Good chemistry: GreenCentre Canada signs collaboration MOU with Sarnia’s Bioindustrial Innovation Centre and Sustainable Chemistry Alliance
KINGSTON/SARNIA ON — Three major Canadian players in the Green Chemistry commercialization business have joined forces in a drive to make Ontario and Canada a world leader in sustainable chemistry innovations.
GreenCentre Canada of Kingston and Sarnia’s Bioindustrial Innovation Centre (BIC) and Sustainable Chemistry Alliance (SCA) have signed a collaboration memorandum of understanding that leverages their respective expertise, facilities and services in a common goal of moving Green Chemistry discoveries to market.
GreenCentre Canada, which transforms Green Chemistry research breakthroughs into clean, sustainable products and processes, focuses on product and application development and intellectual property management. The Bioindustrial Innovation Centre and the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance, which foster the growth of renewable, bio-based industries, focus on large-scale investment attraction, process development, and the design and commissioning of continuous pilot manufacturing and demonstration units.
Recognizing their mutual strengths, the three entities will promote one another’s services and resources to their respective networks; they will also provide commercialization services to selected technologies that each party believes will benefit from the other’s expertise or resources.
“Our organizations share some common goals while bringing complementary talents and resources to the table,” says Dr. Rui Resendes, Executive Director of GreenCentre Canada. “It makes enormous sense to support each other’s mandate, and to boost each other’s commercialization efforts. We’re very excited about the potential for this kind of collaborative effort.”
“We realized that by working together we offer a commercialization strategy that overcomes the ‘valley of death’ that threatens many promising Green and sustainable technology discoveries,” says Dr. Murray McLaughlin, Executive Director of the Bioindustrial Innovation Centre and President and CEO of the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance. “We believe that this reciprocal approach will put Canada ahead of the pack in terms of pushing green, sustainable technologies to market.”
GreenCentre Contact:
Mary Anne Beaudette
Director, Communications
GreenCentre Canada
P: 613. 533. 6000 x 78238
E: Maryanne.beaudette@greencentrecanada.com
www.greencentrecanada.com
BIC Contact:
Dr. Murray McLaughlin, Executive Director
Bioindustrial Innovation Centre
P:1-519-383-8303 x137 C: 1-519-550-5525
E: murraym@BICSarnia.ca
www.BICSarnia.ca
About GreenCentre Canada:
GreenCentre Canada is a national Centre of Excellence for commercializing early-stage Green Chemistry discoveries generated by academic researchers and industry. Funded by the governments of Ontario and Canada, and industry, GreenCentre Canada is dedicated to developing environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional chemical and manufacturing products and practices. It is governed and operated with the assistance of industry members from across the chemical value chain. The centre is located at the Innovation Park at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. www.greencentrecanada.com
About the Bioindustrial Innovation Centre:
The Bioindustrial Innovation Centre is the first bio-based research and development facility in the heart of Ontario’s traditional chemical industry. The centre aims to spur a more globally competitive industry by integrating renewable bio-based industry into the traditional petrochemical industry, while developing environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuels. The centre is located at the University of Western Ontario’s Sarnia-Lambton Research Park. www.BICSarnia.ca
About the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance:
The Sustainable Chemistry Alliance builds on the mission of its forerunner, the Ontario Chemistry Value Chain Initiative. The SCA’s goal is to promote growth and prosperity by fostering and supporting innovation, development, commercialization and related business activities and projects in the area of green and sustainable chemistry. The SCA is located at the Bioindustrial Innovation Centre at the University of Western Ontario’s Sarnia-Lambton Research Park. www.suschemalliance.ca