Small Manufacturers Going Green

Shuttleworth,a maker of conveyor systems for manufacturers,always changed with the times. The 100-employee company's strong business in electronics dropped off about five years ago as more production moved overseas. Afterwards, the company focused on conveyors for food, health care, automotive, and paper products—until this year, when it entered what could be its most profitable product: solar panels.

"It's got some of the biggest potential of the markets we've been in," says Jim Bonahoom, Shuttleworth's vice-president for finance.

Even though Shuttleworth only just entered the market, the company expects solar to account for one-fifth of its roughly $20 million in revenue this year, Bonahoom says.

The green movement has become increasingly trendy in the small business world in recent years as small consumer companies have adopted environmental principles to address shoppers' concerns about climate change.

Now small companies like Shuttleworth are also betting on growth in green industries. Market researcher Clean Edge predicts making and installing solar power systems will grow from a $20 billion to a $74 billion industry in the next decade, and the firm expects wind power installations to grow from $30 billion to $83 billion.

Clean energy advocates envision a sea change on the scale of a "low-carbon industrial revolution," as a recent Deutsche Bank survey called it, to halve carbon emissions by 2050.

Top politicians ride the trend

Both presidential candidates have proposed on carbon emissions. Barack Obama has called for $150 billion investment in clean energy technology over the next decade while John McCain has pledged $2 billion annually toward advancing clean coal, among others.