Grant to Help Montana Environmental Companies Export to Latin America

04/29/98 BOZEMAN -- A new $170,000 grant will enable TechLink at Montana State University and MSU's College of Business to assist Montana environmental companies in developing markets in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Mexico is the primary focus of the two-year grant from the Business and International Education Program of the U.S. Department of Education. Mexico has a pressing NAFTA-related mandate to improve its environment, said Will Swearingen, TechLink project director.

Swearingen said MSU has existing relationships with universities in Baja California, Mexico, and will build on these relationships to link Montana companies with manufacturers in need of environmental technology along the U.S.-Mexico border. TechLink will work closely with the MSU College of Business, the Northwest Environmental Business Council-Montana, and the Mexican universities as well as their affiliated industrial partners, he said.

"Environmental technology" is any technology intended to improve environmental quality. The term refers to products and services to prevent, control, monitor, or clean up pollution. It includes everything from traditional wastewater treatment facilities to new, state-of-the-art air emissions control equipment or cutting-edge bioremediation technologies.

Montana has at least 100 environmental technology companies, according to Swearingen. Most are members of the Northwest Environmental Business Council (NEBC), which is the largest regional environmental organization in the United States.

With approximately $180 billion in annual revenues, the U.S. environmental industry is larger than the U.S. aerospace industry (roughly $105 billion in annual revenues). The domestic market for environmental technology has been weak in recent years, but the international market is growing very rapidly, Swearingen said.

The new grant builds on a similar grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

"Our previous grant, which expires in May, helped us develop awareness within the state's environmental industry of the international marketplace," said Swearingen. "We had some notable successes."

For example, TechLink helped SRS Crisafulli, a manufacturer of pumping and dredging equipment in Glendive, to establish new customers in East Asia. The company was selected for the 1998 Governor's Exporter of the Year Award.

The new project has a substantial educational component as well, said Yvonne Rudman, TechLink project coordinator. It will involve the teaching of business Spanish at MSU, internship opportunities for students at companies in Montana and Mexico, infusion of international content into MSU College of Business finance and marketing courses, and faculty exchanges between the two countries.

"We expect this grant to significantly enhance MSU's international business education and business outreach, in addition to increasing environmental technology exports from Montana to Mexico," said Rudman.

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