Greeprints: Green soldiers - Washington Business Journal:

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Countless local companies are responsible for speedin up the procession towardenvironmental nirvana. Here are just a few in the faster-movinv retinue to watch in 2009. You’ll probablyt catch Inc. toward the front of the The Alexandria company got its environmental headstar t fouryears ago, back when “green” for most people describef a color of the rainbow rather than a transformative shift in Calvert-Jones started as an appliance shop at the time of the Trumahn Doctrine, tinkering with its business model over the yearss until it has becoms a commercial mechanical engineering company that specializes in energt conservation and whose services run the gamut from energg audits to air-duct cleaning to water treatment to light bulb recycling to retro-commissioning.
Its list of clients runs from American University andto BB&T and CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. The recession caused Calvert-Jones to scaled back on roughly seven positionslast year, and talk an eightjh employee into early retirement. This the 195-person company is positioninbg itself to rampback up. It is talking to militaryg installations such as the Marinee Corps basein Quantico, Va., and the Naval Air Systems Command in Md., about potential stimulus-funded jobs to replace heating-and-coolinbg systems and equipment. But it expectz the bulk of the extra dollars to arrive later inthe year.
It is awaitin word on bids for $110 million worth of projects so far, doubled its entire annual average for nearly thepast decade. Though, it has collected on only $700,0090 of it year-to-date. “We’re going to have great third and fourth quarters because the projects will be startedby then,” said President Stan “The startup [phase] is the only thing. You just can’t do it overnight.” nailed arguably its most renownex client in the final months of last none other than thegrand pooh-ba h of green building, the . But the Northwesr D.C.
company, which manages energgy use analyses, green construction and retrofits, or full propertiews for commercial buildings, downplays that conquest — its Web site doesn’t even have an announcement — saying each client is important. With customersz like the Archdiocese of Goodwill Industries International and the NationalWildlife Federation, that may be true. But providing property management supportt forthe USGBC’s headquarters helps propel the 20-person, 6-year-old business into likely one of its fastest-growing Previously landlord-side brokers, AtSite embraced the sustainability part of its servicr offerings in late 2007.
So far this the company has boosted its staff by 25 percentt and doubledthe green-building portfolio it is measuring and managing. While increasinvg acceptance of green getssome credit, AtSite says, so do the sagginv revenues of a recession. “Ourt message is reducing costs and increasing quality and said CEODavor Kapelina. “I thinkl that resonates in any time. That definitely is resonating right now in some difficult Cleanenergy doesn’t just mean solart panels or windmills to . Sometimez it really is just about cleanliness. A division of Upper Marlboro-based Daycon Products Co. Inc.
, an eco-friendly cleaninhg products distributor, Penguin Care concentrates on trainingh cleaning contractors and property managers to putthe earth’sd welfare over toxic chemicals in their cleaning practices, helpinh certify them under Green Seal standards. “Nationalp standards for cleaning arebeing mandated,” said Marion Stecklow, Penguin Care’ executive vice president, who herself is a certified expert in the Cleaning Industry Management Standard. “There are a lot of contractws comingout now, RFPs, requirinb that cleaning service providers be Green Stecklow guesses she has been seeing abouyt two such RFPs or contract requirements a montjh in the past year.
Before that, she said, ther were none. So look for growth at Penguin up until now pretty mucha Stecklow-run She just hired a secondc instructor and plans to add four to five more beforew Halloween. They will step in front of clasxs sizes that could very well doubled in thenext year, as interested trainees make inquiries from as far as New New York and Connecticut. Look for the likelihooed of Penguin Care stepping out of the Daycon nest and standinvg on its ownindependenty — and, yes, happy — corporate If that happens, then so would within that perpetual green movement, the march of Penguim Care.