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Duncan Stewart

Duncan Stewart: 2008 will be a good year for the LED

Friday, December 21, 2007 | 07:45 AM ET

Money Talks is a collection of daily columns from The Business Network, which airs weekday mornings on CBC Radio One at 5:45 a.m. ET (6:15 a.m. ET in N.L.).

Although the weather in eastern Canada looks as though its going to be a white Christmas, myself, I prefer a green Christmas. I'm not talking about the colour of the grass or the colour of the trees, I'm talking about the environment.

As part of our annual predictions process at Deloitte Canada, I'm writing one of the predictions for the technology group this year and I'm talking about light emitting diodes. This new technology is not only something that you find in watches. It's also something that can be used for illumination.

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Duncan Stewart: Green stocks don't act like a sector yet

Friday, December 7, 2007 | 08:02 AM ET

Money Talks is a collection of daily columns from The Business Network, which airs weekday mornings on CBC Radio One at 5:45 a.m. ET (6:15 a.m. ET in N.L.).

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. That quote from Charles Dickens applies pretty well to stock markets in November.

Most people know that markets took quite a tumble and bounced back only a little bit. That's actually not uniformly true. One of the things for green investors is that they've seen a really wide spread on some of those returns.

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Duncan Stewart: Some 'green' investments aren't very green

Tuesday, November 27, 2007 | 08:26 AM ET

Money Talks is a collection of daily columns from The Business Network, which airs weekday mornings on CBC Radio One at 5:45 a.m. ET (6:15 a.m. ET in N.L.).

Canada already has a pretty limited stock market when it comes to green technology investments and you don't want to do anything that makes it smaller than you have to. But for people looking for stocks in the space, you've got to be careful about this phemonon called green washing, this is when companies or products try to pretend they're green when they actually aren't.

I just read a study on Tyler Hamilton's blog, clean break. It talked about a firm called Terra Choice that looked at a bunch of products out there that said they were green. And it determined that actually in a huge percentage of the time these weren't really green products at all.

Some of the deceptions that they practiced in was they had bad trade offs. They would say they were a green product, but in fact when you looked at the total picture it was nowhere near green. They were a little bit organic in one way, but maybe at the cost of filling up a thousand landfills. That happened 57 per cent of the time, according to the study.

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Duncan Stewart: Green investing and ... electrons

Friday, November 9, 2007 | 10:11 AM ET

Money Talks is a collection of daily columns from The Business Network, which airs weekday mornings on CBC Radio One at 5:45 a.m. ET (6:15 a.m. ET in N.L.).

The mandate of this column is that we're supposed to be looking at green investing. Green is an awfully big area. Which subsector actually offers the most potential for investors? As I've talked before, it can really be divided into four areas. Earth, air, water and energy. And that's sort of the whole environment of green possible investing.

The only problem is that if you think about it, the expressions that we use all the time, expressions like cheap as dirt, spend like water and free as the air gives you some idea of the monetary value that people attach to the first three of these environmental areas.

So what I did was I thought about it and I said anything to do with the energy area, especially if it has to do with electrons is probably the single biggest area for investors today.

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Duncan Stewart: Investing in a clean technology index

Monday, October 29, 2007 | 08:16 AM ET

Money Talks is a collection of daily columns from The Business Network, which airs weekday mornings on CBC Radio One at 5:45 a.m. ET (6:15 a.m. ET in N.L.).

Thursday and Friday of last week saw Toronto invaded by hundreds, if not thousands of clean tech practitioners, inventors and investors for the 9th Clean Tech Forum. It's the sort of timing that makes you say, "Well, how can I get in on this and how can I invest in clean technology companies?"

One of the problems is that individual stocks are always risky. You can get a winner that goes up thousands of per cent, like [the stock mentioned in] my last column, Timminco. But there are other ones that are down 50 or even more per cent in the last year. So, buying one stock at a time is always a challenge for individuals.

So, a lot of people say "Why don't I buy an Index, why don't I buy an ETF" and there are such things.

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Duncan Stewart: Green investing and Timminco

Monday, October 15, 2007 | 11:09 AM ET

Money Talks is a collection of daily columns from The Business Network, which airs weekday mornings on CBC Radio One at 5:45 a.m. ET (6:15 a.m. ET in N.L.).

As part of this green investing column it's not really my job to comment on share prices and whether they're cheap or expensive and stocks are going to go up or go down.

But, I think it is worthwhile taking a look at companies that are doing really well in this space. One such might be a company called Timminco.

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World »

Karzai, Musharraf target Taliban
The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan have begun a two-day meeting to talk about co-operating in the fight against insurgents based in the lawless border area between the two countries.
December 26, 2007 | 4:16 PM EST
6 bodies found east of Seattle
The bodies of six people have been found at a rural property east of Seattle, King County sheriff's detectives said Wednesday.
December 26, 2007 | 7:05 PM EST
French aid workers convicted of taking Chadian children
Six French aid workers have been sentenced to eight years' forced labour by a court in Chad for trying to abduct children from the African country.
December 26, 2007 | 2:31 PM EST
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Canada »

Canadians flock to Boxing Day bargains
Millions of Canadinas took part in the Boxing Day bonanza on Wednesday, although shopping malls may have been less crammed with bargain hunters this year.
December 26, 2007 | 11:32 AM EST
Dozens of carcasses discovered at Quebec quarry
Police and wildlife officers are investigating the discovery of dozens of pig, fox and coyote carcasses at a Quebec gravel quarry.
December 26, 2007 | 6:32 PM EST
Homolka's prison boyfriend could be freed in '08
A convicted killer, said to have had a relationship with Karla Homolka while the two were behind bars, could be released from a Quebec prison early in 2008.
December 26, 2007 | 8:20 PM EST
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Health »

Honey-drenched dressings touted as the bee's knees for wounds
Amid growing concern over drug-resistant superbugs and nonhealing wounds that endanger diabetes patients, nature's original antibiotic ? honey ? is making a comeback.
December 26, 2007 | 12:30 PM EST
Boxing Day dips wash away holiday excess, Europeans insist
Across Europe, people celebrated Boxing Day by diving into rivers, lakes and even oceans that challenged the threshold of humans' temperature tolerance.
December 26, 2007 | 3:16 PM EST
Woman's death marks 16th bird flu fatality in Egypt
A 25-year-old Egyptian woman has died of bird flu after she apparently contracted the disease from domestic fowl, a health official said Wednesday.
December 26, 2007 | 4:26 PM EST
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Arts & Entertainment»

Canadian jazz great Oscar Peterson dies
The jazz odyssey is over for Oscar Peterson: the Canadian known globally as one of the most spectacularly talented musicians ever to play jazz piano has died at age 82.
December 24, 2007 | 5:17 PM EST
Tributes pour in for 'giant in music' Peterson
Tributes are pouring in for Canadian jazz musician Oscar Peterson, who died Sunday at age 82.
December 26, 2007 | 2:49 PM EST
Broadway, Hollywood choreographer Michael Kidd dies
American choreographer Michael Kidd, who created dance for the stage musical Finian's Rainbow and the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, has died.
December 26, 2007 | 11:41 AM EST
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Technology & Science »

Weather odds could become the norm
As man-made climate change continues, the world will experience more extreme weather, bursts of heat, torrential rain and prolonged drought, scientists say.
December 26, 2007 | 2:17 PM EST
Yellowknife looks to old mine for geothermal energy
The N.W.T. capital will soon begin studying what could become Canada's first large-scale geothermal heat plant. Experts say heat from the defunct Con gold mine could supply enough power to serve half of the city's residents.
December 26, 2007 | 12:18 PM EST
Toyota announces plan to sell 9.85 million vehicles in 2008
In a neck-and-neck race that could dethrone General Motors as the world's top automaker, Toyota said it plans to sell 9.85 million vehicles globally in 2008.
December 26, 2007 | 12:10 PM EST
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Money »

Canadians flock to Boxing Day bargains
Millions of Canadinas took part in the Boxing Day bonanza on Wednesday, although shopping malls may have been less crammed with bargain hunters this year.
December 26, 2007 | 11:32 AM EST
U.S. house prices drop by a record 6.7 per cent
House prices in the United States fell in October for the 10th consecutive month, posting their largest monthly drop since early 1991, a widely watched index showed Wednesday.
December 26, 2007 | 4:13 PM EST
Apple Inc. shares reach $200 on core strength of IPod
Shares of Apple Inc. hit the $200 mark for the first time Wednesday as investor confidence in the company continued rising near the end of what has been a strong year for the IPod and computer maker.
December 26, 2007 | 3:30 PM EST
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Consumer Life »

Canadians flock to Boxing Day bargains
Millions of Canadinas took part in the Boxing Day bonanza on Wednesday, although shopping malls may have been less crammed with bargain hunters this year.
December 26, 2007 | 11:32 AM EST
Boxing Day purchases in cars easy prey for thieves: police
Vancouver police are advising Boxing Day shoppers not to leave newly-bought items in parked cars because they're easy prey for thieves.
December 26, 2007 | 9:41 AM EST
U.S. house prices drop by a record 6.7 per cent
House prices in the United States fell in October for the 10th consecutive month, posting their largest monthly drop since early 1991, a widely watched index showed Wednesday.
December 26, 2007 | 4:13 PM EST
more »

Sports »

Scores: CFL MLB MLS

Leafs lose Islander game, Toskala
Mike Comrie scored with nine seconds left in overtime as the New York Islanders topped the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in a game where both clubs resorted to using their backup goaltenders.
December 26, 2007 | 11:41 PM EST
Senators cool off surging Sabres
Dany Heatley notched three points ? including an empty-net goal ? for the Ottawa Senators as the Eastern Conference leaders snapped the Buffalo Sabres' six-game winning streak with a 5-3 road win Wednesday night.
December 26, 2007 | 11:49 PM EST
Tavares leads Canada
John Tavares scored twice in his world junior championship debut and goaltender Jonathan Bernier earned the shutout as Canada opened the tournament Wednesday with a 3-0 win over host Czech Republic.
December 26, 2007 | 5:56 PM EST
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Diversions »

Iowa man spends Christmas Eve stuck upside-down in opening of septic tank
Animals - not just the cute animated kind - commanded attention in 2007
Philly transit officer helps deliver special Christmas present - a baby girl
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