Putting green in your pocket.

• Position: Western - Interview

Asheville-based Waste Reduction Partners uses a statewide team of 65 retired engineers and scientists to provide free assessments of how to reduce utility costs, hit goals for using sustainable energy sources and effectively use renewable energy. For-profit companies make up nearly half of its client base, with the rest coming from government and nonprofits. Since 2000, it has visited about 1,300 sites and saved clients an estimated $23 million. In its latest fiscal year, it worked with 62 businesses. Started in 1992 as part of Land-of-Sky Regional Council, a government planning organization for four counties, WRP has gone statewide in recent years and has an office in Research Triangle Park. Its $470,000 annual budget comes from government and foundation sources. Terry Albrecht is its director.

Are most of your clients still in the west?

It's pretty evenly spread out We probably are doing a little bit more in the west. Last year, we did like 250 on-site assessments, and over 100 were out of our RTP office.

What's the main focus?

There are three major areas--energy, water and solid-waste management--but there might be other special environmental projects. We do work in fleet management and alternative-fuel vehicles. We see less of that in the private sector. We also work in storm-water management. If folks have industrial storm-water requirements, we might help them on those.

What generates the most demand for your services: cost reduction, sustainable-energy projects or renewable energy?

Cost reduction. Our unique approach is that we might have a plant manager or plant engineer that retired from DuPont, and he's sitting down one-on-one with a...