It’s tough to tell whether the latest business-backed green campaign is a PR ploy, a race to be first, or a genuine effort to save Mother Earth. Motivations aside, these local companies are outdoing themselves, making for a good—and inspirational—show.

Imagine being able to finance green companies merely by opening a bank account. Instead of unknowingly lending your money to General Motors or Chevron, intentionally put it in the hands of the New Resource Bank. It’s a two-year-old institution that lends money only to socially responsible and green businesses. Lendees include Mich­elle Kaufmann Designs (green modular homes), SunPower Corporation (solar technology), and Cowgirl Creamery (organic and artisanal cheese). 415-995-8100, newresourcebank.com

When Barkley Court Reporters calculated that it was using 50 tons of paper a year—not atyp­i­cal for the industry—it decided to stop the blood­letting by replacing its paper transcripts with Barkley­Web, a secure online service. The ­company also pays American Forests­.org to plant a tree for every paperless tran­script ordered. In 2008, to cele­brate a year of being green, the organization will also have a tree planted for every deposition it takes. 415-433-5777, barkley.com

To reach the partially solar-powered Googleplex in Mountain View each day, 1,500 Google employees take a biodiesel bus. During the day, they can run errands in electric vehicles powered by solar-paneled carports. Eating at your desk? The cafeteria’s takeout containers are compostable, and if some of your lunch lands on the rug, one of the replaceable nylon tiles will be removed, shredded, and remade into carpet. The carpet epito­mizes the “cradle to cradle” products selected by occasionally Bay Area–based eco-architect William McDonough.

The worker-owned coop­erative Woodshanti makes custom furniture and cabinetry with lumber certified to meet the Forest Stewardship Council’s standards (meaning it’s been responsibly har­vested), then finishes it using a biodegradable natural oil. Woodshanti also snaps up wood from windfalls, dead orchard trees, and remodeled buildings, in one case taking old-growth Douglas fir beams from a build­ing and reincarnating them as a table. 415-822-8100, woodshanti.com

Here’s some straight poop: The Bayview’s Pet Camp, a pet-sitting service that can watch up to 150 dogs at a time, sends all those dogs’ droppings to the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s biomass facility in Oakland. Because San Francisco has “more dogs than children,” according to Pet Camp co-owner Mark Klaiman, the possibilities are endless. (The group also watches cats at its Presidio Heights locale, but feline poop is off-limits, because it can contain a virus that is dangerous to pregnant women.) 415-282-0700, petcamp.com

In 28 of its California stores, retail giant Macy’s West has paired up with energy guru SunPower for an inner makeover: roof-mounted solar panels, enhanced lighting systems that burn brighter on less wattage, and clean new HVAC systems. Together, these improvements will take will take the stores 40 percent off the grid by September.