As an Ohio native, I never imagined my home state would be a hotbed for green business. On a gloomy day last December, however, while talking with an old family friend about my plans to start a "sustainable" MBA program, I learned of the Northwest Ohio Alternative Energy (NOAE) Business Council. This unlikely alliance based in the industrial city of Toledo, Ohio, can teach us all a lesson about the importance and advantages of collaboration in the world of sustainable business.

Little did I know, Northwest Ohio has a rich history of renewable energy development that started in 1984 with Glasstech Solar. Foreseeing the impending market need for cleaner, more efficient and cost effective energy sources, my friend, Norm Johnston, saw the advantages of looking beyond his engineering and business background and formed NOAE. With the goal to make Ohio a leader in renewable energy, Johnston and the NOAE forged strategic alliances with financial and educational institutions.

For example, when the August 2003 East Coast blackout proved to many that our current power system just doesn't work, NOAE saw the business opportunity in this crisis. Their financially viable solution: capitalize on the photovoltaic (PV) market.

PV is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. According to NOAE's calculations, the PV industry is growing at a rate of $5 billion per year, and an anticipated growth to $27 billion by 2012. The Council recognized this growth as not being limited by demand, but by the lack of available materials (silicon) and upfront production costs. NOAE set out to solve these challenges.

The council's innovative solution: drive down costs by using a new application of CdTe (cadmium tellurium) instead of the more expensive silicon in their PV modules. The group's collaborative efforts proved effective. As a result, they were able to lower capital costs and speed up production. In addition, to make up for the energy lost in traditional panels due to reflection and soiling, they developed an anti-reflective/self cleaning surface on the new panels.

"Simply put, businesses like renewable energy," says Norm Johnston, founding NOAE member and CEO of McMaster Enterprises.

As the cost of traditional forms of energy continue to go up, companies are naturally looking for ways to reduce this budget line item. And the NOAE is proving that through renewables, businesses can keep their energy costs down.

"Logically, if you tell a business you can give them a set energy price for the next 20 years," Johnston says, "the company will choose that technology."

Despite Ohio's frequently overcast skies, the technology developed by the Council could effectively be used in the state. According to the National Renewable Energy Lab, if only one-half of one percent of the state were covered in PVs, it would generate enough electricity for all of Ohio’s residents while drastically reducing the state’s CO2 emissions. For now, however, the group isn’t producing the PV, they are selling the technology internationally where the demand is higher as well as working with the Department of Defense to install the systems on some of the 30 million acres of unused military land in the U.S.

NOAE’s synergistic business alliance has enabled the group to be innovative beyond their individual abilities alone. This model is being used across the country to further research on renewables and other green business initiatives. It can be used on all scales of business development -- from local to international.

US Representative Marcy Kaptur says, "The [NOAE] partnership will allow Northwest Ohio to emerge as a national leader in the development of alternative energy and technologies." And U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown, who is vying for a Senate seat this election cycle, has vowed to make Ohio "the Silicon Valley for alternative energy development.”

If this aspiration comes true, it will no doubt be due in large part to the pioneering, collaborative efforts of the NOAE.

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Vanessa Crossgrove Fry is an MBA candidate (2007) in the Sustainable Management program at Presidio School of Management and Director of Development for the Snake River Alliance, Idaho’s nuclear watchdog. A native of Ohio, now residing in Idaho, Vanessa’s love for the environment has led her to work with Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology, research Lyme disease with the Institute of Environmental Studies, teach coral reef ecology in Key West, FL and lead wilderness therapy groups in Southern Utah.