Upstate NY is primed for change… and Prof. Goldfarb was recently award a $1M NSF Regional Innovation Engines Development Award to help transition Upstate New York from a fossil-fuel dependent, economically declining region to a sustainable Climate Smart Bioeconomy (CSB). The current NYS legislative environment creates a timely opportunity to develop a CSB. Leveraging policies like the NYS Climate Act, Upstate 2.0 will expand the bioeconomy in Upstate NY, a predominantly rural region with several urban centers of limited economic growth for over 30 years. We will develop technological solutions to global sustainability challenges, and a workforce ready to implement solutions. The CSB will foster a resilient supply chain via sustainable biomass management, grow the regional economy, address concerns regarding national competitiveness and security by reducing fossil carbon use, and support the state and nation’s goal of creating a net-zero carbon economy. The Upstate 2.0 CSB will become a model for how rural regions across the nation can build an ecosystem of partners and stakeholders to transform their economy by sustainably using locally available biomass and talent resources. The research, education, and entrepreneurial expertise of our institutions – Cornell University (NYS’s Land Grant Institution) and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry – leveraged alongside the Cornell Cooperative Extension network, Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement (CREA) and recently established NSF I-Corps Hub, and strategic partnerships among innovators, industry, entrepreneurs, job creators, policymakers, and community members, will drive use-inspired research to realize this CSB.
