A sustainable manufacturing company in Holyoke was awarded a $1.2 million dollar grant to help support its technologies, in a state effort to boost the green industry.
From solvent-free batteries to single-use asthma attack detectors, the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) is awarding a handful of manufacturers across the Commonwealth, totaling over $10 million. That includes Holyoke’s Clean Crop Technologies, which uses energy-efficient cold plasma to clean seeds, and ultimately reduce food waste.
M2I2 is run by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech).
The money will help to fund expansion of operations and technologies – but the business is also set to partner with Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) students so they can get experience in the budding field.
“We want to see more than just funding the company,” CAM Director Christine Nolan said about the awards, which seek to additionally benefit recipients’ communities.
STCC President Dr. John Cook says partnerships like this one help students to know there’s exciting career prospects out there.
“There's opportunities, and we've got the training piece, and we want to bring those two together. So the college has for years and years – it's part of our legacy – been a close collaborator with business and with industry,” he said. “And this is just a really, really good example of where we are here in 2024.”
Clean Crop Technologies CEO and co-founder Dan White says the collaboration with STCC will show durable demand for the field – not only as just a company to work at, but a new career path to pursue.
He said he also wants to expand the workplace development training program by potentially connecting with other Pioneer Valley clean energy employers and pooling resources for students.
“There's going to be a lot of growth for an overlapping set of skills, not just at one company, but at potentially dozens over time,” White said.
He noted how state support is critical in sustainable manufacturing companies’ ability to get to a higher level of operations. But M2I2’s grant isn’t the only exciting news to come for the industry – just yesterday, Clean Crop was also awarded another grant through the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s InnovateMass program, in addition to 23 other clean energy companies in the state. The Holyoke business was given $350,000 to demonstrate its technological system.
