Since 2014, the city of Ames has been encouraging businesses to seek sustainable initiatives to improve the quality of their companies.

Ames presented the Smart Business Challenge at the 150th anniversary celebration with hopes that businesses in Ames would enroll in the program and seek smarter ways of running their businesses.

The Smart Business Challenge is a city-wide program that benefits businesses when they enroll and complete an energy audit.

The energy audit, completed through The Energy Group of Des Moines, looks at the way companies are using their energy.

Michael Gubbels, intern with the Smart Business Challenge and sustainability coordinator, said the energy audit is a benefit to the companies.

“I think something that most businesses don’t realize when they get involved is the financial aspect they can gain from it,” Gubbels said. “Some of the efforts that they can do will save their company a ton of money.” 

“[It’s a] win-win situation,” said Drew Loiacono, intern with the Smart Business Challenge and sustainability coordinator. “Businesses cut down on their energy usage, which saves them money on bills and it also helps the city cut down on their energy usage.”

Loiacono credits the energy audit as a key factor when deciding to improve a business’s overall sustainability.

“[The Energy Group of Des Moines] compares the energy that your business is paying for to the energy you’re actually getting out of your systems,” Loiacono said. “So if there’s an area of inefficiency within your building, they’re going to locate that and give you cost options to either fix it or say, ‘you’re losing this much per year. If you fix it, you could use a fraction of that.’” 

“[The energy audit] also makes sure you’re up to code with things,” Gubbels said.

The energy audit, which requires businesses to participate in once they are registered for the challenge and then at least every two years from the initial audit, determines areas that these businesses can improve on.

Once registered, companies can achieve a bronze, silver, gold or platinum status. Through the Smart Business Challenge checklist, a business’s status is determined based on the categories of sustainable energy use.

The goal is to improve energy and water conservation, transportation, waste reduction, indoor and outdoor environmental quality, carbon footprint and community engagement within local businesses.

Wheatsfield Co-op, a community-owned grocery store, achieved the platinum status.

Kim Corbin, marketing manager at Wheatsfield, said the store’s participation in the challenge has helped with its overall awareness of how sustainable it is. She credits the energy audits as good ways to compare the store’s sustainable practices from year to year, allowing them to see if they’re improving their business.

Corbin cites installing LED lights and its Co-op Nickel Program as ways in which it has improved its store’s sustainability.

For every reusable bag used at the cash registers, customers receive a Co-op Nickel. This nickel can either be deducted from the transaction total or donated to the monthly organization. On the second Thursday of every month, also known as Give Back Thursday, the Co-op Nickel Program donates 1 percent of its sales to the monthly Co-op Nickel Recipient. The next Give Back Thursday will be April 14.

“Every little bit we can do helps,” Corbin said when referring to furthering Ames’ sustainability.

Businesses enrolled in the Smart Business Challenge are mentioned in the City Side monthly newsletter that is distributed with energy bills. The higher the ranking a business has within the challenge will determine the appearance of its name in the City Side newsletter.

“Every time a business moves up tiers we try to post about them on our city of Ames social media sites, congratulating them and spreading the word that they’re continuing to improve,” Loiacono said.

Participants in the Smart Business Challenge have also had exposure through newspaper stories and radio show appearances that the Smart Business Challenge Team members appear in.

“The goal is to eventually get 150 businesses within Ames enrolled in this program,” Loiacono said.

The Smart Business Challenge has 17 participants, who continue to promote their program through word of mouth.

“It’s a lot of just planting a seed and hoping that companies bite that way,” Loiacono said. “It’s a lot of verbal promotion.”

The Smart Business Challenge team members hope their program will continue to grow toward having an abundance of sustainable businesses participating within Ames.

“We want people to be able to live a healthy life in Ames forever,” Loiacono said. “Reducing your carbon footprint really just helps create a community that your kids are going to be able to enjoy, and it helps ensure that everybody is going to enjoy Ames as much as we do today.”