The
Green Business Partnership
is filled with businesses and organizations that are saving
money while practicing sound environmental stewardship. Here are
some of their stories.
Carlson
Studio Architecture is saving more than
$1,600/year by implementing energy and water conservation
measures and reducing their waste.
Children’s World Uniform Supply
reduced its paper consumption 50 percent by
practicing double-sided copying and using scrap paper for draft
copy printing and notepads.
Mirasol FAFCO Solar reduced
its garbage costs 50 percent by increasing its recycling and
decreasing its garbage services.
The
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
is embarking on a facilities improvement project that
reduce electricity, natural gas and water consumption, resulting
in more than $100,000 in annual savings.
Longboat Key Club
eliminated plastic and Styrofoam cups. It now uses
reusable or corn plastic cups instead. This change eliminated
more than 1 million non-biodegradable items from the waste
stream.
Snelling Staffing Services
has saved almost $800 in office supplies annually. It is at
least 60 percent paper free. The company will not renew its
copier lease at the end of the year, which will results in a
savings of $2,600.
Akuwa Solutions Group has
completed two server virtualization projects in its office that
has reduced the number of physical servers from 14 to four. This
results in a significant savings, because servers operating 24/7
consume huge amounts of energy and require additional power for
cooling.
Venice Golf and Country Club
has reduced the amount of nitrogen and other containments
released into the Myakka River watershed by more than 4,000
pounds per year by irrigating the property with captured
stormwater. The resort has also removed thousands of Brazilian
pepper and other invasive trees and plants and replanted 13
wetland preserves with native plants.
Jackson Hewitt Technology
is saving more than $600 per year and preventing more than
17,000 polystyrene cups from going into the landfill this year
by eliminating all disposable coffee mugs in its break
rooms. All disposable cups have been replaced with ceramic mugs
from the local Goodwill stores, which consequently supports the
local economy and a non-profit agency.
Doctors Hospital’s "Linen
Conservation Initiative" has saved more than 51,000kWh of
electricity and more than 10,000 gallons of water. This has
resulted in a cost savings to the hospital of $56,000.
Sarasota Coastal Credit Union
eliminated the purchase of plastic utensils and Styrofoam cups.
it now encourages the use of reusable utensils and dishes and
disposable cups made of recycled-material. The company
participates in a toner cartridge recycling program that is
preventing more than 100 cartridges from being sent to landfills
each year. Nearly half of the 26,000 members of Sarasota Coastal
Credit Union receive electronic statements instead of paper
statements, which prevents an average of four sheets of paper
per member, per month from being printed and mailed. Annually,
this measure saves 3.12 tons of paper, 53 trees, 1,186 gallons
of oil, 12,480kWh of electricity and 21,840 gallons of water. It
also eliminates the pollution created by physically mailing
items.