Money isn't the only green thing that Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has a lot of. Buffett's firm continues to increase its portfolio of investments that can be considered green, or environmentally friendly.
Berkshire unit Johns Manville, which manufactures building products, announced this week that it has entered the solar panel market by signing a deal with Energy Conversion Devices. That's far from the only green business that Berkshire is involved in. MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. has major investments in wind power. Berkshire owns 10% of BYD Co., a Chinese auto and battery maker that makes plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Last fall Buffett put $3 billion into General Electric, which has a major initiative toward green energy. Berkshire's investment in Burlington Northern could be considered "green," since trains are far more fuel-efficient than trucks. And major holding ConocoPhillips has a huge natural gas business, a fuel than burns cleaner than coal or oil. At this year's Berkshire annual meeting in Omaha, Clayton Homes had on display its new "i-house," which features solar panels and many other green materials. Buffett wrote in the 2008 letter that electricity and heat would cost just $1 a day in the i-house if it were sited in Omaha.
Buffett is probably as environmentally conscious as the next guy, but my guess is he's adding to Berkshire's green holdings to make his shareholders a different kind of green. He likely sees green investments as a necessary and profitable endeavor in this hot, flat and crowded world (to steal a line from Thomas Friedman).
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