Lizard Skins of Orem was featured in the report for their "innovative and great green practices." The company manufactures sport biking accessories.
"We don't really like this phrase 'go green,' because that is a fixed destination," said Leli Fotu, who presented the report at the recent Recycling Coalition of Utah annual conference, which was held in Provo. "Being green is a process. It is a process of gradual trial and error and sustainable commitment. We are being green, not going green. What we hope is that people will go to this report and be inspired by these messages, and see the lessons learned, the dos and don'ts."
Brian Fruit, owner of Lizard Skins, said he never intended to be part of the green movement, but one day he got a letter from a customer "pretty much calling me an ecoterrorist." That letter prompted him to change his ways.
"We are in a green industry," he said. "We had to kind of relook at everything we are doing. We felt like we were being very green, but we weren't telling anybody."
Forgetting to take the time to tell your customers about the things you are doing to be environmentally responsible is a common business failure, he said. The company uses organic soy-based inks and sustainably sourced paper for its packaging. They installed efficient lighting and started company-wide recycling, which reduced by up to 70 percent the amount of trash they were paying to haul away. They put 39 solar panels on their building at a cost of $35,000.
"It works great but it is a slow payback," he said. Daily Herald
