Many small businesses contact us, and ask what they can do to ‘green up’ their business. Community Greenhouse Foundation has developed a program to help you reduce electric and water usage, to encourage recycling and use of recycled materials, and to reduce the amount of solid waste your organization produces. And to launch their efforts, they announce the Greening America Business Challenge.

More than just green-washing, they’ve partnered with Energy Star (the US Department of Energy) and WasteWise (US Environmental Protection Agency) programs. Using nationally recognized third party tools and criteria, CGF helps you understand what your organization is doing, individually, and then prescribes a variety of efforts you can undertake to reduce your impact.

How do you change the world? One light bulb at a time. Lighting plays a huge part of our energy use. All of us at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR program would like to wish you, our partners and friends, a happy Change a Light Day today!

October 1 marks the 4th annual ENERGY STAR Change a Light Day, and we just wanted to congratulate you for either being one of the 1.9 million Americans who have taken the pledge or for participating as one of the nearly 2,000 organizations that have driven pledges since 2006. Together we have collectively saved more than $220 million and prevented the release of more than 3 billion pounds of greenhouse gases with lighting alone.

Program takes undersold homes, renovates them to be energy efficient, and works with municipalities for workforce housing.

The Community Greenhouse Foundation has been working for months on a program which is targeted to assist in the rehabilitation and sale of the “glut” of houses being dumped into the market resulting from foreclosures. The “Greening of America’s House Stock” program is a pro-active economic stimulus program that has been developed due to the current economic position of America. Never in our countries history has energy, housing and the environment been seen as critical issues at the same time.

The Community Greenhouse Foundation is proud to announce a new Strategic Partner serving the South Florida communities to delivery it’s “Greening Residential America” program. The program helps to provides communities with the resources to bring “green attainable housing” to their communities. New and renovated energy efficient green homes can be offered to City, County, governmental employees and the public through the program along with the opportunity for local “community” builders to tap into products and training to build greener and more energy efficient.

The Broward County Environmental Protection and Growth Management Department will recognize several local businesses for their outstanding environmentally-responsible business practices. Each business will receive an Emerald Award for their exceptional efforts in protecting the environment. The program recognizes businesses for their voluntary efforts in four areas: waste reduction, recycling, improved operating practices, and other “green” strategies that reduce pollution and waste. Both large and small businesses are eligible. One business is also honored with the title “Environmental Business of the Year,” which will be announced at the ceremony.

The Broward County Board of County Commissioners will present trophies to the winners at a special ceremony; followed by a brief reception: