The terms ‘ground-breaking’ or ‘game-changing’ are frequently used to describe a new technology, or to market an innovation that supposedly will change our world forever.

The truth is, we seldom really know how a new technology will unfold and how, over time, it will become part of our daily lives. The personal computer, digital imaging, genetic engineering, and the Internet are but a few examples of technological advancements that have and will continue to change the way we live.

The same applies to clean technology innovations that also are becoming part of our daily realities. Predicting how they emerge as new products or services is chancy at best. But we can look at a few trends that are unfolding and, from this, make a few guesses as to how they will become part of our future.

First though, let’s understand what we mean by clean technology. It has been described by Clean Edge, a clean technology research firm, as “a diverse range of products, services, and processes that harness renewable materials and energy sources, dramatically reduces the use of natural resources, and cuts or eliminates emissions and wastes.

One of the energy-related trends we should take note of will be the growing importance of energy from renewable sources (wind, solar, biomass, hydropower, biofuels, etc.) in the electricity supplied to our homes and factories by energy utilities. Although renewable energy is still a relatively small part of the total energy mix in the global economy, it is growing in importance and is transforming the utilities sector in the process.

Faced with escalating operating expenses, falling or flat energy demand, and growing consumer interest in clean and more efficient solutions, utility companies are being forced to reassess their strategies and explore new business models.

How will this change our lives?

We may see mega-sized energy utilities piping energy from faraway places to our homes and factories give way to community-scale utilities and the deployment of micro-grid technologies that will place the control (and pricing) of our energy into our own hands.

That may not sound like much, but stop to think how this might transform the appearance of our cities and towns. Combined with advances in digital information technology and ‘smart’ devices, the transfer of energy management control from the utility to the end user will change our energy choices, our consumer spending patterns, and our personal mobility.

So too, emerging trends in clean mobility will profoundly transform our daily lives. The electric vehicle (EV) is becoming an affordable consumer reality. While it will take a generation or more for EV battery technology to mature to the point of displacing gasoline or natural gas motive power, that day will come. Again, how will it affect the world around us?

Think of a home wired for mobility, or parking lots that are nothing more than charging stations. Think of not owning a car, but simply driving a fully charged vehicle supplied by a car-share provider whenever you need wheels. Your grandchildren may ask, “Grandpa, what’s a gas station?”

Another clean technology trend that is unfolding in ways we still cannot fully grasp relates to the buildings in which we live and work. Not only will we be able to monitor and manage the energy used to heat, cool, and power our offices and homes, the very design and fabrication of buildings is likely to transform our cities and towns in ways we can only dream about.

More than being energy efficient, buildings may soon become energy positive, that is, generating more energy than they use, allowing building owners / operators to sell it back to the local grid, or to power all those electric vehicles parked outside. Free charges could become an employment perk.


Lighter, stronger, more durable, and designed to totally recycle everything, buildings large and small will transform the environment of the workplace and the home; will significantly reduce or eliminate wastes; and will demand a whole new suite of job skills, thereby accelerating the transformation of the economy. It may sound like a dream, but in fact it is happening around us right now.

The iconic Empire State Building in New York City has undergone a radical retrofit that has reduced its energy use and operating costs and today it is the tallest LEED certified building in the United States.

Amory Lovins, Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Rocky Mountain Institute, was involved with that deep retrofit. In his book A Farewell to Fossil Fuels, he notes 6,514 windows in the building were turned into “super-windows,” which pass light but block heat. In just three years, energy savings above 40 percent will repay the owners’ total energy-saving investment.

There are many more dimensions that could be explored, but the simple point emerging from these few examples is this: Our future will not be changed overnight by a revolutionary or game-changing clean technology innovation.

Our future will be transformed daily by small measures as new technologies are incorporated into the products we use, the services we depend upon, what we put on or into our bodies, by how we move about, and by how we interact with each other.

As the T-Shirt slogan says, ‘The Future is Not What It Used to Be’. But clean technology will make that future more exciting and better.