enlarge Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

Tim Early uses solar-heated water to clean Oakhurst Dairy’s main filler room. The company spent nearly $200,000 to install solar collectors at its Portland plant. Such projects cut energy use and “pay you forever,” says Oakhurst’s president.

enlarge Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

Bill Bennett of Oakhurst Dairy stands at the storage tanks where solar-heated water accumulates at 120 degrees before it’s heated another 40 degrees for washing milk cases.

A year ago, Oakhurst Dairy installed solar collectors on the roof of its Portland plant to heat the water used to process milk, a nearly $200,000 investment to reduce energy use and environmental impacts.

Since then, oil prices have dropped, the economy has tanked and Oakhurst's sales have dipped.

But not only is President Stanley Bennett glad he made that investment, he's also planning an encore.

The company plans to spend another $175,000 to $200,000 to put new solar photovoltaic collectors on the roof of its cold-storage depot in Waterville. The panels will produce electricity to cool the warehouse, ultimately reducing the company's energy costs even further.

"Even if it's tight, why not do those things?" Bennett asked. "They pay you forever."

As the country prepares to celebrate another Earth Day on Wednesday, the sputtering economy is testing the resolve of a green movement that had begun to retool American business. Companies that became environmental leaders over the past several years are now facing falling revenue, cutbacks, layoffs, or worse.

But, so far anyway, Maine businesses that bought into the benefits of going green when times were good appear to be equally committed now that times are tough.

"One would think that a lot of businesses simply aren't pursuing green practices (in this economy). But I think the reality is that businesses are looking really hard at ways they can save money, and green practices almost inevitably save money, whether it's direct costs or indirect costs," said Glen Bachmann, a Massachusetts management consultant, Bowdoin College graduate and author of "The Green Business Guide."

Larger, long-term investments are getting postponed in some cases as businesses operate in survival mode, according to Bachmann and other experts. And consumers' willingness to spend more for Earth-friendly products has slipped as they deal with their own financial insecurities, according to marketing studies.

But businesses are continuing to find low-cost ways to reduce waste and environmental impacts, both to cut their costs and because they know consumers will still be demanding them once they start spending again, according to Bachmann.

"I would say there's been a hiccup, but that's about what it is. The trend here is we're moving toward a green economy," he said.

Efficiency Maine, a division of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, has seen no letup in the requests from businesses for help in financing energy efficiency improvements, such as lighting or heating retrofits, said Elizabeth Crabtree, its business program manager. The program helped 690 businesses last year.

"It's very, very busy," she said. "We're seeing both new and old businesses."

The projects can cost businesses hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, but they pay for themselves and start to produce energy savings in as little as a year, Crabtree said. "If I was a business owner, I'd rather save there" than by cutting employees, she said.

During the last economic slowdown, starting in 2001, corporate environmental managers were among those laid off to cut expenses, said Bob Sheppard, corporate program director for Clean Air-Cool Planet. The Portsmouth, N.H.-based nonprofit helps companies reduce environmental impacts.

"This time, I'm not seeing that," Sheppard said. "I think (employers) realize that while those individuals are responsible for reducing greenhouse gas emissions or impacts on the environment, the bottom line is, they're saving money."

While many companies can't afford $200,000 solar panels right now, he said, they are instead going back to the basics, such as simply turning off lights and talking to employees about ways to conserve energy.

At Fairchild Semiconductor in South Portland, for example, the drop in business has led to layoffs and a clampdown on spending. But the manufacturing plant...