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Municipal Innovations


Metro Cable, Caracas, Venezuela

Urbanization is the story of civilization. Over the half the world's population now lives in cities. Innovations that improve the quality of life for residents of municipalities are vital to our future.

Planet-TECH Associates has a long history of investigating these innovations and advocating for those that are most promising.

  • Hub of Innovations: Since 2004 we have partnered with The Boston Foundation's nationally acclaimed Indicators Project in the creation and maintenance of the Hub of Innovations. This is a web-based tool that highlights precedent-setting innovations germane to municipalities. The innovations are organized by sectors of interest to the Boston Foundation, such as Economy, Health, and Transportation. Sample innovations we highlighted and thus helped advance knowledge of within the Boston Foundation community included Zip Car, Somerville 311, and the Warner-Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry.
  • Premium Power for Urban Centers: In 2001 we worked for The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative on behave of the City of Haverhill to investigate the utilization of premium power for conversion of mill buildings into data centers. This was part of an effort to support economic development in the historic urban centers of Massachusetts cities. 'Premium power', in this case, referred to high-availability electrical power supply from hydrogen fuel cells. The report, thus, combined an analysis of both industrial real estate and cutting edge technology.
  • Green Chemistry for Business and Workforce Development: In 2007 we helped plan and host the world's first summit on Green Chemistry Business Development. This precedent-setting event gathered world leaders in Green Chemistry together with economic development stakeholders to help find business and workforce enhancement opportunities within the Merrimack Valley Region of Massachusetts, and was particularly germane to the regional municipalities, such as Haverhill, Lawrence, and Lowell.

 

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