The Cleantech Group went looking for the best places in the country for "collaboration between academics, businesses and investors" and ranked the University of Colorado at Boulder sixth on its list.

"Where are the cutting edge companies that transform the industries of cleantech going to come from? Odds are that it will be from one of the top cleantech universities," writes Shawn Lesser of Sustainable World Capital on the Cleantech Group Web site. "In my latest rankings, I sought to identify the 10 U.S. academic institutions best suited to take advantage of this trend. I looked whether there exists — and to what degree — a pipeline of collaboration of businesses, universities, state initiatives, investors and research dollars." CU's Technology Transfer Office facilitates such a pipeline.

CU-Boulder's entry at No. 6 cites the re-launched Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), as well as ION Engineering and OPX Biotechnologies, two cleantech companies recently created based on CU technology.