San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee Tuesday announced a city initiative to support the growth and development of cleantech businesses.
Lee said the CleantechSF initiative will focus on three areas first: using city buildings as demonstration sites for new technologies, attracting institutions to create a cleantech ecosystem here a la Mission Bay and supporting startups through attracting more shared work space and incubators and supplying mentors and services.
CleantechSF is a partnership between the Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the San Francisco Department of Environment, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the California Clean Energy Fund.
The initiative is designed to create jobs in the cleantech sector, said Lee, who made the announcement a demonstration day for cleantech startups held at Greenstart, which describes itself as “the lovechild” of accelerator Y Combinator and design studio IDEO.
San Francisco is home to some 208 cleantech businesses.
