Researchers from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) will play a lead role in a new U.S.-funded consortium that will aim to improve the energy efficiency of the nation’s industrial manufacturing processes.

The Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) Institute, based at the Rochester Institute of Technology, will explore strategies to reduce the costs of technologies needed to reuse, recycle, and remanufacture materials such as metals, polymers, fibers, and electronic waste. The project will be supported by a $70 million U.S. Department of Energy grant over five years in addition to $70 million in private cost-share commitments from the institute’s more than 100 partners.

Its goal is to improve energy efficiency in U.S. manufacturing 50 percent by 2027, which would save billions of dollars in energy costs and reduce overall environmental impacts. It is part of the DOE’s “Manufacturing USA” initiative.

For Yale researchers, it will present an opportunity to build upon years of previous research into the lifecycles of metals and other resources, done by the F&ES-based Center for Industrial Ecology (CIE) — and to work with a wide range of partners from academia, industry, and government.

Read more (Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies)