All over the world, cities are embarking on a more sustainable path, some because they are facing vast environmental challenges due to climate change and population growth, others because they want to set new standards and raise the bar for ambitious goals for sustainable development and CO2 reductions.

Sustainable city development is a global megatrend, and cutting edge solutions are in high demand. With support from The Danish Industry Foundation, Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster will soon launch the initiative 'Complex Cleantech Solutions' with the aim of meeting this global demand.

From push to pull

However, this is not an easy task. The green challenges facing cities cannot be overcome by applying one particular technology, but requires cross-sector collaboration:

- We can see that there is a growing global market for what we call 'complex cleantech solutions', and we want to give our companies the opportunity to help solve the world's most pressing challenges, and be at the forefront of the cleantech revolution, says Michael Johansen, Project Development Manager at Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster.

Recent initiatives supporting the Danish cleantech industry have been focused on promoting the key strengths of Danish technology, but instead of using a traditional 'push' strategy, CCC will apply a market-driven 'pull' strategy, building alliances with cities and regions that are willing to invest in world-class cleantech solutions.

CCC explores the next level

These international alliances will open the door to new markets for Danish cleantech companies and ultimately lead to business opportunities for Danish cleantech companies. But the new project also holds great imperatives for testing a new method for cluster development:

-This is a unique opportunity for us as a cluster organization. Our first goal is to work with three international alliance partners, but our long term ambition is to gain valuable experiences and develop competences that can take cluster management to the next level - and hopefully other clusters can learn from our experiences as well, says Michael Johansen.

The Danish Industry Foundation has invested 11million DKK in the 'Complex Cleantech Solutions' initiative.