Green Options

The folks behind Carrotmob continue to demonstrate the power of using your dollars to vote for environmental change, and they’re starting to get some press as well.

The first Carrotmob “reverse boycott” started with a convenience store in San Francisco.  The store owner out-competed a few dozen other businesses by pledging to use 22% of the profits from one day to make his store greener (in this case by installing energy efficient lighting and other green improvements).  Carrotmobbers flooded his store on the appointed day and left the store owner with $9,200, enough to make multiple energy efficient improvements as well as having the best sales day all year.

Carrotmob and their “reverse boycott” system works like this:

• Businesses are contacted and asked how much they would like to bid in order to win over consumers during one massive shopping day.
• Using social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, and other fancy technology, members are asked to vote which store they would like to select.
• One day is selected and the store is “mobbed” with consumers who show up and buy goods they would have purchased anyways - food, beverages, hardware, etc.
• The store is mobbed with consumers who in the process of flexing their food (or goods & services) dollars, bring the store lots of money.
• The store uses the percentage of those sales they pledged to make their business greener and more environmentally friendly, while helping their bottom line AND gaining significant goodwill in the community.

Just when you thought that luxurious eco lingerie was out of your reach, think again, we’ve found some options under twentyfive now. Go ahead, if you dare, and stretch your pocketbook to pair bikini briefs with g=9.8 thigh-high tights.

Good Humans offers some very nice undies for her. I am smitten over these String Bikini Briefs and Simple Rib Undies both 100% organic cotton baby rib lingerie. A soft, pure, light weight knit with gentle strength for a perfect fit. Made in the USA. Shown below is an example assortment of colors, 

Have you heard of Indigenous Designs? Well, if you are a boutique owner take a look at their wholesale offerings like these images shown here.

If you’re just looking for some comfortable clothing for yourself,

Sea Bags ~ Custom Tote Bags Made From Recycled Sails

“Since 1999 we have been making custom tote bags out of recycled sails. Every bag we make has sailed around the world before it even leaves our shop …”

The Sea Bag creators have big hearts, they’ve made special editions for the Maine Tri for a Cure race and our US Olympic Women’s Sailing Team.

This week I interviewed Leslie Richard who writes for our sister site Crafting a Green World and runs an amazing online eco-boutique called the Öko Box, featuring eco-styles like these:

Here is our Q & A:

1. Tell us more about how you came up with the name for your organization? I also dig your blog. Which one came first the blog or the company?

I have been deeply involved with the organic movement since the first day I walked into a health food store as a teen growing up in New Orleans. I naturally knew any business I would run would have to be related to health and preserving nature. So when my childhood best friend moved to Germany and began bragging about his “oko box” of affordable organic goods delivered from the farmers each week, his excitement really stuck with me. “Oko” is german for organic, and his descriptive stories of what arrived in his “oko box” left me feeling inspired- I knew I wanted to be part of a movement that made organic more accessible and affordable in the US with the ease he was experiencing in Europe.

Being that I have chemical sensitivities and some health probs I quickly became conscious of the connection that not only did our food need to be ecological & organic, but that every purchase we made, every product we used, every consideration must be done with the earth in mind. When I saw that there was plenty of organic baby products out there, but eco minded adults were being left behind by the organic fashion industry I decided to start “The Oko Box”. The catch for me, was it had to be affordable and break certain style barriers. I think I have a little something for everyone now, whether classy, hippy, punk, or suburban there’s a garment to love. The blog was born after the store and fairly recently, but has gained a huge following already which is a lot of fun for me! I really love to interact with customers and readers, your opinions totally matter to me.

2. The Öko Box mission is wonderful and we love that- “The Öko Box donates monthly to the National Wildlife Federation, in support of their Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program,” Please tell us more about your wonderful connection to these organizations and nature.

Need to finance your growing business? Throughout the year, the Skoll Foundation accepts applications from social entrepreneurs in business at least 3 years.

The Skoll Awards provide later-stage, or mezzanine, funding, which is generally structured as a $1 million award paid out over three years, subject to payment limitations described below under Budget Guidance. In most cases, the grant is provided for core support to help organizations expand their programs and capacity to deliver long-term, sustainable equilibrium change.

In these times of tight credit, worthy ideas have just as tough a time securing financing as those with, perhaps more mundane ideas. Fortunately the interest in sustainable and socially responsible businesses is growing. The Skoll Foundation is just one of several organizations offering this opportunity.

Starting a green business (or making an existing one greener) can often seem like a daunting task. As I start my own business, I am compiling a mental checklist of all small, simple things I can do in my day-to-day operations to lighten my footprint on the planet. By building environmentally conscious practices into my work flow from the start, I hope to start off on the right foot and keep taking steps toward sustainability.

There’s always more you can do, but the most important thing is to do something! Baby steps in the right direction are certainly better than going backwards or not moving at all. Thankfully, many green business practices are not only eco-friendly, but they’re friendly on the company budget as well. So even if the benefits to the planet are hard to see, benefits to your bottom line may be more visible.

Since I’m a habitual list-maker, here’s a handy list of ten simple things you can do to make your business a bit more sustainable every day.

When I met Priya Haji, co-founder of World of Good, at the recent Natural Products Expo in Southern California, her business was growing rapidly, helped in no small part by funding by social lenders.Bubbly and determined, she knows first hand the challenges socially responsible business face attracting capital.

“There’s a consumer-driven demand for this kind of ethical consumption, but the debt markets don’t understand that,” (She says).

Making the rounds of traditional venture capital firms can be excruciating for eco-entrepreneurs. Traditional firms excited by the opportunities inherent in pursuing green ventures are often less than thrilled when social responsibility is part of the plan.

A great way to end a meeting with a traditional investor or banker is to say, “Oh, by the way, I give away 10 percent of my profits to charity.”