There’s Green IT and there’s IT that greens.

The City of New York, IBM, Columbia University, Polytechnic Institute of NYU and City University of New York have teamed up to turn the Big Apple into a mecca for sustainable structures. In establishing the NYC Urban Technology Innovation Center, which will reside in Columbia University, the group is tasked with sowing the seeds of a vibrant smart buildings marketplace in the region by advancing the field of energy efficient building tech and connecting companies that develop said technologies with building owners.

In effect, the ambitious plan calls for the establishment of a tech incubator and living laboratory of sorts where smart building innovators will get to test their mettle under real-world conditions on their way toward commercialization. And as for IBM’s contribution, it will lend its expertise in “cloud computing, real-time analytics, and supercomputing,” according to Dr. Katherine Frase, Vice President, IBM Research. It will be interesting to see how cloud computing, a green computing resources delivery model in its own right, contributes to the advancement of this field.

In recent years, the company has made a push into smart buildings. Though cleantech, the smart grid and EVs attract headlines, there’s a huge opportunity for energy savings and carbon reductions by addressing buildings, which account for 70 percent of all energy use in the U.S. And Big Blue is no stranger to retrofitting facilities. For instance, its Research Triangle Park data center in North Carolina was awarded LEED Gold certification last year.

As the mayor of a city packed to the gills with huge, iconic structures, Michael R. Bloomberg, sees this as an avenue to help one of the United States’ oldest metro areas reduce emissions and chart a path toward a green economy. “We will never meet the ambitious carbon reduction goals in PlaNYC unless we reduce the emissions from New York’s one million existing buildings. By bringing together New York City’s business innovators, academics and building owners, the NYC Urban Technology Innovation Center will capitalize on some of our City’s greatest strengths, creating jobs and helping realize our vision of a greener, greater New York,” he states.

Here’s to a green, Big Apple.

Image credit: Flickr user Vlad Tuchkov – CC