Cleantech is at the heart of a responsible, sustainable energy future. It is essential for reduced reliance on fossil fuels for generating electricity and transportation, as well as for promoting energy efficiency.

As You Sow's Cleantech initiative works to ensure that this relatively new industry is not only clean, but green. Our goal is to provide information about cleantech whose products are produced with sustainable manufacturing, green chemistry, and transparent sourcing, procurement, and governance practices.

Although the promise of cleantech is great, the manufacturing of these products often utilizes toxic materials in their production.

The As You Sow Cleantech initiative presents accurate information about cleantech manufacturing and provides information on how companies can be sustainable while mitigating risks inherent in particular materials. We encourage manufacturers to produce and investors and consumers to seek out the least toxic, designed for end of life, efficient products that are technologically feasible.

The first project in the Cleantech initiative is the report Clean & Green: Best Practices in Photovoltaics. We will follow-up this report with a survey of what is "green and clean" in cleantech and continue in-depth industry reports on wind, storage, lighting, and other technologies.

This initiative was developed after multi-year engagements in the electronics manufacturing and energy industries. As You Sow's Electronic Waste Recycling initiative developed relationships with major manufacturers including HP, Dell, and Apple to strengthen take-back programs for their end-of-life electronics. The Energy program has focused on the financial risks and community damage associated with coal and the financial and environmental health risks associated with hydraulic fracturing. The Cleantech initiative grew out of this work in offering solutions to reliance on fossil-based energy and electricity generating sources, while also looking at the issues inherent in the product development and manufacturing of electronic products.