Running a Sustainable Business

With Phine's moms: Mia and Tracy Levesque

What is a sustainable business?

Typical Businesses are about The Bottom Line

  1. Profit - Make lots of money

Sustainable businesses are about The Triple Bottom Line

  1. People - Be nice to your employees and the community
  2. Planet - Be good to the environment
  3. Profit - Make lots of money

People

Planet

Profit

Planet

In 2010 We bought a Pair of buildings

They Were a Mess

But we decided we wanted to do a LEED Certified renovation

What is LEED Certification?

LEED is a test to make sure a building is green.

LEED Certification has Points

Integrative Process

  • Does the team have skills in green building
  • Did they have meetings, workshops and trainings about the project.

Location and Transportation

  • Building is not on land that animals and wildlife live on
  • Building is near open space
  • Building has bike storage
  • Building is walking distance from community resource
  • Building is near public transportation

Sustainable Sites

  • Building has a green roof
  • Building is in the shade
  • Outside the building can absorb rainwater
  • Building has nontoxic pest control

Water Efficiency

  • Building has fixtures that use less water
  • Outside the building has native plants to absorb water

Energy and Atmosphere

  • Building has efficient hot water system
  • Building has efficient heat and air conditioning
  • Building has solar panels
  • Building has a good thermal envelope
  • Building uses efficient lights and appliances

Materials and Resources

  • Building uses recycled or reclaimed materials
  • Building construction wasted is recycled or reused

Indoor Environmental Quality

  • Building has walk-off mats
  • Building has shoe racks
  • Building was aired out before people moved in
  • All paint and chemicals are non-toxic

Innovation

Did you do something super cool to make the building green.

2011 - We did it!

We got enough points for LEED Platinum!

We had a party and the mayor came

And so did these guys

It won awards :-)

B Corp's Most Inspirational Project Award

It won awards :-)

Philadelphia Commerce Department and the Community Design Collaborative's Storefront Challenge Award.

The Team

Thank You!