Sustainable Businesses Day Resolution - February 7, 2005

What are we going to do with all our trash? What we put in our garbage dumpsters and industrial by products may begin to overwhelm us.

The answers to waste disposal and improving our environment are complex and require comprehensive solutions.

Today I ask you to join me in commending a group of entrepreneurs who have found ways to expand the economic growth of our communities by utilizing some of this waste.

The resolution honoring them will be read tomorrow but they are here today. They have provided a demonstration of some of their products and what they used to produce them in the rotunda.

Please join me in recognizing the sustainable businesses association in the balcony - will you stand up Polly Sattler, the organizer and the 14 other small businesses represented here today.

As a tangible demonstration of one way that these businesses reuse our refuse, I have this tube in front of me. It is a place for you to recycle your old cellular telephones. Sustainable Businesses will take these phones, reformat them and give them to CARE for use by the victims of the Tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Thank you, Sustainable Businesses, for the creative ideas and energy and the strong values you bring to our business community and our state. You are the foundation of our nation and we pray for your continued success.