In coming weeks, a group of sustainability-minded Spokane-area business owners plan to launch a local chapter of a quickly growing national organization called Business Alliance For Local Living Economies, or BALLE.

About 40 businesses already have expressed an interest in participating in a Spokane chapter of BALLE, and a group of nine business owners has begun meeting to get the organization off the ground, says Wyeth Larson, sustainability coordinator at Spokane-based sporting-goods retailer Mountain Gear Inc.

"In March, we'll be to a point at which we start to be vocal about what we're going to do," Larson says.

Tanya Riordan, co-owner of the Hula Hut Grill restaurant on Spokane's North Side and a member of the nine-person steering committee, says the group has applied with BALLE's headquarters, in Bellingham, Wash., to form a Spokane chapter and has paid its initial dues.

Riordan says organizers hope to hire an executive director and create an organizational structure in the coming months. In the interim, Mountain Gear is "lending" Larson to the group to coordinate getting the chapter launched.

"Business owners who have participated really want to create a chapter by business owners, for business owners," Riordan says.

In addition to Riordan, other business owners involved in forming the BALLE chapter are Paul Fish, of Mountain Gear; Bill Bloom, of GoGreen Directory; Bruce Gage, of sustainable building -supplies retailer EcoDepot; property developer Cassie Price; Jeff Postlewaite, of Rocket Bakery; Russ Nobbs, of jewelry maker Rings & Things; Kim Harmson, of the Kizuri free-trade retail store; and Tavis Schmidt, of Clean Aire Lawn Care.

Once in place, the Spokane chapter will be one of more than 80 BALLE chapters in 30 U.S. states and Canadian provinces. The closest current chapter is in Missoula, Mont., with others in Seattle, Portland, and Boise. In all, more than 22,000 businesses are involved in BALLE chapters.

Chapters in other communities have grown substantially in recent years. For example, Derek Long, executive director of the BALLE chapter in Bellingham, called Sustainable Connections, says that organization started in 2002 and now has 14 employees and a $1 million annual budget, generating revenue through fees for services it offers, fundraisers, membership fees, grants, and general donations.

The Spokane chapter's organizers haven't identified specific initiatives they will undertake after launching, but chapters in other communities have formed sustainable-goods buying cooperatives, created Think Local First marketing campaigns, and helped members learn how to make their buildings more energy efficient, among other efforts.

Generally speaking, Riordan says, the Spokane chapter will become a resource for "a network of local, independently-owned businesses that will support each other on the path of sustainability."

She adds that the group is accepting of any business owner interested in sustainability, regardless of what they've done to make their business more green. Along those lines, she recalls a quote from a BALLE executive who said the group doesn't want to "build a church and keep out the sinners."

Sustainability is the same as green practices, and Larson says it's possible for businesses to become more sustainable without getting involved in the political debate surrounding natural resources.

"Sustainability is more than green energy," Larson says. "There are a lot of times now where sustainability and resource use are seen as synonymous, and that's not true."