(New Hampshire Manufacturing Extension Partnership: Concord, New Hampshire) -- The New Hampshire Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), in collaboration with MEPs in Maine and Massachusetts, have implemented a pilot program to integrate government conservation guidelines into its training programs. The MEPs will evaluate the terms and measures of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Lean and Energy Toolkit” working directly with regional manufacturers.

“At the regional level, New England consumes more energy than the rest of the country,” says Zenagui Brahim, director of operations for New Hampshire MEP. “No segment of the U.S. economy has as much to gain from energy-use reduction as manufacturing. The manufacturing sector consumes 70 percent of industrial energy usage.”

In 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published the “Lean and Energy Toolkit” to assist organizations in reducing energy use and improve performance through lean manufacturing. The MEPs will integrate the EPA’s suggestions while working with six manufacturing clients in the three New England states.

“For years, the MEPs have been showing manufacturers how to streamline and improve operational efficiency with lean training,” says Jack Healy, director of operations at the Massachusetts MEP. “It makes sense to include energy efficiencies as part of lean training. Those techniques will help save money and help save the planet.”

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