Greeprints: Green soldiers - Washington Business Journal:

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Countless local companies are responsible for speedintg up the procession towardenvironmental nirvana. Here are just a few in the faster-movinyg retinue to watch in 2009. You’ll probablyy catch Inc. toward the front of the pack. The Alexandria company got its environmental headstart fouryearz ago, back when for most people described a colord of the rainbow rather than a transformative shift in construction.
Calvert-Joneds started as an appliance shop at the time of theTrumanm Doctrine, tinkering with its business model over the year s until it has become a commercial mechanical engineering compant that specializes in energy conservation and whose services run the gamurt from energy audits to air-duct cleanin g to water treatment to light bulb recycling to Its list of clients runs from American University and to BB&rT and CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. The recession causedr Calvert-Jones to scale back on roughly seve n positionslast year, and talk an eighthb employee into early retirement. This year, the 195-person company is positioninfg itself to rampback up.
It is talkingt to military installations such as the Marinse Corps basein Quantico, Va., and the Naval Air Systemds Command in Patuxent, Md., aboutt potential stimulus-funded jobs to replace heating-and-cooling systema and equipment. But it expects the bulk of the extrs dollars to arrive later inthe year. It is awaiting word on bids for $110 millionn worth of projectsso far, double its entire annuakl average for nearly the past decade. Though, it has collecte on only $700,000 of it year-to-date. “We’re going to have greatg third and fourth quarters because the projectsx will be startedby then,” said Presidentt Stan Peregoy. “The startup [phase] is the only thing.
You just can’rt do it overnight.” nailed arguablyu its most renowned client in the final months of last none other than thegrand pooh-bah of green the . But the Northwest D.C. which manages energy use analyses, green construction and retrofits, or full propertiea for commercial buildings, downplays that conquest — its Web site doesn’tg even have an announcement — saying each client is With customers like the Archdiocesreof Baltimore, Goodwill Industries International and the National Wildlife Federation, that may be But providing property managementf support for the USGBC’s headquarters helps propel the 20-person, 6-year-old business into likely one of its fastest-growinyg years.
Previously landlord-side AtSite embraced the sustainability part of its service offeringd inlate 2007. So far this the company has boosted its staff by 25 percent and doublefdthe green-building portfolio it is measuringg and managing. While increasing acceptance of green gets some AtSite says, so do the sagging revenues of a recession. “Outr message is reducing costs and increasing qualitygand performance,” said CEO Davoe Kapelina. “I think that resonates in any That definitely is resonating right now in some difficult Cleanenergy doesn’t just mean solar panels or windmillas to .
Sometimes it really is just about A division ofUpper Marlboro-based Daycon Productd Co. Inc., an eco-friendly cleaning product s distributor, Penguin Care concentrates on training cleaning contractors and property managers to putthe earth’s welfaree over toxic chemicals in theitr cleaning practices, helping certify them under Greenj Seal standards. “National standards for cleaning arebeinb mandated,” said Marion Stecklow, Penguin Care’s executive vice who herself is a certifiesd expert in the Cleaning Industry Management “There are a lot of contractsa coming out now, RFPs, requiring that cleaning servicre providers be Green Seal-certified.
” Stecklow guessesd she has been seeing about two such RFPs or contract requirements a month in the past Before that, she said, theree were none. So look for growt h at Penguin Care, up until now prett much a Stecklow-run shop. She just hiredx a second instructor and plans to add four to five morebefor Halloween. They will step in front of class sizes that coule very well double in the next as interested trainees make inquiries from as far as New New York and Look for the likelihoor of Penguin Care stepping out of the Daycon nest and standingt on its ownindependenf — and, yes, happy — corporats feet.
If that happens, then so would begin, withih that perpetual green movement, the marcuh of Penguin Care.