Sustainable Bioeconomy

Harnessing the power of biology to scale new sustainability and climate solutions across industries

The sustainable bioeconomy, also referred to as “planetary health,” sits at the intersection of life sciences and the green economy. This nascent but growing industry harnesses the power of biology to bring new sustainability and climate solutions to industries that rely heavily on petroleum and other non-renewable resources. From fashion to food to textiles to healthcare, the sustainable bioeconomy has the unique yet untapped ability to make core pillars of the city economy greener and more sustainable.

Six key subsectors represent the core areas of the sustainable bioeconomy that are best equipped to harness the power of biology to create lasting sustainability solutions. 

This initiative expands on NYCEDC’s efforts to build the green economy through initiatives like the Green Economy Action Plan and the life and health sciences industry through the $1.1 billion LifeSci NYC investment and will bring together the two industries to build a more innovative and resilient economy of the future. 

Gotham Foundry: A New Hub for Materials Science

Today, the global market for sustainable materials is valued at $358B and is expected to grow to $800B by 2032. As industries like fashion, construction, design, and healthcare seek new solutions to meet their sustainability goals, the sustainable bioeconomy offers unique opportunities to utilize biobased and bioinspired materials. Materials science is the creation of new more advanced and sustainable materials and uses 21st century innovations across biology, chemistry, and engineering to bring the materials of the future from the lab to our closets, homes, and buildings. This multidisciplinary field helps industry and individuals replace products reliant on extractive practices with greener alternatives. 

To support the growing materials science ecosystem in the City, NYCEDC released the Materials Innovation Hub RFEI to build and operate a first-of-its-kind, industry-agnostic center-of-gravity for materials innovation in January 2023. Capitalizing on the world-class research across the city’s institutions, the more-than-10,000 students who graduate with a degree related to materials science, and the density of end users in industries like fashion and construction, NYCEDC has committed to supporting the growth of the sustainable materials ecosystem.

In response to the Materials Innovation Hub RFEI, NYCEDC has conditionally awarded Gotham Foundry, a consortium between Columbia University, the City University in New York’s Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), the State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and Genspace, a community biolab based in Sunset Park, $45M to build a state-of-the-art lab for materials innovation. Anchored by an approximately 25,000-square-foot hub on Columbia University’s Manhattanville campus in West Harlem, Gotham Foundry will support the commercialization of the next generation of sustainable materials and make NYC the epicenter of materials innovation.

Additional Projects

Gotham Foundry is one of several projects that will help cement NYC’s place as a leader in the sustainable bioeconomy. Other projects include:

• Genspace: To help New Yorkers enter the sustainable bioeconomy, NYCEDC and Genspace partnered to launch the Break into Biotech program. This specialized program is designed to equip adult learners with minimal to no experience in health and life sciences with the necessary skills to work in a laboratory setting. To date, participants have researched sustainable dyes, nanotechnology for textiles, and mycelium biobased fabrics.
• Aanika Biosciences: In 2023, NYCEDC invested $800,000 in Aanika Biosciences, which creates custom microbial barcodes which can help track, trace, and authenticate products throughout the supply chain. The company has leveraged its proprietary and regulatory approved tagging technology to underwrite insurance coverages in the food and agriculture sector and is conducting major pilots with agricultural companies across the world. Aanika is headquartered in Manhattan, with manufacturing conducted outside of the five boroughs, highlighting the potential for New York City to be the epicenter of innovation within the sustainable bioeconomy as solutions are scaled across the globe.
• Mass Timber: As part of the City’s decarbonization efforts, NYCEDC is operating the New York City Mass Timber Studio, a technical assistance program to support active mass timber development projects in the early phases of project planning and design. The Studio’s first cohort in 2024 consisted of seven projects spanning all five boroughs and with diverse building typologies and scales—from community centers to multi-family residential and adaptive reuse developments.

As a global capital of green economy, life and health sciences, fashion, food, construction, and tech, New York City is well positioned to lead as the world looks for new solutions to combat the climate crisis. New York City is uniquely positioned to cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurs and technologies that capitalize on the ingenuity and innovation of each sector to push the frontiers of modern science. As the sustainable bioeconomy evolves, NYCEDC, in partnership with industry, academia, and the start-up ecosystem, will continue to galvanize the next generation of bio-based climate solutions.