Baker Marble and Granite
is 100% solar powered!
Follow this link to a story on our installation on Business Line: CLICK HERE

This is an actual picture of just a portion
of our solar panel system.
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/