Innovation + Sustainability = New Products and New Companies This month Green Edge focuses its sustainability lens on two companies that were founded in order to provide different kinds of sustainability solutions. ThinkEco focused on energy efficiency and LiQuifix focused on reducing air pollution. Their stories and their products are great examples of the promise and the paradox of climate change: it's a huge problem that presents great opportunity. A Plug is a Plug ... or Is It? Think Again. ThinkEco.  One of the biggest contributors to the carbon footprint of most organizations is their energy consumption. A significant and fast growing component of that energy consumption is "plug-load"---- the power consumed by plugged-in equipment, from servers to copy machines to cell phone chargers. Green Edge recently discovered an innovative company that is determined to wring the waste out of those plug-loads. ThinkEco, Inc. was founded in 2008 and has developed a product designed to eliminate power consumption by equipment that is plugged in but not in use.Perfect for those of us who don't unplug our computers, printers or lights when we are not using them.
We ran into ThinkEco at a Green Building trade expo and were intrigued by its flagship product: the modlet, short for modern outlet. The modlet is an energy intelligent outlet that monitors appliance level power use. It automatically disconnects power when plugged-in equipment is not in use and reconnects power when the equipment is turned on. According to ThinkEco Co-Founder, President and CEO Jun Shimada, "The modlet is the first redesign of the common outlet since the ground plug was added in 1928. For the first time, an outlet is able to think and is able to interact with the equipment plugged into it in order to make it more energy efficient." ThinkEco raised $2M in financing and was awarded two grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. It projects that organizations that implement a site-wide modlet deployment can see a 35 to 80 percent reduction in the power consumed by each electronic device that is plugged into a modlet, which in total can reduce the overall utility bill by up to 10 percent with no change in routine. In a pilot program with one New York company, it projected that the modlet will save $65,000 worth of electricity per year. For more information about ThinkEco and the modlet, see www.thinkeco.com Cars, Wine and Tanks...What Do They Have In Common?  Many would say not much but, there is at least one thing: they all use LiQuifix, a non-toxic, environmentally-friendly spray lubricant that has been third-party certified to meet stringent standards for maintaining indoor air quality emission requirements.
Founded in 2004 to develop an industrial lubricant that would not contribute to indoor air pollution and would be effective for aluminum, LiQuifix, Inc. spent years developing and testing its namesake product. It achieved a significant breakthrough on the long road to gaining market share for its new "green" product when its namesake product was certified by the Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) process to meet stringent South Coast Air Quality standards. According to the company, LiQuifix has also been certified as "Food Grade" by the US Department of Agriculture, meaning it is safe enough to use for food production.
In March of 2010, after gaining a foothold with industrial users such as Ford and the US military, LiQuifix was awarded a $700,000 loan from the State of Connecticut's Clean Tech Fund to expand its manufacturing operations in Stamford. One of the next steps is breaking into the consumer market.
Stay tuned, you should be seeing LiQuifix in your local retail store soon. For more information about LiQuifix, see www.liquifix.com. | 
Ellen Sinreich is President of Green Edge, LLC, which helps organizations leverage the power of green through
