Green liberalism: a local approach to the low carbon economy
There are now around 1,000 technology companies in the local high tech cluster; 1,400 when providers of services and support organisations are included. Innovas, appointed to map local cleantech companies and assess the sector’s contribution to the broader economy, found that Cambridge: ‘has already been at the forefront of numerous technology waves including ICT and biotech, both key areas in the future development of a cleantech sector strength. The cleantech sector provides the sub-region with the opportunity to be a world leader once again, in the next wave of technology and industry development.’
17
“Our vision is to develop the area into a leading cleantech cluster in Europe and, in so doing, foster economic success for our members and UK plc”
Specifically, they stated that the cleantech sector, if supported, could constitute the third wave of the high tech cluster, following on from ICT and life sciences, as demonstrated in the table below.
Innovas saw that Cambridge had the potential for a world leading competitive advantage, with commercialisation taking place where the three key sectorial waves of the high tech economy are overlapping, as demonstrated in the Venn diagram overleaf on page 18. Cambridge Cleantech was born out of a specific recommendation in Innovas’ report to form a cleantech membership organisation to support the
48,000 46,200
Scientific Instruments
Computing Industrial inkjet Scientific Instruments Software
Telecoms Computing Industrial inkjet Scientific Instruments Software Biosciences
Telecoms Computing Industrial inkjet Wireless communications Scientific Instruments Software Biosciences
Nanomaterials Drugs delivery Sensors/actuators Alternative fuels Cleaner processes Medical engineering Photovoltaics Drug modelling Biomass Sentient computing
1971
1981
1991
2001
2009
34,900 25,100 High tech jobs
20,200