Folks interested in an overview of the energy management/energy services space and the publicly-traded companies that play there would be well served to read the series of articles Tom Konrad has developed for Forbes. An easy way to enter that series is through his concluding piece, “Stock Picks with a Whole Systems Approach,” which includes links to each article in the series. What Tom also includes here is an assessment – neither good or bad, just honest – that World Energy Solutions is “not a green enough investment” for his taste. That is because, as he further explains, World Energy’s “core business is getting customers the cheapest possible power, something I do not see as particularly green.”

We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. Not only is World Energy the firm behind the only carbon cap and trade system in the U.S. – RGGI – but we are also responsible for brokering hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy, which has the practical effect of getting C&I, institutional and government customers to actually use green power, and often times more of it, because we help make it more affordable. And now we have entered the energy efficiency market with that same passion for creating value and savings for our customers.

Kermit was right: it isn’t easy being green. But nothing really worth doing is.