SLIP means business

Susanne Croft wants to see more sustainability in the Inland Northwest, and she means business. The former sustainability coordinator for the city of Spokane is starting a nonprofit organization called Sustainable Local Investment Partners, SLIP for short. SLIP has been around for a few years as a consortium of businesses and organizations that care about sustainability. Now, SLIP has a board of directors and is in the process of getting its 501c3 nonprofit status approved. The organization’s mission is twofold. First—and most immediately—it will work with companies throughout the Inland Northwest to incorporate sustainable practices into their business. The organization will give such businesses financial assistance by connecting them with willing lenders, and it will give them technical assistance by giving them access to information and other resources regarding sustainability. Such services will be provided on a fee-for-service basis, and those fees are expected to be a major funding source for the nonprofit. Secondly, the group plans to start an investment fund that will invest in businesses that employ environmentally-friendly practices and that value sustainability. Presently, Croft is SLIP’s only employee, and its offices are located on the second floor of the Community Building, at 35 W. Main in downtown Spokane, across Main from the new local, sustainable-food grocery store, Main Market. Conceding there currently is a lot of ‘greenwashing’—claims that products or practices are environmentally friendly when either they aren’t or their sustainability value is inflated—Croft’s interpretation of sustainable is simple and broad. “The definition of sustainable,” she said, “is simply, can you do this forever? If yes, then it’s sustainable.” For example, there is a new hair salon in downtown Spokane, Green Salon and Day Spa, that only uses non-toxic products. The company isn’t a client of SLIP, but it is making a decision to be sustainable by using products that don’t contain harmful chemicals. Because of the lack of chemicals, the new salon’s landlord didn’t need to put in an expensive ventilation system to do away with fumes. Consequently, the salon will use less energy. Sustainability is on the radar screen of many local businesses, Croft said. Many of them want to “go green” but they don’t know what that entails. Many of them are small businesses and don’t have time to research it on their own. That’s where SLIP can help. “We’ll make it easier for them to make those changes,” she said. And there might be more green changes possible than business owners anticipate. When most people think about environmentally-friendly practices, they think of energy efficiency, water efficiency and products made with a minimal harm to the environment. Management of tangible assets is one major way to practice environmental friendliness, she said, but it’s possible to approach any aspect of business in a sustainable manner. Using SCORE (Sustainability Competency and Opportunity Rating and Evaluation) systems, a company can establish sustainability practices in accounting, human resources and a number of other common business practices. The investment fund portion of SLIP could gear up later this year, if the economy continues its recovery. Croft said the group initially formed with the investment fund in mind, but when the housing downturn and financial crisis struck in 2007 and 2008, banks and credit unions became more conservative and didn’t want to start a new investment tool in that environment. Regardless, Croft believes such an fund will be a catalyst for activity when it gets off the ground. “I still believe it’s Spokane’s local stimulus,” she said. SLIP continues to work with a number of lenders and has representatives from some financial institutions on its board of directors. Board members are: Terri Mills, of STCU; Camille Martin, of Avista Corp.; Jim Wavada, of the Washington state Department of Ecology; Doug Jayne, recently retired from Ecology; Fred Houck, of Strategic Finance Partners; Damian Fischer, of WJ Bradley; and Kerri Rodkey and Cara Weipert, both of SNAP Financial Access. For more information about SLIP contact susanne@sustainablelocalinvestments.org or www.sustainablelocalinvestments.org