Posts Tagged ‘environmental technology’

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Supporting the Best Environment for U.S. Exporters

July 24, 2014

This post originally appeared on the Department of Commerce blog.

The ITA Environmental Technology Team is ready to support your business!

The ITA Environmental Technology Team is ready to support your business!

One way the International Trade Administration (ITA) supports U.S. exporters is through specific teams of specialists who focus on specific industry sectors.

From marine technology, to health care, to automobile manufacturing, ITA offers export support in a variety of sectors.

To promote professional development and to make sure our specialists stay on top of the latest business trends and opportunities, our teams come together to share lessons learned, study best practices, and discuss ways their industry is changing.

This month, the Environmental Technology team did just that.

Their week-long conference included various seminars which built on existing knowledge of export policies and emerging environmental technologies. These conferences benefit exporters because they keep the commercial service specialists up to date on the latest and greatest in their industry. The main focus of this year’s training sessions was ways the team can address pollution issues related to water, air, and soil, and to learn about new recycling technologies.

Other ways ITA supports environmental technology exporters are through programs such as;

The environmental sector is a large and growing industry. Environmental technologies make up a $735 billion global market with U.S. exports currently comprising about $45 billion of this market. Therefore there is much growth potential for U.S. envirotech exporters.

Industry-specific offices are just one of the ways ITA constantly works to make exporting easier for American businesses.

You can find out more about our industry teams and how they support exporters at export.gov. Or you can contact the Environmental Technology Team so they can help lead you in the right direction.

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Advocacy Center Helps Keep the Ball in Colorado’s Court

July 8, 2013

Nicholas Barter is an intern in the International Trade Administration’s Office of Public Affairs. He’s a graduate of Eastern Connecticut University, taking graduate courses at the George Washington University.

Representatives from Ball Aerospace and the Korean Aerospace Research Institute signed their business contract during the Trade Winds Asia 2013 trade mission.

Representatives from Ball Aerospace and the Korean Aerospace Research Institute signed their business contract during the Trade Winds Asia 2013 trade mission.

Odds are you don’t need a scanning UV-visible spectrometer. You may not even know what that is. But the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) does need one, and it contracted with Colorado-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to provide it.

Contracts like these will continue to bring quality American-made products to organizations across the globe.

Ball signed the contract with KARI on May 13, and will deliver a scanning UV-visible spectrometer to detect pollution and monitor long-term climate change in the Asia-Pacific region.

The contract will support an estimated 100 American jobs. It also supports Colorado’s top export sector — Computer and Electronics. The sector was the state’s leading merchandise export category in 2012, accounting for $2.1 billion in export sales.

Competing for foreign public contracts can be difficult. There could be a home-field advantage, as foreign governments may want to support their own country’s businesses. There could be artificial roadblocks, customs issues, or any number of potential hurdles.

That’s when the Department of Commerce’s Advocacy Center can be helpful.

The Advocacy Center has helped hundreds of small, medium, and large U.S. businesses win contracts across the world. Its goal is to guarantee that U.S. products and services can compete abroad on a level playing field. For this contract, Ball beat out companies from Germany and the Netherlands.

Advocacy Center Regional Manager, Frederick Helfrich, attended the signing of the contract by Ball and KARI during the Trade Winds Asia 2013 trade mission. Under Secretary Francisco Sánchez extended his congratulations to Ball at the mission as well.

If your business is in need of assistance to expand globally, please contact the Advocacy Center. Our team would be glad to help your company compete for foreign government contracts.

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Department of Commerce Working with EPA on Export Promotion

December 14, 2012

Todd DeLelle is an international trade specialist in the International Trade Administration’s Office of Energy and Environmental Industries.

Commerce Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials will be participating in a series of collaborative activities to promote exports of U.S. environmental solutions during POWER-GEN International, the industry leader in providing comprehensive coverage of the trends, technologies and issues facing the generation sector.  At this year’s show, EPA participation has been folded into the International Buyer Program, a joint U.S. government-industry effort designed to stimulate U.S. exports by promoting U.S. industry exhibitors to foreign markets. Department of Commerce and EPA representatives are meeting with power industry delegates from international markets and U.S. companies at the show’s Global Business Center.

The Department of Commerce and EPA continue to work together to promote U.S. technology exports by integrating EPA’s technical analysis into Commerce’s export promotion and trade policy activities. The two agencies lead The Environmental Export Initiative – an effort to enhance interagency efforts to support U.S. exports of technologies relevant to air emissions, water treatment, and solid waste management.  The Initiative was publicly announced on May 14, 2012 at American University by then-Commerce Secretary Bryson, EPA Administrator Jackson, U.S. Trade Representative Kirk, and Secretary of Agriculture Vilsak.  In 2010, the United States  industry that supplies these goods and services generated an estimated $312 billion in revenue, employed 1.7 million Americans, and experienced a trade surplus of approximately $13 billion, according to Environmental Business International. Its export activities underpin the advancement of environmental quality and human health in other parts of the world, while supporting increased jobs and economic activity in the United States.

While at the show, Commerce and EPA officials will be touting the recently developed Environmental Solutions Exporter Portal. The portal represents a on-line resource for companies interested in U.S. government services and products that facilitate exports. It provides a direct line to U.S. trade and environmental protection specialists and includes information on foreign environmental markets, export facilitation services, export finance products, trade promotion events, and policy initiatives that support the U.S. technology exports.

The Portal also links EPA analysis of key global environmental issues with U.S. solutions providers in the U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit.  Currently, the Toolkit includes modules on groundwater remediation,  nutrient removal in municipal water treatment, emissions control from large marine diesel engines, and mercury control from power plant emissions.  The addition of supplemental air pollution control areas is currently underway, including those relevant to: nitrogen oxides emissions control from power plants, air issues relevant to the oil and gas industry, and emissions from non-road diesel engines.

For more information, including how companies can participate, please visit the portal at www.export.gov/envirotech or www.epa.gov/international/exports.

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Colorado Receives MDCP Award for Cleantech

December 17, 2009

Amy Reichert is the Director of Trade and Investment for the Americas at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT).   

It took two tries, but this year our team of trade experts at the Colorado International Trade Office joined the ranks of MDCP recipients with a program tailored to promote exports of cleantech and environmental products and services to China and Mexico.  CO-EXist, or Colorado Export of Innovative and Sustainable Technologies, officially launches in January, 2010.

We vaguely knew about MDCP, but it wasn’t until we met another MDCP recipient at a trade show in Chile that we started to see its value and brainstormed ideas for a program of our own.  The International Trade Office (ITO) team enthusiastically began to form our proposal.

We explored markets and industries where we thought we could have an impact among Colorado exporters.  With a strong state-wide push to develop the “New Energy Economy”, we narrowed our industry focus to renewable energy.  But looking more closely at our base of potential exporters, we expanded the focus to incorporate all environmental technologies: water and wastewater infrastructure; air pollution control; energy efficiency; clean and renewable energy infrastructure and generation; waste management and recycling; monitoring and compliance; green building; transportation technologies; and the list goes on….

Maybe it’s our inherent desire to protect the natural beauty that is Colorado, or our deeply-rooted mining history, but we’ve long had a strong base of environmental companies, and we designed our program to capitalize on and further strengthen that core competitive advantage.  Colorado’s cleantech culture is evidenced by the fact that we are the first state in the nation to pass a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) by a vote of the people.

Next up, picking our target markets.  We have some advantages in Mexico with an office in Mexico City, Spanish-speaking staff, and significant market demand.  It’s also often a market picked by first-time exporters.  China is also key.  It’s a large and growing market, but can be difficult to navigate, especially for small companies.  Through CO-EXist, and with the support of our MDCP team, we believe we can reduce risk and facilitate market entry for Colorado companies.

Although our first application was unsuccessful, the seeds had been planted.  Even without MDCP support, we began implementing components of our proposal – and with great success!  We applied again and were rewarded for our efforts.

Now with the full support of our MDCP team, and other local partners, we look forward to a fruitful partnership and many company success stories!

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