A team from New Mexico State University has spent the past year providing technical assistance to two small businesses in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Funded under a two-year grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, the work has focused on encouraging pollution prevention, and economic and energy efficient practices among rural hospitality-based businesses in the southern portion of the state.
Through the Engineering New Mexico Resource Network in the College of Engineering, Chris Campbell, senior program manager, and Jalal Rastegary, research scientist, along with Amirreza Barin, a computer sciences graduate student, worked with the R & C Sumthins Ice Cream Shop and Desert View Inn to assess and recommend pollution prevention and energy efficiency best practices.
“Our objective was to identify hospitality-based businesses that had an interest in participating in the project,” Rastegary said. “The technical assistance we are able to provide involves a non-regulatory assessment that results in tangible recommendations for cost-savings.”