World market jitters – wrought by the slow economic recovery from the 2008 Great Recession – recent have thrown into high relief the precarious state of the global economy. But a lesser known, seldom covered phenomenon is beginning to resonate above the turmoil: The relative success of incorporating environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investment criteria.

According to the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF), 720 investment funds, combining for $1.01 trillion in assets under management, now incorporate ESG criteria in their investment strategies, an increase of 78% over assets tracked in 2010. Meanwhile, a majority of large cap ESG funds – those which deal with companies valued in the billions of dollars – outperformed the S&P 500 over ten years.

Moreover, ESG itself continues to grow every year, moving away from simply screening out specific industries like tobacco and weapons, and towards “positive screening strategies” which target socially and environmentally responsible companies and sectors.

In fact, according to US SIF, of the $33.3 trillion in total assets under management in the U.S., $3.74 trillion, or 11.3% is invested following ESG criteria. To put it another way, nearly 1 out of every 9 dollars under professional investment in the U.S. is involved in some aspect of socially responsible and sustainable investing.

“Companies thinking about, for example, how to better manage pollution, or how to be more energy efficient, tend to be forward-thinking companies focused on the long-term,” notes Mike Smith of the Progressive Asset Management Group (PAM Group). “In short, they tend to have better management and better corporate governance. Better managed companies in turn tend to be more profitable which is reflected in their stock price.”

While the phenomenon might seem new, ESG has played an important role in global economics for centuries. Here in America, the Quaker community has been putting progressive values into economic practice since the 17th century. But even up until the 1980s and 90s, the prejudices against ESG tended to follow the same tired, misguided script: “It’s a hippie thing”; “if you invest that way you’ll have to sacrifice returns”; and the like.

Not so, says Mike Smith.

“People are waking up to the fact that none of that is true,” he says. “The more studies that come out reflecting the contrary, the more it becomes clear that these funds are on par with, and in some instances, outperform more traditional investments. You can follow your values with your investments and not have to sacrifice financial return.”

Still, Smith is quick to point out that even ESG is not totally immune to market volatility, touting a common sense approach towards managing a portfolio.

“We still need to use good basic investment strategies, like diversifying a portfolio, setting up a proper asset allocation, and looking carefully at risk parameters and timing before investing,” he says.

The diversity of ESG products certainly helps with performance numbers. Far from being limited strictly to stocks, ESG vehicles can include bonds, mutual funds, private equity – just to name a few. According to Smith, these can include vehicles such as “Build America Bonds” – created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – as well as community loan funds.

“Most community loan funds serve low-income communities, either domestically or internationally, and it’s interesting to see how the default rate on their loans is usually so low,” says Smith. “It’s great to see how most people in these low-income communities are diligent about paying these loans back and this can make these funds a reliable part of an ESG portfolio.”

Smith is a part of a group of investment advisors who are able to offer a “triple bottom line” investment approach – a “big picture” strategy which cites “people, planet and profits” as its chief focal points.

Founded in 1987 as the first investment firm to specialize in ESG, the PAM Group now serves as the socially responsible division of Financial West Group, providing a full range of socially and environmentally sustainable investment services including portfolio management, private placement opportunities, retirement planning, education funding and more.

Here on the Seacoast, the PAM Group’s Newmarket-based branch has taken that ethos to include bolstering the region’s growing green sector. In 2011, Smith and partner Hunter Brownlie became the sole investment company in the Green Alliance, the Portsmouth-based “green business union” which helps certify and promote sustainability-minded companies throughout the region.

For Smith, joining the organization only helped solidify his and Brownlie’s conviction that theirs was a customer base well-positioned to appreciate the PAM Group’s unique, forward-thinking approach.

“People in the Seacoast area tend to be progressive and to have an outlook that’s open to sustainable investing,” says Smith. “But even in parts of the region which are traditionally thought of as more conservative, people are beginning to recognize that socially and environmentally sustainable investments can also be fiscally responsible as they help identify hidden risks and liabilities which may have a negative impact on earnings, and in turn, stock performance.”

Global markets may have a ways to go before confidence and growth are fully restored. But for Mike Smith and the PAM Group, there are still plenty of companies out there heeding both of those clarion calls.

Call it “doing well by doing good.”

Mike Smith can be reached at msmith@fwg.com or 603-418-8662. He is a registered representative offering securities through Financial West Group, member FINRA/SIPC.

To learn more about Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz

For the folks at Jewett Farms + Co. (JF +Co.), a cabinetry, soapstone, and flooring outfit specializing in sustainable materials and design, the fit could scarce be more seamless.

Co-founded in 1999 by Mike Myers and Matthew Lord, JF +Co. has staked its subsequent claim on a traditional, quintessentially New England approach to the craft: Make the most of what you have, and always – always – make it beautiful.

For years, the company operated a pair of locations: a cabinet shop in York, Maine, along with their Newburyport design studio and showroom. But after expanding the York space no less than four times, in 2011 the team decided to lift stakes. After JF + Co. took over part of a century-old factory in Dover – necessary in order to house its growing business – the Newburyport showroom became the company’s signature showcase.

Complete with myriad displays highlighting JF +Co.’s steadfast commitment to beauty and precision, the showroom offers potential clients an opportunity to imagine a little slice of Yankee ingenuity in their own home.

“It’s a great way to display our work – work that we’re proud of,” said Olivia Lord, Marketing Director for JF +Co. “Here, the work speaks for itself – you can touch it, feel it, pull out the drawers, and really get a sense of how we create it.”

The breathtaking detail and peerless care exuded by JF +Co.’s inventory might be what helps make the singular sale, but if you ask Lord what makes her company’s space unique, the answer might surprise you.

“I think what’s really special about the space is how we use it to interact with the greater Newburyport community,” said Lord.

Beginning Thursday, May 16th, JF + Co. – in conjunction with local food event company Shindig – will be offering a monthly summer cooking series. Featuring locally grown produce from Tendercrop Farm, the series will allow participants to learn about, taste, and experience the flavor of local Newburyport businesses.

In years past, JF + Co.‘s Continuing Education Series – featuring tutorials on everything from earth-friendly insulation to floor refinishing and beyond, all conducted by local businesses – served as a kind of community clearinghouse for green issues in the industry.

That JF + Co. would lead the way on promoting industry sustainability should come as no surprise: From water-based and low-VOC paints and stains to paperless invoicing, partnerships with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to donating excess sawdust to local farms, the companies green reputation is one more than a decade in the making.

“We’re driven with quality and longevity firmly in mind, principles we consider very green,” said JF + Co. co-founder Mike Myers. “Beyond that the products we use are in many cases the best and greenest out there.”

JF + Co. lies less than a football field from the banks of the Merrimack, the sea-seeking river from which so much of the Seacoast’s unique heritage has spent centuries springing. But while the proximity might be a happy accident, JF + Co. are doing their part to assure that theirs is a fate inextricably tied to that of their adopted harbor city.

“It was our very first showroom, and we still think it gives people an intimate look at who we are,” said Lord. “It just feels like we fits in Newburyport.”

Jewett Farms + Co. is a Business Partner of Green Alliance, a Portsmouth-based organization that seeks to connect green-minded consumers with the businesses doing their part to lessen their environmental impact.

Learn more about JF + Co. at www.jewettfarms.com

For more information on Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz

By Alex Binder

While everyone has heard of global warming, not everyone has knowingly seen or felt its effects firsthand or on a traumatic, large scale. However, local artist Tim Gaudreaupoints out with his new art project that global warming is causing a large-scale effect on honeybees that many of us too quickly look past.

“Honeybees are a 65 million-year-old species and they are being killed off,” Gaudreau says. Honeybees pollinate one-third of the food we eat, including many fruits and vegetables.

So when the Center for Arts in Education at Boston Arts Academy called for artists to create work for its symposium, Catalyzing Conversations about Climate Change, Gaudreau had finally found the perfect opportunity to incorporate his love for honeybees with his art, and what he created is, at the very least, unique.

He decided to create an imaginary human pollinating company. His presentation involves a video of women acting as bee replacements and dancing as if they are pollinating plants. His program, (human) Biotic Entomophily Experts — or (h)B.E.E. — is a multidisciplinary, multimedia response to the provocation of the changed world of the not-so-distant future. He choreographs six costumed performers in a poetic gesture of pollinating plants by hand. The (h)B.E.E performance will be documented through photographs, sketches and a video presentation of the (h)B.E.E.s in action.

“I wanted to explore this idea of pollinator die-offs in a way that was provocative in order to get people to talk about it,” Gaudreau says of his piece. “I imagine the (h)B.E.E. job as being not just a practice of pollinating flowers, but also as a ritual and prestigious job.”

Gaudreau first presented his piece, though still in its beginning stages, at the Museum of Science in Boston in February.

He walked on stage with a room full of spectators and spoke in character as a CEO of the human bee pollinating company (Climate Change Solutions) as if pitching the idea to an audience of venture capitalists, after which he showed his video.

“For me, it’s taking the idea to an absurd point, but also doing this as a ceremonial and spiritual act. It’s a form of hope and a gestural dance,” Gaudreau says.

Gaudreau wants us to face our communal impacts on the environment and snap us out of the lull of normal daily life. “Bees are dying due to a combination of pesticide use and climate change, but the general public doesn’t understand what’s going on and what their role in this is.”

Typically, climate change is seen at the academic level, but Gaudreau wants the facts about it accessible to the average person so that more people realize how huge and negative its impacts truly are.

“When I concocted the project for this, I wanted to inspire talk about climate change and to help open people’s eyes to what is happening right in front of us,” he says. “And just from the first presentation in February, it has generated significant conversation.”

(Human) Biotic Entomophily Experts will be part of an exhibition at the George Marshall Store Gallery in York commemorating the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring opening June 8th. And the Boston Center for the Arts will host the next performance on Wednesday, May 26, as part of its Summer Institute.

Tim Gaudreau Studios is a business partner of the Green Alliance, a union of local sustainable businesses promoting environmentally sound business practices and a green co-op offering discounted green products and services to its members.

For more information about Tim Gaudreau Studios, visit www.timgaudreau.com.

Remember to use your Green Card and receive 10% off all photography, design and art services for Green Cardholders; 20% off, and one free hour of consultation, for Green Alliance Business Partners with Tim Gaudreau!

In the world of small business – where stress runs high and the margins can be razor thin – the blueprint might not seem so obvious. Which is what makes the model put forth by the husband and wife team of Dr. Jessica and Brian Caruso so inspiring.

The Carusos, who own and operate Healing Hands Community Chiropractic, have managed to grow their downtown Portsmouth office with a mix of old fashioned hard work, community outreach, and – increasingly – innovative partnerships with other area business owners.

The Carusos’ forthcoming Mother’s Day Special highlights that last point particularly well: Any active Healing Hands patient who is a mother and pays a visit for care on Wednesday, May 8th will receive coupons good for substantial discounts at three additional area businesses, as well as a complimentary gift from a fourth (while supplies last).

One free half-hour massage at Inner Truth Massage; 50% off a manicure at Mei Zen Spa; $25 off an acupuncture treatment from Natural Entities; and one free Gerber Daisy from Flowers by Leslie.

Not a bad return on an already relaxing investment.

Truth told, the Carusos’ strategy of local cross-promotion has been months in the making. Be it through their regular classes and tutorials, active involvement with the Chamber of Commerce, Catapult Seacoast or online avenues like Facebook, they have long made one-on-one engagement an important component to their own business’ foundation.

“The idea is to work together to try and get the other some extra exposure,” Dr. Jess said. “At the same time, it’s a great way to thank our patients by putting them in touch with people we feel they could benefit from working with.”

Caruso says the Mother’s Day promotion is part of a broader effort to incentivize active patients – those who have paid a visit in the last 30 days – to continue treatment. Called “Patient Perks,” the program will include a rotating group of discounts, many of which will coincide with popular holidays.

“We just launched a tab on our website, where patients can view what these extra perks are,” added Caruso.

The Carusos’ plan is to offer these seasonal promotions in addition to select “ongoing perks,” of which Inner Truth Massage is currently the lone cornerstone.

The relationship between the two businesses is an instructive one: Having moved into a space just across the second floor hall from Healing Hands, Tamar Thomas, owner of Inner Truth, found in Caruso a philosophical ally of sorts. The result was a common perspective – and proximity – tailor made for collaboration.

“I was a patient of Dr. Jess’s early on, so I was thrilled to find out that the office across the hall had opened up,” recalled Thomas. “Jess and I both really value the idea of preventive care – that choosing to be healthy shouldn’t be a privilege based on one’s financial situation.”

Similarly fed up with a health care industry that was no longer about the health and well being of patients themselves, Dr. Jess and Brian Caruso opened Healing Hands Community Chiropractic last September – their second location following their flagship Londonderry office, launched in 2006.

Inspired in a large part by a similar program spearheaded by the People’s Organization for Community Acupuncture (POCA), the Carusos chose to offer their services on a sliding scale, becoming the first chiropractic office in New England to institute such a model: $20-$40 per visit, and all without income verification.

Not only does the approach give patients the financial breathing room necessary to achieve improved health and wellness; it also helps establish a bond of patient-doctor trust so often lacking in today’s increasingly depersonalized medical world.

“We want the doctor-patient relationship to be a true partnership,” noted Caruso. “And we feel like that sense of collaboration and community is something they can take back out into the world.”

Now, the Carusos are broadening that commitment to community cooperation to include more business-to-business partnerships. They hope the result will be livelier, more robust Seacoast commerce – one where like-minded businesses and locally oriented consumers are encouraged to foster more genuine long-term relationships.

“I always think of the Mother Teresa quote, ‘I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples,” said Caruso. “That’s what the ‘community’ aspect of Community Chiropractic is all about.”

Not a chiropractic patient yet? Not a problem – you can easily book a new patient appointment by visiting http://www.HealingHandsCC.org.

According to the Office of Energy and Planning, New Hampshire currently spends $2.6 billion every year importing petroleum products. What’s more, over half of New Hampshire homes require conventional oil for heat.

Some would argue that Granite Staters – and New Englanders writ large – have little choice but to ride out the markets and hope for cheaper fuel in the future.

Not so, says Melissa Aho, owner of Barrington-based Ultra Geothermal.

“To say that oil is the only way amounts to a false choice,” says Aho. “We’re just failing to acknowledge that there are bountiful, clean resources right beneath our feet.”

Aho should know: to date, her company has installed over 800 systems in the Granite State alone – including 48 for the University of New Hampshire’s new student dorms back in 2009.

That doesn’t mean geothermal systems are cheap; in fact, they typically cost 20-30% more than standard fossil fuel systems.

Still, Aho maintains that down-the-road savings make it more than worth the initial cost – if a household is willing to make the initial investment.

“With oil so volatile and unpredictable, geothermal is becoming more relevant and making more sense as an option every day,” explains Aho. “And you don’t get the kind of corrosion with a geothermal system that can ruin a typical fossil fuel system.”

According to the EPA, geothermal systems can save homeowners 60-70 percent in heating costs, and 70-80 percent in cooling costs, compared to conventional systems. When gas hits the $3 a gallon threshold – prices at the pump here in New Hampshire are currently hovering around $3.60 – savings can be as high as 50-70 percent for a geothermal ground source heating system.

With a majority of geothermal systems being in the Midwestern U.S., New Hampshire’s unique, rocky geology can certainly present problems. That’s why Aho tends to recommend vertical closed-loop systems – or a standing column, open loop system – to her Granite State customers.
For all its inherent challenges, geothermal’s green credentials are impossible to ignore: The EPA has called the technology “the most energy-efficient, environmentally clean, and cost-effective space conditioning system available.” Needless to say, it’s a sentiment that Aho echoes wholeheartedly.

“Everything changed five years ago when we realized that – with the volatility of oil – there was a better and greener way,” recalls Aho. “So Ultra Geothermal opened and we immediately shifted our focus to be a heating company that promotes and installs ground source heating.”

Aho is quick to point out that New Hampshire residents can still take advantage of a sizable federal tax credit, which covers 30% of geothermal placed in service before December 31, 2016. That’s something that purveyors of fossil fuel-based systems can’t say – a differentiator Aho has worked hard to highlight.

“The fact that it’s an uncapped tax credit could be a huge selling point to a consumer who may be making the choice between a high efficiency natural gas system and a geothermal system,” says Aho. “I think the more people become aware of this tax credit opportunity and learn about its specific applicability to geothermal, it will definitely help drive acceptance of our technology.”

In 2011, Ultra Geothermal was one of just six New Hampshire businesses honored with a New Hampshire Business Magazine Lean & Green Award. For Aho, the award was a singular milestone in a journey nearly a decade in the making.

“In 2006, when I joined Ultra Heating & Cooling as an employee, we did about 30-50 percent of our business in geothermal,” Aho recalls. “I started getting phone calls from people interested in geothermal who found our website, and from there it just kind of took off.”

Today, Aho and Ultra Geothermal stand as a testament to the forward momentum gathered by the state’s growing green movement. While she admits green tech still has many a hurdle to scale, Aho is confident that the degree of difficulty – particularly with respect to convincing skeptical consumers – will only get easier.

“If oil prices continue to rise, the renewable energy industry will have a great response to try and fix things,” Aho said. “People respond to logic, and they respond to the pocketbook. As long as we can continue to make that case, the sky’s the limit.”

Learn more about Ultra Geothermal at www.ultrageothermal.com

For more info on Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz

For decades, Americans looking for more room and less congestion were wont to hitch wagon’s west, out of Eastern hubs like Metro Boston and New York and into the vast, distant suburban sprawl. In so doing, certain sacrifices were inevitably made, not the least of which was tight-knit towns and speedy commutes for space, space, and more space – and more time behind the wheel.

But the East Coast’s recent population comeback, reinforced in part by a vibrant repurposing of once-abandoned hubs (think mill buildings), has had another, ancillary effect: a slew of easily accessible town and country biking options for its increasingly outdoors-centric residents.
Likewise, a combination of rising gas prices and general environmental awareness has similarly sparked a growing appreciation for the activity’s more utilitarian advantages.

Perhaps nowhere are these practical needs better met than at EZ Bikes and Scooters, an Exeter-based business specializing in electric bicycles and scooters. Launched in 2009 by the husband and wife team of Tom and Teresa Hemenway, EZ Bikes offers models from manufacturers including Hebb, Ez Peddler, and Pedego, as well as a number of standard one or two-person bikes, three-wheelers, beachcombers, and gas-powered scooters.

With its small electric motor attached on the front wheel, EZ Bikes gives riders the option of peddling when conditions allow, while offering an easily activated electric throttle for steep inclines or unruly terrain.

In terms of function, they’re not unlike the moving walkways found in just about every major airport; some simply let the walkway carry them from point terminal to terminal, while others choose to walk along with it, thereby allowing them to move faster. The EZ Bike works in exactly the same way.

“For people out for a long pleasure ride or just getting back into a more intense routine, it’s the perfect option because it allows you to customize your experience,” explains Hemenway. “If you’re just out for an easy coast, you can do that. And if you’re out for some serious exercise, you can do that, too.”

What’s more, it only takes four hours to completely charge the battery. The result is a unique hybrid vehicle that allows the rider to burn beaucoup calories when necessary, while providing an easy, environmentally friendly way to get into town faster (they top out around 20 miles per hour). The lithium ion battery only takes 4 hours to fully charge, meaning you don’t have to worry about running up your electric bill preparing for your ride into town. Morover, being electric, their impact on the environment is miniscule – they consume about 1 kilowatt hour for every 100 kilometers and approach 2,000 miles per gallon – making them a truly revolutionary green machine of the future.

“No other commercially available vehicle comes anywhere close to that,” says Teresa Hemenway. “Particularly here in New England, where a lot of people live within a short drive of home, it’s the ideal way to commute.”

By offering a product line as broad as it is cutting-edge, Tom Hemenway is hoping to ignite something of an inspirational spark among the Seacoast’s biking agnostics – not unlike the one that inspired EZ Bikes. After discovering he had diabetes in 2009, Hemenway decided it was high time to pursue a healthier, more active lifestyle. However, after a long ride on his son’s 21-speed bike, Hemenway realized how difficult – and potentially demoralizing – that process could be. Having convinced himself there had to be a better way, late one night Hemenway happened upon a television advertisement for the then-infant eZee bikes.

“It sounds cliché, but it really did feel like a light bulb had gone off,” recalls Hemenway. “It seemed like the perfectly practical middle ground.”

Inspired anew, Hemenway immediately began researching electric bikes, at that point was still a relatively new phenomenon – particularly here in the U.S. He became so enamored with the EZ model that he decided to supplement his existing car audio business with a new electric bike startup at his Exeter headquarters.

Today, EZ’s is an inventory as impressively stocked as it is reflective of what Hemenway sees as a growing trend here in the U.S. And, with prices at the pump slated for yet another summer climb, he hopes more and more people will make good on their health-focused New Years resolutions by trying a climb of a different sort.

“I think we all appreciate how volatile gas prices have been, and how painful that can be,” says Hemenway. “With everything getting more expensive, and especially gas, I’m expecting to see a lot more scooters and bikes out this year.”

Whether your ride of choice is pure pedal-power or engine-ready, one thing is certain: When looking for biking haven broad in its offerings – whether through forest foliage crisply blazing, breezy sea-swept side roads, or winding boulevards of brick – few regions boast the broad appeal of our fair Seacoast. So long as one’s reason for biking, no matter where it falls on the motivational scale, stays true to that age old adage: It’s not about the destination, but the journey.

Learn more about EZ Bikes & Scooters at www.ezbikesandscooters.com
For more info on Green Alliance, go to www.greenalliance.biz

Carpenter ants. Dozens of them – and that’s just in plain view. Here in New England, ant infestation constitutes one of the most common pest problems, affecting some tens of thousands of households in New Hampshire alone and causing millions of dollars of damage nationwide.

Enter Tom Pray, founder of the Eliot-based Ecotech Pest Control and a degreed entomologist with over 25 years of experience in the field. Settling on the trade as much for the science as sheer insect fascination, Pray launched Ecotech in 2000 with the aim of helping homeowner’s beat back pest problems not through hard-hitting chemicals, but rather by managing the environment responsible for fostering that very infestation.

“People much prefer actual, scientifically-backed information over a sales pitch – it just makes them feel more comfortable with you as a business,” says Pray. “My customers
say that it’s because of that information that they’re empowered to do more themselves to help the program I lay out with them. It’s why we succeed.”

Carpenter ants in particular offer a bounty of educational fodder, owing in part to the specie’s uniquely intricate breeding habits. It also doesn’t hurt that, according to Pray, they remain by far the most reported pest problem in the Seacoast region.

“Once the phone starts ringing, it’s a pretty steady stream of distressed people,” notes Pray. “As soon as they get into your kitchen and start redecorating, it’s pretty hard to ignore.”

The infestation cycle begins with what’s known as “swarmer season.” Typically on the first real stretch of warm springtime days, a group of Carpenter ant queens – fresh off a winter of “fattening up” – will leave the nest to search out a males to mate with.

“Just about every nest in Northern New England will commence “swarming” within days of each other,” says Pray. “When the nest is in or near a residence, the home or building becomes an ideal nesting site for the propagation of hundreds or even thousands, of carpenter ants. Sometimes their numbers can be so overwhelming, people find them both outside and inside the house – usually the kitchen.”

Pray’s account ends with a stern warning: Ants aren’t just out for your food – they’re more than capable of doing real damage to a home’s structural integrity.

“Oh I can tell you some tales,” Pray says. “I had one guy a number of years back who was going outside one morning to enjoy his cup of coffee, and when he stepped out on the deck it just gave way. Luckily it was only a few feet off the ground, but the ants had single-handedly detached the deck from the house.”

Or the family whose sliding door came unhitched because of ant damage. Or the numerous homes whose owners don’t realize the pests have eaten away the window framing until Tom – summoned by a typically non-panicked request for his services following a casual encounter somewhere else in the house entirely – investigates the property a little further.

But if the ant’s propensity for propagation – to say nothing of its targeted destruction – amounts to a specie strength, it might also be its chief weakness: Carpenter colonies might include several nests scattered across multiple acres or property, but they behave essentially the same way. It’s that very predictability that Pray exploits with his low-impact program.

“An ant’s natural behavior is to forage in large areas, and that obviously includes outdoors,” explains Tom. “So we’ll do a walkthrough around the whole perimeter – inside and outside the house, to determine exactly what and where to treat in each environment. That process is unique to each customer.”

Pray expects the first “swarm” – and the requisite distressed dispatches – any week now, commencing a six-month stretch of battle with the insect world. It might sound daunting, but Tom wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s always a challenge, and you have to remember that you’re dealing with people’s livelihoods,” he says. “But it’s all worth it when you solve the problem and give someone back that peace of mind and the realization that something they thought was out of their control really isn’t at all – it’s totally in their control.”

Learn more about EcoTech at www.ecotechpc.net

For more information on Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz

If there was a criticism of the typical high school class, it might be that the learning experience is too often confined to the classroom.

But a recent initiative at Portsmouth High School (PHS) is aiming to change that.

Two years ago, a pair of members of the PHS science department – Dee Barrett and Kim McGlinchey – reached out to Peter Britz, the city’s chief Environmental Planner, about the possibilities for installing a rain garden.

Together, the three secured a grant from the Piscataqua Regional Estuary Partnership (PREP), a subsidiary of the University of New Hampshire. Britz was then able to procure matching funds from the city, which was used for excavation and grading of the garden.

Funding marshaled, the team reached out to Altus Engineering, a Portsmouth civil engineering with a robust background in municipal projects. While Altus’s range of undertakings is broadly impressive – and includes over 40 schools throughout the region – the company has always adhered to a constant pillar: making the project as eco-friendly as possible.

“Lessening environmental impacts has always been a chief tenant of ours,” said Eric Weinrieb, President of Altus. “With the PHS project, part of its purpose was to be an environmental teaching tool.”

Located adjacent to the football field, Portsmouth High School’s proposed rain garden –formally completed in the summer of 2011 – fits that ethos to a T. Boasting a host of plants native to the granite state, and shaped with the help of Terra Firma Landscaping, another Portsmouth-based company, the garden was and remains a beacon to local collaboration.

What exactly are rain gardens? In a nutshell, they’re planted depressions that help filter harmful elements and contaminants out of water runoff from man-made surfaces, curbing the number of pollutants reaching aquifers, rivers, and other water sources.

Not only are they cheaper than other, more complex storm-management systems; they can also lend desirable aesthetics to the landscape.
“What’s really neat about this project is that we can isolate an area, do treatment on it, then test the inflow and outflow regularly,” Weinrieb said. “That makes it a great science project for years to come.”

Weinrieb said that the project presented a great opportunity for the firm to continue its efforts in helping the city minimize its infrastructure’s environmental footprint.

“It was a great, collaborative effort, and everyone – including the Department of Public Works (DPW)– did their part,” exclaimed Weinrieb. “When everyone is all in like that, it makes the project that much more rewarding.”

Weinrieb reserved special praise for the High School’s Eco Club, a student-based organization founded in 2007 with the goal of finding ways to render the school more sustainable.

“The Eco Club was tremendous – just a lot of fun to work with,” he said.

Indeed, the organization has been garnering significant media attention of late: a few months ago, the group launched fundraising campaign to help spur the purchase and installation of an extensive solar photovoltaic (PV) system on the school grounds.

Helping marshal the Eco Club’s efforts was Dee Barrett, a long-standing science teacher and one of the school’s chief green proponents. Barrett says the rain garden offers not only myriad environmental aesthetic benefits, but practical ones as well.

“We’ve been taking water samples, looking for things like nitrogen, PH issues, dissolved oxygen, temperature – those kind of things,” Barrett noted. “It fits right into our ecology curriculum.”

Two years after first breaking ground, the PHS rain garden is still very much a work in progress. But as the school’s green orientation continues to evolve, Barrett sees the project as a uniquely practical avenue for encouraging green career paths amongst her students.

“It’s great to be able to go outside, use your hands, and use equipment that real scientists are using in the field,” Barrett said. “And we think the results that we get and share are going to be useful, both for the town and for the students looking to pursue these fields in the future.”

Learn more about Altus Engineering at www.altus-eng.com

For more info on Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz

“Thanks for seeing me on such short notice, Nathan,” I said, just two days after hurriedly booking my appointment with Pauline, the office receptionist.

“Thank Pauline,” replied Swanson. “I just show up – she fills the chairs.”

If you’d never met Swanson, such deflection might come off as equal parts humbleness and humor. Truth told, Dr. Swanson dishes both in equal measure.

To truly grasp what Swanson means, however, one need look no further than the office appointment book, where digital ink fills hour blocks for weeks on end. It’s been this way for a while now – the steady stream of patients, endless referrals, and non-stop bouts beneath the overhead lamps.

Not that Swanson is complaining – far from it. Business, after all, is business, particularly in a still-lingering economic recession.

“It’s not ideal to be booked out as far as we are, but we’ve been able to adjust – booking emergencies on the back end of a slower day, that sort of thing,” Swanson says. “What it comes down to is the challenge of balancing the business and the personal. That’s the real challenge.”

To combat backlogged books, Swanson will be bringing on a new dentist in May, a move that would help increase “chair time” by upwards of 25%.

So business is business – and better than no business – but that’s far too simple. Indeed, Newmarket Dental has grown and thrived precisely because business has never been both the means and the end. Rather, Swanson and his crew have hitched their fortunes to a trend long thought – incorrectly – to be antithetical to the bottom line: green.

When describing how eco-consciousness became such a promotional cornerstone, Swanson’s analogy is as vivid as it is harrowing:

“I started noticing how much garbage was piling up in the back of the medical complex just between a few offices. And then I multiplied that out by the fact that there are 5 similar complexes in the city of Exeter alone. Then I multiplied that out by how many there were in the state, the country, and the world. Basically it was like one of those scenes in the movie where the camera pans out Google Earth-style super far and you recognize and appreciate the true scope of the scene.”

For Swanson, the issue of waste was the first – and in some ways the easiest – step in becoming a truly green dentist. From here he began looking at the actual tools of the trade; the toothbrushes, floss, seat covers, and other dental ephemera familiar to most.

He replaced the old toothbrushes with a 100% recyclable and bio-degradable alternative (made from recycled Stonyfield yogurt cups, no less); switched from plastic seat covers to corn-based slip covers; bid adieu to run-of-the-mill plastic cups in leiu of corn-based cups; and even switched to a dental floss whose container was recyclable.

CFL lighting, a completely digital X-ray and record-filing system – the list goes on. Even the office’s lab work – a combination of crowns, dentures, night guards, and other wares that add up to 30% of Newmarket Dental’s total business – is sent to either Candia or Exeter, rather than “bargain basement” labs in Florida or Utah, helping keep the office’s carbon footprint low and more money in the local economy.

In 2009, Newmarket Dental was one of the first businesses – and first of its kind – to join Green Alliance, a Portsmouth organization that connects green-minded consumers with local businesses doing their part to reduce their environmental footprint.

Swanson first decided to join the GA for its unique range of marketing services – publish-ready stories, social media, public relations, and the like – but soon found that the organization’s consumer membership, which grants a card-bearer exclusive discounts to all member businesses, was generating a growing windfall of new customers.

“We get new GA customers in here pretty much every month,” Swanson notes. “Which is a pretty good sign that people are starting to look beyond the low hanging fruit of green and starting to look to the less obvious ways to be more sustainable.”

Swanson says he’s seen his industry make significant green strides over the last few years, a trend he attributes to a combination of improving price parity and a growing general awareness that going green is less an added cost than future-oriented investment.

“It’s still not always the cheapest route, but it’s definitely gone from the fringes into the collective conscience,” Swanson says. “So staying ahead of that curve means staying up on things that people aren’t doing yet.”

In a recessionary economy, having a proven product or trustworthy service can mean the difference between swimming and sunk. The long days might seem a temporary nuisance, but for Nathan Swanson, it’s all a sign that the ship is headed in the right direction.

Learn more about Newmarket Dental at www.newmarketdental.net

For more info on Green Alliance, go to www.greenalliance.biz

During his State of the Union Address on February 12th, President Obama highlighted this very issue, citing studies showing that “fewer than three in 10 four-year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program,” owing to a lack of both resources and access the country over.

It’s a conundrum Little Tree Education hopes to address when the self-described “Montessori-based infant, toddler, and pre-school” officially opens its doors to the public later this spring.

On March 9th and 16th (from 9am to 1pm), Little Tree will play host to a pair of Open House events aimed at giving local families a first hand look into a model of progressive early childhood education more than five years in the making.

As a full-time professional – and mother of two – Little Tree Owner Sarah Greenshields has long maintained an interest in striking the best possible balance between professional commitments on the one hand, and how to assure her own charges were receiving the best, most nurturing supervision possible on the other.

“Raising children is the hardest job there is,” says Greenshields. “We understand that challenge posed to modern families and the high educational expectations and time expectations they have. Which is why we want them to have the highest quality care possible, so they know they’re children are being taken care of and learning.”

Greenshields was first introduced to the Little Tree model while living in Bozeman, Montana a few years back – before her family decided to move back East. It was here that Greenshields first met Callie Glanzer, who had founded Little Tree’s flagship location in 2007.

Through providing a more “engaged, creative, and educationally nurturing alternative to infant and toddler day care,” Glanzer was shaping the foundation for what Greenshields sees as a genuine movement in earl childhood education.

“We want it to be a genuinely child-driven curriculum, where kids have a place to call their own,” she says.

As with its Bozeman predecessor, Little Tree – located on Route 108 in Madbury – will provide three distinct classrooms for infants and toddlers up to three years of age. Rather than serve exclusively as a day care, Little Tree will provide what Greenshields calls a “day-long an interactive, natural environment featuring child-sized furniture, and plenty of stimulating toys and activities.”

For parents, Little Tree will offer innovative tutorials on a whole host of topics, from scratch-made own baby food to infant yoga, all provided by a network of professional educators and community experts.

“Our resources are designed to help make education a true community affair,” says Greenshields. “Just because we’re parents doesn’t somehow mean we stop learning.”

What’s more, Greenshields says her school’s curriculum will be conducted “above and beyond” state class size requirements, a strategy she stresses will mean more one-on-one attention – and thus more learning opportunities – for her school’s budding scholars.

With most of the furniture moved in and the near 80-year-old building up to both code and aesthetic par, Greenshields is beyond eager to open Little Tree’s doors to what she sees as a growing community clamor. Upon moving from Bozeman to the Seacoast back in 2011, Greenshields says she was surprised by the lack of early educational options – particularly in a region renowned for its forward-thinking attitudes. Needless to say, it didn’t take long for the light bulb to spark.

“The thing we keep hearing from community members again and again is, ‘it’s refreshing that this area had this kind of option now,’” Greenshields notes. “And because we’ll be offering preschool as well, parents can rest assured that they continue on at Little Tree even after they get to be a little older.”

With study after study pointing to the benefits to be had by countries committed to educational investment, America’s relatively laissez-faire approach to early childhood development has resulted in a bevy of crystal clear crises, from lower test scores to stagnant social mobility and myriad maladies in between.

Sarah Greenshields understands America’s education crisis won’t – and can’t – be solved overnight. But that’s not stopping her from sewing the seeds she can, in the hopes that today’s sprouts might one day honor her school’s growth-affirming namesake.

“Our biggest goal is to become an integrated part of the community,” says Greenshields. “We think it really does take a village to raise a child, and we want to be that village for local families.”

Little Tree Education is a Business Partner of Green Alliance, a Portsmouth organization that seeks to connect sustainability-minded consumers and businesses. The GA represents over 100 businesses, offering discounts to all of them to their 3,000 consumer members.

Learn more about Little Tree Education by clicking here!

For more information on Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz