San Diego Bayfront Businesses Begin Port's Green Business

on 17 February 2011.

Businesses along the Port of San Diego are beginning to get down to "green" business.

Seventeen waterfront businesses attended a workshop on Feb. 10 for the Port's Green Business Challenge. San Diego was selected as the only city on the West Coast for the Green Business Challenge.

The challenge is an integrated energy efficiency and sustainability effort spearheaded by the Port of San Diego and San Diego Gas & Electric®. Over the course of a year, local business around San Diego Bay will modify their operations, becoming greener.

The workshop was the first step-by-step demonstration of how to fill out the challenge scorecard. The scorecard is an online tool with a series of 50 strategies to help businesses track their sustainability efforts and initiate additional environmental efforts. Businesses begin by filling out what is referred to as a baseline survey, a sustainability starting point.

The goal is to keep an online record of their improvements and share strategies. Businesses receive points for their increased efficiency in each of the six areas of sustainability:energy, waste management, sustainable development, water, air and sustainable business practices.

"Most of the strategies are either low cost or free to implement and can help save the business money and resources," says Cody Hooven, Project Manager of the Port's Green Business Challenge.

Currently, 25 businesses on Port tidelands have registered for the challenge.

Topics discussed in the workshop included the sharing of best industry practices for environmental sustainability and marketing opportunities for participants.

Kim Brokhof with ICLEI, Local Government for Sustainability, a partner of the Challenge, shared successful statistics from the first year of Chicago's Green Office Challenge.

"We had almost 150 tenants and property managers participate in the first round of the Green Office Challenge in Chicago," Brokhof said. "Through the challenge, participants collectively reduced electricity use by more than 70 million kilowatt-hours, reduced water use by 5 percent, and diverted more than 1,200 tons of waste materials from the landfills."

The next challenge workshop is scheduled for Thursday, March 10, 2011.

Registration is still open. Businesses along San Diego Bay that want to participate have until the beginning of March to enter. Questions or comments can be submitted online togreenport@portofsandiego.org.

The 25 current Port of San Diego businesses participating are:

San Diego Bayfront Businesses Begin Port's Green Business

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