Aug. 5, 2008 - Venture capital investment in U.S. cleantech companies bumped 41% in the second quarter of 2008, thanks in large part to multimillion dollar commitments from some of the biggest names in business.

An Ernst & Young report released yesterday finds that new corporate commitments to climate change are stimulating much of the activity in the cleantech sector.

Seventy Seven percent of respondents have integrated cleantech into their internal systems or supply chains and 63% offer cleantech-related products according to the survey of 150 large corporations.

Large industrial, oil, automotive, and utilities corporations are increasingly entering strategic partnerships and making acquisitions to find alternatives to oil.

In May, BP announced its $8 billion investment over the next ten years in green technologies. In the same month Dow announced it recouped its ten-year, $1 billion energy-efficiency investment five times over thanks to new technologies.

More recently Bank of America announced its latest investment as part of its $20 billion, ten-year environmental commitment to promote sustainability both in its own operations and in the companies it helps to finance.

Such long-term commitments and investments suggest solid, continued growth in the sector.

"In a challenging market, investment in the cleantech sector remains strong because these companies provide cross-sector solutions to economic and environmental challenges," says Joseph A. Muscat, director of cleantech and venture capital, Ernst & Young.