A prelude to the type of crowd that might someday inhabit Ulster County”™s TechCity occurred on the evening of Nov. 2, when Sustainable Hudson Valley, a nonprofit promoting sustainability, hosted a networking reception for clean-tech companies. The occasion preceded Sustainable Hudson Valley”™s second annual symposium titled “Cool Communities/Living Economies: Building the Creative, Green Economy,” held the next day at SUNY Ulster.
Twenty-six businesses were represented by a colorful montage of type and images displayed on several glass walls framed by wooden grids. Owners of 10 of those firms attended the reception, along with board members of Sustainable Hudson Valley, half a dozen representatives from the green technology committee of Ulster Tomorrow, which is chaired by Sustainable Hudson Valley Executive Director Melissa Everett, TechCity staff members and supporters, including Dennis J. Power, a member of Westchester County”™s Global Warming Task Force.
The purpose of the gathering, said Everett, was “to support this industry regionally across county boundaries to keep bringing businesses together. The idea is to share resources, open up markets and create a fairer policy playing field for this emerging industry.” Kicking off the initiative in TechCity was a pointed attempt to “create a replicable model of how to go about an adaptable reuse.”
Approached by cruising down a section of the endless corridors in the 1950s building, which summon up visions of the Pentagon, the cozy, sophisticated enclave that TechCity director of marketing Glenn Gruhard designed for Sustainable Hudson out of a corner space was a pleasant surprise. Tasty comestibles provided by New World Home Cooking and a Japanese-inspired sculptural floor lamp helped contribute to the relaxing atmosphere.
The business people introduced themselves to the group. They were green architect Rick Alfandre; Sunshine Tartter, owner of J.O.Y. enterprises, which specializes in insulating concrete forms; John Wright of solar energy installer Hudson Valley Clean Energy; Ed Maestro of StormChamber, which designs systems to capture storm-water runoff;Â Rick Lewandowski, president and founder of Prism Solar Technologies; Ron Kamin of Earthkind Energy; Bill Jacoby, president of Direct Global Power; Brian Wiley of Wiley Electonics, which makes components for photovoltaic systems; Charles Lazin, president of Altren, specializing in geothermal and solar energy systems; and Carl Sumliner, a manufacturer”™s rep for Reflective Insulation.
Tom Kacandes, director of business development at TechCity, provided background on the facility that was dripping with irony. TechCity, he said, was designed to be “one of the world”™s most conspicuous energy hogs.” Its utility plant was constructed when oil was only four cents a gallon and ran full blast 365 days a year, spewing tons of nitrous and sulfur oxides into the air. Thirty million pounds of steam escaped through the buried pipes each year.
Kacandes has been greening the building, in part by installing “munchkin boilers” in the occupied section of the buildings.
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