Agent Green

During the past few months Gabriel and I, with the guidance of our board of directors, have been working on a new program to create change in our region. After weeks of preparation we are ready to launch, but to make the program successful we need your help...

The easiest way to get involved is to join the Agent Green Facebook Page and/or follow Agent Green on Twitter. We also need your help identifying the right restaurants and bars to participate in the program. If you have a suggestion post it on the Agent Green Facebook Page or email nur@seattlegreendrinks.org

CODENAME: AGENT GREEN

"This has been a win-win event; it's so easy to do the math and see it's going to work."
- Drew Gillespie, General Manager, Pike Pub & Brewery

Agent Green is a program of Seattle Greendrinks, with support from Seattle City Light. The goal of the program is to reduce the capital costs that can prevent businesses from undertaking efforts to become more sustainable and energy efficient. How do we do it? Two ways: the power of the crowd, and smart partnerships.

Purpose
Agent Green events activate our community’s collective buying power in a reverse boycott to demonstrate how going green is good for the bottom line. The events create inertia for efficiency retrofits, and generate up-front capital to facilitate the switch.

How It Works
Many businesses want to “do the right thing” - improving energy efficiency and reducing their environmental impact. But for many, capital costs are a significant barrier. Enter Agent Green.

As an Agent Green target, your business commits to applying a percentage of sales on a particular day toward capital improvements. In exchange, the Agent Green crowd will, on a mutually agreed-upon date, descend upon your business. The result is a significant, one-day boost in sales, of which a percentage goes into retrofitting your business.

In addition, prior to the event, Agent Green and partner Seattle City Light will do an energy efficiency audit, identifying available incentives matching your needs. Upon completion of your retrofit, you will receive from the City a check underwriting all previously agreed-upon incentives.

It Works
On 22 April 2009, the Pike Pub committed 25% of the day’s sales to efficiency retrofits. The Agent Green crowd descended, along with our City Light partnership. Between the Agent Green mob and the City Light incentives, we generated nearly $18,000 of capital for the retrofit. The Pike Pub’s retrofits have reduced their energy use by 51,000 kWh per year, saving 31 tons of greenhouse gases annually and yielding a 16 month payback on their investment, following which they will save over $200 per month. The pub also generated significant positive publicity, drawing on Seattle Greendrinks’ six-year-old reputation for putting on great events.

How to Participate
To be considered as an Agent Green partner, we require you to make a commitment to put a significant percentage of the sales from the event back into your business in the form of energy retrofits and other improvements to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste, and in short, make it a greener business.

For more information or you would like to discuss how your business can participate in Agent Green please contact Nur David Bernhardt at nur@seattlegreendrinks.org.