Published December 2004

Ice cream maker
goes ‘green’ with new facility

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

When it comes to measuring the success of Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream, owners Barry and Shahnaz Bettinger have a “triple bottom line” philosophy that takes into account not only profit but also environment and community.

And when it became apparent that the Lynnwood ice cream maker needed larger facilities after years of steady growth, the Bettingers said they were intent on incorporating that philosophy into new, larger headquarters.

The result, 9,700 square feet of retail and production facilities now under construction in the Maltby area, is expected to be among the first completely sustainable commercial developments in Snohomish County, said Chris Fate, chairman of the Sustainable Development Task Force of Snohomish County.

The task force, a partnership made up of members from the building industry as well as local governments, the Snohomish County PUD and the Snohomish County Economic Development Council, educated the Bettingers on sustainable development through one of its workshops and then helped them through the county’s building permit process.

“The vision, courage and patience that the Bettingers showed — they took the road less traveled,” Fate said. “This project is a model of what we can do.”

The project, expected to cost $1.5 million when all is said and done, will be environmentally friendly inside and out, with exterior features including the use of permeable pavers and concrete as well as a landscaped “rain garden” to allow water to seep into the soil, preventing water runoff.

“It mimics what is going on in the unbuilt environment,” said Deanna Carveth, a former task force member. She noted that because of these water-filtration practices, there will be no need for detention ponds on the site.

For the interior, energy-efficient lighting, refrigeration and compressors will be used, as will a heat-recovery system, Barry Bettinger said.

“The Freon coming back from the freezers is hot, so we’ll put it through a heat exchanger and preheat the water going through our boiler. In the winter, it will heat our building,” he said.

Also, all of the compressors will be air-cooled rather than water-cooled, cutting the company’s water consumption by about 75 percent, he said.

But perhaps the most notable element of the sustainable development is the building itself, an existing split-level home that will be reused rather than torn down and taken to a landfill.

Plans call for the house to be remodeled to include an ice cream parlor that will enable customers to watch specialty ice creams being made. Having a retail outlet is a first for the company, which sells its premium ice creams, sorbets and gelatos to restaurants and in grocery stores around the Puget Sound region.

A production facility also is planned for the site, to be situated behind the home, which fronts 86th Avenue SE.

Bettinger estimated the total front-end costs of implementing “green” technology to be about $150,000, but he said that some of that tab will be picked up over time in decreased utility bills.

Having received building permits in late October, the Bettingers broke ground on the site in November and hope to move into the new headquarters by February.

When finished, Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream’s new home will be an example of sustainable development that others in the commercial sector can look to, said Carveth.

“We’re going to turn this into a case study to show other small businesses how to save money and save time,” she said.

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