[A guest blog spot by ISS Associate Editor Elaine Foxwell.]

We recently posted this item to the ISS "Hot News Feed": Divine Development LP, in alliance with the Agape Foundation and Mobile Master Trucks, has developed the first "green" business grant available to the self-storage industry. The grant offers low-cost use of clean-emissions vehicles to members of certain businesses, predominantly self-storage. (Click HERE to get the whole scoop.) 
 
As a tree-hugging vegetarian, animal-rights activist and all-around environmental pest, this news gives me much joy. Not to point fingers and say, I told you so, but some of my more skeptical friends still dont think the greening of commerce and industry is a necessary step in the evolution of good business. Whether or not you are a member of the We are causing global warming camp, we are the caretakers of our environmentsocial and planetary. And we are responsible for the results of our actions. Ergo, we are the only ones who can ensure those actions do not lead to more distress for our world. 
 
Some 30 years ago, I did an article on Biosphere II in Oracle, Ariz., and interviewed the environmental scientists who developed it. I saw their computer model of the impact global warming and atmospheric pollution would have on our lives. It seemed those conditions were mega decades away, but suddenly they are here. We cannot deny the loss of biodiversity as human habitat encroaches on wilderness areas. We cannot ignore that the runaway consumerism of Western cultures is gobbling up irreplaceable natural resources at an alarming rate and generating insurmountable amounts of non-biodegradable refuse. 
 
Err Can someone get me a ladder? My soapbox got pretty high. 
 
As individuals, we can do a lot (visit www.ecobridge.org/content/g_wdo.htm for details). And now it appears our little corner of commerce, the self-storage industry, is embracing the need for environmental accountability. These trucks mean savings, maybe not huge financial ones, but environmental savings. Not to mention getting that happy inner "I did something good for Mother Earth" glow.
 
So Bravo! to the Agape Foundation and those in our industry for their interest in making this planet a little more secure from the ravages of environmental erosion. For more information about the Green Truck Grant Program, call 800.906.5856; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.divinedevelopmentlp.com. Peace out!