The City of Kitchener is now home to a new kind of innovation incubator focused on addressing global issues identified by the United Nations.
The SDG Idea Factory on King Street West officially opened Tuesday, providing a new space to develop start-ups and small businesses focused on social and environmental innovation.
The hub takes its name from the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The goals include ending hunger around the globe, achieving gender equality, providing affordable and clean energy and creating sustainable cities and communities.
Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell and the federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould were on hand to celebrate the hub’s opening.
“It’s about thinking about the kind of world we want to live in and who are the people, what are the ideas, what are the resources that you need to bring together to achieve that world that we all want to live in,” Gould said. “Now I know K-W is all about innovation, it’s all about changing the world and sparking the next big idea, and so I’m sure that the next time I’m here it’s celebrating one of those amazing kind of crashing together of ideas that is going to be something that’s truly going to make this world one that is a good place for all of us to live.”
Some of the organizations that will call the SDG Idea Factory home include Liftoff by the Caribbean Association of Waterloo Region, Waterloo Region Community Foundation, ForUsGirls Foundation, Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest, and Waterloo Region Small Business Centre.
Programs offered through SDG Idea Factory partners include Starter Company, Summer Company, and Impact Investments.
