Spec It Green Partnership

Annual construction spending exceeds $27 billion, much of which is green development, and City and State incentives have grown the building energy efficiency sector. Green building and retrofit projects demand advanced cost-competitive materials and technologies, but there are market gaps that inhibit the local procurement of such products. There isn’t a centralized channel for disseminating information between building material manufacturers and architects and developers who create demand for new products. Local manufacturing businesses lack the capacity to engage in their own R&D or build relationships to large purchasers and research institutions. These businesses need a mechanism to secure contracts for green building projects to capitalize on local demand and create jobs.

Pratt Center's new initiative, the Spec It Green Partnership, will address this by providing technical assistance to over 130 NYC-based small manufacturing businesses specializing in building products to: (1) enable them to secure procurement contracts for large green building and retrofit projects throughout NYC; (2) grow their workforce; and (3) position them to capitalize on local demand for sustainable construction products.

The Spec It Green Partnership will assist these companies in growing their revenues and workforce while greening their operations by: (1) leveraging commitments from private developers to procure locally-made products for large construction and retrofit projects worth approximately $2 billion; (2) convening a series of forums to develop new procurement streams between local manufacturers and green building material purchasers; (3) assisting manufacturers in submitting bids in response to local procurement solicitations; (4) facilitating venture capital investments to speed the commercialization of locally-made green building products; (5) creating linkages between technology R&D providers and local manufacturers; and (6) providing technical assistance to green the operations of building product manufacturers to better position them to win green building procurement contracts.

Manufacturers of building materials interested in participating please contact Tanu Kumar at tkumar@prattcenter.net