Green
Green Washington Award Winners Make Advances in Sustainability
Look at the great things our Green Washington Awards finalists have accomplished. Stemilt, the tree fruit growing, packing and shipping company, has integrated pest management and water and energy savings programs and recently opened an organic recycling center for residents and business in the region. Wilcox Family Farms turns chicken waste into fertilizer that is…
Celebrating Washington’s Greenest Companies
Hundreds of guests packed the Bell Harbor International Conference Center last night to celebrate Seattle Business’ Green Washington Awards. We honored 33 companies and organizations that are working hard to become more sustainable. Now in its third year, Green Washington has become the leading green business awards event in Washington. But we hope that, before…
Green Washington 2010 Judges
Seattle Business relied on the expertise of a distinguished panel of judges to select the winners of the third Green Washington awards. Joan Crooks, executive director, Washington Environmental Council Marc Daudon, principal, Cascadia Consulting Group Alan Durning, executive director, Sightline Institute Jim Hanna, director of environmental impact, Starbucks Coffee Ross Macfarlane, senior adviser, Climate Solutions…
Raking in the Profits
Peter Becker of Little Skookum Shellfish Growers says the U.S. lags the rest of the world in fish farming. With the ocean at our back door, its hard to imagine anything but a bounty of seafood. From wild salmon to local oysters and steelhead, residents of the Pacific Northwest have a wealth of options when…
Puget Sound Energy Ready to Support Deployment of Electric Vehicles
Puget Sound Energy told a regional planning workshop Monday that it will support the integration of plug-in electric vehicles into Western Washingtons transportation system and electric grid. Puget Sound Energy President Kimberly Harris said PSE intends to actively help manufacturers, municipalities and electric-vehicle purchasers enhance their deployment of plug-in automobiles as the vehicles start entering…
Green Washington Awards: Reducing Carbon Footprint With Re-use
In deciding which companies to recognize at our third annual Green Washington Awards event (to be held September 23 at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center and keynoted by Bill Ruckelshaus) our judges chose to focus attention on a growing trend: the reuse of products and materials. This is a form of recycling that results…
Green Washington Awards Draw Strong Nominees
What does it take to be green? The bar gets higher every year as Washington companies take more aggressive steps to reduce their carbon footprints. Seattle Business Magazine received 108 nominations to its third annual Green Washington Awards program, making it more competitive than ever. The nominees included small high tech companies, large manufacturers, hotels,…
Currents of Change
The Snohomish Public Utility District is leading the way indeveloping a source of tidal power: turbines that sit on the seabed and makeelectricity from subsurface ocean currents. If youve ever watched the ocean during a storm, you knowhow powerful it is. Surges can swallow whole chunks of the coast, leavingdisaster in their wake. Yet the…
Natural Gas Price Declines Offer Unique Opportunity
Our May copy of Seattle Business Magazine hits the news stands with the story “Cheep Gas is Back” just as natural gas prices continue their declines. Natural gas prices for deliver in June fell to $4 per million British thermal units for a total decline of 29 percent this year. The price declines reflect an…
What Price Gas?
Cheap natural gas will be a boon to our regional economy.But one downside of inexpensive energy is that it might discourage efforts atconservation. To combat this situation, Washington state could take advantageof the relatively low cost of energy to restructure its tax code in a way thatdiscourages energy consumption with a simple carbon tax. A…
Gassing Up?
CleanScapes, a wastehauling company, operates a fleet of 50 natural gas-fueled vehicles. Natural gas may never be the preferred fuel option comparedto gasoline and electrically powered vehicles, at least as far as the consumermarket goes. But lower prices and low emissions are making them an attractivealternative for companies with large fleets of trucks or taxis….
Where There’s a Drill, There’s a Way
Washington states corporate lineage runs deep. From Boeingto Microsoft to Weyerhaeuser to Alcoa, corporate giants have flocked to thePacific Northwest. Theyve come for the timber. Theyve come for the techies.But the bedrock upon which much of our states corporate megastructure standsis a common commodity: Historically, Washington has enjoyed some of thenations cheapest energy. Related: Electric…
Farms Can Help Store Carbon
The right combination of agricultural practices and government policies could transform the nation’s farmlands into giant storehouses of carbon, thereby helping to fight global warming, according to Washington State University researchers. Seattle Business recently reported on the trend here. We need to reduce disturbance of the soil, produce more biomass and make sure that biomass…