Virginia EnviroMENTOR Program
The Virginia Small Business Assistance Program would like to make you aware of a new form of assistance being offered to small businesses, the pilot project of the Virginia EnviroMENTOR Program.
Through the Virginia EnviroMENTOR Program, a small business can receive free on-site environmental assistance. To participate in the pilot project of the Virginia EnviroMENTOR Program, a business must meet the following criteria: 100 or less employees, and independently owned.
The EnviroMENTOR Program is a voluntary program that provides free assistance to small businesses through a mentoring relationship with environmental professionals. This program partners a small business that needs assistance with an environmental professional who has real-world knowledge of technical or legal environmental issues.
The EnviroMENTOR Program is a part of Virginia Innovations in Pollution Prevention (VIP2). VIP2 is a major initiative of the Department of Environmental Quality that promotes pollution prevention, environmental management systems and non-regulatory technical compliance assistance. The EnviroMENTOR Program, as a part of VIP2, represents a new non-regulatory approach for businesses to receive environmental assistance.
Small businesses can receive assistance from the Virginia EnviroMENTOR pilot project in the following areas:
- Identifying opportunities for pollution prevention and environmental management systems,
- Answering environmental questions,
- Completing information requests received from DEQ or EPA,
- Determining need for environmental permits,
- Assisting with permit applications,
- Determining the applicability and compliance requirements of environmental regulations,
- Determining options for compliance with environmental regulations,
- Resolving a Notice of Violation,
- Identifying other environmental resources.
If you would like additional information about the EnviroMENTOR program or need mentoring assistance, please contact Richard Rasmussen of the Virginia Small Business Assistance Program at (804) 698-4305 or 1-800-592-5482 ext. 4394 or rgrasmusse@deq.virginia.gov. He will discuss with you how the mentoring program may help your business, and can provide you with a program application.