Business incubators and green technology: The Gauteng Climate Innovation Centre, South Africa

Abstract

Business incubators are a vehicle to assist the survival prospects of start-up enterprises, many of which fail in their early years of operation. One special form of business incubator is the Climate Innovation Centre (CIC) which is part of international debates around green economies and appropriate technologies for climatecompatible development. CICs are an intervention to build innovation sites to ameliorate climate change and a highly distinctive form of business incubator in which the explicit focus is upon supporting small business startups allied to the application of green technologies. Using a qualitative approach the article analyses the establishment and operations of the Gauteng Climate Innovation Centre in South Africa. The CICSA in its first five years of operations has been ‘learning through experience’ and introduced a number of changes since its launch in 2012, including an extension of the business incubation programme and an adjusted focus to South Africa’s climate change related ‘green’ issues around energy, water and waste. Although 5 years is too short for a conclusive evaluation of CIC operations the evidence from this research with South African clean-tech enterprises is largely positive and suggests that the assistance provided by the CIC has contributed towards enterprise development.

Keywords

• business incubators
• small enterprise development
• green technology
• climate innovation centre
• South Africa