One of the states hit hardest by the recent recession, Rhode Island is officially out of recession and on the road to recovery. Nevertheless, double-digit unemployment persists. In fact, as of February 2011, Rhode Island’s unemployment rate was 11.2%, compared with Massachusetts’ rate of 8.2% for the same period. Rhode Island is expected to continue to struggle as it recovers given that the state has a dearth of growth technology-related industries and is dependent on the slow-growth sectors of manufacturing and construction. Nevertheless, collaborative efforts between public and private partners are set to help in turning things around in the Ocean State.
Last fall, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and the Rhode Island Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (RI-CIE) at Brown University released a Call for Proposals, seeking potential partners, early-stage businesses and/or product designers working in the area of sustainable development or the green economy. RISD, well-known for its art and design expertise, and RI-CIE, a center focused on mentorship, innovation, and business development, have teamed up to form the Partnership for Sustainable Development. This partnership will draw on the individual strengths of the two centers to support the selected small business/entrepreneur. The goal of the partnership was to indentify an external partner to collaborate with RISD and RI-CIE, over a nine-month period, to develop a design studio centered on investigating design concepts, market conditions, and the larger issues of entrepreneurship, all in relation to sustainable development in Rhode Island and beyond. At the same time, the selected small business will receive support from RI-CIE in the form of business development assistance, mentoring, and networking, along with incubator space and material support at the RI-CIE offices.
After months of fielding requests and over 50 final proposals, on March 25, 2011, United States Senator Jack Reed announced the small business partner chosen to collaborate with RISD and RI-CIE through the Partnership for Sustainable Development: UbiGO, the brainchild of architects Peter Gill Case and Joe Haskett. The two have a several local businesses, including The Box Office, twelve office spaces located in Providence and constructed from recycled shipping containers. The Box Office was constructed at a cost of $1.8 million, with $1 million dedicated to labor, providing a much needed boost to Rhode Island’s construction industry. Currently, five of the twelve office spaces are occupied. The space, which is said to consume 25% less energy than a conventional new office building, is the largest commercial office built from shipping containers in the United States.
Gill Case and Haskett were selected to partner with RISD and RI-CIE based on their Off The Grid project, which proposes affordable, sustainable, off-the-grid, easy-to-install housing from recycled shipping containers. RISD and RI-CIE will share the $150,000 grant funded by the United States Small Business Administration as they assist Gill Case and Haskett in commercializing and marketing the modular housing.
During the March 25 event, RISD professors Markus Berger and Peter Dean discussed the work being performed by students in an advanced interdisciplinary design studio at RISD that concentrates on the intersection of design, business, and sustainability. The studio, dubbed “Re-box,” involves 16 industrial design and architecture students looking into the sustainable re-use of shipping containers. During mid-terms last week, Gill Case and Haskett were invited to the studio to provide critiques of the sixteen designs which ranged from urban garden spaces to portable emergency response centers. The students have access to business, marketing, and sustainable energy advice through RI-CIE; a culmination of the semester’s work, the completed projects will be made available to the Small Business Administration and UbiGO for commercialization.
The ultimate goal of the Partnership for Sustainable Development is to bring together business, academia, and government to foster collaboration and to nurture Rhode Island’s knowledge economy, which is currently behind that of other states, like Massachusetts. Nonetheless, Rhode Island’s knowledge economy has grown over the past few years as noted by its current ranking of 16 in the 2010 State New Economy Index released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. It was previously ranked 46th, though comparisons between the 2007 and 2010 indexes are not exact.
This growth is being prompted in part by initiatives like the Partnership for Sustainable Development and the Ocean State Consortium of Advanced Resources (OSCAR). OSCAR is a collaborative effort between Rhode Island universities, government institutions, private companies, and regional social agencies, which aims to solve core problems related to health care, education, economic development, and energy and the environment. “Green the Knowledge District” is one OSCAR pilot project. This project involves teams of university professors and students along with community and industry members that evaluate the energy performance of buildings in Providence’s Knowledge District. Data gathered from such evaluations are expected to result in the implementation of a plan for economic growth that is environmentally sustainable.
It is hoped that programs such as the Partnership for Sustainable Development and OSCAR, which bring together various stakeholders within Rhode Island, will prompt the sustainable innovation necessary to drive Rhode Island’s economy.
Dionne Nickerson is Team Leader for Physical Sciences Assessments at Foresight Science & Technology.
