The Bottom Line Newsletter

Spring 2001

• BEA Hosts Energy and Water Conservation Conference
• Businesses Can Benefit Through Commuter Choice
• BEA Updates Environmental Best Practices Guide
• The DRiWATER Story
• Sonoma County Grape Growers Win Award
• Schurter Pioneers Environmental Policy
• FAQ about the Wrap Awards
• BEA Launches Environmental Benchmarking Tool for Business

BEA Hosts Energy and Water Conservation Conference

Concerned about future shortages of power and water? Looking for information about what is really in store for local businesses? Looking for ways to effectively reduce usage and save money at the same time?

If so, mark your calendar now for the Got Watts? Got Water? Conference, scheduled for April 5 at the Doubletree Hotel in Rohnert Park.

Several of the central figures in the struggle to solve our energy and water shortages will be on hand to give insights as to how critical our shortages may be in the near future, and also to present case histories to show how leading local and national firms have devised ways to deal with the situation.

Also, newly elected Assemblyman Joe Nation, Democrat representingSouthern Sonoma and Marin Counties, will be a speaker. Nation was recently appointed to head up a Select Committee on North Bay Housing and Transportation. He will be speaking on efforts being taken at the State level to assure proper energy supplies during the coming summer.

Sonoma County's Business Environmental Alliance (BEA), in collaboration with PG&E, the Sonoma County Water Agency and other local groups, is hosting theconference from 7:30 am to 10:30 am on April 5th.

The forum will feature Mike Sloss, Energy Efficiency Program Administrator at the California Energy Commission, who will provide current information about the California energy crisis. Randy DeCaminada, Marketing Director at PG&E, will supply the attendees with ways to conserve energy in their businesses and save money when energy prices soar.

Randy Poole, General Manager/Chief Engineer of the Sonoma County Water Agency, will address the current water impairment in Sonoma County. David Bunn from the California Department of Fish and Game will also present the big picture view of how Sonoma County fits in with the regional water supply problem.

Conference attendees will also benefit from the energy and water conservation experiences of their peers. A panel of local businesses will present case studies of how they took voluntary measures to use less water or energy. Panelists will also detail the cost-savings they achieved from their good practices.

Finally, businesses will be informed of local programs that are available to help them institute water and energy conservation practices, such as a rebate program for Santa Rosa businesses that install water-saving equipment. After the conference, business leaders can take advantage of the expertise of water and energyconservation consultants and representatives from PG&E, the City of Santa Rosa Water Conservation Office, and Sonoma County Water Agency.

Attendees will leave with checklists that include ways for businesses to increase bottom-line profits by reducing water and energy use.

BEA is planning two smaller water conservation events for the end of April and May. They will be held in Sonoma and in Petaluma, and will target businesses in those areas of the county. Dates and locations have not yet been determined.

Got Water? Got Watts? costs $25 to attend and includes a continental breakfast. Those interested in finding out more about the events planned by the BEA, or who wish to register for Got Water? Got Watts? should contact Arianne Sperry at 707.524.7257 or email at bea@sonoma-county.org.

BEA is a public-private partnership dedicated to helping businesses recognize and obtain the financial advantages of voluntary environmental responsibility. BEA is a project developed by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

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Businesses Can Benefit Through Commuter Choice

Businesses that are looking to provide a more enticing benefits package, take note! Recent changes to federal tax law allow employers to offer employees a tax-free benefit to commute to work by methods other than driving alone. The Commuter Choice Program is the popular name for the changes that were made in 1998 to the Internal Revenue Service Code 26 USC 132 (f) through the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21).

Commuter Choice can be broadly defined as any one or a series of options an employer offers an employee as an incentive for not driving alone to work. In other words, it is an inexpensive fringebenefit of employment.

Commuter Choice may be used on public transit buses, trains, ferries and vanpools. Employees can receive up to $780 per year for their alternative work commutes in addition to compensation, in lieu of compensation, or as a combination of the two (see chart below). Another option is "cashing out" parking spaces. If an employer provides free parking to employees, the employee can choose to give up the parking spot in exchange for its value in money (up to $2100 per year).

Employers profit by avoiding payroll taxes while adding to employee compensation packages, reducing employee turnover, enhancing recruitment of new hires, improving employee morale and productivity, improving company image, and reducing capital and operating costs for employee parking.

Employees profit by receiving up to $780 a year of tax-free income, saving the money it would cost to drive alone to work, reducing stress from driving alone in traffic, and having the chance to read, sleep, work, or relax while commuting.

The community benefits through reduced traffic congestion, improved air quality, and conservation of non-renewable energy resources.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, a program called Commuter Check is making it easy for businesses of all sizes to take advantage of the Commuter Choice tax provisions. Commuter Checks are either purchased by the employer as an employee benefit, or purchased by the employee with a pre-tax salary deduction. They can also be purchased with a combination of both funds. Golden Gate Transit, Sonoma County Transit, and Santa Rosa CityBus accept commuter checks.

The San Francisco Bay Area Commuter Check program got a strong endorsement from a local employer, Chronicle Books, affiliate of the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1995, Chronicle Books' employees were surveyed about their overall benefits package. Employees were asked to rank 15 benefits by how satisfied they were with each benefit, and also by the importance of each benefit. The employees ranked Commuter Check second in the level of satisfaction provided, and sixth in importance (behind health coverage, vacation, dental plan, 401k and vision care). Kate M. Coldwell, Chronicle Books' Manager of Human Resources, noted, "We thought this was significant, especially given the low cost of the benefit. With Commuter Check, the benefit is immediate and employees are made aware of it every month."

Setting up a Commuter Choice program as a benefit to your employees is a low-cost way to bolster a benefits package, but also one that tends to yield a high level of employee satisfaction.

For more information, or for help in setting up an alternative commute program for your business, contact your Sonoma County RIDES for Bay Area Commuters Representative, Daniel Zurfluh, at (510) 273-2068 or at danielz@rides.org.

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BEA Updates Environmental Best Practices Guide

The Business Environmental Alliance is seeking your help to update its environmental best practices guide, a handbook of local companies that have voluntarily adopted good environmental practices. This can be an excellent opportunity to showcase the ways your company conducts its business in an environmentally-friendly manner.

You can view the current Environmental Best Practices Guide on the BEA's website at www.sonoma-county.org/bea under "BEA Publications."

To feature the good efforts made by your business in the Revised Environmental Best Practices Guide, send the BEA a simple, bullet pointed list of its voluntary good environmental practices. If possible, please include the resultant cost-savings your company has realized.

Please submit your proposals by Friday, April 20, 2001. They will be incorporated into the new edition of the book, which will be available on the BEA website this summer.

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The DRiWATER Story

The man who invented DRiWATER also invented a way to make peanut butter spreadable in the 1940's. Lee Avera was a successful food chemist who had 20 or 30 patents under his belt by the 1980's, but dreamed of giving the world a product with global magnitude, something that would benefit mankind.

Avera saw that the problem of water scarcity and the inequal distribution of fresh water supplies are not only important to mankind, but also impact the health of the earth. If water could be made more transportable, and be made to last long enough in the soil, fresh water could be distributed throughout the world, deserts could be turned into forests, and global warming could eventually be solved.

In 1988, when he himself was in his late eighties, he finally came up with a workable idea. He used vegetable gum to bind water into a gel form. The result was a product which releases water steadily and slowly once applied to soil. In addition, it is 98% water and 2% vegetable gum, so it is completely non-toxic.

Avera patented his idea, and along with Herald Jensen, started DRiWATER in an old apple processing plant in Sebastopol in 1992. The secret to DRiWATER is normal, everyday, healthy bacteria that lives in almost all soils. The vegetable gum, which locks the water into a gel form, is also a desirable food source for the bacteria. As the bacteria eat the vegetable gum, the water is slowly released, watering the plant.

DRiWATER gel is applied in a tube that is inserted into the soil so the gel sits right next to the plant's root system. One 9-ounce package will provide a plant with a continuous supply of water for 30-60 days. Kent Corley, DRiWATER's communications and marketing director, believes the advantages of DRiWATER are convenience, lower labor costs, and water conservation.

Corley explained how DRiWATER, which is itself 98% water, helps conserve water. The product claims a 15%savings over a sprinkler irrigation system due to elimination of water waste. There are three ways that watercan be "wasted" in the irrigation process:

• It can drain through the soil and miss the plant's roots.
• It can run off of hardened or sloped soil.
• It can evaporate before it has the chance to be absorbed.

Because the tube sits below the surface, evaporation and run-off are eliminated. Neither does the water drain through the soil, because the water is released very slowly, relying on percolation and capillary action to move through the soil.

These savings are significant enough that the CALTRANS District 10's Office of Landscape Architecture won, the 1997 Water Conservation Honors for a revegetation project in Amador County that made great use of DRiWATER technology.

Despite its potential, the company was not immediately successful. Between 1992 and 1995, management marketed DRiWATER towards homeowners, but found it very difficult to take a new product into the retail market. The company also expended effort trying to compete with traditional agricultural irrigation systems.

The DRiWATER story is a lesson in the importance of knowing a product's limits as well as its potential, and determining the best marketing strategy.

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Sonoma County Grape Growers Win Award

The Sonoma County Grape Growers Association (SCGGA) received an "Integrated Pest Management Innovator" award from the California EPA's Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) at the State Capitol on November 3.

The DPR recognizes Integrated Pest Management innovators as groups that are providing leadership in carrying out economically sound reduced risk pest management systems. "The Sonoma County Grape Growers Association is proud to receive this award on behalf of the many grape growers who are committed to Integrated Pest Management and sustainable farming practices," said John Clendenen, SCGGA President.

Integrated Pest Management works with nature to encourage beneficial organisms to thrive while making it difficult for pests to survive. IPM uses pest control methods that minimize risks to people and the environment. Pesticides are used sparingly, with an emphasis on least-toxic chemicals

The award recognizes that SCGGA has provided growers with informational and educational opportunities to promote sustainable grape production. Grower support has been high, with a hundred growers attending monthly meetings to IPM principles and to discuss pest control strategies

Bob Hoskins, Russian River Valley grape grower, said "I thought one real accomplishment was getting growers together talking about pesticide reduction, letting people know it is doable and desirable."The SCGGA also initiated the Sonoma County Grape Growers Values statement in 2000, and more than 75 growers have committed to follow responsible practices in order to sustain the land and build a sense of community with neighbors.

The SCGGA was formed in 1984 to support independent grape growers. The association works for a viable, profitable winegrape industry in Sonoma County through education, promotion and community involvement.Current priorities include integrated pest management, education for growers and sharing information with the community in order to foster understanding among grape growers and their neighbors.

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Schurter Pioneers Environmental Policy

Schurter, Inc. a Petaluma company known for its innovative power entry products, is a pioneer in environmental policy. When the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) created the Certificate for Environmental Protection, Schurter was one of the first five industrial companies to obtain the certificate. Schurter is also a five-time winner of the California Integrated Waste Management Board's WRAP (Waste Reduction Awards Program) award.Schurter is a leader in recycling and reclamation. The firm figures it has diverted half of its waste from the local landfill. Some of the more inventive environmental practices the company has implemented include:

• Recycling of toner cartridges from printers, copy and fax machines for refill.
• Distribution of obsolete inventory to local employment training centers.
• Dispersal of obsolete inventory to school art projects.
• Sending shipping pallets back to their freight forwarder.
• Reusing packing materials provided by three North Bay companies.
• Giving obsolete computer and office equipment to employees and local non-profits.
• Recycling cardboard, paper, aluminum and glass.

This year, Schurter, Inc., has initiated programs to reclaim plastics and metal from obsolete parts and raise employee awareness of programs for recycling computer CD's, batteries, fluorescent bulbs, etc. They would like to move towards becoming paperless, and they would like to quantify their recycling efforts so they know when they make progress. When they move to a new location at the airport business partk they will be able to measure and weigh recycled materials.

Of Schurter, Inc.'s achievements, Warehouse Manager Bill Cardoza says, "It goes to show that all companies big and small can have a significant impact on the environment."

The company continues to lead the way in environmental policy. The company's latest program extends its green reach to rate more than 5,000 components on material, energy consumption, recyclability, and packaging factors. Qualifying products are given the clover leaf emblem enabling customers to carefully consider and integrate environmentally sensitive products into their purchasing decisions.

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FAQ about the Wrap Awards

1. What are the WRAP awards?
   The Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) is an annual program, established in 1993 by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, that recognizes California businesses that have made outstanding efforts to reduce nonhazardous waste and send less garbage to our landfills. Successful applicants receive an award certificate from the State of California along with a camera-ready WRAP WINNER logo and window decal. The logo is suitable for use on products, advertising, and on educational materials to show that the State applauds efforts to reduce waste.



2. Are businesses randomly chosen for the award, or are there specific criteria?
   Any California business that has taken effective measures to reduce the amount of waste it generates may apply. Applicants do not compete by type or size of business, but are judged based on individual merit. Businesses are asked to provide information about the steps they are taking to reduce waste in their daily business operations, such as incentives for company or employee recycling programs, the reduction of product packaging, and the reuse and recycling of materials in the manufacturing of their products. Businesses are also asked to give a breakdown of the amount of recycled and postconsumer materials being used in their manufacturing process (materials that were recyclable and those that were made from recycled materials).



3. How many businesses have received an award?
   Since 1993, more than 1200 California businesses have received WRAP awards, many of them as multiple-year winners. And since 1996, 10 companies annually are designated as "WRAP of the Year" winners for leading commercial efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle. All of them share the common achievement of waste reduction, and most have one or more employees dedicated to overseeing their waste reduction program. Many of the winners have asked their suppliers to reduce the wasteful packaging on products, while others have even found uses for their discards or unwanted materials.



4. Can businesses actually help solve California's garbage problem?
   California has set a goal to reduce its waste by 50 percent (from 1990 levels) by the year 2000. There are approximately 1 million businesses in California and they generate nearly half of all of California's waste. If all California businesses took the kind of lead the WRAP award winners have, there would be a tremendous drop in the amount of waste going to landfills. Because of California's shortage of long-term landfill space, many local governments are predicting a 20 to 100 percent increase in disposal costs over the next few years. By reducing waste, businesses are avoiding millions of dollars in disposal costs.
   
   
5. What are most businesses throwing away?
   Primarily paper, mostly through businesses' daily administrative functions and dealings with customers. But there areother things as well, depending on the size and type of business. It's not unusual for manufacturers and warehousers to have plastics comprise 25 percent of their waste stream. While it is less for retail (8 percent) and offices (6 percent), that is still a tremendous amount of plastic that ends up in our landfills. As another example, in 1991, an estimated 30 million toner cartridges were sold for laser printers and personal computer copiers. Nearly 86 percent of them were used once and thrown away, creating enough plastic waste to stretch halfway around the world. Today, businesses commonly recycle toner cartridges, saving money and reducing waste at the same time.
   
   
6. What can businesses do to solve the problem of excess waste?
   Is it complicated?
   There are plenty of things companies can do to reduce waste and, no, it is not complicated. Businesses, large and small, can undertake some very simple measures to reduce and divert the amount of waste they send to the landfill each year, such as reducing office paper waste, purchasing recycled materials, having landscape wastes composted, recycling glass, cardboard, and plastic. Even batteries, tires, and motor oil can be recycled.
   
   
7. Are businesses actually saving money by reducing waste?
   Yes, many of the WRAP award winners report dramatic savings in their waste disposal costs as a result of waste reduction or waste diversion. For example, Warner Bros. Studios has saved well over $100,000 in garbage hauling fees since instituting aprogram to donate excess materials and divert others for recycling. And a Torrance-based private label vitamin manufacturer was able to reduce its landfill costs by $30,000 in one year by diverting more than 915,000 pounds of garbage. The Fetzer Vineyards in Mendocino County initiated waste reduction efforts in 1990 and has since reduced the company's waste by 86 percent, saving more than $80,000 in disposal fees.
   
   
8. How can businesses get started?
   What's the first thing they can do? Conducting waste assessments of their operations is a good first step. A waste assessment involves taking a close look at the waste management system and deciding what could be changed or eliminated in an effort to reduce waste being produced by the business. A very basic assessment, for example, could involve asking these questions:
   • What kind of material is produced as waste and how much is going to be thrown away? Is there a way of reducing or eliminating the waste?
   • Can some of the materials be reused or recycled instead of throwing them away? Is there another business or individual who has a need for them?
   • Is there an employee-incentive program in place to educate employees about waste reduction practices and encourage the employees to apply waste reduction measures to their everyday work routines?
   Answering even these basic questions can help any business owner or manager determine a workable solution for establish- ing an efficient waste management system.
   
   
9. What about reusable and recyclable materials?
   How can businesses locate individuals or businesses that need these kind of materials?The California Materials Exchange (CalMAX), is a free online materials exchange program sponsored by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. CALMAX also publishes a catalog that lists materials "available" and "wanted" for reuse and recycling among businesses. Businesses can list their materials in the catalog and also use it to keep track of where they can obtain and exchange materials necessary for their production or manufacturing process, or even routine daily operation procedures.
   
   
10. How can businesses find out more about waste reduction and WRAP?
    Contact the WRAP Coordinator at the CIWMB: Phone: (916) 255-2445 or (916) 255-2497
    Fax: (916) 366- 2599 E-mail: WRAP@ciwmb.ca.gov

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BEA Launches Environmental Benchmarking Tool for Business

Have you ever wondered how your business rates against its peers in terms of the good environmental practices your company pursues? Has your company implemented some environmental measures, but is not sure what else to do? A new program launched by the Business Environmental Alliance addresses those issues, and provides businesses with a practical benchmarking tool to encourage a structured approach to managing environmental issues.

The first Sonoma County Business Environmental Progress Report (BEPR) synthesizes the results from the Sonoma County Business Environmental Excellence Survey, 2000 (a written survey sent out in the fall to 250 leading companies in Sonoma County), and provides recommendations for action. The BEPR measures the extent to which leading Sonoma County companies manage their environmental affairs, and details company progress against 11 key parameters of environmental management.

The Business Environmental Alliance began the BEPR in response to studies that show a positive correlation between a firm's responsibility for the environment and its financial success. By providing businesses with a means to chart their environmental engagement against themselves and other firms, the BEA believes both the environment and the business community will benefit.

The 11 questions asked by the BEPR are:

1. Does your company have in place an environmental management system?
2. Has your company appointed a senior management member with specific environmental responsibility?
3. Does your company have a written corporate environmental policy statement?
4. Does your company have environmental objectives?
5. Does your company have measurable targets which arise from the environmental objectives covered in question 4?
6. Is there an internal environmental audit process in place in your company?
7. Is there an environmentally focused suppliers' program in place in your company?
8. Does your company consider the environmental impact of its products, processes and/or services?
9. Does your company communicate its environmental excellence with stakeholders?
10. Does your company pursue any voluntary practices for water conservation and/or water recycling?
11. Does your company pursue any voluntary practices for water conservation and/or water recycling?

The BEPR will be published this summer and will be available online. The survey and the report will be repeated yearly.

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