Fairleigh Dickinson University launched the new Sustainable Business Incubator (SBI) and introduced its first client, HydroCoil™ Power, Inc., at a press conference on January 30 at the College at Florham. The new incubator is part of the Silberman College of Business and its Institute for Sustainable Enterprise.

In his opening remarks, Silberman College Dean William Moore said, “We take sustainability seriously. Together, Silberman College and the incubator provide a powerful engine to take steps to improve our environmental, social and corporate responsibility.” Gerard Farias, management and executive director, Institute for Sustainable Enterprise (Flor), called the incubator a “manifestation of how we can impact our world.”

Jonathan Cloud, Sustainable Business Incubator entrepreneur-in-residence (Flor), talks about the incubator. From left, William Moore, dean, Silberman College (Metro/Flor); Dennis Katsanis, strategic marketing communications, HydroCoil™ Power; Jonathan Rosefsky, president, HydroCoil™ Power; and Gerard Farias, management and executive director, Institute for Sustainable Enterprise (Flor), look on.

The new incubator focuses on sustainable businesses and nonprofits — companies and organizations developing green technologies, modeling sustainable business practices or advancing new business practices such as carbon trading.

Offering a range of services, the incubator will access FDU resources that include research collaboration, student interns and MBA student-support teams. In addition, it offers business planning, strategy support, government-agency navigation, networking opportunities and more.

Incubator-assisted enterprises have an overall 87 percent better chance of success than unsupported startups, according to National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) studies.

According to Jonathan Cloud, the incubator’s entrepreneur-in-residence, the Sustainable Business Incubator is being launched as a “virtual” incubator — an incubator without walls — because the focus is on providing services, assistance and funding to companies, not office space or real estate. At the same time, it is designed to work in close collaboration with other incubators in the state that offer space and physical facilities.

He said, “We bring a broad range of experience, academic expertise and resources to help companies that are bringing new solutions in the fields of renewable energy, the environment, waste management, water quality and such emerging fields as carbon trading and sustainability assessment.”

Left photo: Dean William Moore, Silberman College (Metro/Flor), was interviewed by The Star-Ledger. Right photo: From left, Jonathan Rosefsky, president, HydroCoil™ Power; Thomas Miezejeski, operations and finance, HydroCoil™ Power; and Dennis Katsanis, strategic marketing communications, HydroCoil™ Power, with a sample of the HydroCoil™ Turbine.

The incubator expects these ventures to measure themselves not only in terms of financial profitability but also in terms of social benefit and environmental improvement.

Cloud said, “We can make ‘green business’ into a new business driver and economic cluster in New Jersey and develop technologies that we can use locally and export to other countries. As a lifelong environmentalist and entrepreneur, I’m excited about bringing the resources of the business school and of the university to bear on the challenges facing startups in our state.”

HydroCoil™ Power, Inc. is an energy technology firm with five patents to develop low-head hydroelectric turbines for adapting unused assets. The HydroCoil™ Turbine can turn the enormous potential of the energy stored behind 78,000 non-electrified small-/low-head dams in the U.S. into “green and clean” electricity.

The technical and economic advantages over fossil fuel or alternative energy sources come from simplicity of design, which focuses all the kinetic energy of passing water within a containment cylinder. This promising technology offers a cost-effective and carbon-neutral method of retrofitting existing dams, fluid control systems and underutilized facilities, turning them into productive assets.

Studies confirm that the HydroCoil™ Turbine can be used at sites where either the amount of flowing water or the height of the dam is less than would be practical for generating electricity with other equipment.

Jonathan Rosefsky, president of HydroCoil, said, “We see the Sustainable Business Incubator as a shelter and a guiding hand.”

For further information on the new Sustainable Business Incubator, visit http://sustainablebusinessincubator.com/ .

February 2008

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Flor =
College at Florham, Madison, N.J.

Metro =
Metropolitan Campus, Teaneck, N.J.

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