County plants seeds

for ‘green business’
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but the county hopes “going green” will generate more green in the local economy.

The Watauga County Economic Development Commission introduced its “green business plan” to the county commissioners Monday.

Appalachian State University graduate student David Ponder said he’d been working on the plan since the fall.

“It’s a voluntary, market-driven plan,” Ponder said, which would be a first step in promoting the area’s identity as being environmentally conscious and enhancing its business reputation. Ponder said participation would provide those businesses a competitive advantage.

An evaluation process would look at how each participating business handled various conservation practices.

Businesses would be scored on those areas and then get “star” numbers and pursue various levels of certification. They would then be able to share in marketing and promotion opportunities, including a GREEN Business Plan Web site.

Ponder said “early adopters” would be certified beginning next year, including local builders, restaurants and retail businesses and expanding to offices. The plan will be formally launched on Earth Day, April 20, with a goal of 100 participating businesses by that time.

The county would need to develop a long-term approach to the program, embracing recycling, solid waste management, resource conservation, and other checklist items, Ponder added.

The “Green Business Plan Scorecard” rates businesses on eight different measures: regulatory compliance, solid waste management, environmentally and socially responsible purchasing, energy conservation and efficiency, water conservation and quality, promoting and protecting natural and cultural resources, alternative transportation and community involvement and leadership.

The plan said, “As many of the measures save resources and reduce consumption, they result in lowering operating costs, which boosts profitability and frees up cash flows for business investments. Moreover, recognition of environmental and community leadership engenders existing-customer loyalty and attracts new business.”

“It’s the right time and the right place,” commissioner Mary Moretz said. “The people of this county really value this idea.”

Lisa Doty, the county’s recycling officer, said adoption of a state law linking recycling to alcohol permits would boost glass and plastic recycling. The law takes effect Jan. 1, and Doty said she’s been working with local businesses to prepare for the deadline. She’s also developing educational programs for the schools and assessing the county government’s internal recycling practices.

Doty said some streamlining and outreach would enhance the county’s recycling rates, noting that the county’s convenience sites didn’t have signs promoting recycling. She has been working with the Zero Waste Committee and said the waste collection and recycling sites could be spruced up.

The county’s Tourism Development Authority reported increasing revenues from the local room tax. TDA chairman Rob Holton said the board had put in a lot of “long hours” planning tourism promotion ideas and introduced Jared Everett, who was hired as a part-time employee of the TDA. Tourism funds will also be used to develop a Web site, which Holton said should be online by April or May, and an ad would run in U.S. Airways magazine and would reach five million people.

In the first four months of this year, occupancy-tax revenues were up more than $40,000 over the same period the preceding year. In the first fiscal year of the room tax, the TDA collected $728,000. Under state statute, two-thirds of the money must be used for tourism promotion while one-third can be used for capital improvements designed to enhance tourism and attract visitors.

Holton said the county should develop a comprehensive approach to getting easements for access points to greenways and trails.

“The county is at the point, we feel, where we have a standardized agreement,” he said, noting that trails and connections should fall under the same legal language. The TDA is publishing a book on county biking trails and possible signs for the bike routes.

The TDA maintains offices across from the courthouse in downtown Boone and is using two graduate assistants from Appalachian State University who each work 20 hours a week.

From July to October, the county collected $368,000 from a 6-percent tax on short-term lodging rentals in unincorporated areas. Holton said the TDA is exploring ideas to boost Christmas visitor numbers for the choose-and-cut season after Thanksgiving weekend.

The county’s Economic Development Commission has also supported the opening of a business incubator and development center at the Human Services Center in Boone. The full building should be ready early next year and will house small businesses, economic development efforts and entrepreneurship programs.