The business model invented by Chris King, 19, a freshman at USC living in Huntington Beach, Calif., with his parents during summer break, is pretty simple: extract built-up lint from long, winding clothing-dryer ducts, and charge $39 for the service.

It’s a low-cost way to immediately boost energy efficiency and dramatically cut drying time for clothes.

“One neighbor said it took like an hour and 20 minutes,” King said. “Now it’s down to 20 or 30 minutes, tops. He’s super happy. He said, ‘Call me back next summer.’”

King said he got the idea after trying, unsuccessfully, to find a summer job.

“I started applying everywhere,” he said. “You know, the economic downturn. I got a couple calls back, but it’s hard to get a job right now.”

Instead, he began helping around the house.

“One weekend, my mom was complaining about how long it took to dry her laundry,” King said. “My dad tried to fix it. I was helping him.”

Like many others in his neighborhood, their house has a laundry room in the middle of the house. The duct that releases warm air from the dryer must be 18 feet long to reach an outer wall.

A kind of light bulb, perhaps with a greenish tinge, went off in King’s mind. A lot of his neighbors had the same floorplan.

The cleaning method – King wants to keep it secret for now – works most dramatically on long ducts. In only two weeks of offering the service door to door, he says he’s already picked up about 25 customers.

King, who is planning to be a business major, said he said he hopes to continue the service even after school resumes in August.

“I’ve already started marketing around a couple surrounding neighborhoods,” he said. “If everything goes as planned, I’ll try to expand as fast as I can.”

miamiherald.com

Out-of-work student now a green’ entrepreneur is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

1. Boston: In 2008, the Boston area saw an investment of $387.17 million in greentech projects. This represents a gain of 6.8% over 2007 — not too shabby in a down economy. The Boston area includes Aeronautica Windpower, Conservation Services Group, Boston-Power, Inc., Evergreen Solar, GreatPoint Energy and others.

2. Denver: Denver represents a vanguard city in the area of cleantech. The Colorado Clean Tech Initiative ensures that start-up businesses in the state receive some help with funding. Denver has a blueprint for use and transportation that focuses on sustainability. The city was one of the first to get a alternative fuel vehicles for the city, and boasts the first major airport to reach ISO 14001 standards.

3. Seattle: This year, at the annual Business Plan competition at the University of Washington, cleantech business ideas garnered a great deal of attention. In a city that is vying for the label “greentech hub”, that is no real surprise. Indeed Seattle is on a short list of cities that are likely to receive millions in funding for the purpose of jump starting alternative energy technology. An annual budget from the federal government, if Seattle is approved as a R&D center, could be as high as $200 million.

4. Austin: Widely considered the most progressive city in the state of Texas, it is no wonder that Austin is one of the premier cities for the cleantech industry. Indeed, Austin is providing the new headquarters for the Clean Technology & Sustainable Industries Organization (CTSI). CTSI chose Austin because it has a thriving cleantech community, consisting of researchers (including at the university level), sustainable development and investment. The Innovate Texas Foundation is also located in Austin, and expects to work with CTSI.

5. San Francisco: It wouldn’t be right to leave out a California city. (San Jose also has a growing cleantech industry presence.) San Francisco regularly hosts the Cleantech Forum, bringing in cleantech ideas from all over the U.S. San Francisco has a sustainability plan that tackles air quality, biodiversity, energy issues and green economic development. Start-up companies can usually find some niche for its services in San Francisco.

physorg.com

The 5 Best Cities for Cleantech Companies is a post from: Top Business Opportunities