Lean, mean and green

Éco-Quartier pilot project gives Plateau businesses a good wash

By CRAIG SEGAL

 Organizers of a year-long pilot project say they have figured out a way to get Plateau businesses to clean up their environmental act and save money at the same time. But they need at least another year or the project will have been a waste.

 "I need more time to follow up with the businesses," says Mona Gravel of the Éco-Quartier Jeanne-Mance, located on St-Urbain next to Santropol restaurant. "We asked the government if we can have the project for another year and we're waiting for their response."

 Gravel says 18 of the 26 businesses she works with did not recycle at all before she met with them, despite the fact that municipal inspectors can fine them up to $2,000 for the dastardly deed. She thinks businesses just aren't afraid. "I still haven't seen the city give out fines to businesses."

 A check with the city revealed that 25 inspectors have given out some hefty fines, but may be slowing down because all the businesses are contesting them. "It's enforced, but not very vigorously," says Jacques Tremblay, head of communications for the city's 35 Éco-Quartiers. "Businesses have been charged as much as $2,000, but they are going to the court."

 Meanwhile, it's up to the Éco-Quartiers to give businesses incentive to change their habits, Gravel says, and that means teaching them that good environmental practices can save money.

 Gravel's job is to play Inspector Clouseau, uncovering how individual businesses could be kinder to the environment while saving money at the same time. "A company can save thousands of dollars a year if it follows all of my 43 options," Gravel says. Those options include long-term stuff like buying a new dishwasher, and small things like switching to phosphate-free soap or long-lasting fluorescent lights. "Recuperated money can go toward bonuses for employees," Gravel muses.

 The head of an 18-year-old linen supply company wasn't sure what to think of Gravel when she first approached him last year. "I thought it would be too tough when I first met her," says Jean-Luc Marceau, the smiley and dapper president of Buanderie Progres Hygienique on Coloniale. "But she came in and worked with me. Now there is less garbage. It's cleaner in here. Employees are happier."

 Marceau, who "wasn't really environmentally aware" before he met Gravel, says he used to throw out at least 10 oversized garbage bags full of plastic scraps a week, not knowing he was surpassing his legal limit. His plastic-wrap supplier now takes back the scraps at 10 cents a pound, saving him $60 a month.

 "Were it not for recycling he'd be contravening city regulations," Gravel says. "He would have had to hire a private contractor to come pick that stuff up. And that would have been a big cost."

 Gravel also found a company that was interested in some 10-foot rolls used for steaming fabric that would have been thrown out. They are being given a second life as furniture padding and insulation.

 Now that he has been reformed, Marceau has some free advice of his own for business owners. "If the boss is against it, it'll never work," says Marceau. "Explain to them it's for the future. It's for the children. It's for the world."