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The
Role of Entrepreneurial Small Businesses:
Technological Innovations Reducing Energy Consumption
Wednesday,
October 22, 2003
1:00 – 2:30 pm
,
2360
Rayburn
House
Office
Building
The
National Small Business Association, the Center for Small Business
and the Environment, and the Environmental and Energy Study
Institute co-sponsored a Congressional briefing that addressed the
innovative products and services profitable small businesses offer
that reduce petroleum consumption.
Approximately 350,000 small businesses in the
United States
have been labeled as gazelles, a nickname that has been
applied to fast-growing small firms whose innovation spurs job
growth. Many of these gazelles
are profiting by producing technological innovations that increase
energy and fuel efficiency and resource productivity; this makes
them green gazelles.
For
example, IdleAire, a green gazelle in
Knoxville
,
Tennessee
,
has developed a technology that improves the efficiency of
heavy-duty diesel vehicles by eliminating the need to idle engines
at rest stops. By
connecting to IdleAire consoles – devices connected to the local
electricity grid – drivers can heat and cool their cabs at truck
stops without idling their engines.
According to the company, if all truck drivers took advantage
of the IdleAire system, they would save 4.4 billion gallons of
diesel fuel annually in the
United States
,
an amount equal to 2.4 percent of imported crude oil and 18 percent
of
U.S.
strategic petroleum reserves. And,
as 90 percent of the company’s technology is manufactured in the
United
States
, IdleAire expects to create 3,000
new jobs domestically as the company grows.
Engaging the
small business community can lead to significant reductions in net
energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same
time spurring much-needed growth in the manufacturing sector.
This briefing highlighted various examples of companies using
innovation to profit, create jobs, and benefit the environment.
Briefing Panel:
Ø Mark
Clevey,
Vice President, Small Business Association of
Michigan
(
Lansing
,
MI
)
Ø
Phil
Catron, President,
NaturaLawn of
America
(
Frederick
,
MD
)
Ø
Michael
Crabtree, President, IdleAire
Technologies Inc. (
Knoxville
,
TN
)
Ø
Tim Colonnese, President,
KTM Industries (
Lansing
,
MI
)
Ø
John
Kokoszka,
Vice President and Operations Director, EvCo
Research (
Atlanta
,
GA
)
This briefing was open to the public and no reservations were required.
For more information about the briefing, please contact Elizabeth
Topping at EESI at 202-662-1892 or
etopping@eesi.org
.
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