Clean technology includes a broad range of industries that enable environmental sensitivity. It is an up-and-coming sector for which the Research Triangle Region is strongly positioned. .

 

Clean and green technology represents a confluence of the region’s competencies in biotechnology, information technology and advanced material sciences. Significant opportunity exists to export knowledge-based products and services in this sector to fast-growing countries, such as China and India, which face serious environmental challenges.

 

Innovation generators RTI International, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and each of the region’s research universities are involved in research in this area as is the Biofuels Center of North Carolina, located within the region in Granville County. The state created the center in 2007 to implement North Carolina's Strategic Plan for Biofuels Leadership, which offers an ambitious goal: by 2017, 10 percent of liquid fuels sold in North Carolina will come from biofuels grown and produced within the state.

 

Businesses related to this cluster range from enzyme-maker Novozymes North America in Franklin County, which creates enzymes that can catalyze North Carolina-produced feedstocks to create alternative fuels, to Piedmont Biofuels in Chatham County, the nation’s primary consulting source for biodiesel plant design and production.

 

N.C. State University is home to the National Science Foundation’s research center working to transform the nation's electric power grid into a "smart grid" that will easily store and distribute energy produced from solar panels, wind farms, fuel cells and other energy sources. The NSF Engineering Research Center for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems (FREEDOM Center) operates with support from more than 60 companies involved in electricity production.

 

The new Institute for Sustainable Enterprise in Orange County aims to become the national center for research, development and application of sustainable business-development practices. Chambers of commerce across the region have signed on as partners, offering members access to services under the brand name Green Plus to help them operate more sustainably – that is, focused on a triple-bottom line of financial profitability, social equity and environmental sustainability.

 

UNC-Chapel Hiill’s Center for Sustainable Enterprise, part of Kenan-Flagler Business School, is one of the top centers in the nation focused on issues related to sustainable development. It operates the UNC Business Accelerator for Sustainable Enterprise to support the launch and development of sustainable business ventures in the region.