Project Overview

Graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, have been engaged by the East Bay Green Corridor Partnership to map assets in the East Bay region of California that contribute to the development of the green economy.

What is the East Bay Green Corridor Partnership (EBGCP)?

EBGCP is a partnership between the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and Emeryville; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and UC Berkeley. Established in December 2007, the goal of the partnership is to make the East Bay the "Silicon Valley of the green economy." Objectives include:

• Attract and retain green businesses.
• Promote research and technology transfer
• Strengthen workforce development programs
• Work together to secure federal funding for job training, alternative energy research, etc.

For more information, visit EBGCP's website.

What is the Green Economy?

The green economy is comprised of economic activity that improves environmental quality and/or reduces energy consumption.Ê We have focused on a relatively conservative definition of the green economy (based on 40 6-digit NAICS codes and 150 8-digit SIC codes) that encompasses businesses and services in the following sectors: green building, energy services, environmental services, recycling and remediation, and green manufacturing.Ê This narrow definition may not capture every business in the East Bay that considers itself "green" but does reflect businesses that have a green core mission.

What is an asset map?

An asset map is a visualization of the assets - institutions, individuals, and networks - within a community or region that contribute to some goal. The goal of an asset map is to display all of these assets and their interconnections in one location and thereby uncover redundancies and opportunities for cross-fertilization and spreading best practices.

We hope this asset map will assist the East Bay Green Corridor Partnership in developing a successful strategy for workforce and economic development initiatives that will promote the regional green economy. There are many assets that can promote growth in these sectors:

• Financial assets: venture capital, angel networks, and other sources of funding
• Human resources: an educated workforce and training programs that give people relevant skills for green jobs.
• Policy assets: local and state policies that promote markets for environmental goods and services, as well as promoting green businesses.
• Research assets: local universities and research institutions that develop new technologies that feed into start-ups or existing businesses.
• Markets: local markets for environmental goods and services that provide an important stimulus to the green economy.
• Business culture: networks and informal contacts among businesses that contribute to a culture of innovation.

Although not all of these assets can be geographically mapped, they are still included in this website. Many of these indicators can be tracked over time, providing baseline metrics against which to measure the growth of the green economy in the East Bay over time.

Ultimately the successful development of the green economy in the East Bay will depend not solely on attracting new green businesses to the East Bay, but on taking advantage of the existing resources and networks of the region. This website attempts to illuminate what those resources are and how they feed into the emerging green economy.