Congratulations to Fall 2021 SCALE UP Cohorts 5 and 6
In Fall 2021, SCALE UP Cohorts 5 and 6 came together to participate in the 6-week sustainability project planning series to share knowledge and resources to help each of them achieve efficiency savings and add to our growing network of green businesses. After coming together, each participant is launching a unique project that addresses energy, water, waste, and/or transportation in their operations alongside commitments to environmental and community stewardship. Here is a sneak peek of the participants and the projects they are launching here in Arizona!
Is your business or nonprofit ready to launch a transformational sustainability project? Please reach out to Nick Shivka, Sustainability Program Manager - nick@localfirstaz.com to learn more and get started!
Cohort 5
Historic 4th Avenue Coalition (HFAC)
About
Historic Fourth Avenue Coalition (HFAC) is a coalition of neighborhoods, business owners, individuals, and nonprofits united in a mission to preserve the unique identity of Historic Fourth Avenue and the surrounding areas while promoting smart, sustainable growth that will benefit the district and Tucson as a whole. Through resources, equitable housing and business solutions advocacy, accountability through community benefits agreements, and other initiatives, HFAC offers a broad long-term vision of what development can look like in Tucson and how that development can and must benefit the community.
How They Scale Up
The members of HFAC are creating a cohesive project roadmap and asset map for the Historic Fourth Avenue Corridor that considers immediate and long-term community needs through the lens of localism and sustainability with input from residents, business owners, and organizations. Priorities of the plan include assessing the needs of over 60 businesses in the downtown area affected by road closures, working with Pima County and City of Tucson to create shaded cooling corridors, public restrooms, water fountains, and additional lighting to improve safety and quality of life, while creating a community that is vibrant, walkable and not reliant on car traffic to drive business.
Image Craft
About
Since 1979, Image Craft has been providing customers with photo reproduction services, expert large format printing, installation, and quality customer service. Located in Phoenix, Image Craft also offers wall coverings, framing, retail and hospitality image solutions, arena and venue graphics, soft fabric signage, tradeshow booth and display exhibits, fleet and vehicle graphics, along with project and marketing support for branding and advertising campaigns.
How They Scale Up
While serving clients in Arizona and nationwide, as a Local First Arizona member Image Craft knows the importance of localized impact and is engaging in a comprehensive landscaping and infrastructure project that will save nearly 1 million gallons of water annually. Current landscaping will be converted into Sonoran vegetation that is low-water use, drought-tolerant, and provides ecosystems for pollinators and other beneficial species. Green infrastructure in the form of rain gardens will capture previously diverted rainwater to feed into the landscaping, saving nearly $10,000 annually on water. Image Craft will also be renovating their parking lot by adding photovoltaic shade covers to regulate ambient temperatures and provide supplemental renewable energy to the facility.
Mission Church
About
Mission Church is a community minded Christian church located in the Arroyo Chico neighborhood of Tucson that intentionally adheres to the historic Christian faith and gospel while engaging with people of different viewpoints, the neighborhoods and city that members live and work within, and those who have been hurt by the church. Mission Church is accessible, offering their sermons in-person and online, along with a suite of podcasts and video content, and active, stewarding the Arroyo Chico neighborhood and surrounding communities through project-based work and volunteer opportunities.
How They Scale Up
The members and leadership of Mission Church are engaging in an extensive resilience, sustainability, and beautification project within the Arroyo Chico neighborhood. After hosting community listening sessions to determine the needs of the community, Mission Church is taking action to cool the neighborhood, capture stormwater runoff, and reduce flooding through native tree and plant landscaping, street side rainwater basins and a traffic circle basin projected to capture 89k gallons of water to native trees that will provide wildlife habitat and more than 10,000 ft² of new shade cover. The project also includes traffic calming devices in 2 key areas that will dramatically protect human life and encourage the safe use of streets, and creating a plan to make energy, water, and landscaping improvements to multi-family housing in the neighborhood. Mission Church plans on collaborating with community partners including the Sunshine Mile, Sustainable Tucson, the Arroyo Chico Neighborhood, and the City of Tucson to amplify their project’s impact and develop a model for future neighborhood regeneration efforts.
“A” Mountain Venture
About
A Mountain Venture is a new design / build company that is collaborating with local businesses and communities in Tucson to make future sustainable housing developments affordable, accessible, and an avenue for building generational wealth within families.
How They Scale Up
A Mountain Venture is developing a framework for constructing housing in Tucson that is in the top 10% for building performance and livability in Arizona. Some features of the framework include: using natural and locally available materials that are more energy and water efficient than conventional materials, and considerations for the well-being, health, and equity of residents, those involved in the building process, and the surrounding environment.
LANstar
About
Founded in 2000, LANstar provides IT support, VoIP telephones, cloud solutions, cabling, and almost any other type of IT and communication service for Arizona’s small and mid-sized businesses. They have a proven track record developing personalized data and communication solutions for small offices and medical practices up to large industrial projects and leading manufacturers. All expertise is retained in-house so businesses know they are partnering with an organization that won’t “sub-out” the work or push them towards a particular software or hardware platform.
How They Scale Up
The folks at LANstar are interested in improving the overall sustainability of their company, while helping the businesses and clients they work with do the same. Because LANstar is an IT and communications company, they are uniquely aware of the life cycle of technology solutions and will be developing a program to recycle older electronics and equipment properly, while helping their clients to do the same. This will prevent hazardous materials from entering the landfill and save usable materials and precious metals for recycling and remanufacturing into new components. LANstar will be auditing their energy, water, and emissions to benchmark their operations and plan for retrofits that will reduce resource use.
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ)
About
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's (ADEQ or commonly DEQ within the state) mission is to protect and enhance public health and the environment in Arizona. To achieve this, the agency administers the state’s environmental laws and delegates federal programs to prevent air, water and land pollution and ensure cleanup. ADEQ carries out several core functions: planning, permitting, compliance management, monitoring, assessment, cleanups and outreach.
How They Scale Up
ADEQ has achieved many awards over the years. ADEQ is now developing a Corporate Sustainability Toolkit to support the sustainability practices in the operations of businesses across Arizona. This comprehensive tool kit is intended to encourage organizations of all sizes to help frame sustainability strategies and goals.
Cohort 6
Sun Produce Specialties
About
Sun produce Specialties is a Phoenix based food distributor working with farmers from Arizona, California, and Mexico. Their goals in the SCALE UP program included eliminating food waste, recycling and diverting as much cardboard and plastic as possible, and increasing warehouse energy efficiency and fleet efficiency.
How They Scale Up
Sun Produce Specialties has made transformational changes through SCALE UP. During the 6-week program, they partnered with a pig farm to divert all of their unsold produce for animal feed, resulting in keeping approximately 600-700 pounds of food waste per week from the landfill. Through the same partnership they have also been able to recycle their cardboard which used to take up the bulk of their garbage output. This gigantic reduction in waste has benefitted the culture of sustainability within the Sun Produce workplace and created new connections among local food businesses while reducing strain on the sanitation system. If this weren't enough, Sun Produce was also able to replace 4 of their large refrigerated box trucks with 4 sprinter-style vans, reducing distribution time and resulting in a 42% reduction in fuel costs alone (nearing $2,500 in monthly savings); a 50% reduction in their need for motor oil, and lower maintenance and labor costs, plus more downtime. Finally, they have planned to purchase at least 3 all-electric transit vans, which will result in an increased benefit to efficiency, local air quality, and costs. In the future, Sun Produce will continue this meteoric green trajectory by installing more efficient insulation, and new and improved compressors for food refrigeration. They are also considering pivoting to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, bolstering their already commendable commitment to the community and the planet.
Cave Paper
About
Cave Paper is an independently owned handmade paper production studio operating since 1994, dedicated to making decorated sheets of high quality paper for use by artists, bookbinders and all types of designers. The studio has operated in Tucson for over a year, and uses flax and cotton fibers to create its paper, each sheet unique.
How They Scale Up
Cave Paper joined SCALE UP with the main goal of reducing water use by recapturing greywater for outdoor irrigation and possibly installing a rainwater harvesting system. The owner of the studio, Zoë Goehring, already captures around 150-200 gallons of water per sheet forming cycle for use in residential landscaping using a bicycle-transported tank, but wants to increase that savings and capture as much water as possible throughout the papermaking process. Through SCALE UP, Zoë was able to meet with local water savings experts to create a project plan to recapture up to an additional 2,000 gallons of water per week for storage in cisterns. Cave Paper is working with Tucson Water to audit and assess their system, and in the long term plans to process the recaptured gallons to reuse back at the start of the papermaking process.
Highwire Lounge
About
A premier cocktail venue in the heart of downtown Tucson specializing in cutting edge molecular mixology and amazing craft creations, Highwire Lounge features an outdoor courtyard with architecture harkening back to Tucson’s historic roots. Highwire is also a strong contributor to a thriving local economy, inviting local small businesses to be featured in monthly pop-up markets.
How They Scale Up
Highwire Tucson is engaging in a comprehensive project that will dramatically improve their performance, reduce their resource use, and benefit the downtown Tucson community. They have engaged in an intensive water audit to implement water conservation features that includes retrofitting sinks, toilets, and other water fixtures, along with rainwater harvesting infrastructure to provide 100% of the water for their landscaping and neighboring businesses downtown. Highwire is also phasing out petroleum-based plastics for plant-based alternatives and starting a Green Team within their dedicated staff to implement and monitor sustainability initiatives and projects within the business moving forward.
ASU Circular Living Lab
About
Beginning with plastics, the ASU Circular Living Lab is a micro factory that is diverting waste from the landfill and remanufacturing it into durable products and building materials. Originating as a student-led applied research solution, the ASU Circular Living Lab has become a collaborative effort between multiple organizations among ASU’s Tempe Campus and Polytechnic Campus in Mesa to create a closed-loop circular system that eliminates “waste” and contributes to the local economy.
How They Scale Up
The ASU Circular Living Lab is developing a ground-breaking grassroots recycling program for locally-owned businesses to divert their plastic waste to be assured that they will be remanufactured into durable goods and building materials. Their plan includes developing an inventory of local businesses, their common plastic waste streams, and determining the impacts of tons of plastic diverted away from the landfill along with the emissions, energy use, and water use they can avoid by remanufacturing vs creating new products from virgin plastic.
Check out examples of other participants and their projects!
Do you work for, own, or know a business or nonprofit in Arizona that is thinking about sustainability? Interested in joining us for our next cohort of SCALE UP? Reach out to nick@localfirstaz.com or check out www.localfirstaz.com/scale-up to learn more.