Being a certified “green” company can be a great marketing tool, but for many businesses the designation is an afterthought resulting from initiatives that save money.
Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., for instance, did things like install skylights and re-use refrigeration heat to warm parts of their buildings to save on the corporate bottom line. The company later recognized that these initiatives made them green in the eyes of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The company, with Stop & Shopstores in New England, New York and New Jersey, and Giant Food stores in the Mid-Atlantic states, was the only company in New England to earn the EPA’s Energy Star Leaders recognition in 2007, and Stop & Shop and Giant is the only supermarket chain in the country recognized for building energy performance into their buildings. Notably, Stop & Shop and Giant have a rating of 90 out of possible 100 across a portfolio of 552 buildings.
“Our goal wasn’t to win this award, though it is an honor. We were doing these things because it is good business sense, and we wanted to be responsible corporate citizens,” said Robert Keane, a spokesperson for Stop & Shop.
Some of the many ways Stop & Shop saves on the bottom line while being environmentally responsible include: occupancy sensors that shut off lights in the back rooms and offices within stores; refrigeration systems that use electronically commutated fan motors, low-energy glass doors and non-ozone depleting, HFC refrigerant; and air-conditioning systems that all use non-ozone depleting, HFC Refrigerants, despite the EPA allowance to use HCFC refrigerants until 2010, Keane said. Store roofs are ultra-insulated and include a white, reflective surface to reduce the need to cool stores in the summer months.
Keane wouldn’t divulge Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop’s actual savings from these and other environmentally sensitive practices.
Locally, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management is pushing businesses to be more environmentally responsible through recycling enforcement and by giving a marketable green certification status to hotels and restaurants.
The DEM and the Rhode Island Hospitality & Tourism Association created a system in which hotels and restaurants can become certified as environmentally sound. The Green Hospitality and Tourism Leadership Council offered a workshop on how to receive this certification on Feb 12; the application is available on the DEM’s Web site.
Early response to the initiative was promising; about 40 hotel representatives showed up to that first meeting, including general managers and hotel engineers, representing about 29 of the 90 or so major hotels in the state, said RIHTA President and CEO Dale Venturini.
“Customers are demanding [environmental responsibility]. They inquire about [it] when they call hotels, and it does influence people’s decisions,” Venturini said. “The meeting planners are now requiring this stuff before they make a decision on where to hold major events. If there is a choice between three cities, part of that decision is how environmentally responsible [your destination] is.”
To be green certified, businesses must earn 100 of 600 possible points in energy conservation, water conservation, waste minimization and using sustainable products and locally grown foods. Most of the requirements for certification involve operational changes rather than costly construction enhancements.
“[Rhode Island] has old properties that can’t necessarily meet the construction standards, because we can’t knock down walls and destroy the beauty we have in these historic buildings, but we achieve the certifications can from an operations standpoint,” Venturini said
Hotels and restaurants that obtain the green certification get an award and decals to display on site, a logo to use for advertising and recognition from the Rhode Island Hospitality & Tourism Association and Rhode Island Tourism Division.
“We have the government resources to help us find ways to become green certified – so everyone can achieve it some way,” Venturini said.
The next training through the Green Hospitality and Tourism Leadership Council in Rhode Island will be for restaurants in early April.
Hotels and restaurants that get the certification can expect random visits from the DEM Office of Technical & Customer Assistance, who will check to make sure the initiatives are being carried out, said Terry Grey, assistant director for Air, Waste and Compliance at the state environmental agency.
“We are very cognoscente of the green-washing phenomenon, and we plan to make sure that doesn’t happen here,” said Grey.
green washing refers to companies that spend more time and money advertising being green than they do on actually being environmentally responsible. This has made consumers skeptical of green certifications.
The DEM is also pushing Rhode Island business owners to recycle through a new commercial recycling program.
Rhode Island businesses generate around 60 percent of the waste at the state’s Central Landfill – about 700,000 tons a year – but the commercial recycling rate is estimated to be less than 3 percent.
The DEM is now looking to step up the commercial recycling rate. The agency sent letters in January to more than 2,300 businesses, asking them to report information about their waste and recycling efforts by February 15 via an on-line system at www.ri.gov. It will use that data to measure recycling efforts and identify areas that need improvements. •
