The Green Bride Guide has everything you need to plan a green wedding!

interview of Kate Harrison, Founder and CEO of The Green Bride Guide

Where did you come up with the idea for The Green Bride Guide?

When my husband, Barry, and I began planning our wedding in 2006, we were surprised by how difficult it was to find the eco-friendly resources we were looking for. Although there were already many green options available for everything from invitations to flowers, the information was all over the place. After months of researching I put together The Green Bride Guide, to help other eco-minded couples generate ideas and navigate through the planning process. I am proud of the book and believe it is the most comprehensive and useful green wedding book on the market. You can read an excerpt hereor get a sneak preview at Amazon.com. However, 70% of wedding planning is done online so, in addition to the book, I wanted to offer couples a website that provided everything they needed to plan a green wedding in one place. The Green Bride Guide Online is that site. Here you can see pictures and stories from real green weddings, get wedding planning advice,  register for green home goods, or search for local green vendors.

What’s the most challenging thing about planning a green wedding and how do you help your clients overcome that challenge?

We work with couples as well as vendors to dispel the myth that a green wedding will be more expensive than a traditional wedding, and that it means the bride has to wear a hemp sack down the aisle. Part of having a green wedding is thinking about what your values are and what kind of wedding you want! This often means couples going green cut down on the amount of “stuff” they have to buy, which cuts down costs and reduces waste. Similarly, we work with vendors to help them make their own business practices more sustainable and connect to the growing number of couples that are seeking out green wedding products and services.

What is your business model? Who is your target consumer?

We have three streams of revenue: Directory listings, product sales and traditional advertising. Our target consumer is engaged females between the ages of 22-35.

Did you get funding for this project?

Yes, we have both angel and VC investors.

How do you advertise?

Our growth is largely organic. For the most part, we use social media and relationships with leading industry bloggers to spread the word and get our name and brand out there. We  attend wedding shows around the country each season, and talk to brides and vendors in each city. This year the GBG is putting on a 10-City Eco-Wedding Tour that will be stopping at some of the largest bridal shows in the country. We also developed an extensive affiliate program this year.

How rapidly will you be profitable and what drives your profitability?

We will be profitable in 2013. Our partnerships and direct marketing efforts are the key drivers.

carpooling.com believes that everyone should have access to affordable transport.

Our mission is to make carpooling a reliable and convenient form of public transportation that is affordable and easy to access (whether by computer, mobile phone or social network). With a few clicks, drivers can offer available seats in their car and passengers can find or book a ride. The concept is simple: by sharing a car, people save gas and money, reduce carbon emissions and meet new friends. Pollution, traffic, parking and road maintenance are reduced. People can share experiences and help each other: everyone benefits!

carpooling.com is the No. 1 Social Mobility Network in Europe, moving over 1 million people each month in 5000 cities and 45 countries.

Since the creation of our site, we have helped organize 24 million carpools – saving an estimated 630,000 tons of CO2 and 85 million gallons of gas. For a visual overview, see our Infographic.

interview of Michael Reinicke, co-founder and managing director of carpooling.com.

Where did you come up with the idea for Carpooling?

Stefan Weber, Matthias Siedler and I (Michael Reinicke) met at university and actually came up with the idea while studying for a MBA. Essentially, it all began as a simple plan to reduce the travel costs for students wanting to go home for the weekend.

However with rising gas and transport prices, many people are looking for solutions to reduce their transport budget. Carpooling can reduce transport costs by up to 75 percent, and is especially useful in areas with no public transport or during public transport strikes. Many people are also concerned about our planet and how they can contribute to reducing their carbon footprint. We wanted to provide a service that is easy to use and that addresses both these concerns.

When you consider that, taken together, all cars travel around 3.7 trillion miles per year and that in 78% of rides the driver travels alone – that gives you an idea of the possible economic and ecological impact of ride sharing.

What is your business model? How did you do to get people starting using the site?

Our business model is based on value-added services such as online booking as well as revenue sharing deals with transportation and other corporate companies.

Our philosophy is to give everyone access to the benefits of carpooling and only charge for services that have high value to users.

At the beginning, our sophisticated marketing plan to get our first users involved heading to the student cafeteria at lunchtime to distribute flyers. Luckily, starving students are an easy target and the popularity of our platform took off immediately - garnering more than 41,000 registered users in its first year.

Did you get funding for this project? Where did you find the funding to launch this green enterprise?

We had no external financial support in the beginning and had to invest our own money and spare time in the project. After graduating, we had to hold down fulltime jobs and work on the carpooling website in our spare time. As the popularity of the platform grew, however, the business began to generate revenue through key partnerships and premium accounts. It wasn’t until mid 2009, when we were approached by a venture capital investment group called Earlybird that we received any external financial support.

How do you advertise? Do you use social media?

We advertise in places where users are looking for answers, such as Google. Everyone who is looking for affordable transportation should be aware of carpooling.

Yes, of course, we use social media as a way to communicate directly with our users. Today we have more than 65,000 fans on Facebook and thousands of followers on Twitter. We monitor our users’ concerns and provide them with solutions. We send newsletters, write articles in relevant blogs and share photos and stories. We ask users for their feedback on new product ideas. We organize games where they can win prizes like special, free rides in the Christmas Coca Cola truck. The challenge is to do all this for our users in 7 languages!

How rapidly will you be profitable and what drives your profitability?

We are already profitable. Carpooling.com is financed by a transaction-based booking system as well as corporate partnerships – including, for example, the national Automotive Club (ADAC) in Germany, the bus company Eurolines and the railway company Deutsche Bahn. This allows cheap bus and train tickets to also be purchased on the carpooling.com platform, thus providing users with the most convenient and affordable travel options.

For large companies, carpooling.com also offers white label solutions which allow their employees to carpool to work and therefore save money for travel expenses. Workplace carpooling is considered an important building block for enterprises in developing their corporate social responsibility.

What mistakes have you made that you would advise other starting social entrepreneurs to avoid?

I think we underestimated the importance of communicating our presence on mass media. We did well by putting our users first and building a very good product for them. Today, we transport over 1 million people each month but many people still haven’t heard about carpooling. As we continue to grow and enter new markets, marketing and user engagement will become more and more important.

Staying relevant as a company requires an in depth understanding of what your users want. Today, people are better informed than ever and are increasingly mobile. Intelligent internet users want options. Some of our key features are our mobile applications, which enable carpooling to be spontaneously organized on the go (more than a thousand downloads each day of our free iPhone and Android apps). This is really the future for us. When there’s a problem in public transport like a strike, cancellation or tickets are too expensive, carpooling should be a convenient option and a way to express solidarity with those around you.

Eco-Me is a natural products company specializing in you. Really!  They care about the health of your home, family and pets.

interview of Founder, President - Robin Kay Levine and Vice President Sales & Marketing - Jennifer Mihajlov

Where did you come up with the idea for Eco-Me?

Eco-Me was created out of need and concern.  The need to remove harmful chemicals from our everyday lives and the concern that daily household cleaning products are the cause of an increase of disease in our society due to unmonitored and harmful chemicals.

What green consumer problem are you trying to solve?

We formulate our products with food-grade and plant-based ingredients.Eco-Me's natural cleaning and pet care products remove harmful chemicals from everyday family/household products.  Our brand of products does not use chemical preservatives, synthetic fragrances, dyes, sulfates, phosphates or any petro-based chemicals.

Did you get funding for this project?

Eco-Me is a privately owned company.  We raised start-up funds through family and friends.

What makes your particular product better than other options on the market?

There are many natural cleaning products on the market.  What makes Eco-Me different and better is that we use healthy, safe ingredients and honestly disclose them to our customers.  They are the safest and most natural products on the market today.

What methods for advertising do you find work the best?

We find that advertising for new brands doesn't reach core customers and that instead marketing and customer interaction is the best way to launch a new brand in today's competitive marketplace.  We engage with customers through in-store events and demos, online through social marketing and with our website through information portals, blogs and newsletters.

Do you warehouse your merchandise, or do you dropship? Do you do anything to minimize the footprint of your shipping?

Eco-Me manufactures and ships it's products through our main facility.  We keep a light footprint by selling in bulk to our distributor's distribution centers, and make sure to buy packaging materials and ingredients locally.

What platform did you choose to power your eCommerce website?

We find that eCommerce sites are tools, one is not better than another, it's what you do to market and design your website that will truly drive traffic and the content you create will continue to bring customers back.There are quite a few on the market today, all give you bells and whistles, but our team does not promote one over another.

Hipcycle offers upcycled products that are as attractive, durable, and otherwise as desirable as traditional equivalent products

interview of Chief Hipcycler, Andrew Sell

Where did you come up with the idea for Hipcycle?

This is my first entrepreneurial venture. I have had the desire to be an entrepreneur for years, but I had just never done it for one reason or another…but I have always been on the lookout for good business opportunities, especially ones that lent themselves to solid social entrepreneurship.

When I came across upcycling and realized that it was not just a bunch of individuals reusing stuff, but rather a nascent, quickly growing industry, I was intrigued. It appealed to both my entrepreneurial and environment interests, and when I realized that there were all these great products out there, and no one easy place to shop for them, the idea for Hipcycle was born.

What is your business model? What marketing strategies work well for you?

Hipcycle is an online retail platform that sells upcycled products in the housewares, furniture, office, and garden categories, with plans to expand into additional categories in the future. About half of our products are shipped from our warehouse in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and the rest are drop shipped from our Product Partners across the country. We have about 400 SKUs on the site now, and we are adding more all the time.

For marketing, we have relied heavily on social media. Green consumers are a very passionate bunch, and already very well represented on the web. Through social media, and especially our blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, we are growing a solid fan base, for which we are very grateful. We try to make our content on these channels informative about upcycling issues in general, and not just “sales-ey” stuff about Hipcycle. In addition to these initiatives, we have also done some traditional PR and also some targeted online advertising.

Did you get funding for this project?

We are bootstrapping our launch. Our plan is to grow organically, but we have aspirations to be the “Amazon of Upcycling,” so we would consider outside investment if the situation and investors were a good fit and it helped us reach our goals more quickly.

How rapidly will you be profitable and what drives your profitability?

We expect to be profitable sometime toward the end of next year. We feel strongly that our plan to profitability is rooted in excellent customer service so that we develop happy, passionate customers and also in building fair, transparent, and mutually beneficial relationships with our Product Partners.

PURE Glass Bottle is a reusable, impact and shatter resistant, durable, glass bottle. It is coated with a non-toxic and FDA CFR 21 sanctioned material for contact with food.

interview of Walt Himelstein, Owner/Creator of PURE Glass Bottle

Where did you come up with the idea for Pure Glass Bottle?

I have worked in environmental testings labs for over 23 years where bottle with coverings hold chemicals in case of breakage.  I've always been into the environment and have always had many reusable drinking bottles (metal and plastic) but always like to drink from glass like most people.  I knew if I could figure out the proper coating for a reusable glass bottle, to make it safe for use in public it would be big.  So I went about researching materials that were BPA Free and non-toxic and clear. That's what I came up with and I now have a patent pending on the product and material.

What is your business model? How did you do to get people starting using the site?

Right now people are easily finding our site www.pureglassbottle.com by searching for reusable bottles or reusable glass bottles.  We show up on the 1 to 3 page on Google.  We're getting a lot of hits from that.  We also have gotten lots of sales and publicity and articles written about PURE Glass Bottle  because people love our product.  We're also getting a lot of word of mouth which is making the product go ‘viral’.

Did you get funding for this project?

We're using personal funds but would love to bring in a joint partner to make this product bigger quicker and we've already been approached by several companies and expect to find a partner soon.

 

 

How do you advertise?

Right now we've gone to the NY Green Media Expo Show that got us lots of interest, we're going to our first convention next week; the Natural Expo to expand our sales. We are going to more Trade Shows every month to increase our presence.  We also advertise on Google and Facebook. As it stands, we're getting a lot of retail sales from our site with limited advertising.

Givmo.com - is a new service that helps you give away your unused or unwanted stuff to someone else who can actually use it, for free. And, for each item given away, Givmo donates $1 to a green charity or cause.

interview of Dustin Byrne, Founder of Givmo

Where did you come up with the idea for Givmo?

I've moved around a lot.  Boston, New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and New York again, and I moved several times within each of those areas.  Every time I moved and had to pack up all my stuff, I found many things that I hadn't even thought of, let alone touched, since the last move.  Old electronics, computers, kitchen tools, toys, sporting goods, you name it.  This stuff still had intrinsic value, just not to me.  No one wants to throw away something that still has value, so what do you do with it?  I tried eBay, craigslist, garage sales and was able to get rid of a lot of stuff, but the effort involved is substantial and the money from selling the stuff was negligible.  You can only take so many quarters from old ladies at a garage sale before you realize you're not doing it for the money.  I wanted an easy way to get my old stuff to a new home where it could make someone else happy, and so Givmo was born.

We're trying to help solve the problem of "too much stuff" and want to encourage people to use shared resources, reducing the need for extraneous consumption and unnecessary waste.  Basically we're making the push for people to dust off the stuff they own but haven't touched in a long time and give it away already - AND benefit a charity at the same time.

What is your business model? How did you do to get people starting using the site?

If you will, take a minute and think about one closet in your house you use for storage.  Do you even know what’s in there?  It’s probably filled with a bunch of old stuff you’ve acquired over the years but just don't use anymore (and probably won’t ever).  Now, expand that thought and think about all the closets, garages, basements, attics, and storage units that belong to your friends and family - now branch out further and imagine that for people all over the country.  That’s a lot of unused stuff.

We know for a fact that most people out there have a ton of items just sitting around taking up valuable space.  We also know that people don’t generally toss something that still has value - AND we know that people, by nature, like to give because it makes us feel good.   And to further develop our community of giving, Givmo decided to donate $1 to a green charity or cause for each item given away.  We have felt so amazing giving and we’re confident that others will become just as addicted as we are.

How do you choose which charities to support?

We look for charities or causes that support and care about encouraging people to become more environmentally aware - and also help people take action to achieve that goal.

Did you get funding for this project?

We're currently self funded and running on a shoestring budget.

How do you advertise? Do you use social media?

Since we’re on that shoe string budget, yes we rely heavily on social media and word of mouth.  We’re using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, bloggers, etc. to get the word out.

How rapidly will you be profitable and what drives your profitability?

This is a tough one to answer accurately.  I will say that we're running an extremely lean startup here, with expenses at a bare minimum.  Profitability for us is directly connected to how many people we can get to clean out their closets and help a good cause.

Freshocracy is NYC's Local Farm-to-Table Grocery and Recipe Delivery Service. We caught up with co-founder Andreas Boquist.

What does Freshocracy do? (AB) Freshocracy is a New York City-based startup that provides busy New Yorkers with the tools to put better meals on the table.  We plan weekly seasonal dinner recipes based on what’s currently fresh at the farmers’ market.  We then source the best local sustainably-farmed ingredients and deliver directly to customers.  All required ingredients, including seasonings and pantry items, are conveniently pre-measured to reduce waste and make it easier to cook dinners at home.  The easy-to-follow recipe instructions enable customers to prepare premium quality meals in 25 – 40 minutes.

What inspired you to bring the idea to life? (AB) We wanted to give people an opportunity to get back into the kitchen and take control over what they eat.  By removing the hassles of planning meals and shopping for ingredients, our customers find it easy and enjoyable to prepare exciting home-cooked meals that are better for them, and for the environment as well.  Because we source ingredients directly from local farms, they are harvested at their peak, providing more nutrients and flavors that our customers can taste. By planning the meals for our customers, we can provide a more balanced diet than what most people typically eat.  We introduce exciting items that a lot of people have never used in their cooking, such as sunchokes, ramps and spices such as za’atar and turmeric.

Who is your target market? (AB) We think our service appeals to anyone who appreciates good food.  At the very basic level our service provides more intensely flavorful local products and premium quality recipes that anyone who eats in some of New York’s best restaurants would appreciate at home.  But because we are also focused on the convenience of delivering pre-measured amounts of all the ingredients and planning exciting seasonal meals, we think this service meets the needs of busy parents, working professionals, or just general “foodies” who are interested in the experience of easily trying new foods.

How do you source suppliers and recipes? (AB) We source the majority of our ingredients from local farms and purveyors within 250 miles of New York City.  We are very selective in who we work with because we want to make sure we know our suppliers and understand their production methods.  We are committed to educating our customers about the farmers behind their meals by sharing information in each delivery about where each local ingredient was sourced.  This also gives our customers a direct traceable path from farm-to-table. Many of our recipes are the creations of Christina DiLaura, one of Freshocracy’s co-founders.  Christina comes from a family that is passionate about food and family dinners, and she also runs a New York supper club called 8.ate@eight, so many of our meals are based on her recipes.  We also partner with food52, an online community cookbook and curated recipe database, founded by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs.

How does your business model work? (AB) Freshocracy is a subscription-based service.  Customers simply sign up online, choose a preferred 2-hour delivery window and receive their reusable bag every other Sunday.  Customers manage their accounts online and can easily adjust or suspend the service if they go out of town.  The only choice customers have to make today is whether they want meals for two or four people.  However, we plan to introduce some new add-on options in the near future.

What is your favorite recipe that you deliver? (AB) The most exciting part about our recipes is that they are different every week and based on the new ingredients coming out of the fields.  Last week we had a phenomenal response from our recipe for Sautéed Skate with Melted Ramp Butter, Tender Ramps and The Springiest Potato Salad Ever.  The recipe featured items such as ramps, green garlic, red scallions and pea shoots – many of our customers had never cooked with any of those items before and were amazed at the outcome, which they felt could have been served at a fine restaurant.

Conscious Coffee is a coffee roastery out of Boulder, Colorado committed to working directly with indigenous coffee farming coops across the globe. The company places high priority on social responsibility and sustainability and was just awarded Roast’s Roaster of the Year for 2011, the highest honor in the coffee roasting business. In this month’s Just Planted, Conscious Coffees founders and co-owners Mark and Mel Glenn talk to us about how their coffee company came to be and the challenges they face as conscious business owners.

How was Conscious Coffees born?

In 1994, we worked as baristas in a small coffee roastery and fell in love with the culture of specialty coffee: the daily social meeting place, the artisan approach to preparing the brew, and the vast, yet uncharted global connection coffee had to offer. We each began to do some limited roasting at this shop and as we strengthened our relationship as partners, the prospect of owning our own coffee business was a natural next step for us. We climbed many Colorado peaks together and soul searched for what approach to the industry would be best for us, settling on strictly wholesale roasting as opposed to a retail shop. This was primarily driven by the fact that neither of us were willing to open a shop on powder (skiing) days and we were convinced a successful retail shop would need to abide by consistent daily hours of operation. On June 1st in 1996, the Conscious Coffees journey began.

How do you try to stay conscious as business owners?

First, and most importantly, we live within our means. We remain accountable for all the choices we make on a daily basis and are deeply committed to social and environmental responsibility. If we do not absolutely need something, we do not acquire it. We attempt to trace all of our acquisitions back to their source to confirm that we are aligned with the source. We work collaboratively with vendors who share our values and social/environmental missions. The Conscious crew all bike commutes to the office and we bike deliver our coffee in town. We also reuse and/or recycle everything possible in our business, creating the equivalent of one five gallon bucket of landfill trash per month for the entire operation.

Your coffee comes in cans, a move that isn’t seen much these days in the coffee industry. Why the can?

For our retail grocery shelf packaged coffee, we use a recycled steel can that is reusable and recyclable. Although this approach costs us five to ten times the cost of the standard grocery shelf coffee packages, steel cans are the only packaging option that aligns with our mission to use only materials that are constructed of recycled material and can be constantly reused and recycled.

You've said before you feel mixed about fair trade certification. Why and what sort of things should a consumer be looking for in their beans beyond a Fair Trade label?

Labels continue to remain deceptive and succeed at claiming something that may be only partially true or not true at all (natural, fresh, fair trade, chemical-free). The current certified "fair trade" that exists for coffee guarantees that the producer cooperative was paid a minimum price per pound. In the case of coffee, this minimum price is the same per pound, regardless of country of origin and as we all can safely assume, it costs more to produce a pound of coffee in one area compared to another. This type of system only works in times when the coffee commodity market is trading extremely low, especially when it does so for extended periods of time. To truly confirm that a product is fairly traded, a consumer should demand proof from the manufacturer and/or the certifier whose logo, label. or name appear on the product. Transparency and traceability are crucial. Retailers with the most integrity, the ones who are truly committed to fair trading, and those who are leaders in the movement, can answer questions from sourcing to farmer wages and provide some form of documentation.

What are the challenges you face staying conscious and sustainable?

One personal challenge I continue to face is finding a way to remain optimistic that social, environmental, and economic justice will be served through consumerism and become commonplace for the majority of consumption that drives the market societies we live in.

As with any free market, competition brings out the best and worst in all participants. I struggle each day with the fact that a very large percentage of coffee available to consumers on the shelves of markets and cafes is labeled as "fair" when the farmers behind those products continue to live in poverty.

A big challenge to all of us who work hard to do the right thing is the added costs associated with being truly "fair" and certified organic. These additional costs are required to keep in place a verification system and inspection schedule which every trader or exporter or importer must pay. However those who pay a truly fair price to the producers must pay a much higher price per pound to meet the producers basic needs.

And how does this play out on the consumer’s end?

The challenge we face is not being able to tap into the majority of consumers in the market; the ones who are on a budget and/or accustomed to paying a very low price for coffee, many of whom want to do the right thing by purchasing fair trade. As long as the powers that manage fair trade labeling here in the States keep their required minimum to pay farmers so low, the large coffee companies of the world, big box stores and discount retailers will offer this certified fair coffee that doesn’t actually pay a fair price for coffee (or invest holistically in farmer communities). These big guys can then sell ‘fair’ coffee at levels much lower than an independent fair trader is capable of competing against. While the final consumer feels they've done the right thing by purchasing this coffee with the certified fair logo on it, farmers continue to struggle making the system work for them.

And how does a direct relationship with your coffee growers play into this?

Fairness involves crafting a direct relationship between producer organization (cooperative) and buyer (importer). Continual visits to origin are required by the buyer for an importer to even begin to understand the meaning of "fair" from the perspective of the producer.

What do you find most rewarding about your work?

Coming as far as we have in fifteen years as a husband/wife small business partnership, starting from scratch and learning from the streets of various communities, the values we hold so close to our souls have been clarified and refined through this journey. This business has taught us most of what we know about land and liberty, human rights, cultural identity, social structure, commodities and trading, right and wrong.

I love the fact that we have created a way to buy a crop (coffee: the world's second largest traded commodity) directly from a producer cooperative via mutually beneficial trade, import it, roast and package it, then deliver it to the espresso cafes which will brew it and serve it to the final consumer as a finished product. We work within a circle where each member, from crop to cup, is visible and represented. This system goes against the grain for the predominant "buy low, sell high" mentality of the society we live in and this alternative model of commerce/trade is very rewarding.

Clean Plates, the eating guide for every body, is a nutritionist and food-critic approved restaurant resource listing where to find the most delicious, local, sustainable and organic food in Manhattan.  In this month's Just Planted, founder Jared Koch talks to us about how Clean Plates came to be.

 

With all of the well-known resources on dining out available, why did you decide to create Clean Plates? I am very passionate about making it easier and enjoyable for people to eat healthier and more sustainably.  While there are a lot of great resources on dining in general, there really was nothing that was comprehensive and well researched for people looking to eat healthier and better quality ingredients. As far as animal foods are concerned, there was no easy way to find out which restaurants were sourcing animals that are grass-fed, pasture-raised and free of hormones and antibiotics.  And while there are many vegetarian and vegan guides that exist, none really do a good job of determining which places are actually tasty.  At Clean Plates we distinguish for the consumer which vegan and vegetarian restaurants are actually healthy and taste good.  If you are going to a restaurant recommended by Clean Plates you are guaranteed to have plenty of delicious options and you can rest assured that the quality of ingredients being used are of a high caliber.

How has the public and the restaurant community responded to the guide? Overall, the response has been incredibly positive.  I regularly meet people who tell me that they use the book all of the time and that is has really changed the way they eat.  I also often hear from the restaurants that new customers are coming in saying they heard about the restaurant from the book, which is great to hear.  Ultimately, the goal is to get more people to eat at the restaurants serving better quality, well-sourced ingredients benefiting the restaurant and the consumer.

Clean Plates goes beyond the guide book. Tell us about your app and other resources? We just recently launched a brand new website where anyone can search for all of the different restaurants (over 300), read our reviews, write reviews/comments of their own, order delivery via SeamlessWeb and book a reservation through OpenTable.  In addition, we are creating a lot of content on our blog about the restaurants including chef interviews and great tips on eating healthier in general.  We are in the process of developing our app and plan to release a mobile version of the site early this year.  We are also creating seals of approval to place in both the physical windows of the restaurants, as well as on their websites, to make it easy for everyone to spot places that are healthier and more sustainable.

What's next for Clean Plates? In addition to the mobile site and app, we really want to provide consistent value for people online so we can continue to make eating healthier and more sustainably even easier.  We are exploring a bunch of different concepts and getting feedback from our community to determine how best to do that.  Beyond that, we are excited to expand to other cities!

 

Grameen America provides affordable micro-loans to financially empower low-income entrepreneurs.  Below are some thoughts from Katherine Rosenberg, Director of Education & Evaluation, on how Grameen is executing on its vision to create a world free of poverty.

Grameen Bank has been creating tremendous opportunities internationally, and based on that Grameen America is expanding rapidly throughout the United States in cities like New York and Omaha.  Tell us why it made sense to develop the project here. Following the success of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Professor Muhammad Yunus launched Grameen America in the United States in 2008 to empower people with limited or no access to credit to use entrepreneurship, self-employment and determination as a means of increasing income, escaping poverty, and creating a better life for themselves and their families.  While Grameen Bank has been phenomenally successful in Bangladesh, many skeptics claimed the model was only applicable to developing countries.  After nearly three successful years, we have proven that there is a demand.

Even in a country like the United States, low-income populations are frequently prevented from pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities because commercial banks will not make small loans to individuals who have limited income, lack credit scores and collateral.

How does the microfinancing process typically work and why do you think this model has been so effective in alleviating impoverishment? Grameen America operates on a peer lending model which is identical to that of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.  Individuals living below the poverty line are asked to form a group of 5 friends or relatives.  All core group members must attend 5 hours of financial training to start the program and then review each other's business ideas before receiving any loans.  Upon receiving their individual business loans, the group meets weekly to repay the principal and interest and deposit savings.  This process creates strong bonds between borrower groups and provides a professional and social support network that is new to many of our borrowers.

Small network creation is at the core of contemporary community building because these networks foster the trust and cooperation necessary to make communities work.  To effectively alleviate impoverishment, we focus not only on individual successes but also group achievements that financially and socially empower the community as a whole.

Tell us about the people you help and the impact you've had in disadvantaged communities. Grameen America’s typical borrower earns an average annual income of around $12,000 and lives well below the federal poverty line of $22,050 for a family of four.  Most of our borrowers are women or single mothers, who struggle to provide basic necessities for themselves and their children.

Since Grameen America launched our first branch in 2008, we have dispursed over $12MM in microloans to nearly 5,000 borrowers and created over 5,700 jobs in the process. Our clients have deposited over $600,000 into savings accounts at local partner banks and built credit scores to over 600.  These statistics demonstrate that not only are we reaching more and more of the impoverished population, but also our borrowers creating jobs, increasing savings and building stronger communities.

What kind of projects are you currently funding and what kind of success measures are you seeing within the portfolio? We are currently providing business microloans to aspiring entrepreneurs living below the poverty line.  Evidence of our success can be found in our high repayment rates.  While it’s difficult to imagine how a loan of $1,500 can start a business and genuinely change a life, our borrowers are using their loans for various businesses including:  food carts, at home tailoring and baking businesses, and hair salons.  Most of our borrowers continue with Grameen America for subsequent loans as they continue to build their businesses.

What's next for Grameen America? Grameen America’s mission is to alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship and financial empowerment by helping the low-income population in the United States.  In the future, we’d like to see any individual with the desire to pull themselves out of poverty through business able to access affordable micro-loans so that they too can forge a better life for themselves and their family.  We continue to expand our services around New York City and Omaha with a focus on becoming a sustainable social business.

 

Brooklyn Grange is a commercial organic farming business located on New York City rooftops. They grow vegetables in the city and sell them to local people and businesses. The goal is to improve access to very good food, to connect city people more closely to farms and food production, and to make urban farming a viable enterprise and livelihood. Below are some thoughts from Anastasia Plakias, a veteran of the New York Restaurant industry, and Ben Flanner, a trained engineer with a background in finance, both founding members of the Brooklyn Grange team.

Taking advantage of under-utilized space in an overcrowded city to grow organic fruits and vegetables is brilliant.  How did you come up with the idea? (BF) It started with an interest and passion for organic agriculture.  As I researched different farms and started to make a plan for moving from the city, I started to think more and more about the practicality of urban farming.  Although it has restrictions, it certainly makes a lot of sense to produce what we can on large open rooftop space.  Farming in the city also allows me to enjoy what I love about New York-- all the great people, energy, and things to do.

How has the community been responding? (AP) The community has been very welcoming of the farm, not only shopping at the farmstand but coming up and working the crops, getting involved.  It's important to us not only that we offer delicious produce at affordable prices, but that we give the community a chance to engage with the food that they eat and connect with the process.  We have some customers who are regular volunteer farmhands as well.  It's a great feeling to see a crop through from seed to harvest, and folks are excited to take home a bunch of carrots that they planted weeks earlier and pulled from the earth.

Brooklyn Grange is a commercial farming business, but in what ways are you trying to remain sustainable while being for-profit? (AP) We believe that fiscal sustainability is an important part of the sustainability rubric.  We want to see these rooftop farms thrive in New York City and across the world, and they have a better chance of doing so if they can stand on their own two feet financially. Ecologically speaking, we are doing our part, however modest, to decrease the urban heat island effect and lessen the burden on the overtaxed sewer system by absorbing rainwater.  We've seen the results: butterflies, birds, ladybugs and other winged wildlife flocking to the roof.  And rather than using chemical fertilizers, we convert the community's compost into nutrients for our vegetables, which means fewer trucks leaving town with our trash.

How rapidly will you be profitable and what drives your profitability? (AP) We are doing our best to offer value to the community while keeping the farm in the black.  What drives our profitability is what drives people to eat real, fresh, delicious foods.  It's not a get-rich-quick scheme; it's human nature.  In our first year, we have successfully managed to generate enough sales to pay our rent and keep ourselves afloat.

Did you get funding to start your venture? (AP) We are funded by a combination of interest loans, equity investments, the website kickstarter.com and old-fashioned grassroots fundraising.

Where and when can we purchase your produce? (AP) We are winding down for the season, but come springtime we'll post farmstand hours and locations on our website.  In the meantime, email us at brooklyngrangefarm@gmail.com to be added to our email list.  We also sell to several restaurants, including Roberta's, Vesta, Fatty 'Cue, bobo and many others which we list on our website.

All photos are courtesy of the Brooklyn Grange website.

Tired of the standard New York street cart fare of stale pretzels and bland hot dogs? Then you will be thrilled to learn about Organic Carts NYC where the ingredients are 100% organic and the food is cooked-to-order using renewable resources!  This revolutionary culinary experience comes to hungry New Yorkers from the Founder & CEO of GustoOrganics, who believes that delicious food can be healthy, sustainably sourced and right around the corner from your office.

Serving organic, locally sourced and affordable (not to mention delicious!) meals using the tried-and-true New York food cart model, is such a unique concept.  How did you come up with the idea? At GustoOrganics, our vision is to bring organics and sustainability into the mainstream.  And although New York is a typical street food city, I believe that most street food is very devalued because of the way it is being handled in terms of quality, food safety, etc.  Therefore, I thought the combination of our triple bottom line business model (looking for social, environmental and financial outcomes) with street food was a great fit for New York City.

Did you get funding for this project? This project is being funded by every single customer that comes and supports GustOrganics every day. They are the reason behind this concept. We take money from GustOrganics and slowly invest it into the carts.

You also offer only NYC super purified water served in biodegradable cups. Why? New York City has one of the cleanest and purest water sources in the country. At GustOrganics, we take NYC water, and then run it through a UV lamp that kills bacteria. We then run our water through a top-notch purification system that takes out metals and toxins, but retains the good minerals. We preserve our water in reusable glass bottles and serve it upon request. Our pure water is provided to our customers for free, because we believe they should taste and experience pure water at no extra charge.

We are completely against bottled water, because most of the bottles wind up in landfills forever. This is in my opinion a very selfish trade off and we must change it. At Organic Carts NYC we actually do not serve any bottled drinks at all; we only serve homemade organic fresh beverages so there is virtually no plastic waste.

How will you develop the carts around the city? Do you expect to be profitable? Our plan (a very challenging one) is to convert as many carts as possible. We are now planning to launch 2 or 3 more carts before the spring and we aim to have 50 more carts in the next 5 years. This is very challenging because on top of all the street business complexity, New York is a very regulated city so I believe that in part this is why the street food has not been able to evolve in the way people needed until now.  We expect it to be profitable in the long term, but we are not doing this only for the money. Of course we need it to be financially sustainable, but we are first focusing on nutrition, social and environmental aspects.

Where can people find the carts? For now at 53rd and Park Avenue (Northeast corner) while the next ones will probably be somewhere in Midtown West.  Other locations, including the Financial District are still to be determined.

At Sir Richard’s Condom Company, the moto is "Doing good never felt better.™" The new venture launches this Fall and brings safe sex to a whole new level. Sir Richard’s addresses consumers who want to align their purchases with the changes they wish to see in the world, offering not only a new product, but an exciting – and dare we say enjoyable –  movement as well. Company founder and chief executive Mathew Gerson shares the Sir Richard’s story below.

How did Sir Richard's come to be? The catalyst for Sir Richard’s blossomed while reading Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder on the life’s work of Dr. Paul Farmer. I was awed and humbled by what this one man was able to accomplish in his commitment to be of benefit to the poor. Subsequent research into the global shortage of condoms formalized the idea to launch a condom brand with a one for one component.

For every condom purchased, one is donated to a developing country to help prevent the spread of STD's. Why did you choose to integrate this humanitarian dimension into the business? There is a massive need gap between the demand for free condoms and the number made available every year.  Many people simply cannot afford the price of condoms and thus will only utilize them when they are made available for free.  As one of the best defenses against the spread of HIV/AIDS, doing a one for one business model for condoms seemed like a noble venture and was supported by a few visionary investors in Boulder, Colorado. Our donated condoms will be printed in the primary language of the recipient country to increase relevancy and potential usage. Our first distribution partner is Partners in Health.

How have people been responding to Sir Richard's fresh take on the rubber? The response to the brand has been very encouraging. There seems to be a real resonance with the brand.  If you go to the condom aisle in any major supermarket you will see that the condoms that are currently marketed in the U.S. are overwhelmingly designed for a younger male user. We felt that the current messaging and designs tended to be clinical, industrial and pretty sophomoric.

There is a lack of any uplifting sense of beauty or subtlety in the entire conversation brands are having with their customers. We wanted the experience of the Sir Richard’s brand to be one that is positive, both by design as well as the way in which we communicated our message and mission. We also wanted to have a little fun.

Women currently purchase around 38 percent of condoms in the U.S., so we felt it was about time that their aesthetic sensibilities were finally honored.

Is there such a thing as a green condom? How is Sir Richard's sustainable? When you consider the benefits to the environment when individuals, families and communities stay healthy, I would say that condoms are by definition one of the “greener” products ever made. Our condoms are 100% natural latex and thus they are bio-degradable.  It is important that they not end up in the waterways or oceans by flushing. It is always best to place them in the trash.

Sir Richard’s are manufactured in Malaysia by one of the finest condom manufacturers in the world. To date we have not been able to source a supplier of Fair Trade latex, but we are in discussion with both TransFair USA as well as U.K. based Fair Deal Trading in the hopes that they might be able to provide for our future production runs.

Sir Richard’s condoms are casein-free and vegan-friendly.

Where and when can we purchase Sir Richard's? The condoms will be available in November of this year, both online via our website www.SirRichards.com as well as in select stores and boutiques.