Green star award honors businesses that conserve: new program will label green tourism in Alaska.

AuthorResz, Heather A.
PositionENVIRONMENT

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As the green movement in Alaska and the United States gains momentum, there is a parallel effort that seeks to quantify for consumers the eco-friendliness of various businesses and products.

In Alaska, the eco-label concept got its start in the 1990s with the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce's Green Star Award program, which it created in partnership with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the Alaska Center for the Environment.

Green Star incorporated as a separate nonprofit in 1996 to offer a variety of business services year-round. The program encourages businesses to practice waste reduction, energy conservation and pollution prevention through education, technical assistance and an award-winning voluntary "green business" certification program.

Since then, other organizations in Alaska and other states have used the model to create their own Green Star chapters.

Green Star Program Director Jeanne Carlson said it is one of several eco-labeling programs worldwide that provide certification for businesses that meet specific earth-friendly criteria.

The nonprofit encourages Alaska businesses to practice electronics recycling, pollution prevention, energy conservation and to reduce waste overall.

"We are trying to help businesses be more efficient through a series of environmental aspects," Carlson said.

Today the Anchorage nonprofit has four staff members, including Carlson, Scan Skaling, Jean Marie Guzzetti and Tara Callear. And it's grown to offer year-round business services like Green Events and electronics recycling. Green Star hosted an annual electronics recycling event for four years until a local electronics recycler was able to offer services to the community.

"People really have only seen little pieces of us," Carlson said. "We're working to change that."

She said the Alaska State Fair's recycling program is a good example of Green Star's efforts behind the scenes. It began as a small side program at the fair, Carlson said, but now it's how the state fair does business.

"It's treated as an extra-special, big green event," she said of the state fair recycling. "It brings in the most recyclables of any event throughout the year."

A PERSONAL ETHIC OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

Maska Wildland Adventures, a tourism business, was founded in 1977--long before words like eco-labeling and compact fluorescent lighting entered mainstream vocabularies.

President Kirk Hoessle said when he and a...

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