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The SCALE UP Program is a Tucson-based initiative to help local businesses become more sustainable, saving them money on utilities, providing educational resources and offering financial incentives while reducing energy use, water consumption, waste and emissions.

The program was launched by the Local First Arizona Foundation, the sister organization to nonprofit Local First Arizona (LFA) focused on creating strong, self-sufficient local economies, in partnership with the Tucson 2030 District, a public-private聽 dedicated to creating a high-efficiency building district in Tucson.

鈥淲hen it comes down to it, the Local First Arizona Foundation is about creating a better economy that benefits all Arizonans,鈥� said CJ Agbannawag, program manager for SCALE UP.

鈥淲e believe that it鈥檚 important that, when we鈥檙e talking about sustainable economies, we also need to be considering what it means to have a sustainable environment and a sustainable community,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd we realize that business ownership and the way we run a business has a big聽 and on your community.鈥�

SCALE UP 鈥� Sustainable Communities Accessing Lending and Expertise Upon Performance 鈥� launched in 2018 as a pilot program for Tucson, funded by the Arizona Office of Grants and Federal Resources.

鈥淲e wanted to put a twist on the traditional type of energy efficiency workshops and water efficiency workshops to see if [businesses] can have better follow-through鈥� and actually make these bigger implementations and investments in their buildings so they can be more sustainable,鈥� Agbannawag said.

In the聽, 11 locally-owned Tucson businesses went through a six-workshop series covering topics including energy efficiency, water conservation, waste reduction, transportation efficiency, benchmarking and聽, a volunteer effort by LFA to connect citizens with businesses and provide educational opportunities to the community.

鈥淓ach of the six workshops, we pulled in community experts, because there鈥檚 already a lot of these great resources out there in your community,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淲e had slides that facilitators presented on with information that was aggregated from the community and also from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), and then we provided a workbook with quick lists of resources for all the different topics.鈥�

The workshops provided checklists that businesses could use to benchmark (evaluate) their sustainability practices and track their progress. The program also offered an incentive package of resources, including energy rebates.

鈥淭here were actually some custom incentives as well,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淔or example,聽 here in Tucson, they offered a custom rate for businesses. If they saved 10 percent on their efficiency, they could get a 10 percent discount on their corporate membership through the bike share program.鈥�

The program鈥檚 purpose is to educate business owners, offer perspective on sustainability issues and create understanding about important questions: Where does the energy come from when you turn the lights on? Where does your water come from in Tucson?

鈥淲e wanted businesses to take ownership for these sustainability plans,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淭here are a lot of auditing-type services out there where someone will come in and do an energy audit for your business, but then those plans just kind of sit on a shelf.鈥�

SCALE UP encourages participants to create a sustainability plan and follow through on it, using resources and advice from industry professionals, government officials and utility experts. The program also lays out all the different incentives and rebates utilities offer, making it easier for business owners to sift through options.

鈥淎t the end of each topic, businesses had to benchmark their buildings and benchmark their business practices,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淭hings like, 鈥楬ow many LED light bulbs do you have? How many gallons-per-flush are your toilets?鈥欌��

Businesses also had to benchmark their buildings using the聽 online tool, tracking the progress of energy efficiency improvements and comparing past and current usage.

鈥淭he pilot was just in Tucson, so it worked with Tucson Water, Tucson Electric Power and the City of Tucson and all the different municipalities down here to get the information specific to the area,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淏ut the plan is to eventually expand it to the rest of the state.鈥�

The Arizona chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a national environmental health聽, was a major partner, he said.

鈥淲e also worked with the Pima Association of Governments, because they have a lot of great transportation resources in Pima County, including the folks that run our local bus system and streetcar system, from聽,” Agbannawag said. 鈥淲e also had other local nonprofits, like Watershed Management Group, which is a local water coalition here in town; they participated. Technicians for Sustainability was a partner as well; they鈥檙e a local solar installer. So we had a pretty broad range of partners that assisted in this program.鈥�

Ultimately, the LFA Foundation hopes the program makes business owners more aware of what is going on in their environment and their community, as well as the impact their businesses can have, Agbannawag said.

鈥淪econdly, we want to help these businesses to reduce their utility spending so they actually have more money freed up to invest in their building in other ways or to invest in their company in other ways, so that they can be more environmentally-friendly and have better economic performance,鈥� he said.

Finally, participants were given exclusive access to a revolving loan fund from the nonprofit聽 (CIC) in Tucson, allowing businesses to take out low-interest loans for sustainability projects. The loans were matched up to 20 percent by a grant from a CIC investor.

The pilot program businesses saw 鈥渁 pretty big spectrum of improvements across the board,鈥� Agbannawag said.

For example, Pop-Cycle, a sustainability-focused bicycle shop, operates out of a historic building in Tucson that the company believed to be inherently inefficient, Agbannawag said. But after completing the SCALE UP program, Pop-Cycle saw the building鈥檚 lowest energy bill in 20 years, he said.

Right now, SCALE UP is in a planning period, hoping to receive assistance from the state and the City of Tucson to continue the program.

鈥淲e鈥檙e taking what we鈥檝e learned, we鈥檙e identifying other partners, so that way when we do relaunch the program we can pretty quickly expand it,鈥� Agbannawag said.

SCALE UP wants to take a cohort of businesses through the program every quarter 鈥� four cohorts per year 鈥� and complete at least two more sessions before expanding to Phoenix and elsewhere in the state, he said.

Climate change and water shortages will create new financial challenges for local businesses, and learning to be more sustainable is a smart way to prepare for that and offset the economic impact, Agbannawag said. Consumers should be aware, too, he said.

鈥淎t Local First, we tell people all the time to vote with your dollar, to support the local businesses, because they have the decision-making power here in our state, and we want to keep our money here to support our tax base in Arizona,鈥� he said.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e a consumer that wants to be more sustainable, find the businesses 鈥� like the ones that went through SCALE UP 鈥� that are supporting green projects and sustainability projects, and support them as well, and let them know that they鈥檙e doing a good job.鈥�

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Business owners can email CJ Agbannawag for more information about upcoming SCALE UP workshops or to add themselves to the contact list for future cohorts.