Verdurous completes five meaningful years of operation

1. The verdurous planet

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4. The Vatican's Planetary Stewardship initiative envisages eco-restoration;
Facing page: Penguin 'Sir' Nils Olav inspects a guard of honor (Reuters image)

5. King Knights Emperor
Penguin Nils Olav, an honorary
member and mascot of the
Norwegian King's Guard, resident of
the Edinburgh zoo, received a
regimental knighthood in August
2008. King Harald the Fifth of
Norway described Nils as a penguin
"in every way qualified to receive
the honour and dignity of
knighthood".
The Vatican is slated to become the
first ‘carbon-neutral’ sovereign state
through the proposed Vatican
Climate Forest to be created in
Hungary's Bükk National Park, sized
to absorb its annual carbon
emissions. This is over and above its
efforts to reduce its carbon
footprint through enhanced
efficiency of energy usage and the
increased use of solar power. “When
man forgets that he is a faithful
servant of this earth, it becomes a
desert that threatens the survival of
all creation.” – Pope Benedict XVI
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6. Spreading its wings and elevating green firms in the pecking order: The Verdurous Index

7. The Verdurous India Index
The Verdurous India Index
(“Verdurous 25”), is a modified
market capitalization based index
comprising 25 firms listed on India’s
National Stock Exchange (NSE). This
specially constituted index
comprising both, ‘pure-play’ green
stocks viz., wind energy generation,
waste-water treatment etc., as well
as ‘old-economy’ manufacturing
sectors viz., cement, automotive,
sugar etc., tracks the genuine
‘greenness’ of the Indian economy,
and is the first of its kind anywhere
in the world.
World Environment day, the 5th of
June 2009, is the base date for index
computation with a base value of
1000. The index is tracked over four
years, approximately overlapping
with the length of an entire
business cycle, and has emerged as a
low-risk portfolio, with returns
comparable to the benchmark
NSE500 index.
Periodic updates and other details
relating to the index are posted on
http://index.verdurous.in.
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8. A panaromic view of the highest peaks in the Himalayas; a small-hydro power generation plant in Nepal.

9. Earthly Intervention
Clean Energy Development
Bank, Nepal
Nepal is an energy resource surplus,
electric power deficient country,
further set-back by the decade-long
power struggle. The Clean Energy
Development Bank, Nepal, is
specially constituted to stimulate
the renewable energy sector in
Nepal, helping harness the
abundantly available small hydro
power and other clean sources such
as wind, solar PV, solar thermal,
biogas etc.
Verdurous has undertaken a thread-
bare analysis of the macroeconomic
and context-specific factors
impacting the viability of bank
operations: ascertained the market
opportunity, evaluated the industry
structure and mapped the bank’s
competitive positioning. The due
diligence investigation has been
carried out on behalf of FMO and
Triodos Bank, The Netherlands.
Strategies are developed to enable
the bank maintain focus on financial
intermediation for the clean energy
sector, and to differentiate its
product offering.
Client Feedback
“..your report has been quite a
pleasure to read; well informed, well
delivered; .. conclusions are very
valuable.
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10. Small hydro power offers hope for bridging the energy deficit in South Asia: A 2MW small hydro power plant in southern India

11. Large PE investments in
small hydro power
Verdurous has developed a pipeline
of investment projects, primarily in
the small-hydro-power, for a Dutch /
Swiss private equity fund seeking to
invest in clean energy projects in
emerging markets in south Asia. In
addition, to Indian projects,
Verdurous personnel have
conducted detailed due diligence
investigations on investment
opportunities in Nepal and Sri Lanka
covering several technology
packages including waste to energy,
biomass based power generation,
sugarcane cogeneration, large scale
wind energy, solar thermal systems
etc.
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12. A tribal lady cooking with firewood (picture courtesy Dr.M.G.Satish); tender coconut displayed along an inter- state highway.

13. The roads less straddled:
Rural Energy Initiatives
Verdurous personnel have
undertaken an independent
assessment of rural initiatives,
essentially involving the set-up of
supply chains for energy technology
and sources, viz., solar PV, LPG
bottles, etc., and for energy
efficient devices and gadgets viz.,
LED based lighting systems, lanterns,
pressure cookers etc. Three distinct
investments are analyzed: the
constitution of a dedicated clean-
energy private equity fund, an
energy service company and a
financial intermediary focussing on
grass-roots initiatives.
A detailed assessment report was
prepared for the Vienna, Austria
based Renewable Energy and Energy
Efficiency Partnership (REEEP),
containing inter alia, a synthesis of
the lessons learnt from each
initiative and an estimation of the
sustainability of each of the
projects.
Client Feedback
“..thank you sincerely for your
efforts and assistance with this
project.” “..the impact assessments
look good..thanks for doing a good
job.”
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14. Verdurous personnel discussing technology related issues with on-site staff at a wind-farm in Southern India

15. Sailing Upwind
PE Investments in Wind
Farm Consolidation
In the capacity of resident partner,
Verdurous has forged an
investment partnership between a
reputed US based private equity
fund and a large Indian business
group. The investment envisages
consolidating the wind energy
generation capacity in the country
by acquiring wind energy
generators currently owned by
disparate entities. The venture is
slated to grow through green-field
expansion and brown-field
acquisition.
Verdurous has also undertaken
detailed due diligence of the first
lot of wind farms, aggregating over
75MW of capacity employing
traditional as well as contemporary
techniques including the valuation
of ‘real’ options for growing the
venture. The detailed business case
for the venture was developed.
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16. Concern for the natural environment: King Pari left his chariot to support a wild jasmine creeper
Logo design courtesy: Chennaveeramma Noolvi, Nidhi Varma, Annie Varghese Cherian, Bharath Urs, Archana Urs, Pramodnath D.

17. The Verdurous Logo
The 9th Century Chola King from
southern India, “Vallal” (literally
patron or benefactor) Pari, was
renowned for his sense of fairness
and justice and above all his
generosity towards and care for all
things living. On one of his journeys
through the forest, he observed
that the tree hitherto supporting a
creeper had been chopped. Legend
has it that he offered his chariot to
support the wild jasmine creeper in
place of the tree. This is by far the
most magnanimous gesture in
recorded history, on the part of any
king, in caring not just for humans
but for mute creatures and plants as
well.
Verdurous draws inspiration from
Vallal Pari’s concern for the natural
environment.
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18. Cool guy
The ‘Ice Man’ of Ladakh
Over the past 22 years, eco-activist
and Civil Engineer, Chewang
Norphel has ‘built’ over 12 glaciers
by diverting melt-water through a
network of pipes into artificial lakes
in the shaded side of mountain
valleys. He is in the process of
building at least 5 more glaciers. A
dam or embankment is built to
retain water, which freezes at night
and remains frozen in the absence
of direct sunlight. At the start of
summer, the glacier melts and
releases water into the rivers below.
Norphel has also designed
instruction material to ensure that
his valuable knowledge would
survive him.
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19. Chhewang Norphel explains how the stream from a glacier will be diverted into the shade by the channel.
Photo © Andrée-Marie Dussault.

20. Enr-on or off?
Renewable Energy for
Maharashtra
Verdurous was invited by
GREENPEACE International to
undertake an assessment of the
Renewable Energy potential in the
western Indian state of Maharashtra.
Resource availability, realizable
potential and commercial viability
were studied item-wise for each
technology option. The project
culminated in putting forth
plausible solutions for the power
crisis afflicting the state. The effort
was intended at pre-empting the
rejuvenation of the moth-balled
Dhabol Power Project originally put
up by the Enron Corporation.
Client Feedback
“..your study covers all that we
want quite comprehensively. We
acknowledge the speed and quality
of work which you have produced.”
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21. Windfarm in rural Maharashtra, India. Picture courtesy Recharge Newsletter, Recharge AS, Norway.

22. Research Projects
Broad-basing ‘green’ stock
market indices: a concept note,
Int. J. Green Economics, Vol.2,
No.4, 2008.
True environmental performance of
an economy is indexed by the eco-
sensitivity of mainstream
businesses. Broad-basing green
stock-market indices could help
recognize and reward superior
environmental performance and
ensure adequate representation in
emerging markets with few ‘pure-
play enviro’ companies listed.
Verdurous has constructed a ‘green’
index for the Indian market and has
tracked it over the length of a
business cycle. Ambitious
extensions of the index are in the
works.
The Persistence of Green
Goodwill, forthcoming issues of
Environment, Development &
Sustainability, Springer BV
Verdurous has observed that
investor concern for the
environment differs across industry
sectors and the correlation between
environmental credentials and
valuation is, at best, weak and short-
lived. Periodic release of
environmental performance reports
by credible, independent agencies
would help investors take
cognizance of such information.
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23. It is time for businesses to focus on “green goodwill”

24. Research Projects
Food V. Fuel: Renewable Energy,
34 / 4, April 2009 (Official Journal
of the World Renewable Energy
Network)
The Environmental impacts of
biofuels are determined
substantially by the agricultural
practices during cultivation. In each
market, the pricing of liquid biofuels
– ethanol and biodiesel – is
determined by the administered
prices of gasoline (petrol) and diesel
they respectively seek to
supplement.
Verdurous has concluded that
relative pricing of agricultural
produce viz., oil-yielding seed could
be managed so as to ensure that
food-crop land is not encroached
upon in favor of fuel plantations.
Reciprocal monopoly, asymmetric
payoffs and exit options in the
Indian sugarcane cogeneration
sector:
Power generated from bagasse at a
sugar mill cannot prop up an
otherwise unviable sugar operation.
Verdurous has studied the incentive
structures faced by various
constituents of the value chain and
has observed that complementary
product pricing (“razor and blade
pricing”) cannot be applied to this
setting and that sugar cycles can be
eliminated by managing the relative
terms-of-trade of substitute crops.
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25. Coconut coir / shells being transported for use as fuel

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