crisis, a growing dependence on fossil fuels and devices that feed off them.
Whisk in some fears of energy security, price hikes, and sprinkle with some shrinking supplies of oil.
Add a lot of carbon and cook for 50 years.
It's not exactly a recipe for success, is it?"

Actually what's clear immediately from the report's findings is that government policies, growth of emerging markets, the credit crunch and high energy prices are combining to create a buoyant market for clean technology firms.

British start-ups are helping to harness the power of the ocean, they're gathering and managing sustainability data and creating smart energy networks and monitoring systems. They're helping to cool or heat buildings more efficiently, designing efficient vehicle motors, reshaping logistics and travel, and simplifying recycling and waste monitoring.

Firm government leadership has played a role – the UK Parliament last year drew up ambitious legislation to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. This strengthened the ability of UK public bodies such as the Carbon Trust, as well as utility firms, to innovate and invest, and efforts have been made in parallel to harness the UK's capacity to generate innovative small businesses. Meanwhile, energy price increases have created fascinating new opportunities in supply chain management, energy management systems and anything cheaper, not just cleaner, than oil.

"In clean tech you need to condition your market early, while developing core technologies and bringing products to market."

Against a backdrop of an economic slow down, there's plenty of evidence for continued growth in clean tech – and not just in the UK. A report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that global investment in energy-efficiency technology reached a record $1.8 billion in 2007, a 78 per cent increase on 2006. By 2020, the same sector will be worth over $600 billion.

Many of the companies doing the most interesting work are following the pattern of venture and intellectual property formation established and proven over past decades in California's Silicon Valley. The sector is being fronted by a spirited new generation of internet-style pioneers, who often combine talents for engineering with a sharp eye for spotting a market gap and a timely deal.

The media-friendly nature of this process plays no small part in fuelling its success – many media contacts have long criticised large organisations for talking in general terms about innovation but not providing access to the engineers responsible for driving new technology breakthroughs.

The emergence of a generation of rising stars across the new industries should act as a wake-up call to larger corporations to share their best talent and ideas with the world quickly. In clean tech you need to condition your market early, while developing core technologies and bringing products to market.

Effective communications ensures these early-stage companies ‘punch above their weight’ and compete with established players. Careful consideration over target audiences is important if they want to reach and leverage influencers to gain credibility in the marketplace. Building strong, evolving, relationships with the media is key to this - and when engaging key influencers, the power of social and digital media should also not be forgotten.

What we’ve learned from companies like Better Place, BrightSource Energy, Poweo and Solar Century is that effective communications helps these new clean tech firms raise funding, drive awareness of environmental issues, influence government regulation and support the overall business plan for growth. While it is possible to drive behavioural change much more quickly than in the past, the public, investors and government can still be slow to respond to even the best ideas. Changing the world takes time.

Hill & Knowlton sponsored the Greenbang survey of UK clean tech start ups.
To read the full survey, go to http://www.hillandknowlton.co.uk/when/what-we-are-talking-about.