“It”™s a friendly competition,” Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino said of the Westchester Green Business Challenge. “It”™s not Yankees-Red Sox.”
Nevertheless, there is a scorecard for the more than 50 participating companies to record how well they”™ve responded to the challenge ”“ a partnership between The Business Council of Westchester and Westchester County, modeled after the Chicago Green Office Challenge.
Phase I of the Westchester initiative established the website westchestergov.com/greenchallenge, which includes the interactive scorecard, case studies, funding sources, events listings and a business directory.
Phase II, announced Aug. 2 at the county executive”™s office in White Plains, is an educational program spurred by a $20,000 grant from Con Edison to help businesses reduce greenhouse gases and cut costs through energy efficiency. The grant was actually awarded to the Westchester Chamber Educational Foundation Inc., a nonprofit subsidiary of The Business Council that will administer the program. The foundation will work with the county and the environmentally minded businesses Synergis of South Salem and Green Team Spirit of Croton-on-Hudson.
The second phase of the challenge will also seek to expand the number of participants ”“ which includes Nokia, Swiss Re and The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester ”“ through a series of seminars and networking events. These begin Sept. 29 at C.W. Brown Inc. in Armonk ”“ a construction company that was the recent subject of a roughly $2-million green renovation and is itself a green-building education center.
From last October through January, the Brown company refurbished 10,000 square feet of its 40,000-square-foot facility, raising a new roof, with more insulation; adding a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system; turning to solar power to go off the electrical grid during the day; and using green paint, said President Charlie Brown, who attended the Aug. 2 press conference with CEO and wife Renée M. Brown.
The company will be going for LEED platinum certification, Brown said, referring to the highest category in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design classification system established by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
But for C.W. Brown Inc. ”“ which is also seeking to renovate its remaining 30,000 square feet ”“ sustainability doesn”™t only apply to the environment. It applies to education as well.
LEED professionals who study the Brown building can get credit from the USGBC, just as architects can from The American Institute of Architects.
“We wanted to build a space to attract young people, the next generation of employees,” said Renée Brown, noting that the couple”™s three teenage daughters, who”™ve banned water bottles at home, are another impetus.
Added her husband: “We wanted to create a learning center for green building so that anyone who comes in can say, ”˜Wow, look at what they”™ve done”™.”
Among those impressed by the Browns”™ achievements is Stewart Strauss, president and CEO of Strauss Paper Co. Inc. in Port Chester ”“ no slouch himself when it comes to the environment. His business ”“ which distributes janitorial supplies to the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Lawrence Hospital Center in Bronxville and the White Plains and Yonkers public schools, among others ”“ has taken a two-prong approach to green.
“First, we make it a major point to sell green products,” he said, be they recycled paper toweling or environmentally safe cleaners. His salespeople are all certified to sell green.
But Strauss has also made changes to his 90,000-square-foot building ”“ replacing mercury-vapor lighting with high-efficiency fluorescent lighting; adding infrared motion detectors and energy-saving air conditioners; placing solar panels on the roof to supply the building with 30 percent of its power; using digital mailing to eliminate 60,000 paper invoices; and recycling everything from cardboard to machine parts.
The Strauss company has invested anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million in green innovations. Still, it”™s all been worth it financially and environmentally, Strauss said.
“We”™re always looking to do things a better way.”
