More LI businesses are going green
Photo credit: Photo by Danielle Finkelstein fpr Newsday | Tony Panza, president of Turtle Pond Builders, with his son Wayne. The company has just built its first green home in Southampton. (Photo by Danielle Finkelstein)
Long Island homebuilder Tony Panza made up his mind nearly two years ago, as he was leaving a trade show in Orlando, Fla.
The owner of Turtle Pond Builders in Southampton was looking for a way to set himself apart from his competitors. The difference-maker, Panza decided, would be a focus of the trade event - building green.
"We have to be kinder to the environment and more energy efficient," Panza said. "In that aspect, green building is good for the community. But I also knew that if I was going to differentiate my homes from my competition, then I was going to have to build green."
Panza joins a growing list of Long Island businesses embracing green concepts, products or services. And like Panza, many go-green businesses chose cleaner, leaner or more efficient as a way to stand out.
"Green is a niche right now that should be marketed here," said Robert Meinke, who left his career as a financial planner two years ago to open Greener Country, a Jericho retail store whose products range from 75-cent ballpoint pens made from recycled materials to $495 solar-powered carrying cases for recharging laptops. "I am providing an avenue for people who want to be environmentally conscious," Meinke said.
Verifying "green-ness"
A noble concept, said Joel Evans, a professor at Hofstra's Zarb School of Business, but to be effective, green businesses must offer products that are as competitively priced and work as well or better than their traditional counterparts. Plus, there should be a way to verify their "green-ness." (Click here find other green businesses on Long island.)
Evans said that from the consumers' point of view, many products advertised as green are not, and those that are can be more expensive.
"So consumers have to ask, 'Is it green or just marketing hype?' "
In Panza's case, green verification for his company's newly built $1.5 million Arts and Crafts-style home in Southampton comes from the National Association of Home Builders' Green Building Program.
The Washington D.C.-based trade group introduced its guidelines and a scoring system for three phases (gold, silver and bronze) of green building in 2008. Panza's house is expected to be certified as NAHB gold, the highest designation in the program, by an independent third party.
The house, Panza said, has $75,000 to $100,000 worth of green and energy-efficient options (before rebates and tax incentives) not found in a traditionally built home. But those options -- including a 7,000-watt solar photovoltaic system for generating electricity and a solar water-heating system -- mean the home will use about 75 percent less energy than a conventional model.
For retailers like Meinke, there's validation by Green America, a consumer-friendly nonprofit that since 1982 has promoted and rated green products and services.
Meinke's Greener Country sells many items approved by the nonprofit, and he also has recycled-paper products - including napkins, towels and computer paper - that are competitively priced.
Environmental awareness
For Jim Skinner, owner of A & C Exterminating in East Meadow, being more environmentally aware means replacing chemicals with thermal remediation to eradicate bed bugs. His company also uses Scout, a trained beagle, to sniff out the bugs.
"Heat has been used to kill off grain beetles in silos for the last 40 years," Skinner said. "You heat up a room to 130 degrees, and for bugs and their eggs that temperature is lethal."
Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, an urban pest expert with the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program, said heat eradication definitely is greener than using pesticides. "Bedbugs do have a resistance to pesticides," she said, "so heat probably is the best tool for bedbugs and their eggs."
Some green manufacturers turn to professional endorsement for validation. Tom Williams, whose Long Beach company, Sleep Analytics, distributes Bio-Posture memory-foam mattresses, is using chiropractor referrals for the product.
The mattresses, comparable to Tempur-Pedic in performance, Williams said, are made from a plant-based foam material in a California factory that has clean-air emissions and roll-up packaging. The mattresses are compacted and shipped in a biodegradable bag. They also are covered with an eco-friendly bamboo fabric.
Williams understands there is no green "certification" for his mattress. "Right now, chiropractors are our main customers," he said. "They have a holistic approach, and we feel appealing to them is the best way to reach that segment of the consumer willing to hear and experience our green story."
