Six more Edmonds businesses join Envirostars’ ranks in 2018

After the first full year of implementation in Edmonds and the region, a total of seven Edmonds businesses have joined the ranks of EnviroStars, Washington’s green business program.

Walnut Street Coffee joined the EnviroStars program during the first months of 2018, and six additional businesses rounded out the year: Seattle Sugar Spa, The Refinery Salon, ARTspot, Lice Spies, Koenig Financial Group and Ombú Salon & Spa.

The program connects businesses with local environmental assistance, resources and utility rebates. Businesses earn EnviroStars recognition by taking steps to green their facilities and operational practices, such as replacing inefficient lighting with LEDs, composting food scraps and switching to safer cleaning products.

“EnviroStars helps businesses implement best practices that save energy and water, generate less waste and pollution, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions – choices that are both good for business and good for our local and regional environment,” said Edmonds Economic Development and Community Services Director Patrick Doherty. “We hope that these first five Edmonds businesses will pave the way for even more local businesses to enroll in EnviroStars.”

Edmonds has worked with several local businesses during the past year to improve their environmental practices and gain recognition through EnviroStars.

“Ombú was founded with a natural, organic approach. Envirostar was a perfect fit,” said owner Beth Sanger. “We are very conscientious about the products we choose to put on hair and skin and into the atmosphere. Not only are they absorbed by our bodies, they affect the world we live in.”

Similarly, The Refinery Salon owner Elizabeth Lambert remarked that “it has become standard practice for us to seek ways to be environmentally conscious, including recycling hair clippings and used foil from hair coloring, while also diverting chemicals from the sewer system.”

Seattle Sugar Spa owner Olivia Latham was enthusiastic about the EnviroStars program. “Sugaring is already a much more environmentally friendly practice because the slowest thing to biodegrade is the hair that we remove,” Latham said. “EnviroStars helped us take a closer look at our business and find those little additional changes we could make to really make us the greenest we can be.”

Lice Spies owner Cathy Baran offers similar remarks, stating that “our practice uses nontoxic, environmentally and human-friendly products, which is very well received by our customers.”

Jeff Janeway of Koenig Financial Group takes his company’s environmentally friendly practices to the next level.  “Not only do we conduct business in an environmentally friendly way, we counsel our clients on environmentally conscious investment portfolios.”

Lastly, ARTspot owner Tracy Felix commented she is “proud to have offered environmentally friendly paints and art products for years and were thrilled that a program like EnviroStars exists to recognize businesses like” theirs that do the right thing for the environment.

Consumers can visit EnviroStars.org to find businesses of all types that share their environmental values — whether they’re looking for a brewery, auto body shop, or insurance agency. Well-known Washington staples such as Chateau Ste. Michelle winery, Tom Douglas restaurants, and Fremont Brewing have joined EnviroStars, along with these Edmonds businesses and many more small businesses in the Puget Sound area.

Edmonds supports EnviroStars as part of a coalition of 21 Washington cities, counties, utilities, and local public health jurisdictions reaching from Whatcom County to Pierce County.

For more information about the program, contact Patrick Doherty at patrick.doherty@edmondswa.gov or 425-771-0251.

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