North County’s manufacturing sector has a new sustainability milestone to point to, and it’s coming out of Vista. Solatube International, the daylighting and skylight manufacturer headquartered off Rancho Del Oro Drive, has been recertified as a California Green Business and awarded Green Innovator status, the highest tier the California Green Business Network hands out. The city of Vista will celebrate the achievement with a public ribbon-cutting ceremony at Solatube’s headquarters on October 2.
The recertification wasn’t a rubber stamp. The California Green Business Network requires companies to complete at least 65 verified sustainability measures across categories like energy use, water conservation, waste reduction, and pollution prevention. Solatube’s Vista campus came in well past that bar, completing 88 measures, according to the certifying program. It’s also the company’s first certification specifically through Vista’s local green business program, a signal that North County’s push to formalize sustainable business practices at the city level is gaining traction with larger employers, not just small storefronts.
The numbers behind the certification are worth a second look for any San Diego-area business owner curious about what “green” actually costs and saves at scale. Solatube’s on-site photovoltaic systems generate roughly 1,323 megawatt-hours of clean energy a year, enough to offset a meaningful share of the facility’s power draw. The campus also uses 224 of the company’s own tubular daylighting devices to cut down on electric lighting, a fitting detail given that daylighting is the product Solatube sells. On the waste side, the company partners with the nonprofit Plastic Beach to recycle thousands of pounds of soft plastic annually that would otherwise be difficult to divert from landfills.
For North County, the timing matters. Vista, Oceanside, and Escondido have all been courting manufacturers and advanced industry employers as anchors for local job growth, and sustainability credentials increasingly factor into site-selection and permitting conversations. A homegrown company reaching the top certification tier gives the city’s economic development office a concrete example to point to, and it adds to Solatube’s track record in the space; the company also hosted San Diego Climate Week programming at this same headquarters last year.
The October 2 ribbon-cutting is expected to include representatives from the California Green Business Network, the U.S. Green Building Council California chapter, and Vista city officials.
Source: North County Daily Star, “Green Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Oct. 2 at Solatube’s Vista Headquarters”
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