| May 13th, 2010 Monthly Board Meeting |
| August 14th, 2010 W.A.R.M. Pancake Breakfast |
| Local green businesses receive more than $130K in fed funds |
| Written by By Alison Lee Satake |
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Two Wilmington green businesses are among 18 in North Carolina to receive federal recovery funds to support green and alternative energy technologies and products. Holloman Investing LLC in Wilmington received a $60,000 grant to install wind turbines on commercial facilities in Bladen County. The Cape Fear Green Building Alliance (CFGBA), a local non-profit organization, received $79,368 to provide a series of professional training workshops to local builders on green building techniques to improve energy efficiency in homes of economically disadvantaged individuals. The CFGBA workshops will roll out in spring 2010 and will stress retrofitting existing buildings. “Because when you think about it, there’s a lot more of those. To truly have an impact on our environment, we have to go back and fix the existing buildings,” said Joy Allen, executive director of CFGBA. The demand is growing for retrofitting existing buildings to become more energy efficient. But, the demand can’t be met with the existing workforce, because not enough people know how to do this, she said. The workshops aim to fill this need. CFGBA, which is comprised of 172 dues-paying members partnered on the grant with Wilmington Area Rebuilding Ministry (WARM), a local non-profit organization that improves homes for economically disadvantaged residents. Local builders will work on 14 homes through WARM as part of the green workshops.“I’m particularly proud, because we get to play a role in economic recovery through development of the green economy,” Allen said. More than $1 million was granted to green businesses throughout the state for projects ranging from solar power installations to the production of biodiesel. Applications were reviewed by an external advisory committee and judged based on merit. The recent grants were the third round of funding during three consecutive years from the Green Business Fund, which is administered by the state Board of Science and Technology in the N.C. Department of Commerce. “North Carolina continues to position itself as a leader in the emerging green economy with these kinds of smart investments in promising technologies and products,” said Gov. Perdue in a press release. “These creative entrepreneurs and businesses are turning green into gold by growing new companies and creating jobs.” About half of the projects were categorized as clean tech and renewable energy. The other half fell under the green building or biofuels categories. The awards ranged in amounts from $31,985 to $100,000. |