When owner Angel O’Brien learned her shop, Ladybug Organic Coffee Co., was named a co-winner of Portland’s BEST Award for Sustainable Food Systems in the spring, she wasn’t content to stop with the award.

“I called (the BEST Business Center) and said, ‘I want someone to come out and see what else I can do to be more efficient,‘“ she said.

The 2-year-old coffee shop has already left its mark, or lack thereof, on St. Johns and Portland by donating, recycling and composting nearly everything its customers don’t consume.

Continue reading at www.oregonlive.com

Portland is unquestionably a city to watch as related to sustainability. The unique combination of the city’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, in conjunction with its Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Business Center, allows Portland’s leadership to offer a variety of resources for businesses and citizens wishing to “green” their operations and their lives.

One of the fruits of this partnership is the newly launched Portland Climate Change program, through which the engineering consulting firm we work for, Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch (M+NLB), was awarded the first Portland Climate Champion Award.

Continued…

Some businesses go above and beyond with recycling, and others go even further to reduce their carbon emissions. The Portland office of engineering and consulting firm Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch (M+NLB) is the first Portland business to receive the BEST Business Center’s new “Portland Climate Champion” recognition. To earn this honor, M+NLB staff completed the Portland Climate Champions application and demonstrated their carbon reduction efforts during an onsite verification visit with the BEST Business Center’s sustainability advisors.

Continued …

Sure, a business may think it’s green because it uses recycled paper and is located in Portland, but is it really? The only way to confidently claim green-ness is to measure carbon emissions.  There’s a unique opportunity to do that: Portland’s business can still claim remaining seats at Portland’s first-of-its-kind Carbon Footprint Workshop series for businesses, presented by the BEST Business Center and Smart Trips.

Continued …