Joe Phelps Champions Eco-Friendly Practices at His Santa Monica Business Building
When you look at the Phelps Group’s headquarters from thousands of feet above Ninth Street in Santa Monica–think Google Maps’s satellite view–it’s easy to overlook that building’s recent transformation and dismiss its contributions. The six-story, 21,000-sq.-ft. building on Wilshire is literally one among thousands of grayish, two-dimensional polygons differentiated only by shape’most are rectangles; fewer are squares. Barely discernible are the hundreds of photo-voltaic cells now churning near-constant Southern California sunlight into electricity. And completely invisible at this height are the hundreds of little ways that Pacific Palisades resident Joe Phelps’ 27-year-old marketing and PR firm has reevaluated and then fine-tuned its daily practices–both big and small–toward becoming more environmentally friendly: Among a long list of changes that began October 2006, the company’s specifically-purchased energy-efficient dishwasher is only used for full loads. Small recycling bins are placed next to the desks of its 60 employees to make recycling as easy as possible. Employees who live close by are encouraged to bike; associate employees are asked to telecommute; others are encouraged to use public transportation. The company instructs employees to set computers on ‘sleep mode’ after 15 minutes of non-use, and it orders organic and fair-trade coffees. Catering companies, which deliver meals twice per week, were asked to replace Styrofoam containers with eco-friendly ones. The company now uses less toxic cleaning materials, and when it uses limos, it requests hybrid or natural-gas-powered ones. And what hasn’t already been done is in the works, including plans to replace its current urinals with low- or even no-water alternatives. In November, the state’s chief environmental advisor Terry Tamminen and the Santa Monica City Council saluted the Phelps Group for its environmental initiatives, even calling it the city’s ‘largest solar champion.’ But for Phelps, a soft-spoken, 58-year-old who first moved to Friends Street in the Palisades in 1985, the award was flattering but also a sobering reminder of how anemic and under-prepared property owners are when it comes to environmental practices. ‘There were 84 kilowatts of solar power systems created last year [in Santa Monica],’ Phelps says. ‘I think we installed a 64-kilowatt system’that’s more than 75 percent of all solar here, and Santa Monica is one of the greenest cities in America. The fact that we were the biggest one in the city surprised me.’ Phelps is, admittedly, a late-blooming environmentalist, whose eco-awakening had more to do with costs and benefits than some inherent commitment to being ‘green’ for the sake of it. About four years ago, he says, the eco-friendly practices of some his clients, like Whole Foods Markets and Monrovia Nursery, first convinced him of the benefits of being green. Motivated by their examples, he, his wife Sylvia, his daughter Emilie, and Phelps employee Kristen Thomas began looking for ways to follow their example. Eventually, they hired nonprofit Sustainable Works to suggest concrete ways the company could become environmentally friendly. The largest, and perhaps most far-reaching, idea to emerge from those discussions was the decision by Phelps and his wife to invest $450,000 in solar cells, which have a 20-year life expectancy. The long-term savings of the investment are worth the cost, Phelps says. ‘If fuel prices remained constant, we’d break even on the investment in 10 years,’ he says. ‘Fuel prices are definitely going to go up, so I thought it’s definitely going to break even sooner than 10 years. If something’s got a 10-year or less break-even, I’m going to do it’that’s a slam-dunk!’ Phelps estimates that the panels produce as much as 30 percent of the building’s energy, but because utility prices increase at an increasing rate of usage, the benefits are even larger. ‘When you take a third off of your energy usage, you’re decreasing your bill by as much as 50 percent of your [energy] costs.’ Beyond the savings to the Phelps Group, the environmental savings are big, according to California Green Designs, which installed the cells: California Green estimates that over a 25-year period, Phelps’ solar cells will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 378,348 pounds, consume 7,572 fewer barrels of oil and 6,576 fewer pounds of coal and save 50 acres of planted trees. The group projects that the cells will save the company $31,000 per year, averaged over a 30-year period. And the replacement of the building’s incandescent bulbs and halogen floodlights with fluorescent alternatives saved the company approximately $8,000 last year alone. Phelps hopes that other businesses, including ones that he represents, will follow his company’s lead in the same way that the Phelps Group followed Whole Foods and Monrovia Nursery. ‘If something is financially attractive and it helps the environment, then where’s the obstacle?’ he asks.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
