Last Wednesday, March 16th, the Fremont Chamber of Commerce (FCC) hosted an informational meeting on steps businesses could take towards greener practices, without spending their green. The meeting featured representatives from the City and King County, along with representation from one local business taking massive steps to save the earth, and enhance their business for employees, customers and everyone.
As Donna Galstad, with King County Hazardous Waste Management & EnviroStars program, commented, businesses located in Seattle can double-dip, taking advantage of incentives and vouchers available through both agencies for conservation and clean-up programs. “We offer a lot of free services,” she explained, “and technical assistance by phone or in person.”
“We can help identify hazardous waste (or not,)” Galstad said. They distribute businesses information on proper disposal of all by-products. “We’re a resource, when you don’t know where to go, or what to buy,” she explained.
Lately, they’ve been focused on property managers, to give them information to share with tenants about proper refuse disposal. One FCC attendee complained about working to separate trash in her office, only to see janitorial staff co-mingle it again when they collected the cans. Galstad acknowledged that the conversation needs to go both ways – tenants can talk to the property managers about getting the best containers, lower impact appliances and using the least harmful cleaning solvents.
King County Hazardous Management does assessments, to help businesses get smarter about their impacts. “I’m not a cop,” explained Tammy Himes, a King County Health & Environmental Inspector. They want to educate business owners, and their employees, about where to dispose of materials, and which programs grow their businesses towards greener practices. “Our visits are confidential and educational,” Galstad agreed.
Christine Duffy and Thu Tran of City of Seattle Green Business Solutions said the same thing. They want to provide resources to reduce pollution, encourage preservation and increase conservation. They do door-to-door outreach, but they also provided handouts and contact information on several on-going programs:
- Rebates – Seattle Utility customers can receive rebates for replacing / upgrading toilets, cooling towers, kitchen equipment, commercial laundry, sprinkler systems, and much more!
- BREWS – helps breweries, distilleries and food producers with water conservation
- Spill Kits – providing materials, plans and training on addressing spills of grease, compressor liquids, or hydraulic by-products that contaminate our waterways, and result in costly fines
- Fight F.O.G. – providing information and recommendations for limiting fats, oils and grease from entering drains and sewer pipes
- Trash Out Of Toilets – they provide professional, laminated signs for businesses to encourage patrons to put ‘toilet paper only’ in the toilets. Duffy had a show-and-tell – two jars: one with toilet paper and one with a ‘flushable’ wipe – that fully demonstrated how ‘flushable’ doesn’t mean ‘break-down-able’ or ‘safe-in-sewer-pipes’.
- Reducing Waste – The City now prohibits disposing of recyclables and compostables in trash receptacles. Tran pointed out that, for businesses, recycling actually costs 50% less, and compost is 30% less, than garbage disposal. Green Business Solutions can provide tips to make these new practices easier to adopt.
In addition to hearing about ways to adapt, attendees heard from Stacey Wurster of Green Cleaning Seattle / Otium-Maid Services, a business located on Aurora Avenue, that employs a hardworking staff of cleaners for residential, commercial and real estate spaces. Besides on-going efforts to use products that clean safely, and remove sometimes years of build-up of soaps and residues, Green Cleaning Seattle has retrofit their offices and its surrounding garden with a number of environmentally friendly innovations:
- water catchment for storm drains and a rain garden, using the City of Seattle RainWise program
- grey water system that puts the washer rinse water into irrigating the landscaping
- solar panels
- composting
- planting fruit bearing trees and bushes
- keeping chickens, and harvesting eggs, as an employee benefit
- beekeeping
As Wurster also pointed out, Green Cleaning Seattle was able to make many of these improvements through rebate/refund programs with the City and King County.
Find out more about the City Of Seattle Green Business Solutions, and King County Hazardous Waste Management, through their websites – and consider calling to get a free assessment, or at least information, today.