Greening The Backshop

Nor is he content to leave his green efforts there. He’s currently considering options to deal with shop waste, and would like to start offering landscapers different colored gravel made from drops and remnants of granite, as well as the travertine he’s recently begun importing.

Of course, if the travertine operation grows enough to require its own warehouse, “We may put solar panels on the roof there, too,” he says. “We’re taking a new step every day.”

In retrospect, Pickitt says his biggest regret with his solar project is that both he and Tejas weren’t more knowledgeable when he first starting working on his idea back in 2009. More knowledge would have made the initial project go faster, although he says it’s an area where a lot of people are still learning.

That aside, his advice to other shops who are thinking about adding solar panels: go ahead and do it as quickly as possible.

“It’s not just the obvious benefits,” Pickitt concludes. “The increased interest in solar panels makes your customers lean more towards your shop. They’re sharing in the excitement with us, and they want to do business with us.”

MODEST MAKEOVER

ST. LOUIS – Sander Coovert, owner of Absolute Tile & Stone, is taking a slightly less-flashy approach to going green. And, he made sure the experts came to him.

Coovert, who started in business in 1999, explains that his green efforts came about through his membership in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), an Alexandria, Va.-based group made up of more than 7,300 business owners in 42 countries.

Click photo to enlarge“As part of that organization I get exposed to thought leaders with regard to business, and also on family and personal issues,” he explains. “One of the business leaders I’ve been fortunate to hear on numerous occasions is a guy named Verne Harnish, ‘the Growth Guy’ who wrote a book called Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.”

Harnish also publishes a weekly online newsletter, which offered a link to the monthly business makeover” feature in Fortune Small Business magazine. Coovert applied and was chosen as the subject tor its April 2009 green issue. (The magazine ceased publication later that year; you can see a video of the report here.)

“They wanted to help a small manufacturing firm such as ours do better in that category,” he says, adding, “Often times we have to reach outside of our industry and outside of our network to get these kinds of opportunities.”

Once Coovert and Absolute were chosen, the magazine arranged for three St. Louis-based experts to visit his shop and look at various aspects of his operation.

“Had I done some research, I probably could have found the experts myself,” he says. “They have local companies and they’re involved with green initiatives here in St. Louis. However, this came to a head at the same time as my desire to take advantage of the marketing aspects of being green, as well as the ability to sleep better at night by being more conscious of the environment.”

All three offered advice; Coovert acted on some of it, but he’s still weighing other suggestions.