While Sam Ash's history of putting environmental concerns front and center goes back almost 20 years, the real emphasis on the issue has happened over the past five, says COO Sammy Ash. They have long purchased recycled pallets, looked at ways to use less cardboard, and partnered with local recycling groups. "We've been proactive for a long time now."

He credits traffic manager Tom Chiaro for a lot of the innovations. "Back in 2003, he taught us about things like flat loading without pallets, which in addition to reducing the need for pallets, allows us to put more products on a trailer, thus allowing us to delivery more gear per gallon [of gas]." Working with a distributor in the Los Angeles, Calif. has also made sense on many levels, cutting fuel expense considerably.

"Let's not mince words about all this though – it saves money, too," he points out. "There's an element that is altruistic – yes it's the right thing to do, but also we save money."

Years before many others have, Sam Ash has discontinued the environmentally nasty Styrofoam peanuts, and now customers receive their products cushioned with recyclable material. They've also gotten rid of a fleet of gas-guzzling trucks in favor of smaller, more modern transportation options, including diesel-powered vehicles.

The lighting of products in his stores is a trickier issue. Obviously, how well an instrument is lit is an important part of the presentation. Working with Regency Lighting, the decision was made switch over to more energy-saving bulbs. "Fluorescents isn't quite as great – track lighting is still the best way to light up products," he says. "And the new bulbs cost up to two-and-a-half times more than traditionally lighting. But they use only 25percent of the energy and they give off 10percent of the heat—we've noticed that on our air conditioning bill. Finally they last five years, much longer than traditional bulbs." The significance of the last point isn't lost on Ash as he points out that many of their stores have high ceilings so the less often his employees are climbing up and down tall ladders, the better it is for a number of reasons.

"Another thing we've just done is transfer from the old-style three page receipts, the ones that are big, wide, and ugly," he says. Switching to thermal printers, he's producing 10percent of the waste the old style receipts cause. "We have 50 stores, so think of how many registers there are. Plus, the state of New York requires retailers to hold onto receipts for five years, and I had cartons of 8-1/2" x 11" papers. Now we're talking 3-1/2" papers, and there is a bunch of savings, let along how much less we're filling up the garbage with this stuff."

A strategic partnership with Fed-Ex has also turned the company further green, and how orders are shipped are constantly being re-evaluated to being more environmentally friendly.

"There's nothing we've done that have cut into profits, and in many cases, I don't know if we're really be able to quantify some of these green efforts," he says, adding with a smile: "But if I would have known all this was so fashionable, I would made you do an article on this a long time ago!"