By Julie Barsamian

San Leandro Times

Sun Han Lee, owner of Hesparian Cleaners, the first certified green dry cleaning business in Alameda County, is the winner of the 2008 Susanne Wilson Award for Pollution Prevention and Resource Conservation.

The award, presented by Acterra - a non profit organization which educates the public on the environment, honors businesses which employ innovation and technology to offer their products or services in an environmentaly friendly way.

Lee started the eco-friendly conversion of his dry cleaning shop in 2007, just before the EPA regulations began to unleash on the industry. Regulations called for the extinction of chemical cleaners like perchlorethelyne.

Lee even took his mission beyond dry cleaning to install low energy lighting throughout his shop, and uses eco-friendly paint on the walls.

"This award is usually given to larger businesses like Cisco or Hewlett Packard," said Lee. "I am so honored, and glad that I was able to achieve this."

Hesperian Cleaners uses water, instead of petrochemicals, to clean "dry clean only" garments, gallons of water per cycle. Lee The process uses much less water, 18 gallons for 25 pounds of clothes as opposed to a home machine which uses 60 to 100 was presented with the award at Stanford University on June 3 where he spoke about his shop and its dry cleaning process.