MTU joins REMADE Institute

HOUGHTON — Michigan Tech is taking part in a massive energy-saving initiative.

One of the largest costs to any company is their energy use. The U.S. Department of Energy has launched a $70 million project to look for ways to reduce energy use and emissions. Michigan Tech is one of 85 entities to join the DOE’s REMADE Institute, Reducing Embodied-energy and Decreasing Emissions.

MTU Sustainable Futures Institute Operations Manager Robert Handler said, “We think it’s great that the Department of Energy is putting such a large focus on making the manufacturing industry in the United States more competitive by looking at the life-cycle of the manufacturing process and realizing that, to stay competitive and to become more competitive, we need to think about the entire life- cycle of the manufacturing system.”

By utilizing recycled and re-manufactured materials, Tech hopes to show measurable ways companies can improve sustainability.
Handler said, “Here at Michigan Tech, we’re going to be helping a lot of businesses, companies around the world and a lot of different sectors evaluate those kind of sustainability criteria to make sure that we’re making wise investments with this
large amount of federal money.”

Michigan Tech will begin looking at possible projects to begin with over the next couple of months. The goal for REMADE is to improve overall energy efficiency by 50 percent by 2027.