The Unsung Heroes

And so it is. Ingenuity in the green context does pay off. Here are some of the rich greenies who earned enough fortune and deeds to help save planet earth! Well at least to some certain degree - to sustain a livable future.

Some of these rich greenies proved one thing. That being environmental responsible and earning the millions at the same time is possible. I wonder what it’s like to be waking up to the world every day with such complete sense of satisfaction. My business will change the course of the human race. That is big. Surely it is something that anyone can live with for long.

[Source from http://earthfirst.com/tag/renewable-energy/]

John Mackey, Whole Foods

Way back in 1978, John Mackey dropped out of college and borrowed $45,000 from family friends to open Safer Way Natural Foods, a small vegetarian health food store in Austin, Texas. After experiencing some difficulty in his first few years in business, Mackey approached the owners of another Austin health food store about a merger, and together they became Whole Foods, which later became the most successful natural foods chain in the world. Mackey has declined to disclose his personal net worth, but we know that prior to 2006, when he announced that he was no longer in the business to make money and would henceforth only make $1 per year, he was netting $400,000 annually. He reportedly has enough money now to give at least $1 million away to charity every year, and as CEO of such a huge company, we’re sure he’s pretty damn comfortable.

Pedro Moura Costa, EcoSecurities

EcoSecurities is an Irish carbon mitigation firm that has developed more projects than any other similar business, and co-founder Pedro Moura Costa got $10 million richer last year when he sold some of his shares in the firm. Moura Costa knew that the carbon market could be big business, especially once the Kyoto Protocol was established. It may have taken longer than he expected for the market to become very profitable, but he’s done well and will continue to make even more: his remaining shares are worth an estimated $83 million.

When asked by Reuters whether the thought green business was a bubble, Moura Costa said, “It’s become quite obvious we do something now or it will be an irreversible trend with catastrophic consequences. The only chance of it being a bubble is if we lack the political commitment to drive emission reductions worldwide — and if we do that we might as well forget about any environmental effort whatsoever because climate change is hitting us hard and the trend is likely to accelerate. I think it’s very unlikely political support will go away.”


David Scaysbrook, Novera Energy

When David Scaysbrook founded Australian firm Novera Energy in 1998, he was convinced that unlike other forms of renewable energy that were available at the time, wind power had real potential. He became a millionaire when cashing in $7 million worth of shares in the company, and is still a non-executive director on the board. He’s also a founding shareholder of Viridis Energy Capital, a specialist green energy fund with a global focus and a portfolio of investments in landfill gas, biomass and hydro power.

David is confident that we haven’t seen anything yet when it comes to the success of the wind power industry, telling Reuters that he believes fears about energy security, the rising price of oil and growing concerns about the environment will push the scale of investment in wind to far greater proportions, which will undoubtedly continue adding millions to his bank account.