This Wednesday is Earth Day.  For 10-years, I have used this occasion to explain how small businesses are the driving force behind environmental stewardship.  Click here to see previous years' versions.

Right now, we are counting on small businesses as job creators to lift our economy out of the recession.  Smaller establishments historically create 60-80 percent of the net new jobs and account for an even greater percentage of hiring coming out of recessions.  As innovators, small businesses are developing biofuels, energy saving devices, and other technologies at a rate 12-14 times faster than large research and development firms according to government studies.  Entrepreneurs are economic heroes, but their altruistic role is also worth recognizing.  As community leaders, the same people who coach t-ball and soccer, attend PTA, and volunteer to clean up watersheds are small business owners.  According to an NFIB Research Foundation study, 91 percent of small employers contribute to their community by volunteering or through donations.  The same study shows that those small business owners volunteer in their communities more than 12 hours a month.

The moniker of good neighbor/good business extends to today's green entrepreneurs.  Nikki Sorg, a Washington, DC native, is a perfect example of why every day is earth day for small business.  Nikki grew up in the shadow of an entrepreneur.  Her mother, Suman Sorg, is a highly successful architect who grew her businesses from scratch and now mentors a new generation of entrepreneurs.  Inspired by her mother's example, after finishing her studies at Cornell University and the Art Institute of Chicago, Nikki created Project: Building Block.  The enterprise combines lessons Nikki learned from her mother with her passion for public service and environmental stewardship.  Project: Building Block is an architecture and sustainable design-based practice that applies innovations to green building and pre-fabricated products.  The goal of Nikki's firm is to create sustainable, economical, healthy places to live and work.  The company is also focused on developing strategies to convert older and historic structures to "green buildings."  Nikki started her business well before Congress decided to devote millions of dollars to energy audits and green buildings in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It is a nice coincidence that Nikki's services are now in hot demand because of attention in the stimulus bill, but her satisfaction comes from being her own boss, choosing her own path, and putting a good business plan to work.

Travel down U Street in Washington, DC and you will see Project: Building Block and dozens of other entrepreneurial ventures that have helped transform the area into a vibrant community.  I am sure many of those small business owners have found ways to turn their passions into thriving establishments.  And, I am sure they are helping the environment 365 days of the year.