On Wednesday, Somerville’s cleantech incubator Greentown Labs celebrated both its third birthday and its progress. For each of its years in existence, Greentown has called a different corner of the Hub home: First, in East Cambridge. Later, an old basement in Fort Point. And lastly, in Somerville, a stone’s throw from Union Square – the present home of Greentown’s 44 early-stage companies.
Greentown honored on Wednesday the individual who helped make securing its present location possible. On behalf of the Greentown, executive director Emily Reichert made Mayor of Somerville Joseph Curatone the first-ever recipient of the Greentown Labs Award, which, according to the incubator, “honors an individual who provides extraordinary leadership, energy, and action to strengthen the clean energy ecosystem.” Curatone was instrumental in securing a $300,000 working capital loan that enabled Greentown to secure its lease on its new 33,000 square-foot space.
“The Mayor was an obvious choice for our inaugural award. He helped us find, fund, and feel welcome in our new larger headquarters in Somerville,” said Reichert in a statement. “When he visited us last summer, he understood our potential – and our vision — when we were operating out of an unimproved, 100-year old basement in South Boston.”
Since its founding, the startup hatchery has welcomed and bid farewell to numerous Boston- and Cambridge-born companies seeking to make impacts on the world. We reported on Greentown’s growth and spotlighted three of its companies – Crowd Comfort, embue and Altaeros Energies – back in March.
Get a full overview of the company’s history in the infographic below:
Writer's note: A previous version of this article mentioned that the event took place on Thursday. It has since been updated to show the event occurred on Wednesday.
