CEOs cost cutting does help

http://biz.yahoo.com/ibd/071011/tech01.html?.v=1

Much of the Berkeley event centered around energy innovation, which participants called key to national security, economic growth and environmental health.

"We need a wave of innovation around energy" on the same magnitude of recent advances in information technology, Tyson said.

John Doerr, a partner at the Silicon Valley investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, put it more strongly, in another panel discussion. He called the issue "more important than the Internet."

He said the push will dwarf even the massive national efforts to build the first atomic bomb and launch the Apollo space missions. "This is about changing the energy infrastructure of the planet," Doerr said.

Short of an E=MC -level energy breakthrough, Sun Microsystems (NasdaqGS:JAVA - News) CEO Jonathan Schwartz asked companies to make better use of resources. Many Sun employees work from home via the Internet.

The company stopped printing its annual report in favor of electronic copies. That alone saves Sun $1 million a year, Schwartz says.

"It isn't about hugging trees," he said. "It's about hugging the balance sheet and shareholders."

Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google's (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News) nonprofit arm Google.org, said he's worried that energy and climate-change issues haven't become more mainstream, but is encouraged by recent trends, including rising investments in alternative energies. "Let's find a way to convert this crisis into an opportunity," he said. "I'm more optimistic than I was before."


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