Supporting Small Businesses
Together with the DCSEU, business owners in the District are pursuing their passions.
"When we were doing our budget for 2018, we could now reliably plan for lower energy bills and all of the sudden we could afford a new piece of equipment, we could afford to add a new employee.”
“Our beer starts and ends with the sun. I love that so much,” Thor Cheston, owner of Proper Brewing Company in Shaw and Brookland, says with a smile as he looks at his new solar panels. While brewing locally saves energy otherwise used in distribution, produces two-thirds less CO2,and creates local jobs, it is still energy-intensive. The process uses significant amounts of water, compressed air, lighting, and refrigeration. Right Proper prides itself on being an affordable, approachable neighborhood gathering place, and at the same time being as sustainable as possible.
That led Cheston to take the first step towards saving energy by working with the DCSEU to replace all the lighting in its Brookland location with efficient LEDs. He then began working with DCSEU Teaming Partner New Columbia Solar to install solar on the brewery’s roof.
“Being a small business, my main job every day is to save this business money, and DC has made it really easy from an energy savings standpoint with organizations like the DCSEU, with a friendly solar market, and those types of things. When we were doing our budget for 2018, we could now reliably plan for lower energy bills and all of the sudden we could afford a new piece of equipment, we could afford to add a new employee,” says Cheston.
