The 2009 Green Washington Awards

built by this organic and natural foods grocery chain, PCC sets a new standard for its own conservation and green building goals. Beginning in 1996, PCC's initial Green Lake neighborhood store included a produce-composting program, low-VOC paints, cork linoleum flooring and tabletops made of recycled fibers. In 2003, the Fremont store added high-efficiency lighting, photovoltaic panels, cabinetry made of recycled materials, and an integrated hot water, HVAC and refrigeration system. Three years later, the Redmond store was the first-ever grocery store to meet stringent LEED Gold certification standards.

This fall, PCC's new store, which opened earlier this year in Edmonds, is expected to earn LEED Platinum status for its green elements, including specially glazed windows to block out 65 percent of the sun's heat, LED lighting that will use 25 percent of the energy needed for incandescent bulbs, and a rainwater collection system capable of handling 160,000 gallons annually. PCC expects the Edmonds store to outperform industry energy standards by at least 50 percent, says Diana Crane, the chain's director of sustainability.

Runner-up:

Pagliacci Pizza

PCC is a tough act to follow, but Seattle pizza chain Pagliacci Pizza (pagliacci.com) wowed the judges with its recent transformation into one of the greenest restaurant chains in the region. Not only has Pagliacci instituted a composting program for its food waste, pizza boxes and 95 percent of its packaging, but it also established an educational campaign that displayed conservation facts, tips and contact information on all of its pizza boxes, and partnered with Seattle Public Utilities in 2006 to create radio and TV public service announcements about recycling food waste at home.

 

Nonprofit

Climate Solutions

Seattle | Employees: 20 | climatesolutions.org

Old-school market capitalists may scoff at the idea of a "not-for-profit" organization having power over the local economy, but some of these groups have had a major impact on state and regional policy in recent years.

For instance, as one of the top global-warming political action groups in the Pacific Northwest, Climate Solutions successfully led a coalition of business leaders to help pass the landmark Climate Action and Green Jobs initiative (HB 2815), says Ethan Schaffer, director of major gifts and grants at Climate Solutions.

The signing of HB 2815 last year makes Washington the fourth state in the nation to put a cap on greenhouse gas emissions with a target of returning to 1990 levels or below by 2020, 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2035 and 50 percent