Five Green Companies That Might Surprise You

The only thing that will be missing from this summer and fall’s carbon capture debate in Washington will be that announcer who revs up pro wrestling fanatics with his battle cry, “Let’s get ready to rumble!”

In declaring carbon dioxide emissions a threat to the general public, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is trying to pin its Congressional opponents even before the match begins by declaring that it can move to force companies to reduce their carbon without Congressional approval. But the sideshow over the White House’s insistence on cap-and-trade over the taxation approach that is preferred by many leading environmentalists promises to become the main event. Right now, any investor who thinks he knows what the outcome will be (cap-and-trade, taxation, or nothing at all), is kidding himself.

Having said that, however, investors would be crazy not to try to take advantage of all the headlines the CO2 debate is going to generate, headlines that will lead to a knee-jerk reaction on Wall Street to buy up “green” stocks.

So here are five companies that could get swept up in this green wave of publicity. They aren’t the ones you might expect – and regularly read and hear about on TV. These five have been culled from a new report from a valuable information source that doesn’t get a lot of publicity, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Think of CDP as a group of institutional investors who are socially minded but still focused on the bottom line. Think of these five as stocks that, as carbon makes headlines, will be trumpeted in the media as an ingenious new way to capitalize on Washington’s green fixation.

CDP turned to PriceWaterhouseCoopers to put together a list of the leading green companies in the S&P 500 – companies that know their environmental risks and are developing strategies to meet and even benefit financially from reducing emissions.

In the consumer retail category, Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) came out on top. Just imagine how Colgate-Palmolive will be able to weave its “greenness” into its advertising.

Among utilities, a company that almost never generates positive publicity, Con Edison (ED) was the leader. Among tech and telecom firms, Dell Inc. (DELL) was the leader. Dell should be able to take advantage of its ranking in its advertising at a time when the high tech industry is consumed by the need to reduce data center power consumption or risk brownouts and blackouts in a few years.

Among manufacturing firms, Ford Motor (F) came out on top, while among financial services firms, Genworth Financial Inc. (GNW) scored highest. Depending on how clever they are, both could use their newly-certified greenness to score a marketing coup at a time when consumers and investors alike are climbing on the green bandwagon.

Disclosure: No Positions

Comments

[alivewweb:]

I would rather see a listing of the companies that manufacture the carbon and mercury monitors that the EPA will demand polluters purchase. They will be the first winners.

Apr 28 08:55 AM

[Graham Jervis:]

A company i think will do very well is FTEK, they have a suite of products that help utility companies reduce their carbon emissions and other forms of pollutants. they should do well worldwide. However, i am biased as i own it, so i should disclose this. check it yourself and make your own decision.

Apr 28 09:28 AM

[alivewweb:]

FTEK looks to have some strong solutions however I am looking at very near term events and existing directives that require immediate action by utility companies and others. There are in the USA 50 major power plants that have been identified as major polluters. These and other must have mercury monitoring devices in place and operating by year end 2009. That is virtually overnight in the utility industry.

ALL of the major coal burners in the USA and eventually abroad will have to address these problems and the first thing they have to do is measure their emissions. That opens a wide door for some of the smaller high tech companies in this area.

I own one very small company that just landed a major utility CTEI and its up over 500% but the market caps it still tiny and they just opened an office in Bombay where they say there are more than twice as many major coal burners. Also China is building new coal burning power plants at the rate of one per week through 2020 according to recent estimates.

Many opportunities in the measuring area but not many pure plays.
I have a link posted below but it is way too long I think. Try searching Mercury-instruments/pr...

images.google.com/imgr...

A.

Apr 28 11:48 AM

[Alan Young:]

You're right about the "surprise" part. I follow several "green" sites, and never see these companies mentioned as among the best in their environmental policies.

Apr 28 01:16 PM