The Minnesota Job Skills Partnership awarded the $230,000 grant, which Enterprise Minnesota will use to help five local metalcasters reduce energy and material waste.
Enterprise Minnesota, a nonprofit consulting group, announced Wednesday that it has received a $230,000 grant from the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) that will allow it to help five local manufacturers go green.
The grant will help fund a new sustainability program that reduces energy and material waste through lean process improvement.
Enterprise Minnesota has selected five metalcasting companies to participate in the program: Mankato-based Dotson Company, Le Sueur-based Le Sueur, Inc., Minneapolis-based Smith Foundry Company, St. Paul-based St. Paul Brass and Aluminum, and St. Paul-based Pier Foundry.
“The basis of manufacturing in Minnesota starts with metalcasting and foundries,” Enterprise Minnesota President and CEO Bob Kill said in a statement. “This MJSP grant is phenomenal because it brings together a great group of companies that want to take green and sustainability into their industry.”
According to Enterprise Minnesota, energy is one of the most significant costs for metalcasters, many of which use a substantial amount of energy each year. In a 2010 survey conducted by Enterprise Minnesota, half of the more than 400 respondents said that environmentally friendly practices are important to their business.
Minneapolis-based Enterprise Minnesota, chartered by the state legislature in 1987, is a consulting group that aims to keep the manufacturing industry, in particular, on the forefront of innovation.
—Jennifer Bissell
(edit@tcbmag.com)