"Sustainable design and green building practices are easy and available. An excellent example of how this can be done, and why green technologies help small businesses and the community, is the Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream factory in Maltby, Wash. I recently toured this factory, which is Snohomish County's first sustainable commercial project, owned by Barry Bettinger. Barry used Small Business Administration (SBA) loans for low impact development strategies. With assistance from the Sustainable Development Task Force, he used technologies to cut his lighting costs by 50 percent, reduce his water usage by 40 percent and reduce energy for cooling fans by 75 percent."
Mr. INSLEE.
My fellow Members, we know that small businesses have been leaders in job creation and are the dynamic growth center for the American economy, and now they are poised to become the leaders in our green building revolution. We know that we have challenges on energy security, we know we have challenges to deal with on global warming, and we know that small businesses have challenges to receive capital to help in their programs to make their businesses more efficient, less costly for energy consumption, and less emitting of greenhouse gases.
Our amendment would create the ability of the SBA to provide capital to our small businesses across the country to do thousands of things that they want to start doing, items like putting additional energy-efficient equipment into their businesses, building green roofs that can prevent energy loss, installation of renewable energy sources like photovoltaic cells and energy equipment heating and cooling systems. The list is endless.
I would like to think of a little small business called the Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream factory, which is some of the best ice cream in the world, but they used an SBA loan essentially to put pervious concrete and build a green roof, which helped their business operations and helped the environment to boot.
So we would propose that we expand the SBA purposes to allow our small businessmen and women to be on the cutting edge of green building and green businesses across the country. This will help them move a step forward to use their dynamic leadership.
[Page: H4113] GPO's PDF Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the Chairwoman and Ranking Member for their leadership on this issue. I rise today to support my amendment to the Small Business Lending Improvements Act (H.R. 1332) which would add an eligibility area to Section 504 loans. My amendment will ensure that American entrepreneurs
have the opportunity to start, build and, grow green small businesses by adding a sustainable design or low-impact design to the public policy goals of this lending program.
This common-sense amendment would decrease long-term operating costs for small business owners, stimulate green building technologies, create a better work environment for employees and reduce carbon emissions in the United States.
Buildings account for one-third of carbon emissions per year. It is important that we help small business owners make sustainable choices that they might not otherwise make due to cost, or simply due to the fact that some of these technologies are new. My amendment will help SBA expand their financing structure to help businesses use sustainable building standards, such as LEED certified, which have a minimal impact on our environment. Currently, SBA loans can help a company upgrade to required standards, but very few Small Business Loans have helped owners choose green building standards.
Furthermore, green buildings benefit workers. Case studies show examples of 2 to 16 percent increase in productivity in among employees who work in buildings that incorporate sustainable building design.
Sustainable design and green building practices are easy and available. An excellent example of how this can be done, and why green technologies help small businesses and the community, is the Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream factory in Maltby, Wash. I recently toured this factory, which is Snohomish County's first sustainable commercial project, owned by Barry Bettinger. Barry used Small Business Administration (SBA) loans for low impact development strategies. With assistance from the Sustainable Development Task Force, he used technologies to cut his lighting costs by 50 percent, reduce his water usage by 40 percent and reduce energy for cooling fans by 75 percent.
I hope that the SBA and experts in sustainable design such as the National Institute of Building Sciences will work together to develop meaningful standards in this eligibility area of sustainable design.
Congress has a huge opportunity here to further improve the small business lending program to meet goals of reducing energy consumption in this country. Thank you for supporting this amendment.
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