Apr 03, 2009 - 08:59 AM

By Melissa Mancini

DURHAM -- If the greenest part of a company is the front lawn in the summer, business owners may want to find other ways to be a friend to the planet.

That's why Durham Sustain Ability held a Green Business Trade Show in March. The day included seminars to show companies how to reduce their impact on the earth.

It can also put more green in business owner's pockets, executive director of Sustain Ability Shawna Mutton said.

"I think that right now, especially during these economic times, doing more with less makes sense," she said. "It's not just good for the environment, it's good for the bottom line."

Reduce your flow

Whether a business has one bathroom or hundreds of toilet stalls, replacing the porcelain can mean big bucks saved on the monthly water bill.

According to Mark Tullock of American Standard, an average of 30 per cent of a water bill comes from flushes.

"So if you can cut the amount of water you use to flush the toilet in half, that's a huge savings," he said.

Low-flow faucets are also an environmentally-conscious choice, whether it's renovating bathrooms or retrofitting the company kitchen. New fixtures use 1.25 to 2.25 gallons of water per minute.

Lower those lighting costs (to you and the planet)

Toss those old incandescents.

It's no secret that there are products on the market now that are more earth-friendly.

Compact Fluorescent Lights and Light Emitting Diode (LED) are readily available and can be used to brighten offices or to light up an eye-catching sign at the front of a store.

And it can be as easy as screwing in a light bulb or 100.

Become an example of energy efficiency

Solar panels and wind power aren't just for mega-corporations anymore. There are many incentives for smaller businesses to use these methods of powering up in the Green Energy Act and it's not a painful process at all, said Ron Mason, business development manager, Ontario Electrical Construction Company Ltd.

Or go geothermal. The process of heating a business from the ground up can be really easy or extremely difficult depending on the retrofit, so do some research, said Ken Sherwood of Comfortwave Heating and Cooling Ltd.

The method of temperature regulation is getting more popular but it isn't the kind of initiative that will give instant gratification on the bottom line. Installations take about six to eight years before a business starts seeing a cost-savings return on initial investment, Mr. Sherwood said.

Explore extra eco-friendly options

- Get green when you clean. Ask what the products your cleaning company uses to sterilize your office space.

"It's better for the environment, better for your health so you're not breathing in toxins," owner of We're Cleaning Green Diane Howson said. Ms. Howson's company does residential and commercial cleaning. All of the products they use are 100-per-cent biodegradable and come in bulk-sized, recyclable containers to reduce waste.

- Individual-use meters are green meters. Sub-metering a rental property so each unit can see what the individual usage is cuts down on consumption, Tom Ellerby from Priority Submetering Solutions said. Landlords can sub-meter electric, water and gas.

- Make all of your ink green ink. Instead of throwing out a toner cartridge when it is empty, consider buying from a company that uses recycled cartridges and will recycle a company's empties. It takes 100 years for an ink cartridge to biodegrade so using them more than once is a big help to the environment, said Holly Van Hoof, Laser Cartridge Services Inc. Ms. Van Hoof's company refills a cartridge three times, keeping waste out of the dump.