Nspiregreen Owners Named "Small Business Women of the Year"

WASHINGTON, DC - On Monday, January 20, 2014, the Congress Heights Community Training & Development Corporation's Great Streets Business Leadership Council will honor outstanding community and business leaders who have excelled in their fields at its 4th Annual Awards Ceremony.  

Nspiregreen LLC is proud to announce that our Partners, Veronica O. Davis, P.E. and Chanceé Lundy, will receive the "Small Businesswomen of the Year" award at this year's ceremony.

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Nspiregreen, LLC is an environmental consulting firm located in Washington, DC. We specialize in Environmental Solutions, Urban Planning, and Public Outreach. We are engineers who specialize in understanding the unique needs of communities and cater our solutions to uplift their needs.

"I am humbled and honored to be recognized, along with Veronica," said Chanceé. "Being a small business owner is both a challenging and rewarding experience and this award is a testament to our faith in building a business that is competitive and positively impacts the lives of others. I look forward to what the future holds for Nspiregreen."  

Veronica is thankful and honored as well. "Like Chanceé, I'm humbled to receive this award. The best part is being honored with a great business partner and an even better friend."   

The other Honorees for the 4th Annual ceremony are: Anwar Saleem - Community Developer, Arrington Dixon - Living Legend, Calvin Reid - Small Businessman of the Year, Aniekan Udofia - Arts & Humanitarian. There will also be two posthumous honorees James Bunn Sr. and Gregory Thomas Sr. - Lifetime Achievement. 

"Being honored in The Great Streets Awards is an important achievement," said Monica Ray, Executive Director of Congress Heights CTDC. "It means that the community has agreed that the nominee's contribution to our community is worthy of recognition in his/her chosen field. We congratulate all of the honorees on their achievement and thank them for their contribution to Moving Our Community FORWARD."

The event will take place from 11:30am until 2:30pm, Monday, January 20, 2014, at the Old Congress Heights School, 3100 Martin L. King Jr. Ave SE, Washington, DC 20032. Tickets are $60, available at www.greatstreetshonors.eventbrite.com.

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We're Hiring - Position: Planner I with 0-3 years of experience

WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING RESUMES FOR THIS POSITION

Position: Planner I with 0-3 years of experience 
Location: DC residents preferred 

Responsibilities: Nspiregreen is seeking a Planner I to focus on the planning and implementation of the North-South Corridor as part of the DC Streetcar Program. The position will be half-time planning support and half-time public involvement support focused on transit. This position may also work on other urban planning projects, such as development forecasting, and transportation corridor planning.

Planning duties may include data collection and analysis for planning projects, report writing, quantitative analysis related to corridor studies and other transit/transportation planning duties, understanding and developing fiscal policy, understanding and developing legislative analysis, and a wide range of writing projects. Ability to transform data into visual presentations and GIS mapping will also be requested. This position requires the candidate to perform well in a fast paced team oriented environment.

Public involvement duties may include assisting with public outreach strategies and techniques, planning and staffing community meetings and special events, writing and coordinating public information/outreach materials/community messaging, assisting with graphics and document design, and assisting with social media.

This position will require attendance at weekday evening and weekend meetings.

Keywords: Transit Planner, transit, streetcar, rail, planning, transportation, public involvement, community, public meetings, social media

Requirements: Bachelors degree, MS preferred. 0+ years experience in transportation planning, civil engineering, or related field. Strong written and oral communications skills are required. The ability to multi-task and work as part of a team is also required. Software requirements: MS Office, GIS, Wordpress, Social Media programs (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc), Photoshop, InDesign. General knowledge of the District of Columbia is preferred.

Please send the following to nspireus@nspiregreen.com: Resume and Cover letter References – Please provide contact information (name, organization, email, and phone number) for three (3) references. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Compensation: Nspiregreen offers competitive salaries and excellent benefits to qualified employees including: medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance coverage; paid holidays and vacations; the opportunity to telework each week and other perks for company and individual performance. Nspiregreen is an equal opportunity employer.

Nspiregreen Supports DC Small Businesses

 On Friday September 28th, the DC Council Committee on Small Business held a small business summit. It was an opportunity to for small businesses to meet with DC agencies, such as the Department of Small and Local Business Development. During the session with the Office of Contracting and Procurement, Nspiregreen co-owner, Veronica O. Davis, P.E. asked a question that was quoted in this morning’s Washington Examiner.

Excerpt:

Small business owners in D.C. say they are being yanked around by a city that's taking months -- and in some cases years -- to pay for contracted work.

The complaint came as news to the head of the D.C. Office of Contracting and Procurement James Staton, now in his second year after coming to the District from North Carolina.

"We call it the 'okey doke,' where you could perform work in November and you don't actually get a check until July the next year," Veronica Davis, owner of environmental consulting firm Nspiregreen, told Staton at a small business roundtable Friday. 

We believe it is important to put some context around Veronica’s statement to Director Staton. At the end of the panel discussion with the Office of Contracting and Procurement, Veronica asked if there were vehicles in the contracting process to ensure that businesses, especially small businesses, are paid in a timely manner per the contract terms. Specifically, she cited the term “30 days from an approved invoice” as a common term in DC government contracts. She explained that invoices are often rejected for minor reasons, which resets the 30 days clock. We have had invoices rejected over a penny.

Other small businesses in the room shook their head in agreement, and cited personal examples of waiting 120 days and even years to be paid for services rendered. The sentiment in the room was if DC wants to be a world-class business friendly city, we all need to work together to improve the contracting, invoicing, and payment processes.

 Nspiregreen felt that it was important to address the comment, as we were not complaining via a statement; we were asking a question regarding a solution. This is am important distinction for us as the word “complain” is not in our corporate vocabulary. We strive to be a solutions-oriented company. We have testified at several hearings related to small business, such as the Committee on Tax and Revenue and the Committee on Small and Local Business. In all of our testimony we have provided recommendations and solutions to streamline processes that make it easier for businesses to operate in DC, contract with DC government, and employ DC residents.

As a company built on the foundation of advocacy for community improvement, we will continue to be vocal on the challenges facing small businesses in DC. As with many other business, we have rooted ourselves in DC and are committed to helping DC achieve the goal of being the most business friendly city in the country.

Happy Birthday to us!!!!

Happy birthday to us. 
Happy birthday to us.
Happy birthday to Nspiregreeeeeen.
Happy birthday to us!!! 

It's our birthday!!!  Look we even have a "birth" certificate from the District of Columbia!

The seed for Nspiregreen was planted in 2002, when we first met at a leadership conference for the National Society of Black Engineers.  Literally in the first 20 minutes of us meeting we said "we should start a business".  Who knew the idea of two starry-eyed, enthusiastic graduate students would lead to the creation of Nspiregreen.

Some say we are brave to start our own company, while others say we are crazy.  We say we are both. It takes a certain amount of insanity to leave good paying jobs with benefits to enter a world where everyday has its own uncertainty. Three years ago we took the leap and we haven't looked back. 

Nspiregreen Testimony to DSLBD - Committee on Small and Local Business Development

My name is Veronica O. Davis. I’m a resident of Hillcrest in Ward 7 and co-owner of Nspiregreen LLC. My testimony today will be on behalf of Nspiregreen LLC.

Nspiregreen LLC is an environmental consulting firm established to shape approaches and attitudes for sustainability and community development through public involvement and outreach. With our engineering and urban planning backgrounds, we specialize in public involvement and outreach for environmental planning and compliance; environmental justice, facility planning and facility environmental program management; civil infrastructure (transportation, wastewater treatment); and master planning. We are 100% women, and minority-owned small business.

Our office is located at the HIVE (Home of Innovators Visionaries and Entrepreneurs), a business incubator, located in the business district of Historic Anacostia in Ward 8. We are located in DC because of our dedication and commitment to being part of the DC economy.

I could easily use my time to express our frustrations with being a small business in DC. However, we are here today to offer 5 recommendations to bring DC closer to being small business friendly.

Recommendation 1 – Schedule a second Roundtable Discussion with all relevant agencies

As a consulting business owner there are three main agencies that we have regular interaction, Department of Local Small Business Development (DLSBD), Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), and Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR). Each agency plays a role in the frustration of doing business in DC. We recommend that the Council committees that have oversight hold a joint roundtable to address how these three agencies can work together to reduce headaches and frustrations of small business owners.

Recommendation 2 - Create a Robust Business System

Currently businesses register in separate online systems for several agencies. For example, as a consulting business we are registered in DCRA, OTR, DDOT (DBE), OCP, and DSLBD. As a business it would be great if on the user side there was one system to log into to be able to access all the agencies that we communicate with. The system could allow uploading of documents and a messaging system to directly communicate with a specialist about a specific issues.

On the agency side, they would be allowed to edit, delete or modify information applicable to their agency’s functions only. For example, only DCRA could make changes in the business license section. However, they would be allowed to see applicable information from other agencies. For example, DCRA could see that a business has clean hands with OTR.

By housing everything in one place, it eliminates opportunities for fraud, streamlines information, and reduces the paper exercise for businesses.

Recommendation 3 – Restore the Procurement and Technical Assistance Center

As a small consulting firm we do not have the luxury of a marketing department. The PTAC was extremely helpful with providing marketing expertise that we would not have been able to afford from a private company. They assisted us with enhancing our company capability statement, developing a strategy to market to our target Federal and local agencies, and brokering relationships with Federal and local small business offices. Of all the services provided to small businesses, this was by far the most helpful in growing our company.

Recommendation 4 – Combine the CBE and DDOT DBE process

Currently businesses have to go through an arduous application process for both certifications. The CBE program administered by the Department of Small & Local Business Development is only applicable for contracting with DC government. The District Department of Transportation DBE program is a Federally recognized program administered by the District Department of Transportation. The DDOT DBE allows a company to receive reciprocity with State DOTs and serves as the DBE designation for contracting with the Federal government.

Both applications processes require an online submission with submission of a half a ream of paper worth of supporting documentation. Ideally, both processes could be housed in the same department similar to Virginia and Maryland. Therefore, eligible businesses could receive both certifications simultaneously.

Recommendation 5 – Re-establish the Small and Local Business Development Opportunity Commission

There are currently 7 vacant seats on the 9 person commission. It should be a priority to fill those seats with small business to provide guidance to DSLBD and the Council on small business issue

Thank you again for the opportunity to provide comment on this very important issue.