International Sustainable Business



International Sustainable Business

Introduction

Pollution, green house effect, acid rains, depletion of the ozone layer, melting of ice burgs at the poles among others are all scaring words that are defining the state of our planet. Most of the world's population depends on biomass to fulfill their domestic energy needs but today people are being more conscious and are moving towards green products and are starting to use solar energy rather than energy from burning coal. This is why today many companies are investing in solar energy products and one of the companies is Konarka Company. The latter is planning to introduce the solar laptop charger. However before the introduction of the product, the company has to study the market and target different groups of people with its different marketing mixes. Furthermore a financial forecast will be done later on in this report.

Company profile

Konarka Technologies, Inc. is a solar energy company based in Lowell, Massachusetts, founded in 2001 as a spin-off from University of Massachusetts. The company is developing two types of organic solar cells: polymer-fullerene solar cells and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).

Konarka cells are lightweight, flexible photovoltaics that can be printed as film or coated onto surfaces.

The company hopes its manufacturing process, which utilizes organic chemistry, will result in higher energy conversion efficiency at lower cost than traditional silicon fabricated solar cells. Konarka is also researching infrared light activated photovoltaics which would enable night-time power generation. The company's co-founders include the Nobel laureate Alan J. Heeger.

Green product design

Fulfilling basic human needs and improving the quality of life are the main objectives of any development process. These objectives must be understood as the capacity to achieve social and economic growth in an environmentally sustainable manner, based on a long term perspective in order not to jeopardise the interest of future generation.(Solar best practice 2002) That is why, according to this situation, more and more environmental friendly products are being produced. In this report, the Konarka Company is introducing solar laptop charger (www.brighthub.com).

What is solar laptop charger?

A solar laptop charger is a device used to power a laptop computer using energy from the sun. The most popular solar laptop charger kit is produced by Earthtech Products. A solar powered charger works by collecting energy from the sun with solar panels and converting to energy. The laptop is then plugged into the unit for several hours to charge it. That provides enough energy to power the laptop for about half as long as it was plugged into the charger. Product specifications differ among manufacturers.

A solar powered laptop charger is a useful tool when traveling without access to electricity, or if you want to save electricity by using the power from the sun. However, because they also have a battery, they can be recharged from a wall outlet instead of through the solar panels if necessary.

Portable Solar Laptop Chargers

Portable solar laptops chargers have been around for a little while now, and they offer a great way to extend the battery life of ...