Green is Red-Hot

Many are turning to more efficient methods and materials to save money. But enterprising businesspeople are finding that the green movement is ripe with potential for industries ranging from manufacturing to finance.

Companies nationwide are reconsidering business as usual, looking for more sustainable ways of conducting business—and making sure their efforts are advertised to more environmentally conscientious consumers.

"Sometimes [going green] is driven by the customer, sometimes by competitors, sometimes by activists and sometimes by regulators or fear of regulation," says Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com, which provides resources and information for businesses looking to go green. Eco-friendly moves, such as switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, can cut long-term costs and improve a company’s image, which helps employee retention and recruitment, and appeals to customers.

"A lot of this stuff is simply efficiency dressed up in green," says Makower. "A lot of companies are finding that being a greener business means being a better business."

For others, the green movement isn’t just a wake-up call to improve old business practices; it is creating new business opportunities. These seven Southwest Florida enterprises have found ways to capitalize on the trend.

NEW USE FOR OLD TIRES

Historically, scrap rubber, such as discarded tires, hasn’t had the same recycling capabilities as plastic or aluminum. Naples-based Lehigh Technologies hopes to change that. Its proprietary technology uses liquid nitrogen to freeze scrap rubber, which becomes as brittle as glass. It is then pulverized into an ultra-fine rubber powder that can be used in not only the creation of new rubber products, but also in plastics, coatings, sealants, roofing and carpeting materials.

Founded in 2005, the company now has some 30 customers. That base is expected to grow, especially as a variety of factors, from an increase in environmental awareness to rising oil prices, converge to make the company’s offerings more appealing. "Consumers are looking for green materials to purchase; the days of their being perceived as inferior are over," says Anthony M. Cialone, the company’s founder and COO. "It’s a competitive environment within the rubber industry and the global [market], and we need new, innovative technologies and new, innovative raw materials to keep the U.S. competitive. I think this is one of those materials that will provide a solution."

The environmental benefits of Lehigh Technologies’ business may be significant. "Synthetic rubbers are made out of petroleum, so we save petroleum every time we can reuse something," says Dennis J. Gormley, the company’s chairman and CEO. "For every pound you save, as opposed to taking petroleum and making virgin materials, you save a pound of CO2 from going into the atmosphere. There are many green aspects of it, and it makes good economic sense. So many green things you hear about today, like biofuels, are being subsidized by the government and don’t stand on their own two feet. We sell this product at half the price of virgin materials."

Lehigh Technologies currently has one plant in Georgia, capable of producing 100 million pounds of rubber powder a year. As demand and need for its product grows, the firm, which is the only one in the world producing this kind of rubber powder, expects to eventually have some 40 plants around the globe. "It’s going to continue to grow, not just because it’s green, but because it makes economic sense," says Gormley. "We find applications cropping up every day we hadn’t thought of before," he adds, such as using it in thermal insulation paint or in electrical wire sheathing.

SUN POWER

It makes sense for the Sunshine State to take advantage of all that energy beaming down. Fort Myers-based Advance Solar & Spa, which has been offering solar-powered pool-heating systems since 1983, has added to its product line residential and commercial solar-powered hot-
water heaters.

Using solar power should be a "no brainer" for anyone living and working in Florida, says marketing director Winston Shepard. A hot-water heater is the second most energy-consuming appliance in a home, he says, and installing a solar-powered water heater could save a homeowner approximately $20 monthly for one resident and $15 monthly for each additional resident. The company is currently installing about a dozen a month, he says.

Advance Solar also offers photovoltaic electrical systems through which solar panels provide a portion of a structure’s energy needs but don’t eliminate the need for additional power suppliers, such as FPL. In the first few months of the year, the company has had an estimated 50-plus inquiries about photovoltaic systems, Shepard says, up from zero in November 2007. "If you told me that we were going to get 50 this year, I would have been surprised," he adds.

Federal and state incentives are driving interest, as is the added value solar panels can give to a home. According to an Appraisal Institute study, for every $1 reduction in annual energy bills, a home’s value increased by about $20.

With government incentives, the price of a photovoltaic system capable of producing $800 to $1,000 worth of electricity a year—based on current prices—is about $17,500. Rising energy costs and net metering—which allows people to sell excess power back into the grid—makes it an even more appealing option. Incentives for solar hot-water heaters are available as well.

"Now that electricity is beginning to squeeze them, people are paying more attention," says Shepard. "People are looking for alternatives to the traditional methods of heating water and providing their electricity. With the federal government providing generous incentives for them to take advantage of it, the marketplace looks good."

OLD WOOD, NEW CABINETS

Bo Henderson, president of EcoVerde Developer Design Solutions, found that being environmentally aware can open doors. His Fort Myers-based company supplies resort developers in Central and South America and the Caribbean with environmentally friendly cabinetry. The business-to-business company, which opened earlier this year, works with manufacturers in North America and Europe that create products with environmentally sustainable materials and finishes that don’t release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or hazardous airborne particles.

"We have a manufacturer in Turkey that manufactures, exclusively for us, a product made out of 100 percent rendered wood," says Henderson. "They go around Europe shopping for old, wooden structures. They buy old barns and farmhouses, disassemble them, take them back to the factory and manufacture their product out of it. That’s about as environmentally friendly as you can get."

The company is talking with some U.S. resort developers, but for now, its focus is to the south, especially in Costa Rica. By 2010, EcoVerde hopes to have a plant in Costa Rica that will take trees cleared by developers and use them to make moldings and trim.

"One of the appealing things about moving a manufacturing plant down there is it gives us the ability to use all of the natural resources in these developments," says Henderson. "The developers won’t just be cutting down the trees and letting them burn, which is what we do here in the U.S."

The company also focuses on minimizing the impact of transporting its products. It ships by rail when possible, and overseas loads go by ship, in containers that are packed full.

Henderson has worked in the wood and chemical industries for most of his career, and seeing how they can impact the planet has made him strive to be a part of the solution, not the problem. "It’s not that it makes good business sense; it just makes good sense," he says. "We hope to be, within the next two or three years, the leading developer of [certain] design solutions in Central and South America and the Caribbean. It’s really competitive, and our competitors down there are also supported by North American manufacturers. But they’re not offering environmentally friendly products, and we’re coming in with environmentally friendly products for about the same price with a much better experience."

CONSCIENTIOUS INVESTING

According to the Social Investment Forum, nearly $1 out of every $9 under professional management in the United States today is involved in socially responsible investing. That’s some $2.71 trillion in total assets invested in companies or institutions demonstrating good social, environmental and corporate-governance practices. Inspired both by this trend and his own interests, Andrew D.W. Hill, vice president and senior portfolio manager with Comerica Bank in Naples and co-manager of Comerica’s Dynamic Focus Strategy fund, is developing a socially responsible investment fund that will be available to his clients later this year. It’s currently going through a testing process to evaluate its performance.

The fund includes some socially responsible holdings, but Hill’s aim is for it to represent exclusively those organizations that are role models for corporate governance and environmental protection.

"A true socially responsible investment has, in my opinion, three characteristics," says Hill. "First, the product or service is of benefit to society, or at least not detrimental. Second, the company is responsible to its community. And lastly, the company is responsible to its employees." To select investment companies, he looks at everything from its benefit plans to whether it’s been involved in litigation, how it handles crises and the makeup of its corporate governance and board.