RALEIGH, N.C. -- In his day job, Russell Ciliento oversees vaccine production as a biochemist at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Sanford, N.C., about 45 minutes south of Raleigh. Besides his normal job with multinational drug company, Ciliento also performs a vital function: He drives a van to and from work every day, chauffeuring 13 Wyeth employees on the 52-mile round trip from Apex, a Raleigh suburb.

Ciliento is one of 11 Wyeth workers who double as van drivers for the company, some traveling 92 miles a day to ferry employees from around the region. A quick calculation shows that the 11 vans take 175 cars off North Carolina's roads during rush hour, saving more than 175,000 gallons of gas a year.

Conceived as a way to keep employees from defecting to jobs with shorter commutes, the van program is now plugged by Wyeth as a way to fight global warming.

It demonstrates that the green workplace is no longer a curiosity, an experiment or a costly social statement.

Businesses are promoting green policies to motivate employees, attract customers, and increasingly to save money as electricity and fuel costs go up. Companies are recycling waste, turning out lights at night, installing compact fluorescent bulbs, low-flow faucets and waterless urinals, offering telecommuting options and filling tanks with biofuels.

Raleigh printing company Barefoot Press has used soy-based inks and recycled paper for 21 years. For most of its existence, making a moral case for slightly discolored paper was a liability.

But things are changing because of Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," high oil costs and a general awareness of global warming, said Barefoot's president and founder, Rich Kilby.

"Now I think we gain business that way," Kilby said. "There's an awful lot of interest in it right now."

Green labels and certifications are very much in vogue -- so much so that some skeptics accuse businesses of "greenwashing" their environmental record by making exaggerated or false claims. Still, as conventional businesses go green, green businesses are forced to go greener to stand out.

Green Planet Catering in Raleigh is trying to move beyond organic produce and recycled packaging. The company wants to become totally self-sustaining by processing vegetable oil into biodiesel fuel for its delivery truck.

To generate enough fuel for 300 to 400 miles of deliveries a week, it collects waste oil from restaurants in town. At about 69 cents a gallon, reprocessed vegetable oil is much cheaper than diesel, which cost $4.89 last week, company managing partner Daniel Whittaker said.

"It saves a ton of money," he said. "The whole business is based on a green model."

But the savings aren't always immediate and are sometimes difficult to quantify. Businesses may not need to justify every executive perk for the top brass, but managers always must justify discretionary spending when the return on investment is not self-evident.

Green policies were often the first casualties in a slowdown.

But in today's economic downturn, green offices may have an edge they previously lacked. Investing in energy efficiency has a quicker payoff when the cost of electricity, gasoline and other forms of energy are rising, said Michael Lenox, associate professor of strategy at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

Peer pressure is another factor.

"One of the incentives is that no firm wants to be labeled as a bad environmental actor," Lenox said. "In some cases, ... (green policies) are becoming almost standards -- acceptable practices in the business community."

To subsidize the vanpools, Wyeth reimburses a total of $120,000 a year.

The Wyeth subsidy reduces the passengers' costs by $50 a month, so that workers pay $12 to $50 a month to ride, depending on the distance traveled.

And without the van, some would pay more than $500 a month for gasoline to drive their cars to work.

Each van has a designated driver, who is responsible for much of the logistics.

The drug company plans to add three vans this year to meet employee demand.

"It's an incredibly huge perk," said Ciliento, who as a van driver rides for free. "I've saved probably about $12,000 in 3 1/2 years."

(E-mail John Murawski at john.murawski(at)newsobserver.com)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)