Turning Toronto into a cleantech cluster
My Clean Break column today is about cleantech clusters, and how Toronto — and southern Ontario for that matter — is behind the pack in creating a critical mass of companies, academic institutions, and utilities that collaborate on the development of clean technologies. The implications of doing so, of course, is local investment and job creation. Nicholas Parker, co-founder and chairman of the Cleantech Venture Network who lives and loves Toronto, is trying to get Mayor David Miller and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty behind an effort to make Toronto (or southern Ontario more broadly) a clean technology cluster that can compete with the likes of London, Shanghai, San Francisco, Boston and Vancouver. Parker figures Toronto could create 100,000 new direct jobs over the next 10 years if it focused its efforts and built the necessary links between academia, government, utilities and local cleantech companies. The pieces of the puzzle are there, we just have to put them together.
If discussions go well, Parker hopes to announce a public-private Toronto cleantech partnership in October, when Toronto is expected to play host to one of his company’s popular Cleantech Venture Forums.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
February 26th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
We need an analysis of the jobs created in Ontario with a conervation and renewable strategy for electricity and space and industrial heat savings and production respectivley. Our OPA provides us with one vision for power production, versus the possibility of several different paths, each with different, cost, environmental and economic consequences. what would the economics be of a strategy that supports conservation and renewable energy for 20 years versus a nuclear strategy, where are the jobs, for how long, and what industries and communities do the two energy paths support in Ontario. The non-nuclear approach will create jobs in all Ontario communities, is that not a good strategy for a society, versus more hugely concentrated reactor component production.
I have just been at a meeting today where German wind turbine manufacturers have reported 60,000 jobs in their wind industry, and 40,000 jobs in the solar industry. Our provincial government desperately needs to commission work to determine the job potential with policies that support renewables and efficiency.
cheers