Boston’s Cleantech Cluster Featured in American Business Journal
Boston’s growing Cleantech Cluster in the Innovation District is explored in the latest issue of the American Business Journal. The article (begins on page 46) describes how the core principles of the Innovation District – shared innovation, “living lab”, and environmental leadership – create optimal conditions for cleantech company growth and development. But our work goes beyond promoting principles. We’re working with developers to help them create affordable, shared office and lab space for venture backed companies, identifying beta testing sites - on public and privately owned buildings – for promising cleantech products and services, surveying cleantech CEOs on sector policy priorities, exploring a district scale sustainable grid project in the heart of the Innovation District, and more.
Contact me if you’re interested in learning more about the cleantech companies located in the Innovation District, or if you’re looking to relocate or expand your business there.
read moreThe Japan Disaster, Community Resilience, and Sustainable Economic Development
Community Resilience: Plan, build, deploy and maintain physical and social infrastructures such that vulnerability to natural and human hazards and disasters is reduced for all members of a community; ensure that communities are adequately prepared to respond to crisis in a manner that is effective and coordinated, and recovery is accelerated. (credit: STAR Community Index)
The earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant failures in Japan painfully highlight the importance of resilience, and the emerging consensus among planners and economic development practitioners that resilience must be prioritized along side job creation, conventional public safety, affordable housing, clean air and water standards, public education, etc. Resilience is indeed a recognized priority among those planning and building sustainable communities. And within that realm, cleantech plays a powerful supporting role.
While our hearts go out to the citizens of Japan, the disaster is a learning opportunity for communities around the globe that robust, sustainable energy supply systems, redundant and resilient water and food production and distribution systems, and resilient design deserve our attention and resources.
On Energy:
The nuclear plant failures have highlighted widely reported reminders that the plants, even when shut down, require power to maintain the cooling infrastructure necessary to prevent core meltdowns. Distributed generation, anchored by safe, clean renewable energy production and managed by smart grids and buildings can add stability and resilience to conventional grids and centralized power. At the building level, climate change adaptation experts within Boston City Hall are discussing the need to move power infrastructure out of basements, particularly in coastal, flood prone areas. Indeed, the emergency energy supply system at the Fukushima plant in Japan failed because the switching equipment was located in the basement and damaged by the flooding. While New England faces a much smaller risk of both tsunamis and earthquakes, sea level rise and powerful storms are already a reality.
Recognizing the need to maintain navigable, lighted roadways during disasters, the Dept. of Energy awarded a grant to Solar Boston, to develop a solar powered evacuation route through the City. And the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s effort to develop a vision for a district scale sustainable energy system in the Boston Marine Industrial Park includes an examination of relevant climate change adaptation strategies.
On Water:
Storm events are increasing in frequency and severity, putting pressure on conventional stormwater management systems. Increasing permeable surface area, and integrating smart stormwater infrastructure including green and blue roofs, bioswales and raingardens with conventional approaches will upgrade urban areas to meet these new challenges, while creating good, local jobs and providing other environmental and human health benefits.
Future posts will examine local food production and passive survivability as it relates to community resilience. Here in New England, while storm and flooding threats may be the most widely reported, a disruption in heating fuels coupled with an extended cold snap could threaten property and lives. What design elements would constitute a dwelling able sustain human life in Boston under such conditions?
read moreBoston’s “Complete Streets” Vision Highlights Cleantech
Boston launched a new web portal for the City’s “Complete Streets” effort, a streetscape design guideline development process that integrates three key principles: multimodal, green, and smart. While the guidelines themselves are noteworthy, the development process was equally innovative and forward thinking. Led by the Boston’s Transportation Dept. under the leadership of Commissioner Tom Tinlin, many experts across as many discliplines, from within and outside City Hall, academia, R&D shops and advocates, community members and policy makers, participated in an iterative, months long design process that surfaced best practices and reached consensus on a wide array of competing challenges and priorities. The guidelines are a “living document” that will help promote an array of superior design elements on Boston’s roadways that have positive environmental, energy, and human health impacts.
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure, advanced stormwater management, improved biking lanes and related infrastructure - these elements and more will improve the user experience while growing the market for cleantech products and services.
read moreSolar Thermal Training for Contractors
The Boston Green Jobs Center and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center are co-sponsoring a full-day workshop providing Boston contractors with a general overview of solar thermal technologies. Topics will include introduction to system design, installation and inspection; understanding incentives and policy drivers; and information on building and marketing a solar thermal business.
Christopher Beebe, an expert in solar thermal energy and clean energy deployment will be the instructor for the workshop and will be joined by a panel of speakers from the Clean Energy Center (Mass CEC) Heatspring Learning Institute and other industry experts.
Solar thermal systems can provide up to 50% of the domestic hot (DWH) water for a typical residence and further reduce the homeowners reliance on natural gas and electric hot water heaters.
Greentech coordinates closely with the BRA’s workforce training development team to ensure that the City’s workforce training strategy is aligned with our cleantech economic development goals and priorities.
The workshop will be held on April 1st at Economy Plumbing (875 Morton Street, Boston, MA 02126. The $40. workshop fee includes a networking lunch.
Register here:
sites.google.com/site/greenjobsboston/GBCTI
or contact Matt Bruce at 617-918-5252
read moreBoston Prepares for Electric Vehicle Adoption
Rising gasoline prices are painful, but GM, Nissan, Toyota, and other electric vehicle manufacturers must be celebrating the timing. EVs face market penetration challenges however, and consumer skepticism may be the smallest obstacle. States and cities have only recently begun to roll out EV charging infrastructure and electric utilities must ensure that grids are ready to handle the increased loads that EVs will create.
GreenTech has been working with a cross agency team here at City Hall to address these and other EV market adoption challenges. Charging infrastructure – public and private, renewable energy integration, permitting, EV awareness, and smart grid integration are all key issues that are on our radar.
We’ve mapped Toyota Prius owners (by planning district) as a proxy for EV adoption. (The East Boston figure – 171 – is inflated due to EVs at dealerships and Logan Airport. The private ownership number is closer to 130.)
Drop me a line if you plan to purchase an EV.
read moreGalvin Electricity Initiative Sparks Sustainable District Energy Talk in BMIP
District heating. A municipally supported energy aggregation buying group. On-site, business community owned renewable energy production. Smart Grid ready buildings. High performance energy standards and assistance for tenant fit outs. Green leases. A lower carbon, more competitive Boston Marine Industrial Park (BMIP).
These were some of the ideas that a range of 35-40 stakeholders including business leaders, government and quasi-governmental representatives, utilities, energy distributors, cleantech CEOs, policy makers, and energy experts discussed and debated at a sprited workshop today led by John Kelly and the Galvin Electricity Initiative to explore district scale sustainable energy solutions in the BMIP, which anchors Boston’s Innovation District.
Achieving these goals will require innovative finance tools and approaches, greater transparency among stakeholders, and public private partnerships, but BRA Director John Palmieri, who attended the workshop offered his strong support for exploring a range of energy strategies that will help all BMIP tenants reduce their energy costs, move the Park toward a lower carbon energy supply, while growing the cleantech cluster there.
This visioning workshop was just the first step. We look forward to on-going productive engagement with business owners, our utility partners, NSTAR and National Grid, Massport, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, Veolia, and others. If we are successful, the sustainable district energy vision in the Park could serve as a prototype which we could eventually scale to the broader Innovation District, joining a handful of sustainable energy district scale efforts under development around the globe.
Beyond tackling energy consumption in existing buildings, experts familiar with the Park speculated that new development could double energy demand in the Park over the next 10 to 20 years. At the same time, rising sea levels and energy costs demand that public and private sector forces join hands to identify innovative solutions to tackle these new energy, climate change, and economic development challenges. The Park’s growing cleantech cluster, anchored by renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, cleantech R&D facilities, and sustainable design firms, can play a powerful role by injecting innovative techologies, new service and business models into the mix, supported by City leaders who are eager to promote cleantech prototyping and beta testing site locations for our cleantech cluster.
Please contact me if you are interested in joining this exciting effort.
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