So what's the scale of the 'green' business opportunity?

Thanks to Ian Bell at National Instruments for drawing to my attention some interesting figures on the sustainable energy business in the Financial Times.

The FT reported on research by HSBC which indicates that low-carbon goods and services are generating more in revenues than the combined aerospace and defence sectors.

According to the HSBC's figures, listed companies in markets such as renewable-power generation, nuclear, energy management, water and waste companies had a combined global turnover of $534bn in 2008.

Over the same period the aerospace and defence sector was worth $530bn.

So there is little surprise that sales and marketing departments across the industry are feverishly searching for ways to address sustainable-energy technology markets. from wind and wave power generation to energy-efficient industrial products.

And if you add LED ligthing to the 'low-carbon business', then the scale of the opportunity for electronics sector increases even further.