Building Clean Workshop Shows How to Find U.S.-Made Products
A workshop in Minnesota showcased a new database that shows the growing energy-efficient products market in the U.S.
U.S.-made products and insulation toxins were the subject at hand as a diverse audience of union and built environment leaders gathered for a half-day presentation on the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation’s Building Clean initiative November 15 in Minneapolis.
The session looked at buildingclean.org, a new database that documents the extensive amount of building material manufacturing in the U.S.—a fact many do not understand given the continual media coverage of production jobs leaving the country.
“As part of the budget cutbacks in 2012, the government stopped tracking manufacturers and their products,” said Lauren Asplen, the BlueGreen Alliance’s Director of Healthy Sustainability Programs and manager of the Building Clean project. “Without the data, awareness of the numerous manufacturers still doing business here began to be lost. This database sets the record straight and gives those who need building materials an easy way to source them domestically.”
Attendees received a fact sheet that showed not only the extent of energy efficient product manufacturing in Minnesota but the policies that are driving a market for the products.
The workshop also looked at health issues that can occur from hazardous chemicals found in insulation, sealants and other building products.
Click below to download a fact sheet about Minnesota’s energy-efficient products market, policies that are growing it, and ways to ensure the jobs created in the industry are quality jobs.