Small and green are beautiful

The following examples of small businesses working together to purchase "green power" are wonderful examples of the kinds of actions that people, businesses, and communities can take in response to the challenges and opportunities described in "The 11th Hour".

As one commentator points out in the film, each of us votes every day with our wallets and purses. Taking a little extra time to seek out and support local businesses that are doing their part to socially and environmentally responsible is one way to make a meaningful difference. (GW)

Washington’s Small Businesses Tap Into Green Power

By Shawn G. Kennedy
New York Times
August 15, 2007

WASHINGTON — With its decidedly ’50s-era menu — chili, cheese fries, shakes and half-smoke sausages, a distinctive regional specialty — Ben’s Chili Bowl, a restaurant near the Howard University campus, might not seem a likely business to be at the vanguard of Washington’s “green power” movement.

But this summer, the owners of Ben’s Chili Bowl joined with nine other small, independent and mostly food-related businesses on or near U Street to buy wind power energy credits.

“We see this as part of being involved in what is good for the neighborhood, what’s good for the city,” said Nizam Ali, whose parents, Ben and Virginia Ali, opened their chili place in 1958. “It’s a good idea that helps the environment and, it turns out, makes economic sense for all of us.”

Nationally, there is a boom in wind power as companies and institutions clamor for ways to go green. Most have been large electric power customers like universities, hospitals, hotels, government agencies or owners of large office buildings. But the initiative by these very small businesses in Washington illustrates that green energy is not just for the major players.

“Individually, these businesses probably wouldn’t have been able to afford to switch to wind power, but buying as a group, it works,” said Gary Skulnik, co-founder of Clean Currents, a two-year-old renewable power brokerage and consulting firm that arranged the deal between the U Street businesses and their electricity provider.

Mr. Skulnik says that with its agreement, the U Street consortium is buying nearly two million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy a year. He maintains that in terms of the carbon dioxide replaced, this use of alternative energy will have the same impact as taking 185 motor vehicles off the road for a year.

The deal that the U Street businesses made was with Washington Gas Energy Services Inc., an alternative supplier in the Washington area, which buys energy from wind farms in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and other mid-Atlantic states. The owners of the utility lines in the area, Pepco, the main electricity company in the Washington area, will guarantee the service, and the businesses will continue to be billed through Pepco.

Despite their name, the “wind certificates” that the U Street merchants bought do not guarantee that their power comes from wind farms that generate electricity. The more formal name is “renewable energy certificates,” or RECs, and they cover a combination of renewable energy sources including wind, solar and geothermal power.

Through the certificates, Washington Gas Energy Services will get credit for the amount of electricity it buys that does not come from plants that burn coal, oil or natural gas under a new District of Columbia law requiring utilities to increase their use of renewable energy.

There is growing evidence, scientists and environmental advocates say, that the carbon dioxide emitted in the production of electricity by fossil-fuel power plants has contributed to global warming.

Along with Ben’s Chili Bowl, the other businesses in the wind power consortium are Boundless Yoga, CakeLove, Love Cafe, Rumberos restaurant, Coppi’s Organic restaurant, Busboys & Poets, the Luna Grill and Diner, the Diner and Tryst, which is a coffee house and restaurant. Their transition from conventional power to wind has been seamless and required no equipment or changes in the way they do business.

With their three-year agreement, the businesses expect to save a total of about $21,000 annually, or an average of about 9 percent each. Mr. Skulnik’s company earns a 1 percent commission on the total electric bills; the commission is paid by the power provider.

The more energy a business uses, the greater the potential savings. Busboys & Poets, for example, a 4,000-square-foot restaurant that serves up jazz and free Wi-Fi from 8 a.m. until midnight, will probably save more than CakeLove, a bakery that operates in a little less than 1,000 square feet of space.

Kim Weeks, the owner of Boundless Yoga, is the only member of the group who will pay higher electric bills because of her participation.

“In my industry, it is important that we be a leader in sustainability of the environment,” said Ms. Weeks, whose yoga studio occupies about 2,000 square feet on two levels. “We need to show our customers that we are doing what we can to choose to go green, even if it’s more expensive.” Ms. Weeks also said that compared with rent and other expenses, the cost of electricity is marginal for her.

Businesses like Boundless Yoga represent the new face of U Street. Known before World War II as Washington’s Black Broadway, the street was an entertainment and shopping area, where artists like Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald performed. U Street started to lose its luster in the 1960s, and its decline was hastened by rioting there after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Some businesses that remained struggled until the late 1990s, when new residential development led to a turnaround.

Now some of the businesses that helped to spark the revival of the strip are feeling the pressure of its success. Most of them are tenants, not owners of their spaces. As the neighborhood property values have risen, so have some rents.

Last year, the Latino Economic Development Corporation formed a coalition of small independent businesses, including all of those on U Street that are using wind power, to help them handle the pressures of rising costs.

Since then, Ayari de la Rosa, business program manager of the nonprofit group, has negotiated group rates for insurance, advertising and marketing for alliance members.

Ms. de la Rosa was the matchmaker between the U Street businesses and Clean Currents. “In this city, it is getting harder and harder for small businesses to stay in areas like U Street,” she said.

Ms. de la Rosa met Mr. Skulnik when she was searching for additional ways for the alliance members to share costs. “We started working on ways for these businesses to save money by combining economically and environmentally sustainable business practices,” she said.

Mr. Skulnik said he expected his company, based in Rockville, Md., to complete a wind power deal soon for a second group of small businesses in Washington.

He believes the demand for green energy from businesses of all sizes and types can only grow as jurisdictions demand that power companies provide alternatives to fossil-fuel energy.

The District of Columbia and 23 states have mandates or stated goals that push utilities toward renewable energy. Last year, voters in Washington approved a renewable energy standard for the city requiring that electric power providers gradually increase the amount of renewable energy they generate. The new law says the percentage must be 11 percent by 2022.

“People are beginning to make the connection between our dependence on fossil fuel and the cost of energy and global warming,” said Mr. Skulnik, who started Clean Currents after working for nearly a decade in the nonprofit world as an advocate for the environment. “They are also learning that they do have a choice as to who provides their electric power and the sources of that power.”