At the University of Massachusetts Medical School, breakthroughs in biomedical research are fueling the worldwide biomedical industry and expanding the capacity to treat some of the world's most difficult and dangerous diseases.  Dr. Craig Mello's research and discoveries regarding RNAi--the process of using Ribonucleic acid (RNA) to silence targeted genes--have been purchased by numerous pharmaceutical companies.  Understanding of the RNAi process, for which Dr. Mello won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Dr. Andrew Fire of Stanford University in 2006, furthers investigation into diabetes, cancer, ALS, and HIV/AIDs. 

• Dr. Mello is an Investigator for the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Massachusetts

• UMass has sold its patented research to leading pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb, CytRX Corp., GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer

Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 1-229
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-253-0943

The Deshpande Center at the MIT Engineering School builds on MIT's solid tradition of spawning new businesses in Greater boston and worldwide. By linking faculty and students with groundbreaking ideas to business and venture capital, the Desphande Center helps to overcome the obstacles that inhibit the further development and application of promising research.  Rather than allowing good theoretical ideas to go untested, the Center helps innovative projects receive a fair chance in the marketplace, and to answer the question "What if?" 

• The center was launched with a initial $20 million gift from Jaishree Deshpande and Desh Deshpande
• Innovation grants of up to $50,000 are offered to support the development of promising ideas
• The Center will invest $15 million during its first 5 years

35 New England Business Center
Andover, Massachusetts 01810-1071
1-978-482-3300

Innocentive, an e-business venture of Eli Lilly & Company based in Andover, Massachusetts, is the first online incentive- based organization designed to link the global research and development community to the commercial world.  Members of Innocentive enroll either as "seekers" or "solvers."  "Seekers" are companies that post their R&D challenges to a confidential and secure online forum.  "Solvers" are scientists who review the postings online and submit proposed solutions.  If a "solver's" solution is selected by an Innocentive member company, Innocentive pays the "solver" an agreed-upon sum.  The combination of competition and the incentives created by rewarding practical solutions to R&D challenges helps companies and scientists to pool their resources in an efficient and innovative framework.  Originally designed to link the scientific and business communities, the format is now being used by the Rockefeller Foundation to solve global development problems and is expanding worldwide.

• Challenge awards range from the thousands to millions
• There are approximately 100 current challenges in a wide variety of fields

175 Auburn Street
Newton, MA 02466
617 527-7950
info@bostongreentourism.org

Supported by tourist industry leaders in Greater Boston, Boston Green Tourism, Boston Green Tourism is helping to attract and please visitors who seek connections with nature and demand environmentally friendly hospitality services.  A multifaceted program, Boston Green tourism does everything from helping tourist industry businesses green their operations, to promoting Boston as a pre-eminent destination for eco-tourists  Taking advantage of Boston's beautiful natural landscape and abundant access to nature, Boston Green Tourism is making the city a leader for others to emulate.

• Boston has 18 green certified hotels, and many others that are near certificationBoston features 3 green-certified convention centers
• Boston has 5,518 acres of open space including 3,251 acres of parks, playgrounds, squares and outdoor malls, 1,374 acres of “urban wilds,” and 62 acres of community gardens

324 Wells Street
PO Box 688
Greenfield, MA
01302

In an effort to secure access to affordable, clean energy for communities throughout the Northeastern US, Co-op Power is helping to construct community-owned renewable energy resources and challenging the more traditional municipal power grid system of energy creation and distribution.  Community-owned systems make Northeast communities more energy independent.  Its first project is a biodiesel plant, with plans to expand to solar, wind, and other renewable energy resources. 

• Co-op Power has 250 members and 3,000 supporters in New England and New York
• Their first project, biodiesel production from recycled vegetable oil, will produce 5 million gallons of biodiesel a year
• Its resource center collects and shares information about limiting energy waste and building more local renewable energy sources

Providing state-of-the-art lab space for life science start ups

During the dot.com boom, IT business incubators played an important role in helping prospective tech businesses establish themselves.  In Cambridge, California-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities has taken this idea into the age of bio-science, creating a life science business incubator called the Science Hotel that capitalizes on Boston's competitive advantage in the biotech and life science markets by offering lab space to start-up life science companies.  The hotel comes complete with all of the necessary amenities and operational support to jumpstart a successful business in an industry where state-of-the-art lab space is increasingly hard to find and afford.  

• The 51,000-square-foot building has three floors of 17,000 square feet each
• Among the building's alumni is Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, which was a tenant of the building in 2002 and now occupies 60,000 square feet in a different Cambridge facility
• The concept of flexible lab space was developed by Alexandria CEO Joel Marcus in 1994, as an alternative for companies unable to invest in the construction of their own office space

In an unprecedented show of US action intended to reduce the severity of global climate change and mitigate the harmful impact of CO2 emissions, a coalition of heavyweight US corporations and environmental NGO's formed the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP).  The unique alliance includes, among others, Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar Inc., Duke Energy, DuPont, FPL Group, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, PG&E Corporation, Environmental Defense, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the World Resources Institute.  As part of the partnership, the organizations have jointly called on the federal government to enact meaningful national legislation to require significant reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases.  In addition, USCAP has put forth a set of important, landmark principles that support the need to create an attainable, action-oriented plan to address climate change. 

      ·     USCAP released a solutions-based report, "A Call to Action," in 2006
      ·    The report highlights six fundamental principles related to climate change
     ·     The expanding membership of USCAP includes 27 US corporations

The power of the Internet meets the power of microlending in an innovative attempt to connect individual lenders in the global North with individual borrowers in the global South.  On Kiva.org--an interactive web platform similar to Ebay--individuals can participate in the fight to eradicate poverty in the developing world by assuming the role of a microfinance lending institution.  Kiva partners with microfinance organizations around the world to highlight the stories of individual entrepreneurs, then enables patrons to loan directly to the entrepreneur of their choice.  Kiva staff report back to donors about the progress of loans, and lenders can rate the success and/or repayment policies of their borrowers.  Arguably the most innovative event in microfinance since Mohammed Yunus founded Grameen Bank, the Kiva.org platform has the potential to revolutionize international development financing.  

·     Distributed over 6 million dollars in microfinance loans
·     More than 60,000 lenders worldwide

Ever since Mohammed Yunus founded the Grameen Bank and pioneered the idea of lending small sums of money to the poor, the concept of supporting individuals and small businesses through microloans has continued to adapt, develop, and expand.  But microlending may be just the beginning.  In an innovative initiative likely to have a powerful impact on the billions of people who live on less than 1 $ a day, heavyweight insurance organizations--including AIG and Allianz--have demonstrated increasing interest in the concept of microinsurance.  Although the idea of ensuring the poor against risk is in its infancy, recent investments by leading insurance companies in microfinance institutions have drastically increased the potential of widespread insurance services for the poor, pooling their risk while offering affordable insurance rates.

In March of 2007, AIG Announced a $1.5 Million Grant to FINCA International to Expand Microinsurance Product Development and Delivery.  The money will empower FINCA to do the following: 

• Conduct market research to support the development of micro-insurance products that respond to the needs of the poor;
• Conduct financial education training so that FINCA clients and staff better understand micro-insurance and other risk management tools;
• Strengthen its institutional risk management programs to ensure FINCA is poised to meet its goal of operating 100,000 Village Banks serving one million clients and their families by 2010.

o.s.Earth, Inc's Global Simulation Workshop is designed to teach about world resources and issues while developing the skills necessary to deal with these issues effectively in the real world. The simulation turns key components of the global economic system into an interactive game so that players can acquire real-world data and an understanding of political, economic, and cultural challenges while simultaneously building skills in teamwork, strategic thinking, and decision making.

• Over 2,000 clients have hosted the workshop--
• from middle schools to Fortune 500 corporations
• 350,000 individuals have participated in 48 states and 35 countries