Longmont hosts sustainable business conference

A gathering of the Green Business Engagement National Network, or GBENN, met at D-Barn in Longmont this week to collaborate and develop strategies that promote sustainable practices for businesses to combat climate change through state and local programming.

GBENN connects green business programs across a multitude of organizations, from states and municipalities to businesses and nonprofits, to share resources for integrating sustainable practices and identifying funding opportunities.

“We hope to be a place where green business programs can come to learn and grow together, so we look forward to continuing to work with the city of Longmont and many other Colorado communities to grow sustainable business across the state,” said GBENN Director Cassie Carroll.

The meeting of minds came together after GBENN’s 2021 virtual summit, September 8-10 2021, sponsored in part by the city of Longmont. People from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and California came to Longmont to learn how to adapt and build better sustainable programs in their own territories. Carroll was joined by other GBENN leadership, including greenUp! Nevada Board President Donna Walden, West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum Executive Director Daniel Schoonmaker and the city of Longmont’s Economic Sustainability Specialist Berenice Garcia Tellez.

A focus of the meeting was how Longmont has implemented diversity, equity and inclusion practices into sustainable business, particularly with outreach to Hispanic communities. Carroll highlighted Longmont’s Sustainable Business Program as a leader in the arena, helping to guide other partner programs toward better equity and impact for businesses of color. 

“We’re doing this for more than just working with diverse businesses, but helping these businesses be resilient,” Carroll said. “Our program should serve as a resource to not just be sustainable but to be more resilient and weather any coming storms.”

Longmont’s Sustainable Business Program launched in 2019 with 18 pilot participants and has since grown to 42 participants, with half of the certified sustainable businesses in Longmont Latinx-owned, Garcia Tellez said. 

“We not only recognize that environmental actions will sustain us, but equitable actions will help our economy as well,” Garcia Tellez said. “It's very nice for Longmont to be able to teach others how we implement these equity and inclusion strategies.”

Schoonmaker called the Longmont program a “national benchmark.” The GBENN collaboration connected Grand Rapids, MI and Longmont to support Hispanic owned businesses in western Michigan, Schoonmaker said, adding he appreciated getting to visit the town he’d learned so much from over the past couple years.

Longmont’s sustainability program is available in Spanish and many of the advisors, including Garcia Tellez, are bilingual. Garcia Tellez said outreach to the Spanish-speaking community in Longmont during COVID —helping to apply for grants and SBA loans for businesses and promoting vaccine access —helped earn community trust and open up new options for sustainability. Under the city initiative businesses have started adopting energy-saving equipment along with composting and other measures, according to Garcia Tellez. 

“This really empowers them to be a voice —not only for other businesses —but for the Latino community as a whole to learn these concepts,” Garcia Tellez said.

The cohort discussed ways to get new membership in the program, from bringing in new states or municipalities like Longmont, to engaging with businesses daunted by the process of converting older systems into something more ecologically sustainable and energy efficient. One of the primary goals of the conference was to determine ways to meet businesses where they are, Walden said, and help them make positive incremental change by connecting them to a wider network.

“It’s important to get all communities working together like what’s happening in Longmont,” Walden said. “That’s where all should be.”