You correctly imply that lithium-ion batteries are not very "green" compared to many newly evolving technologies.  IMO, the most significant of which is the enormous amount of freshwater required to make them.  ...not a good thing for a drying planet.

Here is an incomplete summary of alternatives listing some of the benefits over lithium-ion batteries. 

https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/973718/challengers-emerge-alternatives-to-lithium-ion-batteries-973718.html

I like the Vanadium Redox Flow Battery for its large-scale potential.  It may never work for transportation (except for charging smaller scale batteries), but it can power industrial plants.  In some cases, they are even now powering small residential communities in successful trials that lower subscriber costs. 

Some investors will continue to make money in the lithium area in the near term.  Further out, that is not likely to be so. 

VP