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San Diego Clean Enterprise - Green Business and the Bottom Line

Even in these trying economic times, San Diego’s clean technology industry continues to flourish -- and the city is doing all it can to fertilize that growth.

Recently, the City announced a partnership with CleanTECH San Diego and San Diego Gas & Electric aimed at giving local small businesses a chance to go clean and green affordably.

The program, called San Diego Clean Enterprise, is a no-interest loan program where small businesses can borrow up to $100,000 to invest in energy-efficiency upgrades for their business. The loan is paid back over a period of up to 10 years on the company’s utility bill.

By spending less money on energy to run their lights or their air conditioner, businesses can invest more on building their businesses -- employing workers, for instance. More than 140 upgrades will qualify for this financing – lighting, A/C, water pumps, food-service equipment among them.

In such difficult times, a no-interest loan to make your business more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly is pretty enticing.

The city of San Diego, CleanTECH and SDG&E are all aligned in one interest of looking for ways to help our city’s businesses weather this economic downturn through smart programs like this and growing the city’s Clean Technology industry.

CleanTECH San Diego will administer the program, while SDG&E will fund the loans. The City of San Diego will meet with departments that interact with the small businesses that would benefit from this program, and use those channels to make small businesses aware of this opportunity to make affordable green improvements.  The City is also looking to the many local business and community organizations to get the word out about this program.

Energy-efficiency projects aren’t just good for the companies that do them, they’re good for our environment, and they’re good for the growing CleanTech industry -- the local companies that will provide many of the energy-efficient products and services.

For more information about the San Diego Clean Enterprise Program, call CleanTECH San Diego at (858) 455-0300, ext. 101.