Innovation
Green tips
Some sustainability tips from our advertisers
Smart Business Cleveland | February 2009
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An important firsttool for anyone establishing a Resource Conservation Program is the creation of a scorecard to track the weekly use of natural gas, electric and water.Utilizing local meter readings, these volumes (btus, kWhs, gallons) can be compared against the outputs of thebusiness (lbs., units, sales,
services, etc.) to track efficiency.
Only when utilities are tracked as an “ingredient” of your product will you be able to positively change your consumption of these resources. A simple
spreadsheet scorecard can illuminate outages that typically result in 7percent to 12 percent utility reductions in the first 12 months.
— Scott E Weyandt, plant manager, Shearer's Foods Inc.
Some tax benefits of going green:
Federal “Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit.” Available to businesses for electricity generated by “qualified renewable energy resources” (e.g.,
wind, solar, hydropower, etc.) and sold by taxpayer during taxable year.
Federal “Brownfields Tax Incentive.” Allows cleanup costs at eligible properties to be fully deductible in the year incurred, rather than capitalized
and spread over years.Some previously filed returnscan be amended to include deductions for past expenditures.
“Ohio Brownfields Tax Abatement.” Upon issuance of a Covenant Not to Sue under Ohio's Voluntary Action Program, abatement for increase in
assessed value of land and assessed value of improvements, buildings, fixtures and structures in existence at the time an abatement order is granted.
“Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit.” Refundable credit toowners of historic buildings (claimed against individual income tax, corporate franchise tax or dealers-in-intangibles tax), based upon expenses paid for rehabilitation of historic buildings.
— Laura A. Ephlin, of counsel, and Terrence S. Finn, partner, Roetzel & Andress LPA
Since I arrived at ID Images, our president, Brian Gale, has been telling us that we need to get better. He has provided us with training and resourcesto
improve. We worked with Medina County to implement a recycling program that reduced our landfill by approximately 2 tons per week. We have worked
with our partners to reduce waste throughout the supply chain. Every member of our team, in production and the office, has gonethrough lean training supported by the company.These initiatives have helped improve our productivity, reduce our waste and,most importantly, satisfy our customers.
— Tammy Bivins, production manager, ID Images
