Over the last few decades, Northwest Arkansas has been a hot bed of activity for big business. There’s a strong chance it’s about to be taken to a whole new level, thanks to the Green Valley Initiative.

"The Green Valley Network is an organization that is committed to trying to build a Silicon Valley here around sustainability technology,” said Dan Sanker, Green Valley’s Managing Director. “So we're building a business cluster around sustainability-based companies."

It all started in 2005. That's when Dan Sanker heard former Walmart CEO Lee Scott deliver a speech about sustainability. After that, Sanker met briefly with President Bill Clinton and talked about some eco-friendly business ideas. "They were talking about the same thing. Green tech, the environment and sustainability,” Sanker said. “As I flew back, it sort of started to gel in my mind, the concept of sustainability as a technology and also all the resources we have in this area that are perfect for a business cluster around that new technology."

Sanker currently runs the educational part of the Green Valley Initiative in Northwest Arkansas while Steve Rust leads the development group. It's primary goal is to concentrate on economic development, attracting new companies and helping the ones that are already here.

"We've got about two dozen or 26 companies in the pipeline, but we have a number that are working with Green Valley Development,” said Green Valley’s Communications Director, Elizabeth Abrams. “Some of them are manufacturing-based, some are R&D." Blue & Green, Duralor, Acticut and Bio-Based Solutions are just some of the companies collaborating with Green Valley.

New partnerships are formed all the time and Sanker hopes to make Northwest Arkansas one of the most prominent areas in the world for sustainability-technology business "My vision for the whole green valley concept is we get to be something similar to the research park in North Carolina,” Sanker added.

That's where a similar plan has resulted in 70-thousand new jobs, approximately 15-hundred start-up companies and five-thousand patents. "It is an entire industry in and of itself and if you need any kind of support, direction, funding in terms of bio-technology -- you look there,” Abrams said. “That's what we're looking to create here."

Sanker hopes to see the University of Arkansas become a key area for research and sustainability. He also wants this part of the state to play a national and global leadership role in terms of creating goods and services that are sustainable.