Politics Lobbies Business: Loni Hancock’s Green Passion
Looks like I’ve got the scoop: this is the first publication of this press release:
———————————————–
POLITICIAN LOBBIES BUSINESS ON BEHALF OF THE EARTH
How Loni Hancock’s Green Passion May Influence California Small Business Strategy
Richmond, California – October 1, 2007. California Assembly Member Loni Hancock’s choice for Small Business of the Year in Legislative District 14 has been invited to help the California Small Business Roundtable (SBR) formulate strategy. Excellent Packaging & Supply, a producer and distributor of earth-friendly food packaging, was selected by Assembly Member Hancock for its green credentials, and now has received the call from SBR on the basis of its dynamic, proactive management. Yet, if not for some coaxing by Hancock, none of it would have happened.
Excellent Packaging, represented by co-owners Steve Levine and Allen King, is one of five small companies invited by SBR to its yearly retreat, which will be held on October 7 and 8 in Half Moon Bay, on the San Francisco peninsula. The five firms were selected from the seventy-five small businesses honored by their local Assembly Members at this year’s annual Small Business Day in Sacramento.
The relationship between the company and the legislator started slowly. King, the firm’s president, recalls that when Hancock’s office first called and asked Excellent Packaging to be part of a Town Hall meeting on the environment in Berkeley, he declined. But Hancock wouldn’t accept that answer, and the invitation was repeated. Here’s how Hancock explains why she pressed the issue: “With over 40% growth in the past two years, and no signs of slowing down, EPS has demonstrated that it is possible to be a successful small business while at the same time doing its part to contribute to the sustainability of the planet.”
The environment is no new concern on Hancock’s part. Her web site proudly announces that hers was the first Assembly District Office in California to be certified as a green business. She chairs the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources, and does all she can to be a green influence well beyond the legislative sphere. For example, she actively collaborates with the Green Chamber of Commerce to educate businesses in how to become green-certified. “So our asking Excellent Packaging a second time was consistent with everything Assemblywoman Hancock does,” said an aide in Hancock’s office.
“When she asked us again,” says King, “I realized she was right.” At first, he explains, he’d thought that EPS had little to contribute. “But then it hit me that since we care about making a real difference, we have a duty to raise our profile a little, and let others see how a green business can succeed.” EPS participated in the Berkeley event, which Hancock considered a success. She went on to name Excellent Packaging the Small Business of the Year for her district.
When King received the award at Small Business Day in May, his brief acceptance message made a strong impression on leaders of the Small Business Roundtable. “We are looking for talented new blood,” says Betty Jo Toccoli, Chair of the Roundtable, “and Allen impressed several of us as a dynamic, proactive thinker.” From that impression came the invitation the Roundtable extended to King and Levine.
The Small Business Roundtable was created to develop strategy for the advocacy program of the California Small Business Association, which represents over 203,000 small business owners statewide. The company has a voice as far away as Washington, through its delegates to the White House Conference on Small Business, as well as, of course, a strong presence in Sacramento. So if, through the presence of King and Levine at the SBR retreat, the Small Business Association’s lobbying has a bit more green to it next year than in the past, Loni Hancock will know that the influence began in her office and is simply coming full circle.