Greentown Labs - Climate Action at Work
Greentown Labs is the largest ClimateTech startup incubator in North America - the Somerville, MA and Houston, TX locations provide housing, lab/shop space and other support to 200+ climateTech startups.
Greentown has benefitted greatly from the contributions of Olin interns and alumni.
Our member companies hire interns for hands-on work wherein Olin students can see and realize exciting new applications for the skills they are learning in their courses. The commitment to sustainability is noticeable in Olin students and perfectly applied in engineering roles at the startup companies that comprise Greentown. The balance of working and learning is part of building things and thus Olin grads have always made great Greentowners."
Greg Ralich
Senior Director of Prototyping Lab
Impact-Centered Collaboration
Olin is a Megawatt Partner to Greentown Labs, encouraging impact-centered collaboration between Olin students, faculty, and alumni and climateTech startups working on innovative technologies in alternative energy, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and building efficiency. The goal is to bring these sustainability-focused engineers in to Olin’s classrooms and community, and to facilitate the recruitment of students and alumni, as well as deeper collaborative projects.
Learn more about this partnership
As Megawatt Partner to Greentown Labs, Olin has its logo prominently displayed on the wall with other key partners to the Greentown community.
Since becoming a Megawatt partner to Greentown in Fall of 21, Olin has increased its numbers of interns working with member companies on these significant climate issues:
2
Summer 2021
7
Summer 2022
12
Summer 2023
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We have increased our number of alumni working at these companies from 3 to 16
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We have signed on two companies as SCOPE sponsors in the coming year – SparkCharge and LineVision.
Greentown Labs' mission
to design a more sustainable world closely aligns with Olin's mission to graduate engineers who have the skills and desire to make the world a better place...Over the years, our students have benefitted from their experience as interns at Greentown Labs, which is one of the many reasons we value our relationship with this vital startup incubator."
Gilda A. Barabino
Olin College President
What does impact-centered collaboration look like?
STUDENT INTERACTIONS
An increase of interns and alumni working at Greentown Labs companies in the areas of agriculture, water, smart wearables, alternative energy and battery storage.
Students regularly attending career fairs and tours at the Greentown Labs facilities (2 per year).
FACULTY COLLABORATION
Faculty conduct office hours at the Somerville location, checking in with founders and engineers about their technical and recruiting challenges.
Professor Ben Linder provided a workshop on Lifecycle Analysis to founders and engineers.
CURRICULAR ENGAGEMENT
Professor Helen Donis-Keller brings her Biomes, Climate Change and BioDiversity Class to Somerville for a tour and organizes talks from plant-based companies like Tender and Circe BioSciences.
In collaboration with Olin dining staff, Prof. Donis-Keller hosted Tender who ran a taste-testing session with students, testing and collecting data on their new plant-based meat product. Professor Helen Donis-Keller's class – Biomes, Biodiversity and Climate Change – visited Greentown Labs in October, and got a tour of the space where the clean tech companies work.
To learn more about our Greentown Labs partnership, contact Sally Phelps, Director of External Programs and Partnerships.