| Ideal Recycling of Southfield recycled 12 tons of asphalt shingles in 2009. |
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Ideal Recycling
Southfield
www.idealrecylinginc.com
Ideal Recycling is a professional recycler of clean asphalt shingles and other building materials, dedicated to providing convenient service and reducing the volume of waste in landfills. The company’s focus is on providing value and service to haulers, roofers, contractors and do-it-yourself customers. The company accepts shingles from homes, apartments and condos. Using a sophisticated grinding machine to grind the tear-off asphalt roof shingles in a three-step process, the result is a product with the texture of coffee grounds. The company then sells the product to asphalt companies for use in hot-mix asphalt for paving projects. Recycling shingles is an economical alternative to dumping them in landfills, Ideal officials say. Additionally, each ton of recycled shingles reduces the need for roughly two barrels of oil, an ingredient in liquid asphalt. Between 2008 and 2009, the company doubled the volume of asphalt roof shingles it recycled, from six to 12 tons. Yet its services can sometimes be a tough sell. “Educating contractors and homeowners about the option of recycling shingles rather than filling our landfills has been one hurdle we have had to overcome. We have had to teach them to segregate shingles from other roofing materials so that they can be reused,” says Todd Foster, partner. Recycling shingles with Ideal is more economical than taking them to a landfill, which can cost $35 to $50 per ton in Michigan. Ideal Recycling charges a per-ton tipping fee of $18 to $20.
Key Green Solutions
Grand Rapids
www.keygreensolutions.com
Key Green Solutions’ Web-based software is making it simpler for organizations to manage sustainability. The company’s software gives insight into the bottom line of many areas that affect facility performance, providing an enterprise or individual facility the ability to see real performance. Essentially the software allows the company’s customers to save time, money and the environment in the following ways: calculating GHG emissions, tracking energy consumption and costs, tracking LEED certification, managing projects for facility operations management, managing sustainability programs, communicating sustainability program progress through scorecards to executive leadership, promoting safer chemicals and products through a project management module, reporting on composting programs, tracking and managing GHG reduction from transportation, tracking all waste streams through integrated waste management and tracking and managing water-use reduction. Becoming a green company is now a priority for the company itself. “Since we offer sustainability software solutions for our customers, it is important for our company to be green, too. When our customers are implementing green practices, then it is essential that we do too,” says Jeff Burks, relationship manager. He adds, “The most rewarding part is when our sustainability management software is able to show our customers how they have reduced costs, both in dollars and to the environment. For example, customers can now see what they have avoided sending to the landfill and the net benefit to them in terms of money saved.”
The Kirlin Company
Detroit
www.kirlinlighting.com
“The strength and breadth of interest in green technologies is global. Customers, vendors, salespeople, public and private companies and citizens have a strong desire to reduce energy consumption and their impact on the environment — all of which makes our corporate mission easier and more rewarding,” says Andrew Galsterer, senior marketing manager of The Kirlin Company in Detroit. The company was founded in 1895 and has been a leader in high-performance, energy-efficient and innovative specification-grade lighting for commercial, institutional, health care, residential, vandal-resistant and maximum-security markets. Kirlin offers hundreds of recessed, surface and wall bracket down lighting luminaries designed around high-efficiency compact fluorescent, HID, LED and induction sources. Kirlin believes its success at green endeavors is due to a commitment to overcoming the challenges of staying on top of the latest green technologies available (including energy-efficient lighting sources and environmentally friendly materials) and remaining innovative and nimble enough to incorporate the latest green technologies into high-quality and high-performance products for customers.
LSL Planning Inc.
Royal Oak
www.lslplanning.com
As a sustainable community planning firm, LSL Planning Inc. is continually promoting green policies and actions to support the use of alternative energy, increased community walkability, mixed-use and transit-oriented development, reduced emissions, low-impact storm water management techniques and reduced urban sprawl. “We incorporate green best practices into zoning ordinances, comprehensive plans and transportation plans for our client communities. We provide education and leadership to municipalities, explaining ways to reduce energy, support alternative land use design and encourage private investment in green projects,” says Bradley Strader, president and managing partner. Two of the company’s 12 planners are LEED-accredited professionals who have been proactively researching the issue and developing implementation tools that will support the movement. One such product is a future sustainability audit, where communities can complete a self-assessment checklist to help reveal needed regulatory policy changes. “As with most emerging concepts, seeing results takes time. The key challenge is educating resistant citizens, officials and developers, so they can understand the benefits of such policies. Education about the long-term financial and social paybacks of green policies is especially effective in counteracting common misconceptions. As a community planning consulting firm with offices in three states and projects throughout the country, LSL’s network of contacts allows us to share case studies and success stories with other clients to help build support. We also offer occasional ‘brown bag’ training for our staff and clients on such topics as LED lighting alternatives and porous pavement,” says Strader.