Kathy Miktuk Energetic Advocate Of Conservation Efforts Helps Businesses Earn Green

Kathy Miktuk says she was raised on 22 acres of Eden.

Given time, the director of the Green Star program might recreate one in Spokane.

There are traces in her office. Cutouts of butterflies and beetles brighten the walls. A poster of the Little Spokane River watershed hangs behind her desk.

Music from the “Carmina Burana” plays from a small CD player.

There’s also a yellow, butterfly-shaped fly swatter, but Miktuk is probably the last person who would raise a hand against an insect.

She’s an entomologist with one year toward her doctorate at Washington State University. She earned her master’s in the study of bugs at the University of Kentucky and her bachelor’s degree in science from the State University of New York at Fredonia, not far from the Eden where she was raised.

“I’m a scientist by love and training,” Miktuk says.

Hired as a temporary at Associated Industries of the Inland Northwest three years ago, her expertise came in handy when the organization’s 500 members began demanding answers to an increasing number of environmental questions.

Associated provides assistance with labor, health, legal and other issues to area employers.

Miktuk says Associated Industries President Mike Murphy traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, to look at Green Star, a program created after the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Alaskans wanted a program that would rely on incentives, rather than sanctions, to encourage conservation and the reduction of waste among private companies.

In return for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency help with the effort, Green Star agreed to share the measures it developed with businesses in other states.

“It’s sort of a franchise,” Miktuk says.

Green Star consists of 18 standards. Six, which are mandatory, are devoted in large part to organization and promotion of the program inside and outside participating companies.

The other 12, of which six must be adopted, encourage waste reduction, energy conservation and the use of recycled materials.

Miktuk says the conservation measures are intended to produce financial savings that make participation in Green Star attractive to businesses.

Program materials feature testimonials from businesses that saved money by doing simple things like recycling office paper.

An added boost comes when companies meet all the Green Star standards and can promote themselves as environmentally responsible.

After a slow start, Miktuk says 91 companies are program members. About half also belong to Associated Industries.

Of those participating, 29 have met Green Star standards, with four more approvals pending.

She says she hopes to be able to recognize 20 new honorees at the association’s Pollution Prevention and Waste Management Expo next April.

“People want to do the right thing,” she says. “It’s just a matter of whether they know how or not.”

Miktuk says Green Star has been so successful in Spokane she’s helping form new chapters in Lewiston, Idaho, and Kalispell, Mont.

And groups in Seattle, Portland, and Aspen, Colo., are calling to find out more about the program, she says, adding, “I love to talk about it.”

In fact, she credits the presentations she’s made on behalf of Green Star and Associated Industries’ other environmental efforts with helping her overcome her difficulties speaking before large groups.

“Try and keep me away from them,” she says in mock challenge.

Besides Green Star, Miktuk also handles the expo and whatever inquiries the association gets on environmental matters.

Her education gave her most of the background needed to handle scientific questions. Because regulatory issues are more often a sore point for members, Miktuk says she has boned up on environmental laws and the agencies that enforce them.

“I have the time to do the research,” she says.

Miktuk also has ventured into teaching with a night environmental science class at City University. She says she tries to generate enthusiasm by focusing on sustainable living and other issues that students can relate to.

Her own entomology doctorate is on hold. Miktuk says her work at Associated Industries is as important as anything she could do with an additional degree.

“I’m protecting the butterflies,” she says.

Not that she is keeping her hands off arthropods.

On her front porch, she says, is an aquarium containing 12 caterpillars and five cocoons of the polyphemus moth. When the large moths emerge next May, she will release all but one adult female, who will be kept to mate and produce another generation.

“I’ve raised moths my whole life,” she says. “That’s who I am.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo