Growing Cleaner More Efficient Manufacturing

The coalition to ReImagine Appalachia is advancing a sustainable economic vision for a twenty-first century Appalachia—one that is good for working people, communities, the environment and our health. ReImagine Appalachia’s vision builds on the region’s assets while understanding that vision can’t be achieved without significant public investment, strong public policies, and responsible economic development approaches designed to maximize the benefit to the whole community. In this paper, we explore energy-saving opportunities in the manufacturing sector and systemic barriers to achieving those savings; Appalachia’s amazing assets in shuttered and shuttering coal- fired power plants, and the role these assets can play to make Appalachia a manufacturing powerhouse; how investing in clean and efficient manufacturing infrastructure can position Appalachia to be a hub for the responsible industries of the future, such as alternatives to single-use plastic, electric vehicle production, and energy storage technology. We look at good union jobs that can be created if we break down systemic barriers to industrial efficiency and provide a case study of how an Ohio manufacturing facility, working with energy partners, reduced its energy use and operating costs while creating jobs for former coal power plant workers. Finally, we make recommendations for a federal Appalachian manufacturing infrastructure plan designed to lay the foundation for a twenty-first century sustainable manufacturing sector in Appalachia.