.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Ton Stam, owner of Chocolaterie Stam Inc., is in the process of designing a new factory with RDG Planning & Design.

If all goes as planned, the building will be completely off the electric grid, powered instead by a windmill. It also could have a gray water system (which reuses water from sources such as sinks and dishwashers to flush toilets), geothermal heating and cooling and waterless urinals, among other features that will give it a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design designation.

Stam, who describes himself as “a big-time tree hugger” has already added geothermal to his headquarters on Ingersoll Avenue and replaced the asphalt in his parking lot with brick, which reduces runoff from rainwater.

“I think it pays off to someone’s great-grandchildren,” said Stam, who chooses not to count how much his business has saved from energy conservation features. “It doesn’t have to pay off for us. It’s taking care of what’s right, which can’t always be calculated in dollars.”

A few small businesses in Greater Des Moines have started taking a similar approach, incorporating features that are healthier, more environmentally friendly or sustainable. However, these efforts seem to be advancing more slowly than businesses’ efforts to sell green products or services.

“I think there’s a lot going on in Iowa as far as environmentally friendly products,” said Kris Moorman, owner of Bamboo LLC, a marketing and communications firm focused on sustainability and “green” concepts. “There’s a lot of discussion about biofuels. There’s a lot going on, but I don’t hear a lot about businesses actually practicing more sustainability in business.”

Yet Moorman believes businesses could reduce their operating expenses by about 10 percent just by being more sustainable in their business practices. This involves simple changes such as recycling more, setting computers to go into sleep mode after idling for five minutes and having glasses available for water rather than water bottles.

The first step is to have someone audit the company and explain what it can do to be more green and then to focus on changes in phases. “I think that’s one thing people get discouraged about and say, ‘I can’t do all that,'” she said. “It’s the way it is with any large project. You’ve got to do it in phases … because every little bit helps.”

Companies that have gone this direction in Greater Des Moines have often had a company leader who strongly believes in it.

Growing up in Holland, which has been a little more aware of environmental issues, Stam said sustainable practices have always been a part of his life.

He has incorporated this passion into his Des Moines business’s culture, making it company policy that employees recycle and don’t use disposable cups. “Employees are very aware that’s how we run as a company and hopefully that leads over to their personal life,” Stam said.

Stam is considering other green efforts at his small business, such as adding solar panels to his building on Ingersoll, but he admitted that he is limited in how much he can do because of the expense. For example, his geothermal system cost $80,000. “It’s partially just a matter of money,” Stam said, “what you can do within the budget you have available. So when you start being able to afford those things, you do them.”

The fact that he has been able to do some, he said, shows that if “a little company can do it, others can do it.”

Housby Mack Inc. is also headed in this direction in the construction of its new quick-service lube center on Northeast 14th Street near Interstate 35/80. The center, which will perform basic services such as oil changes on large vehicles, trucks and tractors, will have fiberglass service modules placed over the service bays that the trucks are parked over while the technicians do their work. This will prevent oil and other debris from seeping into the ground, unlike covering the pits in concrete, which is common practice.

Integrated Lube Services Inc. Corp. custom-made the 100-foot-long modules to fit Housby’s needs; they are the largest created for a service center, and Housby will be the first lube center in Iowa to use them. The company is considering adding similar bays to its new center in Carroll.

In addition to this feature, the center is setting its oil tanks three feet into the floor, so that if a spill occurs, it will be contained within that space. It also has added an interceptor in its drain, which reduces the amount of oil, sand, salt and other debris that seeps into the ground.

Though the bays are expensive, Steve Davis, the service manager at the Housby Mack location, believes it will help the company attract and retain technicians, who are in high demand. “If we find someone who enjoys it, has a clean working environment and likes what he’s doing,” he said, “this is a good starting level to advance into the main shop and that point become a journeyman or master technician and hopefully will be a lifetime employee.”

RDG Planning & Design has taken an active role in reducing energy use and waste consumption at its main office in downtown Des Moines in the past six months, seeing it as an opportunity to practice what it promotes in its building designs.

“We’re trying to make everything we do sustainable, from how we live in-house to the projects that we work on,” said Tony Holub, who has been a leading force on the architectural firm’s “green team,” a committee looking at green efforts in the office. Adding environment-friendly products and practices also allows the company to showcase ideas to clients who visit the office, so that they can become familiar with how they work firsthand.

The green team is divided into five categories: transportation, water, energy, material resources and environmental quality. Within these groups, the firm has begun doing things such as installing hands-free faucets and a more energy-efficient dishwasher; using natural sunlight instead of overhead lights as much as possible and exchanging lights for more efficient ones; having volunteers take coffee grounds home to add to composting piles; eliminating disposable dinnerware; and using less toxic cleaning products such as ones without ammonia or chlorine.

“These are really simple things that any office can do,” Holub said, “and I think we’ve demonstrated the ease of doing them.” However, Holub said the company sees this as just a jumping point to what it can do in the future and hopes these efforts will challenge other companies to implement similar changes.

Mostly, government agencies have been the leaders in adopting green or sustainable practices, especially Metro Waste Authority under the leadership of Tom Hadden.

“I think if we’re going to move ahead in this country and state in sustainable practices,” Hadden said, “we need to make good choices. I think the government entities need to take a lead in setting a good example.”

MWA’s headquarters at 300 E. Locust St. incorporated many environment-friendly features when the building was constructed, including materials that don’t emit toxins into the air and are recycled, made from bamboo or unfinished metal. Permeable surfaces on the ground surrounding the building help capture runoff water.

The building was constructed five years ago, before Hadden was aware of LEED certification. “We probably would have gone the extra mile if we had known about it then,” he said.

At its headquarters and various facilities around Central Iowa, the agency also uses geothermal technology for heating and cooling and conserves energy by not allowing machines to stay idle for long periods of time. MWA is also working on a project that is converting 1,800 acres of landfills back into natural prairie and wetland.

This effort has led MWA to work with other waste management agencies around Greater Des Moines, including helping Ankeny create the nonprofit Growing Greens Communities, a steering committee designed to review sustainable designs for developing more than 1,000 acres of land, including looking at its water quality and waste management.

Though Hadden believes businesses have been slower to follow sustainable practices, he believes business owners will change their attitudes after seeing that the upfront cost pays off in the long run. “I think it’s going to be bottom-line oriented,” he said.

Nationally, consultant Moorman said several large companies have gone toward “triple-bottom-line” reporting, which involves reporting the company’s operating figures along with its social giving and environmentally friendly initiatives.

“I wish I had more interest from companies that really wanted to make changes internally to be more sustainable,” Moorman said. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity here, but I just don’t think they’re thinking about it in that way.”