Ranch Green It Is!
Before green was more than a soothing color, Lucasfilm's Lucas Valley campus was verdantly environmental — Skywalker Ranch, the campus's Victorian jewel, was constructed in the '80s using recycled clear-heart redwood salvaged from old state highway bridges that were slated for removal, and from vintage barns.
The campus was certified when the County Green Business Program began in 2002. Tom Forster, who led the effort then, ticks off the past and present green credits, beginning with land use: The structures and roads take up less than 5 percent of the 5,000 permanently preserved acres of rolling Marin hills that hug the famed studio, and the buildings themselves, including Skywalker, Big Rock, and Grady ranches, take up less than 1 percent of that small construction-footprint total.
Five thousand new trees, mostly natives, have been planted on the property. A good-sized garden grows produce for the employee kitchen, composting and less-wasteful drip irrigation included. There is an olive-tree orchard, which supplies oil for the kitchen, and a 25-acre vineyard — its grapes find their way into wine produced by Niebaum-Coppola Estate Vineyards and Winery in Rutherford.
"George [Lucas] believes in treading lightly, and encourages green design," says Forster, noting that the Big Rock facility near the top of the Lucas Valley grade, completed in 2002, is not only LEED-certified, but gold-rated — the second-highest rating for what LEED measures, including energy and water efficiency, conserving materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. Home to the animation division, the building boasts 23 miles of recycled trim and other wood design features, and is heated and cooled by cutting-edge Geoexchange geothermal systems that rely on the fairly constant temperature of the Earth to do both.
"It is a beautiful, peaceful, private place blended with its environment," says Forster, a 25-year employee now semi-retired, of the Lucasfilm property. "We're proud of our sustainable nature."
Green Inside and Out
Bill Stewart, president of SolarCraft, says it was a logical step for his Novato-based company to get the official green blessing. "As a solar company, our goal is improving the environment, and the program's goal is to improve the environment, so it was a good fit."
After 24 years in business, SolarCraft has handled more than 4,000 solar installations, including numerous wineries and Woodlands Market in Kentfield, in all totaling "over a million square feet of solar collectors."
Stewart and his partners are active in County functions, and about three years ago, Marin's Green Business Coordinator, Dana Armanino, spoke at one of those meetings. "It made nothing but sense," Stewart says. The benefits began with the green business audit.
"Our building was constructed in 1997. We have a solar electric system that provides most of our power, and we already had low-flow toilets and all, so we felt that we were already doing pretty well. But the audit had good recommendations."
SolarCraft spent $3,000 to $4,000 converting to high-efficiency lighting in its main office and warehouse. The cost has probably been repaid by lower bills, Stewart estimates.
Then there were simple suggestions, such as placing more recycling receptacles in more-visible places so that people would remember to use them. "It was all commonsense stuff; nothing was too stringent."
"We're up for recertification in August," Stewart adds, and he's interested in learning from this next audit; plus, it's got him thinking ahead and preparing. "We recently did away with plastic water bottles — we got water coolers instead. But it's incredibly difficult to control the amount of paper we use. We already print front and back. It will be interesting to see what the County comes up with."
Supporting the Good Green Earth
The Good Earth Natural Foods grocery store in Fairfax has been green certified since the first year of the program, says Al Baylacq, a partner. "We've always acted in a green way — it's a matter of our principles," he says. "We don't toot our own horn about it; it's just part of who we are and what we've been for 35 years."
Good Earth recycles paper and uses recycled paper, has a solar water tank that supplies all its hot water, and is known for the quality of its produce. "Right now in the produce section, we have over 185 items on display, and about 70 of those are grown locally — nine of them Marin Organic designation," Baylacq says, adding that July through October is high season for Marin farmers, "so the representation from Marin will increase quite a bit."
"Green has always been part of our mission — our activism in the agriculture industry adds up to being green," says Baylacq's business partner, Mark Squire.
"We feel that the current ag industry is one of the most destructive industries on the planet," he continues. "Its reliance on fossil fuels from the very beginning was misguided. Buying or-ganic and sustainable fresh foods is a form of 'greening your life,' and, short of giving up your gas-guzzling car, I''m not sure you could contribute more to alleviating the climate crisis than eating locally, eating organically."
Pumping Green
Ron Cromwell Chevron, a gas station and smog-test-only facility in Novato, became a Marin Green Business in February 2004.
"I think we were in the second group of businesses to get the certificate," says Dilek Tulca, Cromwell's longtime office manager. "Ron likes to recycle everything for the environment. He said, 'We're doing it anyhow, so we should go for it,'" she remembers.
"We recycle oil, the bottles the oil comes in, and the filters, and garbage and paper, of course; and in the office, we recycle toner; and we use fluorescent lighting. So I think we are doing pretty well," says Tulca.
There aren't many customers who comment on the Green Business label displayed in the window, since pumping gas isn't a chore over which most people linger — but some do care, Tulca says. "People who like being green, they might notice, and then they come here" rather than to a competing station that doesn't have the certification.
