By Ben Sosne
Image by Ella Adams - State House News Service
In January, Sublime Systems - developers of a fossil-fuel-free, scalable, drop-in replacement for traditional cement in concrete - announced that, after a diligent search period, it had selected a 16-acre site in Holyoke for its first commercial manufacturing facility.
Sublime Systems was founded at MIT by Dr. Leah Ellis and Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang, both experts in material science, electrochemical systems, and sustainability research. The company was supported in its formative stages by The Engine Accelerator in Cambridge, which curates programs and provides labs, equipment, tools, and workspaces – and convenes broader ecosystem partners – all in an effort to support entrepreneurs who are trying to take transformative technologies from idea to impact.
While formed and nurtured in Cambridge, for pretty obvious reasons, Cambridge is not a practical place to site a 16-acre commercial concrete manufacturing facility. However, because of the company’s roots and the ecosystem support that they had built over the years, establishing their first plant within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was a priority as the firm weighed its options.
Sublime’s selection of Holyoke for its commercial expansion was a result of a collaborative effort by the City and the Healey-Driscoll Administration and included two critical incentives: A state tax credit from the Economic Development Incentive Program and a local Tax Increment Financing from the City to help offset property taxes. Sublime intends to create dozens of high-quality jobs and is already partnering very closely with local community organizations and business development groups.
Shortly after Sublime’s announcement, another climate tech manufacturer, Clean Crop Technologies (Clean Crop), made a significant announcement. Clean Crop, which is solving crop loss via a fully automated solution that removes seen borne pathogens before they infect plants in farmer fields, declared that they had also selected Holyoke as the site of their first manufacturing facility.
Clean Crop was founded and initially located at a laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where they utilized the Institute for Applied Life Science (IALS) Innovation Fund and tested and validated their first prototype. When they graduated from IALS and were looking for a place to scale;Holyoke emerged as the ideal municipal partner.
So, why Holyoke, what can we in the Berkshires learn from this, and how do we position ourselves to land some of the scaling firms born from technology coming out of the labs at MIT, UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell, Northeastern, RPI, WPI, and some of the other amazing institutions in our catch basin?
In answering the “Why Holyoke?” question, both Sublime and Clean Crop make similar observations.
First, they point out that there is affordable room to grow. For industrial decarbonization companies, success means that their technology gets bigger and quickly requires more space. The average rental cost in the Boston area ranges from $30-$63 per square foot, while the number is close to $12-$21 per square foot in the Pioneer Valley. Clean Crop has a robust 14,000 square foot purpose-built facility, which makes the price of real estate very important. Sublime settled on a 16-acre site.
Second, they point to the ready-made advanced manufacturing ecosystem that they can partner with. Springfield was the birthplace of the US defense industry in the late 18th Century and Holyoke, colloquially referred to as the Paper City, produced 80% of the United States’ writing paper in the late 19th century. That legacy persists today, with a strong ecosystem of advanced engineering, materials, and machine shops supporting the aerospace and material science industries. As Clean Crop has said,
“Leveraging the tribal knowledge in this ecosystem has been invaluable at multiple points in rapidly iterating on our core technology”.
Third, they point to a strong talent pipeline through UMass and the Five College Consortium in the Pioneer Valley, as well as institutions like Springfield Technical Community College and Holyoke Community College. Like any growing firm, the people are most important and strong relationships with local and regional educational partners are essential for sustained growth.
Finally, both Sublime and Clean Crop point to a partnership with the local utility, Holyoke Gas & Electric, which provides material incentives for new entrants to the city, including a 10% discount off natural gas and electric bills for a period of three years. Critically, HG&E’s electric mix is 56% renewable and 95% carbon-free, primarily because 56% of their electricity is sourced from a local hydro-renewable plant. This approach allows them to provide clean energy at a fraction of the price of other utilities.
On the first three points, the Berkshires stack up very well. We have great space available – indeed some perfect space right next to the BIC at the William Stanley Business Park – and the price is right for these types of developments. Our advanced manufacturing ecosystem similarly has very deep and strong roots, particularly around material science, precision manufacturing, electrical engineering, and plastics expertise. The tribal knowledge in our region is vast and impressive and is something that we can do a better job highlighting. Finally, our talent pipeline is coordinated and committed.
From our vocational schools - McCann and Taconic - to our more traditional high schools, we are seeing increased interest in technical fields and increased opportunities for students. Berkshire Community College has a fabulous new mechatronics program and MCLA continues to build out a new quality control / quality assurance track.
Most importantly there is tremendous collaboration between these partners, most often coordinated through Heather Bulger and her team at MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board. Of course, the BIC plays a key role here, both as an organization that stands up programs like the BIC Manufacturing Academy and as a connective tissue making sure industry is at the table as needs are identified, and new programs are developed.
On the fourth factor, there is no question that Holyoke has an advantage. The cost of power in the Berkshires is high and the options for renewables are not as evolved as those in Holyoke. Our elected representatives and business leaders are very aware of this situation and are very focused on. If solutions were easy, they would have been laid out and resolved a long time ago. That said, new technologies in energy generation, storage, and transmission are coming quickly and both Massachusetts and New York are at the cutting edge. There are also a host of new federal programs and incentives through the Inflation Reduction Act and Governor Healey, in her Mass Leads legislation, is proposing a $1 billion, 10-year climate tech initiative.
We see the global energy transition happening before our eyes. Industrial decarbonization is a critical effort to hitting state and national goals. Technology developed in Massachusetts is leading the way, and we are seeing that technology scaled in places like Holyoke. We also are seeing great examples of climate tech firms leveraging the Berkshires region and the BIC, including Berkshire-born SolaBlock. Given our history and local expertise, there certainly is a tremendous opportunity to lead in efforts around plastics. The BIC has identified William Stanley Business Park as an ideal place for climate tech manufacturing and the US Department of Energy recently awarded the BIC with a small planning grant to further pursue the concept.
As we like to point out, Governor Healey speaks of a climate corridor stretching from the Berkshires to Barnstable. It’s exciting for the entire Commonwealth. Right here in the Berkshires, an opportunity to leverage our assets and become true leaders in this energy transition work and use that position to simultaneously drive local economic development. Nonetheless, for this effort to bear fruit, we must be persistent and highly coordinated in our efforts. But make no mistake, the pieces are lined up for us and ready to be pulled together. The question that rises up for me lately seems like a proper call to action to coordinate our regional energy efforts: If not now, when?