Chinatown leaders who participated in the event spoke about the need to preserve and strengthen the strong cultural identity of the community and rich streetscape experience in the neighborhood’s business district.  The student teams are commited to developing designs that reflect that cultural identity while improving the energy performance and competitive position of participating businesses.

Project partners, the Asian American Civic Association, Boston Architectural College, and Boston Redevelopment Authority celebrated the public private partnership and substantive opportunity for students to work closely with Chinatown business owners.  And everyone applauded Chinatown for leading the charge on a new, innovative sustainability effort with city-wide implications.  The design competition is supported by a grant from the Barr Foundation.

We look forward to watching these teams as their storefront renovation designs coalesce.  A jury composed of Chinatown community leaders and design professionals will pick a winner in January.  The winning business will receive $18,000 to help implement their design.  The winning design team will receive a $2,000 award.

If you could buy premium gasoline at the pump for the same price you pay for regular, you’d choose premium, right?  Who wouldn’t choose a superior energy source (no carbon solar) over a polluting, carbon intensive one if prices were equal?  That’s essentially the goal of the sunshot initiative.

In case you’ve forgotten, as recently at 2007, solar installation costs in Massachusetts were hovering around $9 a watt.  Installation costs are half that these days and panel and balance of system efficiencies are improving, thanks to healthy competition, component innnovation, and smart, market based industry incentives from the state and federal goverment.

The shift away from fossil fuel based grid power (produced largely out of state) toward solar (installed locally, some components manufactured locally) also produce substantial macroeconomic benefits.  Each megawatt of solar installed in Massachusetts generates 41 job years, $2.3 million in wage and salary compensation to workers and $6.1 million in economic activity (Source:  DOE).  Solar installations also reduce local emmissions by offsetting fossil fuel based power generation.  These reductions have real human health and economic impacts.  According to the US EPA, for each megawatt of solar installed in Massachusetts, reductions in emissions (sulfer dioxide, nitrogen oxide, CO2) generate $1.03 million in health benefits.

Satcon has been growing steadily at its location in the Boston Marine Industrial Park, adding jobs and manufacturing capacity.   Satcon will use the award to develop a new inverter architecture that eliminates the impacts of voltage variation caused by PV system generation variability.

We congratulate them, and the three other Massachusetts SunShot award recipients, on their latest achievement.

Across Boston’s neighborhoods, hundreds of business owners, often working closely with design and financial assistance from the City of Boston’s ReStore program, have made improvements to their storefronts that help attract customers, improve streetscapes, and increase property values. 

Now, with support from the Barr Foundation, the Boston Architectural College, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, we are helping to bring sustainable design excellence to Chinatown’s famous business/restaurant district with a juried design competition in which the winner will receive funds to help underwrite the cost of construction.

What is a sustainable storefront?  Our design teams will help answer that question, and will likely explore building envelope performance, materials, natural light, clean energy production, signage, storm water management and more in the process.  Overall design excellence including streetscape context and historic preservation will weigh heavily.

Thanks to the BAC for providing project leadership and to the AACA for promoting the project generally and for providing cultural/language translation expertise.

National cleantech employment, at 2.7 million, exceeds the number of workers in both the life sciences and fossil fuel industries, but remains smaller than IT.  The Boston region (including Cambridge, Quincy, southern New Hampshire in the report) ranks 8th nationally in cleantech job totals.  Other key findings include:

• While the cleantech industry overall grew slightly slower than the rest of the economy through the recession (dragged down primarily by heavy construction/green buiding losses), some sectors including solar, wind, energy storage, and smart grid – where the greater Boston area is strong - grew rapidly.
• The clean economy is manufacturing and export intensive. Roughly 26 percent of all clean economy jobs lie in manufacturing establishments, compared to just 9 percent in the broader economy. On a per job basis, establishments in the clean economy export roughly twice the value of a typical U.S. job ($20,000 versus $10,000).
• The clean economy offers more opportunities and better pay for low- and middle-skilled workers than the national economy as a whole. Median wages in the clean economy—meaning those in the middle of the distribution—are 13 percent higher than median U.S. wages.

The report also describes the benefits of cluster strategies, importance of coordinating and aligning workforce training resources, and the importance of government policy with regard to energy and green procurement.

If there were a biofuel shuttle between MIT and the Innovation District, GreenTown Labs would be the first stop.  Structured as a non-profit, built on strategic partnerships and considerable bootstrapping, GTL essentially serves as affordable housing for cleantech entrepreneurs who can’t pay the lease rates in Kendall Square but appreciate the Innovation District’s proximity to the mothership, Boston’s venture community, and the District’s sustainability and living lab constructs.  The founding members who made the leap across the river have been joined by other incubator occupants including wind and solar power developers, a home energy management system venture, various energy efficiency start ups, and a green trade association, among others. 

Boston Mayor Menino said it best before he cut the ribbon:  “there are a lot of great companies in Boston, but your companies are growing” and he added, “you know, one of the companies here might become the next big company, the one that everyone recognizes around the kitchen table.”

We all look forward to watching GreenTown Labs, and its member companies grow and thrive in Boston’s Innovation District.

The last 2 years have been challenging, but Boston cleantech/clean energy companies are thriving, thanks to the drive, talent and innovative spirit of the region’s cleantech entrepreneurs, growing firms, and established companies, the strategic investments made by our considerable cleantech venture capital community, and state and local goverment policy that recognizes the strength and growth potential of the clean energy industry. 

Last summer, in the midst of the recession, I introduced Mayor Menino to a dozen cleantech CEO’s, and I think we were all surprised and delighted to hear that every single one of those companies was creating jobs and growing.

The labor market remains awash with talented individuals who want to join the clean energy field.  But we all need to work together to ensure that the workforce pipeline remains full, and that young people entering the job market have the skills, experience, and credentials to be competitive. 

I know that many of you are committed to hiring locally.  I want to commend Fast Cap Systems, a relatively new addition to the City and to the Innovation District, for their leadership on this issue.  And challenge all of you to learn more about how you can support Mayor Menino and his effort to create summer youth employment opportunities for our young citizens. 

I hope you’ll participate in a briefing next Monday June 20th, 10:30 am at the BRA’s offices in the Marine Industrial Park at 22 Drydock Ave. to learn more about how you can engage a Boston high school student in a valuable summer internship learning experience. 

Josh Bruno, School-to-Career and Employer Engagement Director, at the Private Industry Council, which administers the City’s summer youth employment program, will be there to answer questions.  In the meantime, calls and emails are also welcome.  Please contact Josh at josh.bruno@bostonpic.org  or 617-488-1327 for more info or to participate in the briefing.

Our industry is laser focused on developing products and services that reduce environmental impacts, while

Businesses and manufacturers throughout Boston are implementing broad sustainability measures to both green their facilities and reduce energy operating costs. While most may not have the capital to design and build a new energy efficient LEED certified building, many with strong sustainability goals have begun deploying energy efficiency improvements in fleet operations, lighting, water conservation, pollution prevention, and hvac and compressor equipment for refrigeration units.

Katsiroubas Bros., a wholesale produce distributor in the Newmarket District recently identified a series of solutions to reduce the electrical demands of their operation by replacing all of the lights to lower wattage and higher output which reduced usage by 92,972 kilowatts annually with a savings of $13,640.00 projected per year.  By increasing insulation levels in their refrigerated trucks and installing idle-free systems that shut off automatically after 15 minutes their entire fleet has reduced fuel usage considerably.   Katsiroubas Bros. has also increased their regional and local purchasing of produce from the Pioneer Valley Association, a group of 40 local farmers, while their green management team has begun tracking improvements on water, energy and trash usage throughout the entire business.
Here’s a link to Katsiroubos Bros.  improvements-

[1] http://www.katsiroubasproduce.com/pdf/KATS_Green_Initiatives_2.pdf

Over the next six months the BRA’s Newmarket Eco- Industrial Zone Project funded through an EPA Sustainable Skyline’s grant will explore proven strategies for area businesses to increase building energy efficiency and facilitate the adoption of district-scale energy solutions including; combined heat and power (CHP), geothermal heating and biomass.    Anti-idyling and plug-in solutions will be explored for the business district to reduce emissions from truck fleets, while cool and green roof solutions for  targeted shading from street trees and awnings will be adopted to reduce urban heat islands.  Stormwater management and asphalt coverage data will be compiled to identify district-wide strategies to reduce discharges into Fort Point Channel.

The creation of an eco-industrial zone will be a critical step in implementing district-scale synergies between businesses which will reduce their operating costs and make them more competitive as a sustainable model of economic growth for the city of the future.

The Eco- Industrial Park model was first implemented in the Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park in Denmark where local manufacturers share resources through industrial symbiosis.  At the heart of the project is a coal fired power plant which provides excess heat to 3500 homes, as well as a local fish farm whose waste sludge is then sold as fertilizer.  By-products from the power plant scrubbers are used for a local gypsum manufacturer and the utilization of the excess heat prevents it from being discharged into the local fjord.  Additionally other waste materials including fly-ash from the power plant are used in road construction and cement production.

More updates on this groundbreaking project to come…

The City will unveil a 3 charging unit pilot in the near future.  Meanwhile, Chevy Volts (purchased in Connecticut and New York) and Nissan Leafs have already been spotted on Boston’s streets. 

The City and BRA will soon begin a process to identify the best strategy to roll out charging infrastructure across the City, and to help owners of private parking spaces make the best decisions about this new technology.

The diversion of solid and organic waste materials from landfills has numerous positive economic and health benefits, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions,  waste hauling fees,  miles traveled by waste hauling vehicles,  a reduction in the number of landfills, and increased recycling rates.

The economic benefits of increased recycling rates have an enormous impact on the state by bolstering and supporting over 2,000 businesses associated with recycling, reuse, and re-manufacturing with an estimated 14,000 jobs and revenues of $3.2 Billion

Waste to energy facilities can become an important component of the renewable energy portfolio for the state as outlined in the Green Communities Act of 2008, as they are eligible for renewable energy credits.

One of the most promising non-combustion processes for converting waste to energy is through Anaerobic Digestion  (AD), a process in which organic materials are broken down and utilized as feedstock in an oxygen deprived environment to produce biogas.

Greentech’s EPA funded Newmarket Eco-Industrial Zone Project is pursuing a number of sustainable strategies for local businesses to reduce their operating costs associated with energy and waste.  The wholesale produce and meat distribution facilities in Newmarket collectively produce over 27,000 tons of organic waste, which is presently trucked off- site by waste hauling companies and would provide enough feedstock for a district based AD facility. This presents a tremendous opportunity for the district to secure a renewable energy source that is centered on a locally sourced waste product.  The project will also be exploring the implementation of a district-scale energy facility that uses the biogas as a fuel source through a Cogeneration Plant  to provide both electricity and district heat for the businesses within the industrial corridor.

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.