Building a green economy is critical in strengthening a city’s economic climate and ensuring long-term growth. With the green movement making an economic impact nationally, it is paramount for cities to develop a comprehensive plan that will attract and retain both growing and established environmentally-friendly businesses. By creating green-friendly laws, standards, partnerships, and services, the city of Boston will be able to attract new businesses, increase employment across all income spectra, and eventually build a center of clean technology where firms can thrive.
Boston is currently a well-renowned city for promoting green practices and helping provide the tools for businesses and other entities to go green. What Boston is lacking is a specific outline and policies to ensure green practices and to attract green tech businesses to the Boston area. Boston has groups such as RenewBoston and GreenTech that are helping to promote green technology, to provide green guidelines, and to assist businesses in green initiatives. What groups like these and Boston fail to do is provide rules and incentives that will bring green tech businesses to the city. With more green tech businesses and green initiatives in Boston, the city would surge to an even more environmentally successful level.
To make Boston a center of clean technology that will attract green tech business, the city should begin by pursuing at the following recommendations:
- Implementing Public Works Projects
- Diversifying Business Plans and Introducing Workforce Training
- Partnering with universities and investing in green technology
- Implementing green-friendly zoning laws and cross-agency collaboration
- Providing loans to stimulate green business
- Encouraging partnerships between the private sector and universities for specific research projects
- Instituting retrofitting and weatherizing
- Promoting partnerships between businesses, public organizations, grassroots organizations, and researchers
By adhering to and following the policy recommendations listed, Boston will have the foundation to move forward as a clean technology powerhouse. Pursuing green public works projects will help stimulate the economic climate and provide jobs to residents while the research partnership between city government, universities, and businesses will help utilize every city resource available. Diversifying business plans and introducing workforce training will prepare the city for such industries. Furthermore, universities and government can play a joint-role in recruiting green businesses to locate within the area. Zoning and internal governmental agency collaboration both help increase the economic attractiveness and efficiency within the city. In addition, city-supported loans will help increase the flow of capital and help firms expand. Weathering and retrofitting will make the city itself more energy efficient while providing jobs and business for green firms. Finally, when there are partnerships between businesses, public and grassroot organizations, and reasearchers, all the knowledge of the city is combined into one effective channel. By adopting such recommendations, the city will ultimately become more friendly towards, and eventually attract, green businesses.