Coeur d’Alene Chamber invites businesses to consider sustainable choices

Sustainable practices can emerge in unexpected ways. Connecting businesses or people across industries can result in partnerships, cost-saving and environmental benefits. Growing these networks is becoming an important part of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce, which now has a Natural Resource Committee and an ECO-nomics sub-committee, which each help businesses improve sustainable efforts and hopefully their bottom line. The chamber is hoping to become an online and in-person hub for local providers of sustainable practices, said Natural Resource Committee chair Tim Kastning. “In Kootenai County, there are a lot of different programs – green, sustainable, conservation-based programs,” he said. “Our position is to help facilitate the communication and collaboration, to bring all of these municipalities, agencies and programs together so that they can network and communicate on who is doing what in the sustainable movement.” The committee’s 2011 goals include organizing educational programs, including monthly meetings and tours of North Idaho natural resource industries, especially timber and mining; plus continued support of sustainable efforts regarding the area’s water sources. Representatives from about 10 local programs attended the chamber’s monthly Upbeat Breakfast last November to discuss community needs and how the committee can help promote sustainable practices. Kastning believes more people will come tout their programs and connect with others this year. “All of this is still a work-in-progress, to see how develops,” he said. Members include businesses plus state agencies including Idaho’s Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Lands, and Department of Fish and Game. Another big push will be timber tours, which will show harvesting efforts and timber-management projects, plus disease issues and programs to maintain healthy, resilient forests. With more local businesses supporting sustainable principles, the chamber is a natural fit for green-practice providers. Kootenai County Solid Waste recently moved to a single-stream recycling program for Coeur d’Alene residents. With a new processing plant expected to open in Coeur d’Alene’s Industrial Park this summer, the department is looking to add businesses and commercial properties to its accepted recyclers. The chamber can provide an ideal launch pad to encourage participation, said Steve Wulf, principal planner at the solid waste department. Wulf also supports the chamber becoming a ‘green’ nucleus for the county. “The more info you get out there the better,” he said. “As we look at the business community, with the help of the natural resources committee, we will get where we need to go and have better products going to the recycler when they are up and ready to run.” This year, the Eco-nomics Committee will host April’s Upbeat Breakfast and bring back the Green Expo for a second year. Michael Pereira, chair of the ECO-nomics sub-committee and environmental manager with Allwest Testing and Engineering, said last year’s expo had good interest. This year, he said the goal is to provide energy-saving programs all in one place, “things you don’t often hear about or know about,” he said, like the North Idaho Building Contractors Association’s energy audits. “Everybody can talk about what they are doing. Most people have 50-60 contacts and if they can talk to one another it will just keep growing and growing, he said. Kastning said the growth of nature-friendly practices and programs will benefit North Idaho businesses and residents. His own company, Grace Tree Service, utilizes or recycles 100 percent of the wood biomass from jobs. It falls on business owners to incorporate sustainable practices into their framework. “If we didn’t utilize all of the material that we produce, all the woody biomass that we produce through tree work – it has to be disposed of somehow,” he said. “So there is a cost- in that there is no landfill usage, and saving to the public in that none of our product goes into the landfill.” Finally, he said there’s a benefit to mankind to utilize these resources. “It’s just smart business practice; it’s profitable, it’s only going to get better, and, as time goes on, costs are also going to go down,” he said. “We are growing the number of programs, but the education about available programs and how businesses can utilize those programs is going to be an ongoing process.”