Entrepreneurship and creativity are the forces behind many of Washington's business success stories, from Starbucks to Amazon to Microsoft. Smaller companies are at work today in Washington applying the same characteristics to their areas of expertise, with plans that are no less ambitious. Kennewick- based Infinia Corp., for example, is working to change the way the world uses energy in order to improve the quality of life on the planet, according to President and CEO J.D. Sitton's welcome note on the company's Web site.
   Infinia produces Stirling generators that operate on concentrated solar energy or biomass, both of which are renewable sources of energy. It also makes combined heat and power systems as well as electric generators for deep space missions. The company has delivered such systems to NASA, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Department of Energy. The combined heat and power system technology has been licensed to Rennai and to Bosch, which make tankless water heaters.
   "The Kennewick location is not independent of the people," says Sitton, who considered moving the company elsewhere in Washington, the Houston area and other locations, before deciding to stay put in Kennewick. "The people are where our know- how resides." In fact, much of the decision not to relocate had to do with the employees' fondness for the area, including those who moved into the area from elsewhere. Sitton was reluctant to uproot people, and TRIDEC, the Tri- Cities Industrial Development Council, worked aggressively to keep Infinia there.
   The fundamental advantages to the technology include at least a factor- of- two improvement in conversion efficiency – taking sunlight and producing usable electricity, a much smaller footprint on which to generate a given amount of power, and ultimately a much lower cost of energy.
   "Having access to the people here and having them happy in terms of a stable, long- term employer- employee relationship basis is important," says Sitton. "Having the ability to attract new talent to this area, given the number of days of sunshine, the outdoor activity emphasis, the good family life emphasis on the part of the policymakers here in town are all very important. Ultimately, we expect we will need a much larger manufacturing and operating footprint, and we can see expanding here. We will also need to expand around the country and into Europe and Asia, particularly with the solar power products. This gives us a good base of operations." Infinia currently employs about 85 people and can grow the payroll at the existing Kennewick facility to about 200. The site also has room to expand the existing building.

Puget Sound Region Takes the LEED

I t shouldn't come as a surprise that Toyota's second- largest market for its hybrid Prius model is also a leader in the development of green facilities. Seattle and the entire Puget Sound area serves as a working laboratory for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) development, although the area has not seen as much industrial LEED application as some other parts of the country.    "It's probably not too far behind, but it's more inclined towards the office environment right now," says Jeff Marcell, vice president of economic development at enterpriseSeattle. But in the office, hospitality and other sectors, developers better know their way around the LEED guidelines if they want to succeed in Seattle.    "It's now being proven that it's more cost effective over time to have LEED mechanisms in place," says Kip Spencer, principal at OfficeSpace.com, a Seattle- based property listing service and market intelligence provider in seven U.S. markets and Sao Paulo, Brazil. "They can very positively affect operating revenues. Seattle and Portland, Ore., and the Northwest in general are leading the charge for that. The architects and the contractors all 'get it' now and they can communicate it to clients."    Adds David Tye, vice president of property management at Equity Office's Seattle office, "Some of this has been fueled from the bottom up, where you have a work force with Northwest values and an environmental bent, and they are demanding it of their employers. Senior management is forced to make that into a business model, and it's really taking off here."    But companies that resist going green will soon feel out of place in the evergreen Northwest. Better to lead the way, as Federal Way, Wash.- based Weyerhaueser knows. "Talk to anyone at Weyerhaueser, and they are excited to talk to you about what they do in terms of recycling, how they promote it and how it makes sense for their business," says Marcell. And most companies, including Weyerhaueser and Microsoft, participate in employee- commuting programs that reduce the impact of commuting on infrastructure and the environment.    "We have a very tech- savvy work force, and it doesn't matter if they are blue- collar workers or not," says Steve Gilbert, economic development manager at the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce. "They are all quite comfortable using technology to access their work and enhance their lifestyle."