John Doerr, famed partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers asked his family how they felt about the problem of global warming as they sat around the dinner table one night. It was his 16-year-old daughter’s response that hit him in the gut.

“‘Dad, I’m scared and I’m angry. Your generation created this problem and you better fix it,’” she said.

Mr. Doerr told this story Saturday to a crowd of about 900 Chinese entrepreneurs, investors, and others at the Innovation and Leadership 2006 conference at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency. The two-day event was organized by the Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association (HYSTA) which promotes professional networking among Chinese Silicon Valley professionals.

In his two and half decades at KPCB, Mr. Doerr has backed high-tech’s greatest success stories, including Google and Amazon—making himself into one of the world’s richest men in the process. Now, he’s touting what he calls “greentech” as the next big thing.

A friend of Al Gore, he’s joining an increasingly large chorus of venture capitalists who see both financial and moral gain in backing technologies that fight global warming (see VCs Push for Oil Tax).

No Coincidence

Mr. Doerr’s choice of subject matter for this particular conference was no coincidence, he said. China faces immense growth in its cities—building the equivalent of eight Manhattans a year, he said. Urbanization at this magnitude poses a significant environment threat due to the pollution it generates.

On the flip side, the country is at the forefront of some the greatest advances in environmental technology with the potential to stem the tide of global warming, he said.

“Clean tech,” as many past efforts at environmentally friendly industry have been called, hasn’t panned out from an investment standpoint, said Mr. Doerr, but “greentech” will.

The difference? The word “green” means money is to be made, he said. It’s about advances in areas such as nanotechnology and alternative fuels that mean that companies will succeed in the future where past efforts have failed. In 10 years, he said, carbon reduction will be as important as cash because it will be redeemable for government subsidies of all kinds.

Promoting Initiatives

Meanwhile, he has thrown his weight behind initiatives on the state level that promote such technological breakthroughs: he strongly advocated for California’s AB 32 global warming reduction bill, which he called “the most important piece of legislation this decade.”

He also contributed nearly $1 million to a California ballot initiative that aims to tax oil companies in order to promote research for green alternatives to fossil fuels.

Mr. Doerr named some of the most promising new developments in greentech: energy storage, biofuels, solar technology and nuclear. KPCB is backing such companies as Liliputian, a Wilmington, Massachusetts-based fuel cell company; and Miasole, a solar cell developer in San Jose, California.

None of these investments is for charity—all are expected to turn a serious profit, he said.

“Greentech is here to stay. It’s the next big thing,” said Mr. Doerr.

Contact the writer:SMugrabi@RedHerring.com

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