EcoTech Visions basically has three goals: create jobs, sustain communities, save the planet – and it’s fulfilling them by helping launch and grow local eco-friendly entrepreneurs and small businesses. Now, the local green-tech incubator and accelerator is celebrating two years of taking Miami into a greener future.
In honor of the occasion, EcoTech is hosting two aptly named shindigs: community festival EcoFest and fundraiser EcoFête. EcoFest welcomes the public to a day of celebrating the city’s sustainable successes while featuring their Ecopreneurs (the organization’s startups), as well as eats and performances from local chefs and artists.
The fundraiser is set to support EcoTech as they build out their new facility. The ambitious net-zero building will be the first of its kind in Miami, featuring a coworking space, green rooftop venue, vertical farm, light manufacturing, prototyping lab, and local food hub.
With local initiatives like the Underline launching, it’s no secret Miami’s making up for lost time and taking bigger steps to get more pedestrian friendly and sustainable. In the meantime, EcoTech has been tackling sustainability and eco-friendly growth on a local level. Since its inception, the incubator has assisted in the growth of 26 cleantech startups, including Earthware, an eco-manufacturer creating disposable utensils made of corn.
And in an effort to incorporate sustainable growth beyond the urban core, EcoTech launched its Digital Citizens Bootcamp, a free, intensive eight-week course to train and employ residents in Liberty City, where the incubator is headquartered, and other under-resourced communities to help address systemic poverty.
Students from the bootcamp and local hackers recently participated in EcoTech’s first hackathon Nov. 4 and Nov. 5. The goal: to beta test the Miami Dade Transit app, and create websites and enhance the online presence of Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce’s businesses.