Rocker swaps guitar for green-tech

Chuck McDermott has gone from leader of the country-rock band Wheatstraw in the '70s to general partner at Boston-based Rockport Capital Partners, a leading clean-technology venture capital firm that raised $450 million for its third fund in May, writes Boston Herald.

Over the years, McDermott has tackled everything from music to politics to environmental business.

"For me, whether it was deciding to veer hard toward country music for a certain part of my musical career or, for all of us, the decision to build our careers around energy and environmental markets, they were both based on passion," McDermott said.

As an emerging economy, Taiwan cannot afford to remain outside the global community in combating climate change, President Ma Ying-jeou said at the first sustainable green technology symposium in Taipei, reports Tapei Times.

"In the past 100 years, humans have focused on rapid economic and technological expansion. However, these have brought with them environmental consequences that we must address today," Ma told the audience.

The future of technology, he said, lies in sustainable development.

Adelaide-based green technology developer Ember Technologies has secured $750 000 in investment funding to bring its power-saving solution to market, says ARNnet.

Ember Technologies' power-saving technology can be applied to a range of consumer AV and IT products and is designed to cut the amount of standby power consumed at home and in the office. It has been developed using embedded adaptive intelligence and smart electronics.

The company claims benefits include power savings of up to $120 per year per application, longer equipment life through full powering down of devices, reduced fire risk by removing standby power and reduced CO₂ emissions.