National Council for Advanced Manufacturing: Green Jobs in Manufacturing
The National Council for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM) strongly agrees with President-elect Obama’s emphasis on green jobs and sustainability. NACFAM believes that Sustainable Manufacturing is the key emerging paradigm for 21st century manufacturing, and is the major one in which U.S. manufacturing must excel to retain and grow U.S. manufacturing competitiveness in the global economy.
Jeff Mittelstadt, NACFAM VP for Sustainable Manufacturing said, "To make green jobs a reality demands an implementation strategy to train all existing and potential manufacturing workers on the principles of sustainability and the application of existing skill sets within a sustainability framework so everyone in the manufacturing enterprise can help minimize environmental impacts while driving profitability and competitiveness." Similar to earlier Lean Manufacturing and Quality Improvement initiatives, Sustainable Manufacturing will only truly succeed when workers at all levels understand the goals and are engaged in the process.
NACFAM is committed to both sustainable manufacturing of green products (e.g., renewable energy-related products, energy efficiency products, hybrid or electric or fuel cell vehicles, etc.) and sustainable manufacturing of all products (from toilet paper to defense systems). NACFAM’s Green Jobs in Manufacturing strategy is "a roadmap for progressively greener solutions through a sustainable and green workforce." It is an implementation strategy based on NACFAM’s successful experience at co-leading with the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) effort to develop the first comprehensive such system covering front line production workers. You can find the strategy at NACFAM’s web site.
"Our 20-year history of non-partisan collaboration with other groups, organizations, and perspectives to successfully implement change will serve us well in the effort to successfully implement a green jobs in manufacturing strategy including skill standards, training development, and channels to those who need the training and jobs," said NACFAM CEO Eric Mittelstadt.
The strategy roadmap is meant to be complimentary to the many policy proposals and to dive deeper to make green jobs in manufacturing a reality, find the right channels to make sure that people who need jobs get the training they need, and to make sure they are quality jobs that manufacturers will embrace as well so that the hiring can happen.
To spur collaboration and move forward we have already begun to contact a number of organizations, including labor unions, nonprofits, industry, educational institutions, local economic development entities, and Federal Government entities. NACFAM believes this is too important to wait to see how policies unfold. To start now and for more information, please contact Jeff Mittelstadt, Vice President, Sustainable Manufacturing, at 202-367-2302 or [email protected].
This strategy has been sent to the Obama-Biden Transition Team. NACFAM looks forward to working with the Obama Administration to make the benefits of green jobs a reality in the manufacturing sector.
NACFAM is a non-partisan non-lobbying action/think tank brokering intense collaboration among industry, education, government and non-profits to devise public and private sector policies and programs to make U.S.-based manufacturers more globally competitive in the four manufacturing areas of Process Technology & Innovation, Workforce Education & Training, Supply Chain Relationships, and Sustainable Manufacturing.
