BUSINESS: Going Green: Material Mindset Environmental Protection Agency Recognizes Small Business Champions By Staff Thursday, May 9, 2024 8:25 AM WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently hosted the Administrator’s 34th Annual Small Business Programs Award ceremony to honor the outstanding Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 small business championship of EPA programs, employees, and business and state partners from across the country, according to an announcement from the EPA. The awards ceremony was held in celebration of National Small Business Week, which ran from April 28–May 4, 2024. Click here for a list of all the small business honorees.“I applaud the accomplishments of this year’s honorees,” said EPA administrator Michael S. Regan. “Celebrating EPA’s small business championship as part of National Small Business Week appropriately spotlights the exceptional contributions of the agency and its partners to the historic small business boom the country has witnessed over the last three years.”In fiscal year 2023, the EPA increased the total amount of contract dollars awarded to the nation’s small and socioeconomic businesses. This included a 3.7 increase in the percent of dollars awarded to Small Disadvantaged Businesses. Also, the EPA is continuing its efforts to tackle climate change as part of the Inflation Reduction Act investments, which, as noted in the President’s National Small Business Week Proclamation, is helping to create new markets for small clean-energy companies.The EPA’s awards ceremony recognized approximately 15 categories of exemplary small business championship. The ceremony also featured guest remarks by Shirley D. Bailey, board chair of the HUBZone Contractors National Council, and Danny Portee, president of Professional Management Enterprises, Inc., the recipient of the administrator’s award for outstanding accomplishments by a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business.