Small Business Enterprise - Summer 2012

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Small Business Enterprise

News from the Small Business Environmental Assistance Program

In this issue:
  • Small business highlight: Eco-friendly REI
  • Fairview reduces waste at the source
  • A new look for the MN Materials Exchange
  • EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award winner - small business
  • All new grain elevator page

raingarden

Small business spotlight: Eco-friendly REI

porous pavement

The proof is in the pavement

Overview
Roseville Properties Management Companies, owner of the REI Roseville retail building, won an Environmental Leadership award from the Minnesota Erosion Control Association last year for the low impact development (LID) elements of their recent parking lot expansion.
 
The REI store required more parking spaces, but wanted to minimize the expansion’s environmental impact to align with REI’s corporate-wide environmental stewardship philosophy. Roseville Properties and REI worked with MSA Professional Services, Inc. to analyze existing site and design improvements.
 
The design
Immediate site challenges included a berm overlaying sensitive gas pipelines and overhead transmission lines. Being careful to work within the confines of the existing space, they created an innovative parking design that allows for bio-filtration of stormwater runoff from the new parking lot through a combination of a rain garden and pervious pavers that will occupy the resurfaced impervious area, cresting the hill to the bottom of the old parking lot and likewise onto the street.
 
Environmental benefits
The REI-Roseville facility is located in a highly developed, commercial area of Roseville that has traditionally low infiltration rates and high runoff during peak storm events. The project exceeded the stormwater requirements of the Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD). The pervious pavement system, specifically, pervious pavers, only needed to include two parking spaces (and the driveway) to meet RCWD rules.  Instead, the installation size was increased to an area that included about 10 parking spaces (and the driveway). The increased area of pavers filters and retains more stormwater than was required by RCWD. It is innovative too in how it incorporated LID practices as opposed to taking up land for a stormwater pond or similar to meet the requirements. 
 
Other benefits
REI reports a positive customer response both from an aesthetic and an environmental point of view. The rain garden compliments the front entrance of the facility, adding a natural touch to the otherwise fully developed shopping area. It also is having an unintended benefit: environmental education.   “In addition to being enthusiastic about the improvements at the facility, customers also are asking about the technical aspects of the design, wanting to incorporate those aspects into their own projects” reports Steve Voeltz, REI Store Manager. Roseville Properties Management Companies reports the environmental improvements contributed to retaining a long-term relationship with REI as a tenant.
 
Cost
This project did cost more than a more traditional project that meets existing stormwater requirements. A few municipalities offer a stormwater reduction fee for the implementation of LID projects. While the City of Roseville does not offer a stormwater reduction fee, it is worth exploring if you are considering such a project. Call your city for more details. Also, some watershed districts offer cost-share for the implementation of LID. Go to the Minnesota Association of Watershed Districts webpage to locate your WD and find out more.
 

Fairview reduces waste at the source

Junk Mail pile
Two recent waste reduction efforts at Fairview Health Services have reaped some major cost and environmental savings, and saved staff time. They now purchase fewer office supplies and have less waste from junk mail. Fairview Health Services includes 8 hospitals and over 40 clinics, employing 22,000 people across the State of Minnesota.

Reducing waste with office supplies
Last year, Fairview noticed an increase in office supply costs and a surplus of those supplies throughout the system. In an innovative effort to reduce expenses, improve efficiency and reduce waste, Fairview has launched Reuse Stores in 3 hospitals and two office buildings.
The intent of the Reuse Stores is to centralize office supplies. In a large system, one department may have unused items that someone else might need. The Reuse Store creates these connections for the staff and facilitates the redistribution of unused office supplies. The store is also stocked with commonly used items. To launch the Reuse Stores, staff collected unused supplies at each site and organized the supplies into an office supply “store”. Staff can now go to the Reuse Store and pick up supplies instead of ordering new. They can also continue to donate excess supplies back to the store, getting more than one use for an item.

The impact
The benefits for Fairview are clear. Through reuse and centralized purchasing orders, Fairview reduces their use of natural resources through reuse and decreasing the amount of supplies they purchase. “If you think about how much waste we have in unneeded or unused supplies, as well as the packaging—it adds up,” says Crystal Saric, Fairview’s sustainability program manager. “Every item we reuse eliminates a purchase and helps us reach our goals.” In the future, Fairview plans to expand the model to include office furniture and equipment.

Saving staff time with less junk mail
According to the MPCA, 5.8 million tons of waste is generated each year from junk mail. 
Fairview found that in one hospital’s mailroom, 49 percent of their mail was considered ‘junk’, and with that came more staff time sorting and distributing in the mailroom, and wasted time by staff picking up, and ultimately throwing, most of what they get in their mailboxes every day. It also meant slightly higher waste bills along with maintenance staff time wasted ‘hauling’ all that junk mail back to the dock where it came in.

Fairview immediately teamed up with Partnership Resources, Inc. (PRI) in Minneapolis, an organization which partners with local businesses to provide solutions while creating jobs for adults with developmental disabilities. All junk mail is delivered to PRI where workers contact senders directly to cancel any future mailings. The junk mail is sorted and then organized by publisher before calls, faxes, or emails are sent to create efficiency. Over a three month period, PRI helped Fairview reduce incoming junk mail by almost 36 percent. They estimate that only 13 percent of the mail now being sent to Fairview is junk. Consequently, they are seeing a reduction in time spent sorting mail and an overall increase in staff efficiency across the system. This leads to cost savings because employees are able to spend more time on other tasks. Furthermore, the junk mail is typically thrown away so, although small, there is a cost savings for waste as well.

Additional benefits
Fairview’s ongoing relationship with PRI is a win-win for all. It solves an internal waste problem for Fairview and creates green jobs for adults with developmental disabilities. PRI clients report high job satisfaction and hope to continue into the future. In terms of Fairview staff, the sudden reduction in junk mail was a great development for almost all staff. If there was something they still wanted, they could arrange to have it sent home instead of to work.

If you are interested in knowing more about Fairview’s source reduction efforts contact Wesli Waters at wwaters2@fairview.org.

A new look for the Minnesota Materials Exchange

ME
The Minnesota Materials Exchange program lists one company’s unwanted material and makes it available for use by another company. The Materials Exchange is working to maintain the key exchange service of usable goods among the Minnesota business community with the creation of a new site. The new online system was developed, tested, and rolled out in 2011. The system, installed and implemented by iWasteNot, was chosen for its ability to streamline exchanges between businesses, reduce MnTAP staff time spent gathering data, and facilitate additional exchanges for partner organizations. In 2011, the Materials Exchange program was responsible for helping divert over 380,000 pounds from landfills in Minnesota.

While the site is brand new, the location remains the same at www.mnexchange.org or call MnTAP at 612.624.1300 or 800.247.0015.


EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award winner - small business

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently rewarded innovative chemical technologies that have potential to prevent pollution in the United States. These awards recognize leading researchers and industrial innovators who create safer and more sustainable chemical designs, processes, and products that reduce the need to use chemicals that pollute the environment and threaten Americans’ health. The awardees were honored during the 17th Annual Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C. this year.  

In the small-business category, Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., Woodridge, Ill., is being recognized for the production of high-performing, green specialty chemicals at advantageous costs. Elevance employs Nobel-prize-winning catalyst technology to break down natural oils and recombine the fragments into novel, high-performance green chemicals. These chemicals combine the benefits of both petrochemicals and biobased chemicals. These green chemicals can be produced with less energy, significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions (50 percent) compared to petrochemical technologies, and used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products and processes, such as highly concentrated cold-water detergents that provide better cleaning with reduced energy costs. Go to The EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Awards webpage for more information.


New grain elevator page

The SBEAP sector webpages now include a page for grain elevators. The page walks grain elevator operators through the permits they might need, the state and federal air rules that might apply to them, and offers a list of BMPs to help lower their environmental impact. The grain elevator air emissions calculator has also been updated to help operators figure out whether they need an air permit, which permit to apply for, and which federal air requirements they need to follow.