Los Angeles Times - City of LA to certify green businesses
The program to urge environmentally friendly practices hopes to launch in six months.
By Cyndia Zwahle

Dumpster diving isn't in her job description but Leslie VanKeuren, general manager of the popular Silver Lake restaurant Gingergrass, isn't above climbing into the eatery's special compostable-food waste bin to retrieve a carelessly tossed Styrofoam container or other stray item.

She's determined to make the 4-year-old restaurant as environmentally responsible as possible, and that includes ensuring noncompliant material doesn't gum up the works at the composting facility where the bags of food scraps are headed.

Gingergrass and other restaurants are considered a prime target for adopting the sustainable practices that will be part of Los Angeles' new green-business certification program, for which funding was announced last week.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who has been working to get the program off the ground for several years, invited VanKeuren and two other green-practicing businesses to the public launch of the project.

"Hopefully, we'll inspire more businesses to be environmentally friendly, not just because it's good for business but because it's the right thing to do," said Alarcon, whose 7th District includes Pacoima, Sylmar and other areas. The former state senator introduced legislation for a statewide plan in 2004, but it didn't pass.

L.A.'s program, which Alarcon's office hopes will be certifying businesses within six months, would focus initially on restaurants, retailers, office-based businesses, auto repair shops and hotels. The $150,000 grant from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will allow the city's Environmental Affairs Department to issue a request for proposals from organizations or companies that want to operate the program for the city.

A likely contender is Sustainable Works, a nonprofit that operates Santa Monica's green business certification program. So is the Los Angeles Community College District, which Alarcon said was establishing a training course to teach businesses how to be green.

The certification program, which he said should cost a small business less than $500 to participate in, would be meant to give a marketing edge to individual businesses, as well as the city itself.

"Angelenos are very progressive when it comes to environmental matters, and this has the potential for really galvanizing civic pride about Los Angeles and the good things we are doing," said Jonathan Parfrey, director of the Green L.A. Coalition, which is working with the city to design and implement the certification program.

The program already has received the backing of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

The city's convention and visitors group, L.A. Inc., which is working with third-party certifier Green Seal to help lodging businesses earn its green stamp, is coordinating with the city program to match up certification criteria.

Los Angeles has posted its proposed criteria for businesses that want to earn its green stamp at www.environmentla.org.

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