Innovating the Green Economy in California Regions

"This report investigates innovation in the green economy in California.... Based on a review of 25 regional and national reports on the green economy, it lists the 18 different industry sectors considered part of the green economy [ranging from] traditional businesses like utilities that are greening their operations, to businesses in emerging industries, such as nanotechnology research, solar panel manufacturing and eco-tourism.... In 2008 there were 12,253 green establishments in the State of California, which collectively employed 163,616 workers across six distinct green economic sectors. [The report then presents] a critical review of the literature on innovation and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this work for [an] analysis of the green economy.... [The report includes a] survey of 344 firms identified as “green,” 194 traditional firms, and 63 firms from the Environmental Protection Agency Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)." Regional case studies include East Bay, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, San Diego, Silicon Valley, Upper San Joaquin Valley. (p. v-xi) (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• "The clear leaders in "cleantech" innovation are Silicon Valley and San Diego. San Diego trails Silicon Valley by a large margin in the composite innovation index, but it dominates product innovation (according to the survey)." • "Though both San Diego and Silicon Valley concentrate cleantech innovation within their borders, neither yet dominate cleantech the way they do innovation overall. In a sense, they are coasting on their innovation laurels, benefiting from previous rounds of investment in an innovation infrastructure." • "The all-around leaders of California’s green economy are Los Angeles and the East Bay. Los Angeles dominates cleantech innovation and the green economy due to its sheer size. The East Bay is playing a new lead role in the green economy, particularly in biofuels and other alternative fuels." • "Although the bulk of cleantech innovation and green economy jobs are located in the top four regions, many California regions are benefiting from the spillover of the green economy from these areas. State and local regulation plays a role here in leveling the playing field: firms may move out to more peripheral areas in order to lower costs, while many local businesses seem to be changing the way they operate in order to comply with environmental regulation." • "Government support for R&D and the research infrastructure is shifting to a more collaborative approach, emphasizing public/private partnerships, multidisciplinary projects, and open innovation." • "Local government matters to cleantech innovation, particularly its commercialization, as well as to the green economy more generally; local climate action plans, building codes, financing schemes, and procurement can all help build a market for green products and processes. Thus, the more proactive local governments will likely emerge as the winners, at least initially, in the green economy. But the state remains the most important actor in promulgating cleantech innovation and green economy growth. State regulation is helping to level the playing field across California regions; without it, we would unlikely see the relatively high levels of green job growth that have occurred in the Inland Empire and Upper San Joaquin Valley." (ES, p. xiii-xvi) (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2010
• Author(s): Chapple, Karen; Hutson, Malo; Kroll, Cynthia; Lester, T. William; Rosenthal, Larry et al.
• Organizational Author(s): Center for Community Innovation, University of California, Berkeley
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies