Cleantech San Diego is a member-based trade association launched in 2007 by visionary leaders from the private, public, and academic sectors who recognized a growing cleantech industry as the next great economic opportunity for the San Diego region.
The organization was founded on the premise that setting a high bar for sustainability would result in an economically-viable response from industry to help us meet those goals. Directed by this principle for more than a decade now, the San Diego region has proven time and again that investment in a low carbon economy reaps benefits for innovation, business, collaboration, education, and the environment.
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In collaboration with its members and partners, Cleantech San Diego works to position the greater San Diego region as a global leader in the cleantech economy and smart cities movement. It achieves this by fostering collaborations across the private-public-academic landscape, leading advocacy efforts to promote cleantech priorities, and encouraging investment in the San Diego region.
The San Diego region currently ranks #4 in the nation for cleantech leadership. San Diego is ranked #2 in the nation for solar installations. A recent study commissioned by Cleantech San Diego finds there are more than 3,200 cleantech businesses in the San Diego region, supporting 45,000 jobs with an economic impact of $8 billion. The San Diego region is also rapidly emerging as a globally-recognized smart cities leader due to a number of progressive initiatives that benefit both the economy and the environment, including adopting ambitious climate action plans, deploying the world’s largest IoT platform on city streetlights, embracing open data operations, being recognized as an electric vehicle hot bed, being designated as an autonomous vehicle testing ground, and the list goes on.
This impact is also reflected in the makeup of Cleantech San Diego’s membership, which includes more than 100 businesses, universities, governments, and nonprofits committed to advancing sustainable solutions for the benefit of the economy and the environment.
Together with its members, Cleantech San Diego has spearheaded a number of projects and initiatives over the years that have helped solidify the region’s position as a global leader in the cleantech economy and will support its growth for years to come.
- Cleantech San Diego’s Smart Cities San Diego initiative continues to gain significant traction and global attention by facilitating the deployment of new technologies that are saving energy, water, and money at landmark locations like the City of San Diego, the City of Carlsbad, the City of Chula Viasta, the Port of San Diego, and the San Diego International Airport.
- Through its Southern California Energy Innovation Network, Cleantech San Diego is engaging the energy startup community to help secure the future of the region’s cleantech economy.
- Cleantech San Diego’s K-12 Schools Sustainability Strategy Collaborative, in partnership with SDG&E, has saved San Diego county schools more than $11 million per year thanks to Proposition 39-funded energy efficiency upgrades at over 500 school sites.
San Diego’s cleantech leadership continues to be a model across the state and the nation thanks to Cleantech San Diego’s dedicated members in the public, private, and academic sectors and their unmatched spirit of collaboration. Collectively, we are making a difference.
