Greening a Small Business Columbia MD

Nature photographer Clyde Butcher knows that greening a business can save green, as in cash. Electricity bills at his Big Cypress Gallery in sun-washed southern Florida have dropped 60 percent-from $360 to $150 a month. He did it by changing light bulbs, specifically replacing his hot-burning 50-watt halogen bulbs with special 7-watt L.E.D. bulbs that screw into his existing track-lighting sockets. As Butcher and others have found, there are plenty of ways small-business owners can go doubly green:

• Call your electricity company to request a free energy audit. Often, someone will tour your business to advise you how to reduce energy costs. You'll also hear how to get rebates for energy-efficient upgrades. Almost every state, county and large municipality has at least one program to help smaller companies reduce energy, waste or water use-and thus cut costs, says Greenbiz.com Executive Editor Joel Makower. His primer on how small companies can get energy help is found here: http://www.greenbiz.com/column/2008/06/22/energy-help-a-primer-smaller-and-bigger-companies/. Find a state-by-state directory of incentives here: www.dsireusa.org.

• Some utilities provide do-it-yourself energy-audit tools to let you figure out your company's energy excesses and potential savings on your own. Examples: www.pge.com/mybusiness/energysavingsrebates/analyzer/; www.smud.org/business/saving-energy/online-energy-audit.html. After William Mohler perused three years of utility records for his car dealership, Sendell Motors in Greensburg, Pa., he and his staff resolved to slash energy use by 10 percent-even after adding 3,100 square feet to the dealership. Thanks to several changes, big and small (such as putting the exterior lot lights on controlled timers), the dealership's energy costs dropped by $8,000 yearly. (Read more about Sendell Motors at http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=sb_success.sb_successstories_sendell07)....

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