Environmental stewardship is everyone’s responsibility, yet minority communities lag behind in knowledge and mobilization. Often, minorities are the first and most affected by bad environmental policy and yet the last to be informed. Recognizing that small business is leading the economic recovery of our country, the USHCC launched Green Builds Business as a way to engage our members in caring for our environment, while exploring ways for our entrepreneurs to become more efficient and profitable by going green.

Because of the lack of data on Hispanics in the green industry, the USHCC Foundation is partnering with the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS) from the University of Notre Dame, to release a descriptive, qualitative research project to evaluate five areas of the Green Builds Business program:

1. Knowledge Hispanic entrepreneurs’ perceptions of environmental stewardship and green business practices, as they relate to their businesses and industries.
2. Knowledge of green business practices; how to implement, and understand the federal and state incentives to green practices.
3. Implementation of green business practices taught at the training by Hispanic business owners.
4. Effectiveness of the Green Builds Business coaching in increasing the implementation of green practices in Hispanic owned businesses.
5. Long-Term Impact of the Green Builds Business program in broader integration of green business practices through Hispanic owned businesses plan and strategies.

The final report describing how Hispanic entrepreneurs understand and participate in “green business” will provide a new and considerably broader understanding the context within which programs like GBB seek to have an impact. It will be released summer 2012.