When you think of the strongest advocates for clean energy or clean air, your mind may not jump right to businesses. But it should. According to a new report issued today by the Chambers of Innovation and Clean Energy, local chambers of commerce are showing leadership around the country on clean energy innovation.
It makes sense. The number one job for chambers of commerce is creating a healthy business environment for member businesses. For many chambers, an increased focus on our community’s air quality and energy portfolio makes business sense in terms of money saved, revenue and profits improved and enhanced quality of life for employees and customers.
For the Salt Lake Chamber, the life quality along the Wasatch Front is growing in importance for area businesses and those considering moving to our region. Because of our unique geography and meteorology, during certain times of the year pollutants cannot escape into the atmosphere as they do elsewhere. This geographic anomaly has led to more than two dozen red-air days already in 2013—a statistic that supports the idea that air quality is an important economic issue.
Over the last several years, the Salt Lake Chamber has met with our economic development partners and developed a Clean Air Champions program to recognize companies using less or cleaner energy in their business operations. From converting fleets to natural gas, to replacing regional meetings with teleconferencing, Utah businesses now have best practices to follow in their own clean energy efforts.
By helping businesses save millions of dollars each year, the Clean Air Champions program is improving not only the economic well being of the region, but also the quality of life in our community. Our program has been so successful that the state is expanding it to other Utah cities, as part of statewide clean air efforts.
Local and regional businesses want to do the right thing for their employees and communities. But the bottom line is also a motivation. Our Clean Air Champions program proves ideas such as teleconferencing, fleet conversion to cleaner fuels, smarter route planning and a no-idling policy translate to major fuel and cost savings while enhancing public health and improving economic development and business recruitment efforts.
We’re proud of our efforts and excited to be labeled as a national leader by Chambers of Innovation and Clean Energy, a national non-partisan clean energy network and information hub for local chambers of commerce.
With more than 325 chambers from 48 states representing approximately 278,000 businesses, Chambers of Innovation and Clean Energy is providing easy access to clean energy information, incentives and opportunities, all with the eye toward helping local chambers deliver enhanced value to member businesses. The Salt Lake Chamber is a proud and early member of Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy.
The new publication – Local Chambers as Change Agents: Creating Economic Vitality Through Advanced Energy and Innovation – found that while clean energy progress remains slow at the national level, local chambers are attracting investment, supporting business growth and innovation and helping to diversity their regional economies around clean energy and energy efficiency. The report includes ten in-depth case studies of local chambers. In addition to our program in Utah, the new report features work in Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Tennessee, Michigan, Massachusetts and California.
Some chambers have tackled enormous hurdles, like leading the charge to modernize Chicago’s outdated electric grid. Others have focused on energy efficiency, saving their member companies millions of dollars each year through energy assessments and retrofits. Still others have helped attract investment in clean-tech manufacturing or in clean energy infrastructure, like high-speed rail.
Even in regions like ours, best known for coal and oil, local chambers have helped their member businesses strengthen the bottom line while preserving air quality and tapping into growing clean energy markets. Chambers in these regions all have members that own or occupy buildings, and that understand the money-saving potential of energy efficiency.
My job as vice president of business and community relations at the Salt Lake Chamber puts me at the ground level, helping our local businesses increase their revenues and cut their costs while at the same time helping our region improve as a center for business. The new report from the Chambers of Innovation provides an easy blueprint for other local chambers to help their member companies and communities in a similar way around new energy technologies, strategies, and markets.
Ryan Evans is Vice President of Business and Community Relations at the Salt Lake Chamber.
