Green Business Awards: Utah companies that are walking the walk when it comes to sustainable business.

By Utah Business Editors

AIR QUALITY

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UCAIR

The Utah Clean Air partnership, or UCAIR, is a statewide clean air organization helping individuals, businesses and communities make small changes to improve Utah's air quality. Its mission is threefold, according to Executive Director Ted Wilson: educate, partner, and provide grants and loans.

Our air quality is so bad that it can be very injurious to people, particularly those who have respiratory problems, pregnant women, the elderly and the young. The health concern is number one. The second thing is the bad effect on our business climate," says Wilson. Our mission is to educate the public about things they can do to help with the air quality. We give out grants--in the three years I've been here we've given over $750,000 away, all privately raised, in about 32 different grants."

UCAIR is housed at the Department of Environmental Quality, where Wilson says they work hand-in-hand with scientists who help select projects with the greatest potential impact for grants. UCAIR is a non-policy organization, which Wilson says makes others more immediately receptive to their message.

Air quality is ambient. It's everywhere. It's coming from multiple sources any day of the week. Every one of us contributes to air pollution," says Wilson. "So anything you can do to make the solution apparent, you have to! It won't be solved any other ways."

WATER CONSERVATION

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Swire Coca-Cola USA

Water is the No. 1 ingredient in all of Swire Coca-Cola USA's products--so protecting it is also the company's No. 1 priority in its sustainability initiatives. "We recognize that's where we have to be environmental stewards," says Mike Bernier, director of sustainability and environmental affairs.

To that end, Bernier says the plant has a metric: they measure how much comes through the door in the manufacturing plant, how much goes in the product and how much goes down the drain. Through that water usage ratio, the company works hard to improve efficiency with strategies like water reclamation, sending water that would normally go to a wastewater treatment plant to non-product activities instead. Since 2006, these strategies have helped the company avoid the use of over a billion liters of water.

Another major initiative for the company is its Replenish project, geared toward protecting natural water resources. Swire Coca-Cola has partnered with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Trout Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy and Coca-Cola North America. The company estimates its projects return in excess of 275 million liters of water to nature every year.

"One of the things that's important among the Coca-Cola system is maintaining the resilience of not only our company, but the communities around us," says Meagan Knowlton, sustainability and environmental specialist. "One way to do that is the maintenance of resources that keep everyone healthy and living a long life. We are members of our community.

ENERGY CONSERVATION

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Commercial Lighting Supply

For Commercial Lighting Supply, going green has been their way of staying ahead of the curve. "There's so much competition and it's the only way we can be successful. It's the only way we can add value. If you're not helping your customers save energy, you're no different than any other wholesale distributor," says Mark Burton, president of CLS.

The 34-year-old company has focused on eco-friendly lighting since Rocky Mountain Power launched its green-power initiative in 2002. Providing eco-friendly options is good for business in setting Commercial Lighting Supply apart from its peers and giving customers a marketing tool with being able to boast about LEED-certified lighting.

A challenge has come in the rapid change in technology. Because standard lighting remained relatively unchanged, Burton says, stock was more or less good forever. Eco-friendly lighting is quickly obsolete, so it's unwise to have a glut of it. On the other hand, the company needs to keep enough stock to be able to service customers who might not have upgraded to the shiniest new technology.

Additionally, the same energy incentives that spurred CLS' foray into eco-friendly lighting options have been the company's biggest challenge--and advantage, Burton says, due to their complex regulations.

"Once you figure it out, it's a significant competitive advantage and a little bit of a barrier to entry because it takes competitors a little while to figure that out," he says.

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Vivint Solar

Vivint Solar is in the business of using sunlight to make energy, and it has worked so well for the company that executives have tried to extend that same principle to their employees--literally.

Over the last two years, Vivint Solar has made a special effort to get employees outside. For Earth Day 2016, employees were encouraged to take a picture of themselves doing something in the great outdoors and post it on social media with the hashtag...