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On December 3, 2007, the mayors of Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and Emeryville, along with UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory director Steven Chu, announced an agreement to promote the East Bay as the nucleus of a "green wave" of research and manufacturing.

"The Silicon Valley of the green economy is going to be here in the East Bay," Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said at Monday's event, held at a solar power equipment factory in Richmond. "We're putting our cities' chauvinism aside and working together. We're stronger when we unite."

The East Bay is already home to many environmental firms and factories, many of which began as spin-offs from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Lab. But as the companies grow, they've tended to relocate to the South Bay, where lab space, technological support and high-tech employees are more plentiful, or to places with more vacant land.

The East Bay Green Corridor Partnership would create a variety of incentives for green businesses to stay put. Among the proposals: a job-training program for the less-skilled members of the workforce, such as a certification program at local community colleges in solar installation or biotechnology lab work.

Green business executives in the East Bay said they are thrilled with the move.

"For us, we see great opportunities in the East Bay because it's so close to the university and lab," said Ilan Gur, corporate development director of Seeo, a Berkeley startup that is studying ways to increase energy storage. "A lot of people don't want to commute to the South Bay, but the South Bay has a very well-established infrastructure to help young businesses," he said. "We'd like to create something similar here."

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said the plan would be a boon to their cities because it could provide training and entry-level jobs, possibly reducing crime in the process. Oakland and Richmond also have ample space and industrial zones for companies that want to expand.

"This is a magnificent opportunity for us to simultaneously address the issues of pollution and poverty," Dellums said. "This kind of economic development can help a generation of people who've been left behind."

Birgeneau said that keeping energy startups close to UC Berkeley and the Lawrence lab will help further the university's goal of studying alternative energy and ultimately reducing global warming.

If the East Bay becomes fertile ground for green businesses to prosper, UC Berkeley would be a more attractive choice for "the best minds in the world" to study global energy production, he said.

Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville and Richmond have also taken aggressive steps to combat global warming, ranging from Oakland's goal to be independent of oil by 2020 to Berkeley's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

So far, economic directors of the four cities, UC Berkeley and the Lawrence lab have agreed to meet quarterly to study regional labor needs and come up with solutions to business problems such as lack of space or workforce shortages. They're also planning to apply for federal money to fund job-training programs. [Excerpted from the 12/4/07 story in the San Francisco Chronicle by Carolyn Jones.]

Click to see the full Statement of Principles for the East Bay Green Corridor.