Baker Marble and Granite

is 100% solar powered!

June 2008

Completed our work on the Margarido House, click the link to

see this exciting new, truly Green, private residence. 

July 2008:

Completion of our work on the Helmut Schmidt

Residence in the Sunset District of San Francisco.  Another truly amazing

ALL Green residence.

 August 2008: 

 Began Installation of our new

51.3 KW solar system.We will be up and operating by October 2008. 

Our new system will yield approximately 80%, or more, of our current

and future power needs.

October 2008: Installation of our entire solar array is

now almost complete! We anticipate being "on-line" on the first

of November! AND our shop will be converting to T-8 high efficiency

lighting fixtures within the next two months.  These fixture use less

than 1/2 of the power of Quartz metal halide lights.

December 2008: Installation of the entire solar system 

was completed, and on the 24th of December the switch was thrown

to take us "off of the PG+E grid" and onto full solar power! 

We even received our certificate from the State making

us an official Power Generation Facility!! 

At Baker Marble + Granite we 

follow these Green policies:

All new fleet vehicles must meet higher gas mileage standards:

Trucks must get a minimum of 17 MPG to qualify, all other

vehicles must get twice that MPG. So far we have

(3) trucks that maintain this standard, and we currently have

(1) Hybrid Vehicle in our fleet/(2) Flex Fuel Vehicles

in our Fleet     

Ford Motor Company may soon release their small super

clean diesel engine for use in the US.  This engine actually

has been proven to release less particulate air than it takes in!

When this engine is released, we will begin to replace our older,

less fuel efficient vheicles. 

ALL paper products at Baker Marble + Granite are recycled.

And all fax and copy paper used are 100% recycled.  All printer

paper used has at least a 50% recycled post consumer waste paper

content.

ANY error sheets of fax, copy or printer paper are reused as

office scrap paper, and then recycled.

ALL files older than (5) years are shredded at a local recycler.

COFFEE

To cut back on employee gas use we have provided a professional

espresso machine, and free-trade beans in our office (which are

roasted less than a mile from our shop at, Mr. Espresso, and

purchased in bulk), so that they don’t have to drive to the nearest

coffee shop (a mile away). 

WATER

Our shop water systems clean and recycle water whenever possible. 

A recent audit by East Bay MUD found that we were exceeding

the standard for clean water release and recycled water usage. 

The tested PH of the water released back into the sewer system was

identical to that of the water coming in.

ELECTRICITY

Our office maintains a daytime constant winter temperature of 67 degrees,

with no air conditioning used in the summer.

Offices not used have a "lights-out" policy.

Our shop was engineered in the early 1950’s with enormous windows,

during the Summer months we can safely operate the shop

floor without the use of our soon to be replaced quartz metal

halide lights. In the Summer months power is at a premium in

California, by not using these lights we are staying off of the grid

when the electricity is most needed.

Want more information about green products

and policies, check out: http://www.usgbc.org/