Like many cooperatives, Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsboro started very modestly. The seven-year-old cooperative started with just one member, and literally made biodiesel in Mason jars. In the years since, Piedmont Biofuels has grown to 500 members and uses a sophisticated reactor system to produce thousands of gallons of fuel each month.

While such growth has come through strategic planning and a lot of sweat equity, access to credit has also been a key catalyst. The co-op received a loan from Self-Help Credit Union in 2007 through its Environmental Stewardship Initiative. Piedmont Biofuels used the loan to purchase a truck for collecting waste grease from Triangle-area restaurants. Years later, the impacts of that loan are still rippling through the cooperative and the businesses and members it serves.

The loan allowed Piedmont Biofuels to begin collecting more waste grease instead of purchasing other forms of raw materials for fuel production on the open commodities market. The direct result is that the co-op delivers its fuel to members more inexpensively than would otherwise be possible.

The loan has also had a positive impact on the larger community in a variety of ways. Piedmont Biofuels' ramped up production capacity means more of the cleaner burning fuel is available, with less pollution in the Triangle the net result. The co-op has also taken material that would previously have been thrown away, providing another important environmental impact. The relationships forged with area restaurants also give Piedmont Biofuels the opportunity to encourage & educate restaurants about other sustainable practices such as recycling.

These impacts result in a triple bottom line win for Self-Help - that is, the environment and community benefit from a responsible loan that makes good business sense.

Piedmont Biofuels is about a third of the way toward its goal of being totally reliant upon restaurant waste oil for its manufacturing process. Access to credit, which can be a tricky proposition for start-ups, proved to be key in helping Piedmont Biofuels advance toward that goal and in many other aspects of its business plan.

Thankfully for the co-op, Self-Help Credit Union had the program, the knowledge and the corporate commitment to provide the loan, unlike most other lenders to small businesses. As former co-op employee Greg Austic noted, "There's no way we would have gotten that loan from anybody else."