While the cleanest tech may be what many retailers and consumers are looking for, it’s the precise opposite of what our commercial buyers want.

"Dear business client: We’re pleased to introduce our revolutionary suite of clean tech products! Using them means healthier food, cleaner water and less waste for the entire world. They’re almost as effective as the products you’re already using. They cost just a little more. And they produce nearly the same return!”

If this sounds like a winning sales pitch, you may be a well-informed citizen and a conscientious consumer. But you are almost certainly not a successful farmer, industrialist or manufacturer.

Those who actually buy and use commercial-grade clean tech want products that are more effective, more efficient and less expensive. If the pesticide, car battery or waste-disposal product they’re evaluating is green, all the better – but that’s not what motivates them to buy.

Why? Because most consumers don’t buy directly from the people who make the products. There is an entire supply chain of people and companies adding value to these products before they reach the retailers, and their first priority is to make a living.

If the customers see a clean tech product that gives them effectiveness, efficiency and cost savings, trust me, they’ll want it.

Read the full article about why clean tech needs to be useful first by Darren Anderson at Smart Cities Dive.