Jewish Clean Tech Conference in San Francisco to Feature Israeli Companies and "Green" US Superstars

 With an eye to the Middle East, hundreds of Jewish professionals will meet November 8 in San Francisco to share ideas and experiences dealing with clean energy projects in both the US and in Israel.

The conference Jewish Response to the Energy Challenge (JREC) will feature some of the top Jewish “players” in the clean tech and environmental fields.

Among these are Alan Salzman, CEO of Vantage Point Venture Partners, a company  which specializes in raising venture capital for clean tech and bio-tech projects in various parts of world;  Jason Wolf, of Better Place California, which is involved in the production of both electric-powered cars and service stations for them; and Joel Makower, Executive Director of Greenbiz.com,  a news site dedicated to informing readers about  environmentally friendly enterprises and projects all over the globe. 

Keynote speakers include Adam Werbach (link to his book blog and site), who is regarded as one of the world’s premier experts in sustainability. At age 23, Werbach was elected as the youngest president ever of the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the United States. In 1998, Werbach founded sustainability agency, Act Now, to engage the corporate and media world in social, environmental, cultural and economic change.

After ten successful years, Act Now merged with global ideas company Saatchi & Saatchi to form Saatchi & Saatchi S, the world’s largest sustainability agency.

Among the topics to be covered in the one day agenda includes Jewish involvement in promoting environmental sustainability, clean tech and the economy, and the creation of more employment opportunities in these fields. Political challenges with respect to environmental and energy reform will the covered, including ways in which political leaders from the local to national levels can be influenced to devote more time and energy into promoting government policies to improve and change the environmental “landscape” in various parts of America.

Cooperation in clean tech energy projects between the USA and Israel will be an important part of the seminar, and will feature projects such as solar and wind energy, energy from ocean waves, and especially those companies dealing with the oil-free transportation sector.

This is where companies like Better Place will add a very important element to the future of how people will travel in the world; and when electric powered cars and other vehicles will one day be commonplace on highways in many parts of the world.

In the realm of American-Israel energy cooperation, a panel discussion will include some of the top representatives of clean tech energy ventures, such as Arthur Haubenstock, General Counsel of BrightSource Energy, specializing in solar energy projects; Eitan Yudelevich, Executive Director of the BIRD Foundation which supports industrial cooperation and research between the USA and Israel;  and Martin Kace, founder and president of  Empax, an organization dedicated to “developing a novel strategy for branding environmental issues.”

One of Empax’s prime focus is furthering cooperation between the USA and Israel on a number of environmental issues, especially in the areas of “green” clean tech, academic and government cooperation.

Although the conference will focus primarily on projects involving both the USA and Israel, the aim is to encourage other countries to be involved as well with the goal of creating a better world environment through scientific and industrial cooperation.

Since we all share the same limited space and resources, everyone must play bigger part in preserving the environment, which is a goal that those attending this conference hope to convey on the world at large.