Companies strong in Cleveland's industrial past could see growth in the region's clean-technology future, the latest report from Team NEO says.
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View full sizeJohn Grabner, president of Cardinal Fastener & Speciality Co. Inc. in Bedford Heights, shows off one of the specialized bolts his company makes for the wind turbine industry. The bolt is still red hot from a forge that shaped its hexagonal head. A report out today says companies like Cardinal Fastener stand to benefit from the movement toward clean technology.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Companies strong in Northeast Ohio's industrial past could see growth in the region's clean-technology future, the latest report from Team NEO says.
Sectors including metal fabrication, plastics and chemicals could be key players as the region moves to capture business in fields like advanced energy, pollution controls and energy efficiency -- collectively known as clean technology or "cleantech"-- Team NEO says in a report being released today.
"This new, growing field ... is enabled by our past," said Tom Waltermire, president of Team NEO, the nonprofit charged with attracting new business to the region.
Each quarter, Team NEO issues a report highlighting an economic strength in the region.
A focus on clean technology led Team NEO researchers to the California Green Digest, one of the first attempts nationally to quantify all forms of manufacturing that could be part of a clean-technology supply chain.
Team NEO found those manufacturing sectors represent $12.5 billion, or 7.5 percent, of the gross regional product here.
Those sectors are projected to grow more than 20 percent by 2015, according to Team NEO's analysis of Moody's Economy.com, a provider of economic analysis, data and forecasting.
About 'cleantech'
Team NEO's latest quarterly report references Wikipedia for a definition of clean technology, or "cleantech."
The broad term is "used to describe products or services that improve operational performance, productivity, or efficiency while reducing costs, inputs, energy consumption, waste or pollution," says the web-based encyclopedia that is edited by its users.
Further, Wikipedia says clean technology refers to "renewable energy (wind power, solar power, biomass, hydropower, biofuels), information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, and many other appliances that are now more energy efficient. It is a means to create electricity and fuels with a smaller environmental footprint. And it is the need to make green buildings both more energy efficient and environmentally benign."
The region has a ready labor pool in those sectors, too. Twenty of 27 occupations that could serve the clean-technology supply chain show above-average concentrations of workers, according to Team NEO's analysis of federal labor statistics.
Job fields include materials scientists, chemical equipment operators and operators of computer-controlled machine tools.
Team NEO's report is the latest to highlight the potential for the region and Ohio to benefit from clean-and-green industries, which are expected to grow as the nation tries to wean itself from oil and reduce carbon emissions.
Job estimates vary, but studies have found that Ohio could realize tens of thousands of new jobs from growth in energy-efficient construction, mass transit and wind power.
But that potential won't be reached without helping old-guard companies retool and attracting new business from outside the state, officials said.
In that regard, Ohio's $1.4 billion Third Frontier program invests millions of dollars with established companies that are developing new products, such as fuel cells for cars, glass for solar panels and environmentally friendly fertilizers.
"We have lots of companies that make stuff," said Nadeane Howard, director of the energy division at the Ohio Department of Development. "Many of them are part of the auto-supply chain. With minimal retooling and a different perspective on customers, they can find new business."
Regionally, special efforts are under way to boost advanced energy, a prominent part of the cleantech sector.
NorTech, the regional nonprofit fostering high-tech growth, has launched Energy Enterprise, a three-year, $4.2 million focus on companies engaged in advanced energy. The region features more than 400 such companies and nonprofit organizations.
Last week, NorTech received a $300,000 federal grant to craft global business strategies for companies involved in energy storage, smart grids, electric-powered transport and biomass/waste-to-energy.
NorTech also joined an application filed Thursday by a "TechBelt" -- extending from Cleveland to Pittsburgh to Morgantown, W. Va. -- that hopes to land $130 million in federal money for bringing energy-efficient building technologies to market, NorTech President Rebecca Bagley said.
Large-company partners in the application include Alcoa Inc., Eaton Corp. and Sherwin-Williams Co., Bagley said.
NorTech and Team NEO, meanwhile, are developing a strategy to lure manufacturers of wind turbine parts here.
And Team NEO is using a $1 million grant from the Cleveland Foundation to establish a small sales and marketing team in Europe, whose duties will include trying to lure wind turbine parts makers here, said Team NEO spokeswoman Carin Rockind.