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Three companies are helping set the stage for Fairfax County's emergence as a leader in green technology.

Although the burgeoning sector's focus is on recycling and renewable energy, the field encompasses all technological and scientific methods geared toward conserving resources and limiting the human "footprint" on the environment.

"It's all about not wasting energy and conservation," said Gerald L. Gordon, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

Gordon said Fairfax County's strong information technology base is enabling green businesses to thrive within the county, but added the sector as a whole is too new and fragmented to be gauged in terms of new revenue and growth.

"It is all just getting under way, but is already taking off within the county," he said. "We have the brainpower here to produce the impetus for green technology innovation."

Several businesses in the county have started the green ball rolling by developing products that could revolutionize the way future products in each of their respective fields are manufactured.

Centennial Contractors Enterprises of Reston, in conjunction with Axiom International of New Jersey, has created the first-ever railroad bridges made of recycled plastic. They are capable of supporting up to 260,000 pounds, or 130 tons.

"The bridges are made exclusively of 99.9 percent post-consumer and post-industrial thermo-plastic, which in layman's terms means recycled plastic soda bottles, detergent bottles and discarded plastic automobile bumpers," said Centennial Regional Operations Manager Mike Halvorson.

"Car bumpers from car accidents and other discarded vehicles are actually difficult to recycle because of their high glass content," he added. "There aren't too many practical applications for them because of that, but in our case, that high glass content strengthens the recycled structural composite that the railroad bridges are made of."

The two bridges have recently been installed and are now being used by the U.S. Army at a training facility at Fort Eustis in Newport News. One bridge is 80 feet long, while the other is half that length.

The Army will use the new bridges, which replace wood bridges built in 1952, to train soldiers on running trains.

Using recycled plastic will keep 334,000 pounds of material out of landfills and save more than 50,000 gallons of gasoline and 496 metric tons of greenhouse gases, according to Bart Deforest, a project manager at Centennial. In addition, the plastic increases the bridges' longevity and significantly decreases the maintenance. "The bridges have a life expectancy of about 50 years or more and are virtually maintenance-free," said Halvorson.

By being constructed of recycled material, the plastic composite bridges replace the need for new wood, concrete and steel, Halvorson said. "The potential applications are endless," he said. "We may very well be able to construct vehicular bridges out of similar material in the near future."

In the lighting industry, venture-capital-backed Renaissance Lighting of Herndon has created lighting fixtures that use LEDs -- light-emitting diodes -- and replace the need for light bulbs. Each of the 70 or so fixture models has a lifespan of up to 17 years, according to CEO Barry Weinbaum.

"In addition to keeping landfills free of additional waste, our patented LED lighting fixtures also use up to 80 percent less energy to produce the same intensity and quality of light," he said.

The company also has its own recycling program for the fixtures that it sells. "We definitely consider ourselves a green technology company," Weinbaum said.

In the computer field, EcomNets of Herndon is blazing the green trail by manufacturing a "green" desktop computer from recyclable materials that uses only about 25 percent of the energy of a conventional desktop computer.

"We simply wanted to create a small computer with a small carbon footprint that was highly recyclable," EcomNets CEO Raj Kosuri said. "We saw a need to be energy efficient at the desktop."

The company recently announced it will manufacture the new "Verdio Green" PCs at a new plant in Danville, where it will invest $1.94 million to establish its manufacturing operation. The project is expected to create 160 new jobs in that area.

"EcomNet's mission to manufacture energy efficient computers is vital to our efforts to decrease energy use and its effects on our environment," Gov. Robert McDonnell (R) said last month in a statement.

"I have seen a Verdio Green computer, and it is exactly the type of innovation that will establish Fairfax County as a leader in the green technology movement," said Fairfax County EDA's Gordon.