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Manufacturers, Energy Department Join Forces to Encourage Sustainability

The National Association of Manufacturers is working with the U.S. Department of Energy on a campaign to highlight examples of sustainability in the manufacturing sector. The initiative seeks to build on progress made in energy savings in recent years.

The National Association of Manufacturers is teaming with the federal government on a new partnership to celebrate the sector’s progress in improving energy efficiency, highlight the companies leading the way, and explore ways to continue to make manufacturing more sustainable.

Under the Sustainability in Manufacturing Partnership between NAM and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), “NAM members will have the opportunity to highlight their company’s projects, best practices, and implementation methods, embrace innovation, explore emerging technologies, and evaluate future challenges that need to be addressed,” the association said in a news release this week.

NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons touted progress that manufacturers have already made on the sustainability front.

“Manufacturers accept the responsibility to better the future of our communities, our environment and our children, which is why over the past decade, we have reduced emissions by 10 percent even as our value to the economy has increased 19 percent,” Timmons said, adding that NAM’s partnership with DOE “will take our sustainability efforts to a new level of progress.”

Energy Secretary Rick Perry added that the partnership “will further spotlight industrial leadership and boost awareness of the resources across the DOE enterprise to boost manufacturing competitiveness through energy savings.”

The new partnership is part of the agency’s Better Plants Program, which aims to improve plants’ global competitiveness through energy efficiency. DOE has teamed with nearly 200 manufacturing and industrial groups of different sizes to help them reach voluntary goals in energy and water savings, according to Industry Week. The agency says the program’s partner companies have saved $4.2 billion in energy costs over seven years in facilities that represent around 12 percent of energy use.

NAM said it will meet quarterly with DOE officials to discuss the program and develop future initiatives.

(Nordroden/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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