Storage facility takes green push to heart

Built from 80 percent recycled materials and powered by solar energy, with a moving van running on biodiesel, family-owned Bridge Storage is a leader in its industry.

Self-storage, a $22 billion industry, is "not exactly green yet, but we're heading in that direction," said Mike Scanlon, president of the national Self Storage Association in Virginia. "Some innovators, like this company (Bridge), are leading the way for the rest of us."

Bridge Storage also may emerge as a lodestar for the greening of Richmond, a city encumbered with a reputation for violence and crime, and whose residents recently elected environmental activist Gayle McLaughlin as mayor.

Programs including vocational training in solar installations by city-sponsored RichmondBUILD are seen as ways to counteract Richmond's image and bolster its economy.

The same could be said of facilities such as Bridge Storage, which in 1998 reclaimed an abandoned structure once used for drug trafficking and prostitution said owner James Wright. After considerable cleanup and construction, the company opened for business in 2001.

An environmental pioneer, Wright, 77, founded a recycling and reclamation firm, Flux Processing and Supply, in 1958. But he doesn't see himself as a leader.

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