Two bio-economy visionaries with a shared vision signed an innovative, binational agreement on September 26 in Lansing. Lansing’s MBI and Ontario’s Bioindustrial Innovation Canada will work together to build the bio-economy and work to alleviate our dependence on petroleum. The agreement allows them to share their bio-based research and agendas.
J.D. Snyder of the Center for Community and Economic Development at MSU says, “What we are trying to do is facilitate a collaborative flow of innovation and ideas.” That collaborative flow will ideally create the means to open new, bio-based facilities, create jobs and invite investment to the state. “We are looking at a bio-economy that can only continue to grow,” says Snyder, “We are looking forward, not back.”
Another goal of the collaboration is to gain the attention of the policy makers and those in private sectors, allowing them to see that investment in these types of technologies will be a positive, economic development. Snyder says everything that uses plastic can be produced using bio-based material, “There are very real opportunities for change.” It’s important that they see, Snyder adds, that “the opportunities are endless and that as opportunities arise, more jobs will be created.”
Source: J.D. Snyder, Center for Community and Economic Development at MSU
Author: Allison Monroe, Innovation News Editor
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