You may think of manufacturing as a not-very-environmentally friendly industry, but there are many ways manufacturing is going green.

We've written about 5 reasons why you'll want to work in eastern Ontario, and we've thought of 3 more you’ll want to know about. Above and beyond the 5 great reasons, eastern Ontario offers you a great quality of life, access to amazing education and many diverse opportunities to grow your career.

The owners of DVS Manufacturing Inc. and Louet North America are a husband and wife team that sell their products all over the world. Dave and Pam Van Stralen’s business is located in the Leeds Grenville area of eastern Ontario. DVS is perhaps best-known for its SquareTM ergonomic knitting needles and crochet hooks. 

Jarvis Design and Display Ltd. has been going strong for 46 years. The company is known for creating signage and in-store wall graphics that appear all across Canada. From store signs outside local grocery stores to washroom graphics or direction signs inside an office building, Jarvis Design and Display has done it all.

Evonik Canada Inc. is a global leader in producing specialty chemicals. The Maitland Ontario site of Evonik, which makes hydrogen peroxide, continues to expand. The company currently employs 26 highly skilled local workers in a massive 60,000 square metre facility.

Husband and wife duo, Karen Clark and Alain Ménard, started their company to provide their families and all Canadians with healthier personal care products. 

Here’s an industry that may not come to mind when you think of the manufacturing sector: technical textile manufacturers. Technical textiles are used in all sorts of places beyond where you would normally think of textiles being used. Industries like construction, transportation, sports, and agriculture all use technical textiles.

The term “advanced manufacturing” gets thrown around a lot, but it isn’t an easily defined term. Manufacturing, for instance, is the production of products in large quantities. Raw materials are converted into finished products that can then be sold. Manufactured products could be anything from canned soda and frozen pizza to car parts and electronics.

You’re probably feeling excited. It’s Manufacturing Month and that means that there’s a lot of activity around our industry. Interest in the manufacturing sector is concentrated in this one month, and for thirty-one days you can feel like the star of the show. But we all know this month has to come to an end, and when it does things will go back to normal. Getting new potential investors interested in the industry is harder without all the initiatives that are reserved for Manufacturing Month.

There are many ways to increase the profile of eastern Ontario manufacturing. But when it comes to keeping the interest of young people, some employers feel at a loss for how to communicate their passion to the next generation of would-be makers and tinkerers. That’s why it’s useful to look for different methods to express the passion, creativity, and, yes, fun that’s part of the manufacturing world. Let’s explore a cultural phenomenon you might not associate with manufacturing trends: gaming!