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.

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The Portland office of engineering and consulting firm Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch is the first Portland business to receive the BEST Business Center’s new “Portland Climate Champion” recognition, an honor awarded to businesses that go above and beyond in their efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

To achieve the champion status, the firm improved the energy efficiency of its business operations, provided alternative transportation options for employees and implemented a comprehensive waste reduction and recycling program.

Continue reading at: www.oregonlive.com

At Thursday’s Carbon Footprint Workshop for Business, Kaleb Miller was hoping to pick up a few tips on going green.

Miller, the marketing manager for Zipcar in Portland, said his office already has taken measures to reduce its carbon footprint but that he is looking for new ones. Zipcar is a company that allows members to rent cars in downtown and the metropolitan area by the hour.

“Nobody drives to work,” Miller said of the Zipcar staff. Instead, the employees are given transit passes, and more than half bike to work. None of the nine employees of Zipcar in Portland actually owns a car, he said.

Continue reading at: www.djcoregon.com

The city of Portland is launching its first Carbon Footprint Workshop series to help businesses learn how to offset their emissions.  The three-part series is offered to participants in the city’s BEST Business Center, which works with businesses to help them become more environmentally sustainable.

The city and its sustainability partners invited Carbon Smart, an environmental firm from Vancouver, B.C., to lead the series after it realized local businesses are interested in their carbon footprints, but need more information about the issue.

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Portland’s BEST (Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow) Business Center this spring is helping about 15 local businesses learn how to measure, reduce and offset their greenhouse gas emissions.

With a dearth of local climate change consultants to choose from, including Ecos Consulting, Bonneville Environmental Foundation and Blue Tree Strategies Inc. to name a few, the BEST Business Center chose Ecotrust Canada, which was launched in 1994 by Portland-based Ecotrust, to lead the three half-day workshops.

Continue reading at: www.sustainableindustries.com

Green business … sustainable business … carbon footprint.”

The list goes on, but the use of such labels reflects a building trend in our business environment which challenges the notion that a firm’s bottom line disconnected from a commitment to sustainable business practices. Here in Portland, professionals boast about the quality of life and a growing commitment to sustainability. Many young professionals choosing to live and work in Portland base this decision, in part, on the environment of sustainability that is being created here.

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A new offshoot of the Office of Sustainable Development will put green business practices into the hands of smaller Portland companies – for free.

The BEST Business Center, which launched Thursday, is meant as an all-in-one resource for businesses interested in figuring out how sustainable they are and then connecting with local experts to improve or create practices. It’s aimed at businesses with five to 50 employees. In Portland, that’s about 97 percent of all businesses, according to the city.

Continue reading at: www.djcoregon.com

For the Cat Hospital of Portland, a visit from the city’s Office of Sustainable Development was nothing short of eye-opening.

The Sellwood-based business learned how to save money on lighting, heating and cooling. A conservation kit made the hospital’s toilets more efficient, and low-flow sink nozzles make its use of water more efficient.

Encouraged by those and other results, the Office of Sustainable Development yesterday unveiled the BEST Business Center, a new service that provides a sustainability audit to Portland companies.

Continue reading at: www.portland.bizjournals.com.