Suburban health club wants you fit and green

White Bear Lake, Minn. — Walk into White Bear Racquet & Swim, and you'll find a typical health club scene -- there are sweaty, determined-looking people working out amidst the drone of exercise machines. The place is sunny with lots of windows.

But it turns out the windows aren't the only way the sun is streaming in. The light fixtures hanging from the ceiling are connected to tubes, called "solatubes." They lead up to the roof and collect sun rays.

"They'll bring us this free daylight for the rest of the life of the building," says Paul Steinhauser, who runs the club.

Steinhauser installed the solatubes a few years years ago when he decided to "daylight" the facility. He says using natural light has saved a lot of money on electricity.

"Everything about daylighting is a positive, win win win, where we're winning as a business, the customers are winning because, as you can see in here, it feels pretty darn good with daylight in the whole place, and the environment is winning, because we're not having to have coal burned to provide us with that electricity," he says.

A year of soaring oil prices and concern about global warming have interest in renewable energy surging. Venture capital investors poured nearly $1 billion into "clean energy related companies" in the first six months of the year. That was triple the rate a year ago, according to Cleantech Venture Network.

But Paul Steinhauser's interest in renewable energy has been going strong since at least 2001. That's when he read a book called "Midcourse Correction," which got him thinking seriously about "green" principles.

At the time, White Bear Racquet & Swim was well-established and stable. Steinhauser and his partners felt they were in a good spot to make some bold, long-term decisions.

So they decided to redefine their health club. It would no longer just promote individual health, but also the health of the environment.

To that end, they've made a number of investments in green technologies, beyond daylighting the facility. Steinhauser says they stopped using chlorine in the pool, because it's too toxic.

"Instead you have very mild salt water that's half as salty as human tear drops," he says. "And probably more than any changes we've made in the last 18 years, this one has gotten the most positive comment."

Steinhauser says the water also passes through an electrical cell that helps clean it, and the water achieves the same health code inspection ratings as chlorinated water.

Finally, one of the more expensive eco-friendly changes the club made was to build a new indoor tennis facility.

It's heated and cooled with ground source heating technology, which moves heat between the earth and the building. Paul Steinhauser says the system cost at least an extra $600,000 upfront. But he says "green" investments like this one have been paying off much faster than he expected. He first thought it would take 12 years for the new tennis court to yield a return.

"Because it's much nicer playing conditions, our tennis revenues have increased so much that it's looking more like it's going to be a three-year payback," he says.

Alfred Marcus, professor of strategic management at the University of Minnesota, says it's not surprising more and more businesses are going green given high energy prices. But he says the reasons can be many, including long-term savings, image, and demographics.

"There's anywhere from 5-15 percent of the populace -- which is a very appealing consumer group because they tend to be highly educated and affluent -- for whom greenness is a very important attribute," he says.

At White Bear Racquet & Swim, a number of customers say they appreciate the club's "green" practices.

But some clients like Carmen Almondos haven't even noticed them. When asked why she goes to the club, she cites convenience.

"It's near my house and my friends come," she says.

While Paul Steinhauser is glad clients like Almondos enjoy the club, he very much wants customers to grasp what he's doing so they can promote the technology. And if his club gets a plug as well, that's OK too.