Giving myself a grade on last year's green tech predictions

Time for a little self-evaluation. I dug up my blog entry from New Year's Day 2008 to see just how off-base some of my predictions for the year-that-was wound up being.

Here's how I did overall: Out of my 10 predictions, I can reasonably say that six more than came true. This is where I did well: - Corporate-sponsored alternative energy projects. Well, there's not really "sponsored" but you do see more companies allowing solar development companies to use their real estate for panel deployments. In turn, businesses can access to alternative energy without having to pay for the installation. - Let's get virtual. Check. - Little things mean a lot. People will look at desktops and printers more closely as electricity vampires. Yup. Here's some recent evidence from Forrester. - Do you really want to print that? The dialogue about using too much paper definitely got louder. - Tech for managing green tech projects will get more sophisticated. A whole new category of software applications developers is building around providing tools for managing green tech in the context of broader corporate sustainability movements. - Please stand by. Power management has taken on relevance for every piece of hardware imaginable, from mobile phones to storage. Now, if people would start using it.

Here's where I'm still ahead of the curve: - Green tech will show up in in very low-tech locations. I'm sure it's out there, but some of the more advanced projects for measuring and metering the environment out in the middle of nowhere have suffered cutbacks because of the flagging economy. - Home, green home: Just ask my husband, the home renovator. People WILL pay for new appliances or heating systems that have green credentials. But don't ask anyone to buy anything if there's any life left in the old model. No one will spend on this unless they're forced to do so. - My job's greener than your job. Sadly, the only companies that I've actually heard that offer any kind of "green" or "sustainability" related bonus structure are Intel and Cisco Systems. The really sad thing is that offering green perks, such as breaks for carpooling in hybrids, or supporting eco-friendly onsite drycleaning probably isn't that expensive AND it's one of those feel-good kind of gestures that makes employees feel a little bit better about being deprived of a raise in a tight economy. - Time to pay for that midnight oil. Many businesses still talk about putting systems into place for chargebacks but the truth is that most of them can't track this sort of thing closely enough to be relevant.

How'd you fare last year with your own green-tech resolutions?