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Green Policies Pay Off for small business owners, employees and clients

Join Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson’s "environmentally and economically sustainable" business brigade and you get a certificate suitable for framing, praise in print and cyberspace — and a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

BY BOB MIMS
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

And consider this, adds Joel LaSalle: You will save money and grow your customer base.

That was the message Friday from LaSalle as his Oasis Cafe and Golden Braid Books was honored by Anderson as the first recipient of the new "e2 Business" award for saving energy, water and instituting extensive waste recycling.

"I will sit down with any other business that wants to and prove to them on paper they will save money and increase their business by doing these things," LaSalle vowed during a news conference at his restaurant-bookstore. "It comes down to dollars and cents."

He credited an energy audit by city environmental offices with showing him ways to conduct a "greener" business. Along with restricting water use, he refitted lighting in his establishments with low-voltage fluorescent floodlights, which he estimated used 10 percent of the energy of normal bulbs.

"You really look at every avenue," LaSalle said. "Now, we take food that normally would be shoved down the garbage disposal, fruits and vegetables [and] Tracey Aviary will be coming down to pick that up to feed the birds."

When he signed up to buy wind-generated electricity from Utah Power, the utility mentioned his businesses in its billings. LaSalle was shocked by the result — a hefty increase in his business.

"The community really cares about this," he said, estimating 200 new customers had come in over the past year because they noticed his restaurant mentioned as a new wind power buyer. Overall, LaSalle said, his business is up 22 percent to 23 percent from a year ago.

"I would endorse this program as [accounting for] almost half of this increase," he said. "We have become more efficient, we are saving money . . . It has gotten our staff pumped up; it creates an energy, a consciousness not only in our organization but in all our customers — and that feels good."

LaSalle has become such a fan of Anderson’s e2 Business that he is donating $2,700 to the city to fund its first year, hoping to "get the rest of the business community to follow our lead." He also has plans to explore more energy-stingy transport for his business, and landscaping to further reduce his water use.

Interested? First, applicants undergo an environmental audit, which is used by city officials to set goals for the business to address issues from solid and hazardous waste elimination to water and air quality and energy consumption.

Businesses meeting those goals receive laudatory decals and a certificate of achievement, promotion by the city, including the mayor, in speeches and publications such as Catalyst Magazine and Golden Braid newspaper and on the Internet.

"To protect our climate, clean up our air and preserve resources for future generations, we need a commitment from our entire community — from government, individuals and our businesses," Anderson said.

The mayor boasts his administration has tried to set its own example by retrofitting lighting in the City-County Building; purchasing wind power; increasing the city’s recycling volume 61 percent in 2002; cutting water usage 17 percent in the past year; and unveiling his High Performance Buildings Initiative to encourage conservation.

For more information, call 801-535-7939, or visit the program’s Web site at http://www.slc gov.com/environment/e2.

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http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Feb/02012003/business/25277.asp

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