What Walmart, Ford, ILFI and Green Building Alliance Are Doing to Make Manufacturing Profitable, Sustainable

manufacturing

by | Mar 21, 2017

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manufacturingThe push to make domestic manufacturing both profitable and sustainable is getting a boost, in part by President Donald Trump’s commitments to companies, and also from recent investments made my manufacturers themselves.

Last April Ford announced plans to transform its 60-plus-year-old Dearborn campus into a high-tech, high-efficiency headquarters. The automaker said the project, which will cost upwards of $1.2 billion, according to some estimates, will seek LEED Silver and LEED Gold green building certification for all renovated facilities and new construction, respectively.

Additionally, Walmart has pledged to invest $250 billion in American manufacturing by 2023 in an effort to making it both easier and more competitive to manufacture goods in the US. As part of this commitment, in January the Walmart US Manufacturing Innovation Fund invested about $3 million in projects that aim to make domestic manufacturing more cost-effective and sustainable, bringing its grants awarded total to $10 million.

And just today the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), in partnership with Green Building Alliance (GBA), announced the opening of a Living Product “Hub,” which aims to accelerate sustainable manufacturing and create jobs in Pittsburgh.

The partners say the Hub, co-located at GBA’s office in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood, will be a center of education and outreach, connecting innovative buildings, communities and projects.

“The Hub will support Pittsburgh’s ongoing efforts to reinvent itself as a place where innovation and invention meet the future,” said James Connelly, director of the Living Product Challenge for ILFI, in a statement.

The Living Product Challenge provides a framework for manufacturers to create products that are “healthy, inspirational and give back to the environment.”

Using the Living Product Challenge and the Declare label program, the Hub will “provide hands-on assistance to companies who are committed to creating transparent, nontoxic and sustainable products,” Connelly added.

 

 

 

 

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