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Rob Clapper mulls chamber's role in "buy local" initiative

Rob Clapper, president of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, planned to meet this morning with representatives from the Greensboro Merchants Association and Buy Triad First to find out how to support the young grassroots group. I picked his brain a little bit for my research on a piece about the "buy local" and relocalization movements.

Buy Triad First emerged this summer as a way for independent business owners in the Greensboro area to distinguish themselves from and compete with national chain stores. The network is currently affiliated with the national 3/50 Project, which encourages people to spend $50 at three locally-owned businesses, and founder Cinda Baxter spoke to the group this week in High Point.

Clapper told me that he is trying to figure out how to help the group get its message out without compromising the chamber's role of supporting all types of businesses that serve the Greensboro community. (Note: The chamber has its own Buy Local campaign too.)

The upside of the chamber and merchants association supporting Buy Triad First is that it has the potential to bring those two groups additional members. But the chamber doesn't want to use member dues to support non-member businesses.

"Unfortunately as an organization, the way the chamber is, that can't be our focus for the entire year," he said. "We want to serve as a conduit and support mechanism and not be perceived as a competitive program."

On another note, I asked Clapper if the local chamber has seen any fallout from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce/climate bill controversy. Last week, the N.C. Conservation Network, an environmental group supporting federal legislations limiting greenhouse gas emissions, held a teleconference with business owners opposing the national group's stance. Erik Lensch, President of Argand Energy Solutions in Charlotte, said his company was unlikely to renew its membership with the local chamber based on the U.S. chamber's position.

Clapper said no businesses have withdrawn their membership from the Greensboro Chamber, although he has responded by e-mail to questions from a few members. Clapper said that while the local chamber is a member of the national association, its dues do not pay for political lobbying. The Greensboro Chamber has not taken a position on the proposed House and Senate climate bills.

"I am 99.999 percent sure that our dues for the U.S. Chamber are for professional development and educational programs," Clapper said.

In fact, the Greensboro Chamber is active in promoting green business practices and has partnered with the new Sustainable Greensboro, which I wrote about previously. The chamber will offer a speaker series on green technology in November and plans to participate in the Green Plus business certification program next year. I'll have more information about Green Plus later.

"Most of our membership know that we're committed to making Greensboro a better community," Clapper said. "We're doing what we can to begin and look at green opportunities and how we can make Greensboro a more sustainable community."