February 2011: Linking in to Clean Tech
As February unfolded, IES was invited to a special meeting at the British consulate in Boston, to discuss plans for our upcoming investor showcase event held in partnership with UK based SetSquared. This event will bring together angel and clean tech investors to introduce them to some of Massachusetts’ most promising entrepreneurs, inventions and start-up companies. These are the types of events that generated a lot of buzz around Massachusetts clean tech companies this month when the Boston Globe released a story that five MA based clean tech organizations raised a total of $95 million dollars in private investment. This is due in part to events similar to the planned investor showcase that were hosted in Massachusetts throughout 2010.
IES has been keeping a careful eye on the number of energy and environmental grants that have been released this winter; including the EPA Environmental Justice Grant, the EPA CARE grant, the DOL Green Jobs Innovation Fund, and the DOL Pathways out of Poverty Grant. IES attended meetings with local partners to discuss ways to collaborate on these grants. The MA CEC hosted a Q&A concerning the Pathways out of poverty grant that IES attended and learned that this year the grants would be allocated for on the job training programs and a total of $700,000 was available statewide. Not sure yet, if we’ll submit an application, but it is good to know that so many green jobs training programs exist.
At the beginning of the month IES created a Linkedin page and by the end of February we were already connected to over 200 industry professionals. Be sure to send us an invite and we’ll see you out there!
