Green Star Honors Nine Companies
Nearly 70 Inland Northwest companies are trying to come clean, participating in a new program that lets polluters seek help without the threat of government fines.
Known as Green Star, the publicly funded program today will recognize nine companies who in recent months have met 12 voluntary standards of waste and pollution reduction.
Green Star promotes recycling and waste-reduction programs that save money and protect the environment.
“I’d like to see it in every community,” said Camille Frensdorf, toxics reduction specialist with the Washington Department of Ecology and a member of the Green Star executive committee. “A company (in the program) can’t get away with doing nothing and look like they’re a green business.”
Founded in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Green Star was brought south last March by the Associated Industries of the Inland Northwest, a labor and industrial relations group. A $35,000 grant from the ecology department launched it.
Business owners like the program, said Green Star marketing director Lucy Gurnea, because they can meet informally with environmental regulators without fear of penalty.
“Some of these companies have been doing bad things for years,” she said. “Our people can help show them what they must go through” to comply with the law.
The program also saves money. Key Tronic Corp., Gurnea said, saved $175,000 under its Green Star recycling program.
To win Green Star recognition, companies must conduct an annual waste-reduction assessment, form a team of trained employees and complete 10 other steps to reduce waste and pollution.
Today’s awards ceremony begins at noon at the Imax Theater, followed by a speech from former Rep. Tom Foley and an inaugural showing of the restored Expo ‘74 film, “Man Belongs to the Earth.”
Companies and organizations receiving their Green Star will be the city of Spokane, Fairchild Air Force Base, Camp Chevrolet, Central Pre-Mix, Sonderen Packaging, Laser Cycle, Sir Speedy Printing, WOW Pollution Control Systems and The Spokesman-Review.
, DataTimes