Released on August 4, 2010

The Dotson Co., Mankato, Minn., Le Sueur Inc., Le Sueur, Minn., Smith Foundry Co., Minneapolis, St. Paul Brass and Aluminum, St. Paul, Minn., and Pier Foundry, St. Paul, have signed onto a green manufacturing for sustainability program through Enterprise Minnesota.

The program, financed by a $230,000 grant from the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership, is designed to create and deploy green manufacturing for sustainability.

“The basis of manufacturing in Minnesota starts with metalcasting,” said Enterprise Minnesota President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Kill. “This grant is phenomenal because it brings together a great group of companies that want to take green and sustainability into their industry.”

In partnership with the Univ. of Minnesota’s Technical Assistance Program and Change Management Associates, Mt. Laurel, N.J., Enterprise Minnesota will combine lean process improvement and sustainability practices to develop a program that targets practical energy conservation and waste reduction opportunities. The sustainability practices will be designed with metalcasters’ bottom lines in mind, allowing the manufacturers to save on production by reducing energy and material wastes.

In addition to the collaborating companies and partners, the Metalcasters of Minnesota, American Foundry Society Twin Cities Chapter, EPA/Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership-Green Supplier Network, and the Teamsters and Glass, Molders and Pottery International unions all have expressed support for the program.

Chartered by the Minnesota State Legislature in 1987, Enterprise Minnesota is a non-profit and affiliate of the Department of Commerce, Manufacturing Extension Partnership a program within the National Institute of Standards and Technology.