Top Program Participants to Receive Green Training with Leading Sustainability Expert

The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) Foundation announced that three Nashville-area business owners have been selected as the top participants in the National Green Builds Business Program and will receive a combined 24 hours of one-on-one green training from nationally renowned sustainability expert, Bill Roth. 

Green Builds Business is a two-day training program designed to educate Hispanic entrepreneurs on how to incorporate environmental sustainability practices into their overall business models.  Through this program, Hispanic business owners learn best practices for lowering operating costs, increasing revenues and motivating workers through advanced sustainability efforts. The event in Nashville, underwritten by Walmart and co-hosted by the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, took place in Nashville on November 15 & 16, 2011.

The Nashville-area winners include:

  • Paul Van Cotthem will receive technical assistance for the cultural guide he has developed surrounding the immigration process and the transition to the United States. Paul aims to learn best practices for creating a website or mobile application and begin the overall design development. Paul's motivating theory is to go green by using technology in place of printed materials to sell his product.
  • Galileo Moreno is a contractor seeking to make homes more energy efficient. At his construction business, Utopia, Galileo helps people flip their houses and reduce the amount of energy used in their homes, in turn helping them save money.
  • Claudia Urdinola is in the final stages of creating a 'go green' Bed & Breakfast in Nashville called Butterfly Hill Ranch. Claudia seeks guidance surrounding her ideas of creating a green experience and aims to develop a focused plan for maximizing that green experience for her guests.

"During this time of economic instability it is inspiring to see Hispanic business owners, like our Green Builds Winners in Nashville, developing such forward thinking business plans that maximize both monetary and environmental resources," says USHCC President & CEO Javier Palomarez.  "It is through this type of innovative and conscientious business development that Hispanic entrepreneurs will continue to help lead America toward a more healthy economic and environmental state."

The three Nashville-area winners will each receive eight hours of one-on-one green coaching with Bill Roth, Green Business Coach for Entrepreneur.com and Founder of Earth 2017. Roth will help the winners formulate their green business plan or implement their green projects that hold the potential of creating jobs, growing profits and reducing emissions this year.