College of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha

The Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) is one of only four small business development centers in the country to receive the Energy Efficiency Grant to Assist Small Businesses this year. The $125,000 grant will allow the NBDC to provide small businesses with energy efficiency screenings, identify financing opportunities for energy efficiency improvements, and quantify the energy savings of such projects. The proposal also includes the creation of a “roadmap” to guide counselors and small business owners in using the best available tools and information resources for energy efficiency and waste reduction.

“NBDC has been active in the environmental area for many years through our Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center (P2RIC.org),” said NBDC State Director Robert Bernier. “Recently, businesses have been seeking us out for the environmental information we supply. This grant provides us resources to create a focused, customized tool to help small and medium-sized businesses identify energy efficiency improvements and funding available for them. This tool gives the NBDC counselors an important, timely resource to help their clients.”

NBDC will employ technology including webcasts and streaming video to reach out to and educate small business owners about energy efficiencies and services available. It also plans to make the tool available to small business centers in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and South Dakota. NBDC employees Jean Waters, Rick Yoder and Marjorie Miskec assisted Bernier in securing the grant. Waters will manage the project. Small business development centers at the State University of New York in Albany, University of Nevada at Reno and Boise State University are the other grant recipients. The U.S. Small Business Administration selected the grantees from 67 eligible applicants, based on the breadth and scope of the services they could provide promoting energy efficiency.