By Debra DeHaney-Howard and Wendy Soe, USCM Intern
July 30, 2007

A number of witnesses, including Washington (DC) Mayor Adrian Fenty and Santa Barbara (CA) Mayor Marty Blum, testified before the House Committee on Small Business July 11 on how cities are working with small businesses to develop and implement energy efficient technologies and infrastructure.

In discussing their respective city-wide energy efficiency programs, Fenty and Blum noted that small businesses are making progress, but agreed that federal funding is needed to help small businesses become more energy efficient.

Blum and Fenty acknowledged the role the pending $10 billion Energy Efficiency Block Grant program could play in supporting city efforts to assist small businesses in “greening” their operations. The Block Grant is a major priority of The Conference of Mayors. Other witnesses included representatives of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), The National Association of Home Builders, New Resource Bank, and the Environmental Lifestyle Group.

Representative Nydia M. Velazquez (NY), Chair of the Committee on Small Business, called the hearing entitled “Small Businesses at the Forefront of the Green Revolution: What More Needs to Be Done to Keep Them Here?” In her opening statement, Velazquez said, “Green buildings are environmentally responsible, economically viable, and healthier places to work and live. Small businesses play a crucial role in making cities more energy efficient. Installers of solar panels, inventors of bio-based products or the architects who create the designs – small businesses are responsible for much of the rapid growth in green homes and buildings.”

In her testimony on behalf of the Conference of Mayors, Blum said, “Many small businesses have owners who spend all of their time running the business and don’t find the time in their busy schedules to deal with energy efficiency. Many of them don’t own their buildings and don’t want to invest in an air conditioning unit or lighting fixtures that they do not own.” She added, “It is important that small business owners get educated on technologies that are available to them and save them money.”

Blum discussed a number of activities Santa Barbara has implemented relating to energy efficiency, including establishing a green building policy for city facilities to ensure construction and major renovations meet energy efficient standards; and using biodiesel in its city fleet for over a year, including fire engines and construction equipment. She also discussed The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ recent survey of local energy and climate protection initiatives, which revealed that if given a federal energy efficiency block grant, they would choose to spend it on activities relating to small businesses such as retrofitting existing buildings to improve the carbon footprint, developing solar water and electric programs at lower costs and educating the public and business community on how they can be more energy efficient.

In his opening remarks, Fenty noted that a group of small businesses in the U Street corridor of Washington have begun participating in the Clean Currents Initiative, banding together to buy two million kilowatt-hours of green energy in the form of wind energy for three years. He acknowledged that “some help from the municipal government was necessary to enable small businesses such as those in the U Street corridor to go green.”

Fenty explained how green initiatives are much more effective as a collaborative effort. “The developer of a 50,000-square-foot building usually is not a small business. But small businesses rent space in these buildings. It will be easier for a small business to adopt innovations such as reduced energy consumption, grey water reuse and increased recycling into its business model if the entire building takes part—making these practices easier and less expensive in the process,” Fenty said.

In the works for the District of Columbia are plans to open the first LEED-certified baseball stadium by April 2008 and also incorporating green building into classrooms. Fenty stated that there is a need for federal legislation which rewards progressive, energy efficient businesses with tax incentives, and increased fees on businesses that produce an increase in runoffs.