LAST WORD

Jim Varney, owner of Varney Cleaners. Amy Root-Donle photo

So you think going business green is easy?

For more than a few years, business owner Jim Varney, of Varney's Cleaners, had thought about the necessity of going green. But like many in his industry, getting from point A to point B on the green map wasn't easy financially or operationally — especially in the dry-cleaning sector which has depended heavily on a toxic chemical cocktail known as perc (or perchloroethylene for those keeping score at home) for decades.

"I never liked using perc," Varney told me recently. "I didn't like the smell, didn't like that it was a regulated solvent, a toxic chemical."

A trip to both the Environmental Protection Agency and National Institutes of Health Web sites reveals so many human and environmental problems with perc that one could fill up an entire column listing the problems. It's so bad that beginning in July 2006, the EPA banned new installations of perc machines in residential buildings.

The problem with change is that, well, it's change and change isn't easy — especially when 85 percent of dry cleaners around the world use perc (which is essentially petroleum refined kerosene).

"A lot of people in this industry are invested in the status quo," said Varney, the third generation of his family who has been in the laundry and dry-cleaning business. "A lot of people don't want to be early adapters because if it doesn't work out ...."

In other words, at his level — he owns two stores in Dover and a Laundromat in Rochester and employs 25 workers — making the wrong decision about the future could be the last decision for his business, which cleans more than 500,000 articles of clothing annually.

He had noticed and admired a small dry-cleaning business in Rochester run by Ed Fuller who had gone green years before.

"He (Fuller) was definitely a leader and it took a huge leap of faith to do what he did," Varney said.

But, courtesy of Missouri-based company GreenEarth Cleaning, Varney saw his chance to make the breakthrough and go cleaning green. At a national industry conference, he met and talked with the folks at GreenEarth Cleaning, which has been around since 1998.

And then he made his own leap of faith — though it required an investment of $140,000 for two new machines.

The breakthrough that led to his leap was a wonder cleaning solvent consisting of water, air and sand. Yes, sand. The resulting combination (the original invention was for a cosmetic product) was a silicone-based solvent that is biodegradable, nontoxic and, Varney tells me, is much better for clothes (he should know because he gets a lot of his sweaters and shirts and pants done at his own business).

He bought one machine and had it installed by July. Within two weeks, he made the folks at GreenEarth Cleaning happy when he called back and told then he was buying a second machine. By the end of August he was perc free and very pleased with the result.

"Everything I heard about this has turned out to be true," Varney said about the new machines and the cleaning solvent that he believes will revolutionize the industry — and do its part to make an environmental difference (something no one would have accused his industry of doing a decade ago).

More importantly, his customers have been very pleased with his perc-free business which he thinks could result in a whole new customer base.

Varney said the customer response has been "outstanding" and more than a few have thanked his workers.

He has changed the way he thinks about the long-term prospects for his business. He talked to Warren Daniels, an adviser with the N.H. Small Business Development Center, about marketing. Moreover, Varney plans to really take his business green over the next few years by considering all the angles (heating, electricity, recycling) to make his company smarter and environmentally wider.

But he is only one of small minority of early adapters.

"I hope the industry changes," Varney said. "We need to change."