Finalists Selected for Berkshire Sustainability Challenge

12:20PM / Monday, October 04, 2021Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. —Finalists have been selected for Lever's Berkshire Sustainability Challenge.

Each of these selected finalists will receive a $3,500 scholarship provided by MassCEC, and during Lever's final pitch event on Dec. 3 an expert panel will award a $20,000 Lever Innovation Grant to a high-potential clean energy startup.

Over the next few weeks, these business owners will work with Lever to refine their business plans and goals.

This Challenge is supported by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC).

"MassCEC is pleased to support these next-generation sustainability projects and companies in partnership with Lever," said MassCEC CEO Stephen Pike. "This challenge provides an opportunity to advance the development of small businesses providing solutions that aim to support the Commonwealth's climate goals."

Berkshire Sustainability Challenge Finalists

Arc Industries

ARC Industries designs and manufactures rooftop-mounted vertical axis wind turbines. The new cutting-edge turbine design addresses the many issues that have traditionally plagued small wind turbines. It is Arc Industries' mission to make renewable energy affordable and accessible to everyone.

SolaBlock

SolaBlock is a Vertical Solar Company that works with our customers to design renewable energy solutions using its Solar Masonry Unit (SMU).

Gencores, Inc.

Gencores, Inc. unlocks low-cost and scalable production of ultra-high-performance foam cores. Enabling radical improvement in core performance and manufacturability, Gencores enables high volume manufacturing of structural composites and OEMs to shed 900lb of steel per vehicle, increasing efficiency by 40 percent in the next decade.

Emerald Energy

Emerald Energy is equipping the next generation of climate tech workers using online education. Emerald uses primarily online education (and some in-person learning when necessary) to train blue-collar heat pumps and EVs technicians and will expand into the wind and solar sector as the company scales.

Sol Clarity

Sol Clarity helps increase solar panel output while saving water, manual labor, and time. SolClarity provides an environmentally conscious cleaning method for solar collectors through the electrodynamic screens (EDS) as overlays for solar panels that use electric fields to automatically remove dust and restore the energy yield/output power of solar panels without the need to wash the panels with water.

r-Stream

r-Steam's product is a compact hardware/software system (12ftx7ft footprint) that can sort high volumes of recyclables from trash by organizing a bulk deposit, conveying it, identifying it using machine vision and learning, then sorting it into the proper bin using controls for industrial automation

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MCLA Kicks Off Fall Term With New President, Full Dorms

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:41AM / Wednesday, September 09, 2026

President Diana Rogers-Adkinson says she's excited to be at MCLA and impressed by the work done by the college's faculty and staff.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts kicked off the school year last week with fully occupied dorms and its "lucky 13th" president.

Diana Rogers-Adkinson welcomed the gathering of staff, faculty and student representatives in the Venable Hall gymnasium for the traditional convocation breakfast on Tuesday, along with several trustees and Mayor Jennifer Macksey. Theater arts professor Laura Stanley sang the alma mater, starting a new tradition.

"This is a great time of the year. It's a time of new beginnings on many levels for us this year, and I'm really excited," said the college's new leader. "I hope everyone is prepared for an exciting school year ahead. I am constantly impressed by the work that the MCLA staff and faculty do every day. You work tirelessly to provide our students with a fantastic education and a home away from home. I want to thank you on behalf of our board for your dedication, determination, and hard work."

The hard work is paying off as the college's enrollment continues to climb out of the hole it dropped into during the pandemic.

The college has 162 first-year students and 89 transfer students, Richard Glejzer, provost and vice president of academic affairs, said, up from 219 last year.

"We also have an additional student pool that we've kept separate in our count because it's a one-time pool," he explained. "As we are serving as a teach-out partner for two [closed] institutions, Anna Maria College and Hampshire College, we have two students coming from Anna Maria, and we have 20 students coming from Hampshire College. That brings us up to 272 new students, up 24 percent when you add all this together from this from last year and 29 percent from the year before."

He held up his hand to halt the applause to "add one more thing": looking at a "slice" of graduate student numbers, the college is expecting 105 to be enrolled, up from 92 last year.

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