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Statistics suggest that these Louisville ventures are chasing an emerging market. Sales of organic food and beverages increased between 20 percent and 24 percent during the 1990s, according to the Organic Trade Association. Sales for 2003 are expected to top $13 billion, up from less than $2 billion a decade ago.

In Kentucky, the number of fleet vehicles running on alternative fuels has doubled to about 3,000 over the past five years, according to the Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition.

Still, most cars are powered by gasoline. And more than 90 percent of the dry-cleaning industry still uses the popular — and controversial — perchloroethylene rather than alternative solvents.

So the question remains: Is green viable?

For Rob Auerbach, it is. An entrepreneur who helped establish organic food in Louisville a generation ago, Auerbach has grown Rainbow Blossom Natural Food Markets into three Kentucky stores with 85 employees.

The market for natural foods has matured since the first Rainbow Blossom started as a restaurant and caterer in 1977. The 50 percent markup on products of a decade ago is down to 10 percent today, Auerbach said.

The United States Department of Agriculture reported last year that more than 20,000 natural-foods stores stock organic products, as do nearly three-fourths of traditional grocery stores.

Auerbach said the rise of organic products in grocery stores such as Kroger and Meijer is simply a part of doing business. Still, he said, anyone can sell organic, but not everyone knows organic. He counts on his employees' expertise to build customer loyalty.

But the market Auerbach helped build is changing. Wild Oats, a national natural-foods retailer, has opened a sprawling megastore in Louisville. Following closely is Whole Foods Market, which plans to open a 22,000-square-foot store near the Mall St. Matthews next January.

On the whole, Auerbach is encouraged by the emergence of competing retailers: It means the Louisville market for natural products and organic foods is strong.

But "from a snapshot point of view, there are definite growing pains as the market has grown and your piece of the pie is smaller," he said.

To counter the competition, Rainbow Blossom is baking low-carbohydrate bread for sale to stores. It plans to market the bread under the Summer Star Bakery brand.

"It will make up for the shortfalls," Auerbach said.

Building a business on a green foundation might appeal to die-hard environmentalists. But to be successful, it must reach everyday consumers.

Jackie Green is aware of that delicate balance. Green, an avid cyclist and head of the Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation, launched a bike courier service last October. Since then, Green said, revenues at CBD Courier Service have steadily increased.

"We're experiencing slow but steady growth," he said. "Each week is better than the week before."

Green envisions the courier's mission as part of the larger economic development of the Louisville area. He hopes that transporting packages by bicycle will lead to lower vehicle emissions and improve air quality, an outcome that might attract businesses to town.

Green said some clients have used the service for environmental reasons. "But then others want to know how much it costs, and they will make their decision on how much it costs and based on the service."

CBD averages 20 runs per day — well below Green's expectations. At this point, he considers the business more of an avocation or hobby.

"That's not what I'm after," he said. "I want a sound business established."

Jason McKinney went after a similar market in June, when he and his father, Chuck, started the Clean 1 dry cleaners near Anchorage in eastern Jefferson County.

Clean 1 uses a biodegradable cleaning liquid called PureDry as an alternative to perchloroethylene. Commonly called perc, the solvent has been linked to cancer in some studies, although the dry-cleaning industry challenges those findings.

PureDry is touted as safer for the environment, and McKinney has installed machines that run exclusively on PureDry.

McKinney said business has been steady. "I've got a lot of repeat business."

The local building industry has slowly begun to adopt principles of green, or sustainable, architecture.

Louisville architect Mark Isaacs, who owns Legacy Homes and Isaacs Architects, said home buyers are increasingly interested in more energy-efficient houses.

"That's immediately something that's appealing to them, particularly with the large price increases in natural gas that we've had here over the past two or three years," he said.

But the trend also extends into commercial construction. Isaacs incorporated green design features into the Roth Family Center for Jewish Family and Vocational Service, completed in 2000 at Cannons and Dutchmans lanes.

The building's longest and tallest side faces southeast, which lets it absorb direct sunlight during the winter. Overhangs block summer sunlight from streaming directly into the building.

Isaacs said conventional glass office buildings darken or mirror windows to reduce heat absorption, then use more electricity to provide adequate light.

At the Roth Center, the result is a building with significantly lower energy costs, Isaacs said. "This is a building that's probably using about one-third of the energy of the average office building, and we think that's a real powerful result."

Isaacs said the challenge is weaving elements of green design into the building plan rather than incorporate expensive, high-tech equipment.

"It's real easy to get seduced by every bell and whistle you hear about," he said.

Louisville architect Mose Putney, who designed the Clifton Lofts condos on Frankfort Avenue as a green building, said costs do not necessarily have to be higher.

"There may be initial costs that are slightly higher in certain aspects if you're building and planning completely around a sustainable project," Putney said. "And those costs might just be attributed to the fact that local contractors haven't dealt with that type of detail."

"You can build a green building for the same price as any other kind of building," said Taryn Holowka, spokeswoman for the U.S. Green Building Council. The council has 17 member companies in Kentucky, up from 10 in 2001.

One of the region's most innovative examples is the visitor's center being built at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Bullitt County.

The center, designed to blend in with its surroundings, will feature solar cells and geothermal panels that generate energy.

The Bernheim project will be among the first three buildings in Kentucky to receive the council's Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design designation. The classification was created to stimulate green building and establish common guidelines for sustainable design.