~Photos by Donald Norton

Greentown Labs, the largest clean technology incubator in the United States, officially opened its expansion site, the Global Center for Cleantech Innovation on Wednesday of last week.

Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s largest building materials companies and manufacturer of innovative material solutions, contributed building science expertise and building products from its family of companies to renovate a historic building that is now the home to 80 cleantech startup companies that are working to solve climate challenges with their hardware-focused innovations.

The grand opening was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, as well as cleantech leaders from around the country, including Minas Apelian, Vice President of CertainTeed R&D, Quality and Global Director of NOVA External Ventures at Saint-Gobain.

Saint-Gobain created a first-of-its-kind partnership with Greentown Labs, located in Somerville, in 2014. The partnership is an initiative of NOVA, the external ventures arm of Saint-Gobain, which connects startups with the company’s resources to nurture their ideas and grow their companies to scale.

Saint-Gobain was the first and largest example of a corporation using the expansion facility as a test site for its products and materials. As a Founding Sponsor of Greentown Labs, the expansion site presented an opportunity for the company to enhance its support of the incubator and its own research and development efforts by providing building materials to make the Center a world-class facility that maximizes the comfort and well-being of members of Greentown Labs.

The Global Center for Cleantech Innovation is adjacent to the incubator’s previous headquarters, which will be fully converted to laboratory space. The Greentown Labs campus now provides its members with prototyping lab space, a wet lab, a machine shop, electronics shop, office space for more than 450 entrepreneurs and a 500-person event space.