A commitment to being green

With all the talk about companies struggling to stay afloat in the wake of their corporate greed, it's nice to hear about a business that goes out of its way to operate in an eco-friendly manner.

Carpet manufacturer Bentley Prince Street is one such business.

On Wednesday, the California Integrated Waste Management Board announced that it has chosen the Industry-based company as the recipient of the 2008 CalRecycle Sustainable Business Award.

The award honors businesses that take extraordinary measures to reduce waste by cutting the amount of trash they produce, conserving resources and reducing waste disposal in landfills.

"We're pretty excited," said Kim Matsoukas, Bentley Prince's sustainability manager. "We won it in 2000, and when the opportunity came up to apply for it again, we did. We really do go above and beyond. Ninety percent of our waste is diverted from landfills."

And that equates to significant  savings. 

The company's voluntary waste reduction efforts since 1994 have saved the company nearly $70 million in cumulative avoided waste disposal costs.