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Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (right) introduced Dean Steven Currall at the second Greenwise public meeting in July, where Currall stressed that job creation was key to the initiative. “It ’s very much an ecosystem model that involves higher education” as well as innovators, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other parts of the business community, he said.
photo courtesy Jon Mortimer/Sacramento Press
Mayor Kevin Johnson’s Vision to Turn Capital Region into “Emerald Valley ”
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ean Steven Currall and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson have united to turn the capital region into a global leader in the green economy. Currall joined Johnson’s Greenwise initiative leadership team this spring with a bold goal to make the capital region synonymous with the green and clean tech industry, just as Silicon Valley is considered the Mecca for high tech. “Let’s transform Sacramento into an Emerald Valley,” Johnson said at the launch of Greenwise in May. “Let’s be a hub for green and clean technology. We already have the greenest state. Why not have the greenest capital in the greenest state?” Johnson’s eight-month initiative is led by a task force divided into five policy areas: energy, waste and recycling, water and nature, urban design and green building, and green and clean technology, which Currall heads. Johnson’s goal is to coordinate and energize public and private commitments
“To build a great company, you need to inspire.”
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erious Materials CEO Kevin Surace is on a mission to increase energy efficiency in buildings while growing green jobs and manufacturing in the U.S. “Construction and operation of our residences and commercial buildings accounts for 52 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” Surace said during a visit to the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship in May. “We can slash that number by re-engineering common products that use or lose the most energy.” Sunnyvale, Calif.– based Serious Materials’ energy-efficient solutions generated nearly $50 million in revenue in 2009, up 50 percent from 2008. Its products include EcoRock, a recycled alternative to traditional gypsum drywall that The Wall Street Journal named the most innovative environmental
to an action plan for the region, which he’ll outline in his state of the city address in January. Currall has set the bar high. “Our mission is nothing short of revolutionary: transforming the regional economy around green and clean technology,” he told a task force meeting in July. To that end, Currall has divided the 70-member green and clean tech group of business, government, education and community leaders into subcommittees focused on six areas: market creation and demand; regional business opportunities; raising corporate intelligence quotient; innovation financing; workforce training and education; and innovationbased entrepreneurship. GSM Professor Andrew Hargadon, director of the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship, also serves on the mayor’s leadership team. Currall said UC Davis’ internationally renowned research and the Graduate School of Management’s role training top management talent and accelerating tech transfer are key to the transformation.
Kevin Surace Gets Serious about Energy Efficiency product of 2009. Last year Inc. Magazine recognized Surace as its Entrepreneur of the Year. Among Serious Materials’ high-profile projects: replacing all 6,514 windows in the Empire State Building —26,000 panes of glass. Serious is reusing the existing glass and creating super-insulating glass units in a mini-factory on the iconic building’s fifth floor. This and other green upgrades will save the building $4.4 million annually on utility bills. Surace urged students to become change agents. “Please be disruptive,” he said. “Think so far out of the box that you’re willing to be laughed at and even risk your job. It’s the only way real change takes place.” UC D av i s G r a d u at e S c h o o l o f M a n a g e m e n t • 2 5
T im A kin & M arianne S koczek
Dean Currall Leads Greenwise Sacramento Clean Tech Team