Don't Worry About the Government?

The LEED-NC "Green Building" Rating System and Energy Efficiency in U.S. Commercial Buildings
By David M.Hart

Previous research in the IPC's Local Innovation Systems Project has explored the involvement of universities and other public research institutions in the development of innovative industries, as well as the broader consequences for local and regional economic development. As part of an ongoing study of innovation-led growth in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a team of IPC researchers is investigating the development of the Massachusetts clean energy cluster The research team is comparing the development of the solar photovoltaic industry in Massachusetts, California, and Germany, focusing on those areas' public-policy environment and on the roles of local universities. Related research is targeted at the energy-storage and energy-services industries.

Key research areas include:

• an exploration of the relative importance for local and regional economic development of university contributions in knowledge creation, problem-solving, education and training, and the provision of public spaces for joint exploration of new technological and market opportunities;
• consideration of how the links between university and industry evolve so as to serve the goals of both kinds of institutions;
• the development of useful metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of interpretive spaces in local innovation systems.

Project Sponsors: MASDAR Institute, John Adams Innovation Institute.