A handfull of small businesses in the Las Vegas Valley have taken it a step further, making their operations carbon neutral.

The economic impact of these moves is questionable. Recent national surveys of consumers found that green marketing is seen by most as a gimmick. But in some industries, going green can pay off.

Enter the Las Vegas Cyclery and sister operation Escape Adventures. The combined small businesses have announced plans to complete the final stage of a massive green make-over.

The Las Vegas-based bike shop and extreme-vacation provider is starting the last phase of a nearly two-year effort to take the business carbon neutral.

Unlike most businesses trying to green their image, Escape Adventures decided not to simply pay an environmental organization to plant some trees to offset their carbon footprint. Instead, it took the hard route, remodeling and renovating business locations across Nevada and Utah, building a fleet of transport vans that runs on vegetable oil recycled from Chinese restaurants and installing large solar arrays on the tops of buildings.

By the time the company completes its latest phase, a solar array on top of a warehouse in Las Vegas, at least 47 percent of its energy will be produced on site from renewable sources, said company Director Jared Fisher , who co-owns the business with his wife, Heather.

The remaining energy is offset through donations to a carbon neutral program offered by Sustainable Travel International, a nonprofit group that promotes sustainable tourism businesses.

On top of its in-house energy conservation measures, the Las Vegas Cyclery has also become involved in the Slow Foods movement, purchasing produce and meat for overnight trips from local growers and ranchers and even purchasing bike parts in the U.S. to avoid having things shipped on polluting freight liners or semi trucks.

Their efforts are part of a tri-fold mission adopted by the company when it was founded in Moab, Utah 17 years ago.

"It's different than the normal bottom line that's red or black," Fisher said. "It's based off people, profit and planet. In order for us to make a financial decision we have to weigh all three factors and they have to weigh equally in the decision."

As nature lovers and adventure travelers, the company's founders have always been concerned about the natural environment. But until recently, they didn't incorporate those beliefs into the business, which has a combined annual revenue of about $2.3 million.

Their approach changed as they and their staff started to notice increases in the number of wildfires in remote areas of the north rim of the Grand Canyon over the last decade and realized their business and personal habits and practices were contributing to the problem.

"It struck us that the planet is changing and we're seeing the changes in front of us right now," Fisher said. "We saw these fires and didn't really put it all together until recently. We did a lot of research and found it had to do with climate change and the lack of moisture in the canyon. It's safe to say now that it's human-caused and our own fault, and that was the big point where we said we need to put all our resources and profits back into these areas we've been taking from for so long."

Going carbon neutral hasn't been an easy or cheap road. Fisher estimates the company has invested nearly all of its profits in the last three years into their greening efforts. The most expensive element has been the solar arrays, which have been installed on most of their buildings already.

Evaluating energy needs for those solar arrays was surprising for the Fishers.

"The big thing that came out of our solar energy program is it woke us up to what we were actually wasting," Fisher said. "That's where people can really change. People are wasting a lot of power in their businesses and homes. For example, it turned out some of our appliances were actually too big for our operation — we were wasting energy."

After upgrading appliances and heating and cooling systems, the company was able to save about $47,000 on the solar system because they did not need as large a unit.

The company won't make back what it spent on solar arrays in the form of lower energy bills for many years, but Fisher said they hope to recover the costs in other ways. He said Nevada is primed for an eco-tourism industry, and his company hopes to be at the head of the pack.

"Through the example that we set and the interest that comes from it, we think people will choose a company that's more sustainable over a company that is not and we're hoping that's how we get paid back," Fisher said. "People are more conscious about what's going on and see the consequences of what's happening, especially in our field of work. So you may not make the money back off your power bill but you'll make it back in other ways."

It is not a strategy that will work for every business. Recent national studies have shown the majority of Americans are unwilling to pay more for environmentally sensitive products.

That may not hold true for Las Vegas, where water and energy are two of the most pressing economic issues of the day. The rising cost of natural gas, electricity and gasoline is passed on to consumers, who at that point, people cannot help but care. And local politicians, like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, have made environmental issues and green energy top priorities.

Local studies have shown that Las Vegans are more conservation-minded than ever before and that they seriously consider environmental issues when making buying decisions.

For example, Energy Star studies have shown that Las Vegas consumer awareness on energy conservation rose from 17 percent in 2001 to 90 percent this year.

That's something that eventually trickles down into every area of business from home building to tourism to mom and pop restaurants.

"Consumers do care and the more that conservation awareness grows, the more important it is to do everything within reason to continue to stay on top of applying the different green approaches in business," said Annette Bubak, advertising manager for Astoria Homes. "We know that consumers are educated on energy conservation and are actually seeking homes & products that meet the Energy Star standards."

Fisher said that simple things like changing lighting, updating bathrooms with low-flow toilets and faucets and downsizing over-sized appliances saved them money and lightened their carbon footprint.

"A lot of people need to look ahead a little further than they're doing and see what the results of their actions are going to be," Fisher said. "We're a tight-resource small business with a maximum of 30 employees. We're just your average business, but we put a lot of our profits into our sustainability program — essentially everything. We want to show the average business can make a difference if they really want to and really care."