Green is still the color of money. So it would seem to the increasing number of businesses adopting the "green" moniker to advertise that they are friends of the environment.

But how green are these "green" businesses? What do they do to earn that label? And what can a business do if it really wants to have a positive impact on the environment without sacrificing the financial wherewithal of the company?

As a certain felt-skinned amphibian once remarked, it's not easy being green. But we at Washington CEO Magazine set out to discover just what local companies are doing, and then had a distinguished panel of judges evaluate their initiatives to determine what practices are the best in the state.

The result: Thirteen companies have been selected to receive the first Green Washington Awards. Each has demonstrated practices and innovations that help make this world a better place. Some trends emerged, and others in Washington can consider adopting these best practices for their own businesses. And we hope that their examples will convince more businesses to develop yet more brilliant ideas.

RECYCLING HEROES

Start with recycling. For a business, it has to be more than putting out the cans and bottles (although that shouldn't be overlooked). This becomes vastly more important in traditionally polluting industries in manufacturing.

Part of the national Nucor Bar Mill Group, NUCOR STEEL SEATTLE is Washington state's largest recycler, taking recycled steel and melting it into steel rebar and other products, all with 99 percent or more recycled content. In addition, the plant recycles all of its byproducts, selling its slag and mill scale to the cement and asphalt industries, recycling its water and reclaiming metals (especially dust composed of 30 percent zinc oxide) from its air pollution collection system. In addition, all mobile equipment runs on B50 biodiesel fuel, saving 40,000 gallons of petroleum diesel annually.

To mitigate impacts on its neighbors in south Seattle, Nucor Steel Seattle was the first mill in the country to have a covered scrap yard and an indoor slag processing area. The company also regularly helps builders calculate the amount of locally sourced scrap in construction projects in order to qualify them for LEED ratings.

Another prominent figure in recycling, also south of downtown Seattle, is found working the crowd at Safeco Field. While Ichiro may be the SEATTLE MARINERS' star player, Captain Plastic is the team's enviro superhero, a cleanup hitter for the planet. In cape and blue leotard, Captain Plastic roams the stands at home games, encouraging fans to pass their plastic bottles to the aisles for collection. Besides encouraging fans to do their part, the Mariners have produced a video, featuring ballplayers and announcers, that focuses on all aspects of the club's recycling program. It is shown to all employees and volunteers. Last year, the Mariners recycled 342 tons of plastic, paper, cardboard, cans and glass; 100 tons of food scraps were sent to a site for composting. The club hosted a computer recycling event last fall, and more than 2,000 people dropped off old equipment for recycling and proper disposal.

WORKING WITH NATURE

Recycling also applies to natural materials. STEMILT GROWERS has a 23-acre compost farm that keeps 3,800 tons of rotten fruit, leaves, stems and scrap wood out of landfills, providing nutrient-rich soil supplement for 1,000 acres of orchards and saving $57,000 a year in trucking and dumping costs.

Wenatchee-based Stemilt Growers is one of the state's largest fruit producers, with more than 10,000 acres of orchards. It also produces a lot of waste. "When you pack apples and pears and cherries and stuff, there's a certain amount of rot and decay," says marketing director Roger Pepperl. Each year pickers leave behind millions of pounds of "leaves, twigs, rotten apples or apples with holes in them; we used to take all of that to landfill."