Please join us for a celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation across Tennessee. We’ll connect you with startup founders and ecosystem developers in your backyard, so you can hear first-hand what exciting things are happening to make Tennessee the most startup-friendly state in the nation.
RSVP by email to Tia@launchtn.org
Happening Tuesday, February 19, 2019
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM CT
Musicians’ of Fame
401 Gay Street, Nashville, TN 37201
(Directly across from Cordell Hull)
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) invites Tennesseans to submit nominations for the third annual 2017 Sustainable Transportation Awards. The deadline to submit nominations is March 31, 2017.
The Awards recognize outstanding initiatives within the state of Tennessee to reduce transportation-related energy and emissions, in line with an overarching effort to save natural resources, improve the health and well-being of Tennesseans, and create efficiencies in the delivery of goods and services.
“The annual Sustainable Transportation Awards and Forum provides an opportunity to recognize key transportation achievements and innovations as well as to energize the discussion around what can be done next,” said TDEC Commissioner Bob Martineau.
A panel of judges representing diverse interests will select award recipients based on the following criteria:
Eligible entities include federal, state and local governments; commercial, nonprofit, and industrial organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; and utilities. The entity must be located in Tennessee, and the project must have been completed in the last five years. All nominees must be in environmental compliance with TDEC. Self-nominations are encouraged.
In connection with Clean Air Month, TDEC, in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, will host a recognition ceremony and sustainable transportation forum on May 23-24, 2017, at the Downtown Nashville Public Library. The forum, entitled “Navigating Toward a Livable Tennessee,” will highlight local transportation planning and the pursuit of place-based policies and investments for improved access, mobility, safety, sustainability and affordability of transportation options in our communities.
Applications and more information about the TDEC Sustainable Transportation Awards and Forum are available here.
Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Alexa Voytek in TDEC’s Office of Energy Programs at (615) 532-0238 or Alexa.Voytek@tn.gov.
TAEBC’s Cortney Piper wrote a column for the May 2015 issue of the Greater Knoxville Business Journal about leadership and Tennessee’s robust advanced energy sector.
Piper is passionate about the advanced energy industry and its impact on the economy, stating that it opens up so much opportunity for leadership and innovation in the Volunteer State.
“Tennessee is rich in energy resources — from solar and bioenergy to advanced materials that make vehicles more efficient and the latest power generation innovations. In short, the keys to energy development are found right here, flowing from the mountains of the East, cresting at the Plateau and settling in the flatlands of the West,” she said.
Click here to read Piper’s column.
As part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s efforts to improve the energy efficiency of the nation’s homes and buildings, lower energy costs, and enhance U.S. competitiveness in manufacturing, the Energy Department launched the new Buildings Crowdsourcing Community website last week. Administered by TAEBC member Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the new site, buildings.ideascale.com, will help technology innovators collect, share and evaluate input from customers and other stakeholders about next-generation building technologies.
Innovators including start-ups, designers, buildings scientists, and students can use the website to share ideas that could develop into new energy efficient technologies for homes and buildings. Those interested in participating can register through the ORNL Buildings Crowdsourcing Community or they can vote on their favorite entries. The best ideas will be recognized during the Energy Department’s Building Technologies Office Industry Day hosted at ORNL in September.
The ORNL Buildings Crowdsourcing Community is now accepting new idea submissions, comments, and votes and submissions. The website will stay open until May 31, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Site members and users can still view the submissions, comments, and votes after May 31, but participation on the site will end after the submission timeframe expires.
For more information, click here.
The “AM” in RAMP stands for advanced manufacturing-Regional Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. There is no “E” for energy to be found in that acronym so, some of you might be wondering why TAEBC is participating in an advanced manufacturing event. Here’s why: energy plays a very important role in manufacturing and manufacturing (especially automotive) is an economic driver for the state.
As an end-use sector, manufacturing is the most diverse in the U.S. economy in terms of its energy sources, foundational technologies, and the products manufacturing produces.
The U.S. Department of Energy describes advanced manufacturing in this way—efficient, productive, highly integrated, and tightly controlled processes that have the potential to fill the innovation gap between research and full “to scale” industrial production. Energy use is an integral part of this process, as are the end products advanced manufacturing produces that enables the cleaner, safer and more efficient consumption of energy.
A number of indicators suggest a gradual and sustained growth in jobs associated with the manufacture, installation and operation of advanced energy technologies, as discussed in A Roadmap for Tennessee’s Advanced Energy Economy.
Plus, an increasing number of innovative technologies will be commercially available over the next five years. Tennessee has an enormous inventory of advanced energy technologies at or near commercial viability. The presence of research capabilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, an innovation platform provided by TVA’s role as the nation’s largest utility, and the desire for greater energy efficiency among the state’s automobile manufacturing sector, together form a unique opportunity to test advanced energy technologies and push them into the marketplace
So, that’s why TAEBC is moderating a manufacturer’s energy roundtable at the 2014 RAMP Trade Conference and EXPO, Tuesday, October 7, 8:00 AM at the Holiday Inn World’s Fair Park in downtown Knoxville. Our roundtable will bring together Knox County manufacturers from the TAEBC summer listening session with Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and revisit our discussion about energy challenges and opportunities facing our manufacturers.
