Starting a green home-based business offers eco-conscious entrepreneurs the opportunity to turn their passions for the environment and social responsibility into a flexible and lucrative career opportunity.
Green businesses are businesses that place a high value on what is known as the “triple bottom line:” People, Planet, Profit. Coined by John Elkington in 1994, the term exemplifies the commitment green businesses make to social and environmental responsibility, as well as profit.
Green businesses express their commitment to sustainability both with the types of products and services they provide, and the way they run their business. For example, a green business might create products made from recycled or sustainably harvested materials, and use wind energy to power its offices.
Home-based businesses often have a green advantage right off the bat because they do not require transportation to and from an office, potentially saving hundreds of dollars of gasoline and hundreds of hours of commuting time every year. Having a home office also reduces energy consumption by buildings, because just one building must be heated, cooled, and lit, instead of two.
Green home businesses also share the advantages of more conventional home businesses, including independence, flexibility, and peace of mind.
There are many great green business ideas that can be started from home.
One major sector in the green industry is green consulting. Green consultants help homeowners and businesses find ways to conserve resources and save money at the same time. Green consultants can specialize in certain areas, such as energy audits or reducing solid waste, or be generalists capable of advising clients on many aspects of green business and living. Green consulting businesses are easy to run from home, offer flexible hours and low start-up costs, and can be independently owned and run or part of a larger franchise such as the Green Irene Eco-Consultants or Pro Energy Consultants.
Other green service industries suitable for home-based businesses are also growing in popularity, from green catering and organic food delivery services, to green cleaning services and organic lawn services, to green courier services and bicycle repair.
There will always be a market for innovative green products, and a growing number of green entrepreneurs are involved in home-based green manufacturing or retail. For example, some creative green designers are creating beautiful recycled designer handbags out of everything from candy wrappers to pop tops! Other green entrepreneurs use the internet to create successful green boutiques and stores.
With awareness of the health and environmental benefits of locally grown, organic foods on the rise, the sustainable agriculture sector is experiencing exponential growth, and offers many fantastic green home business opportunities, whether your “farm” consists of 100 acres or a tiny apartment balcony in the city!
These are just a few of the many green business ideas that you can use to start a green home business of your own. For more great green home business ideas, be sure to follow GreenMarketing.tv and other great green business blogs!
Once you’ve decided what kind of green business you want to start, contact your local Small Business Administration for tips on how to start your business, handle finances and taxes, and other aspects of business management.
For many green businesses, consumer education plays an important part in marketing plans, because consumers are not always aware of the ways in which green products and services benefit themselves as well as the environment.
Other consumers may be as educated (or more) about the social and environmental issues relating to a specific green product or service as the entrepreneur, so it is also important to start building up your credibility as an eco-friendly business from the start. One way to do this is by seeking green professional certification or licensing, if any is available in your field. Some professional organizations also offer green business directories, which can be a great marketing tool.
With a good business plan and management skills, your green home-based business can become both a lucrative source of income and a way to make a positive difference in the world around you.
Architecture for Humanity is a non-profit design services firm that is dedicated to building a more sustainable future through the power of good design. They offer professional design services to non-profit organizations, including charity organizations, social entrepreneurs, and community groups.
Architecture for Humanity promotes a holistic design philosophy that includes not only the sustainability of the building materials, but also how the building will improve the lives and livelihoods of its occupants and impact the local community. It focuses on several aspects of sustainable design, including disaster mitigation and reconstruction, poverty alleviation, climate change prevention and adaptation, and designing for at-risk populations. As part of these goals, Architecture for Humanity emphasizes community design, which seeks to engage the entire community in the design process. Individuals and organizations from the local community have the opportunity to make decisions and set priorities, resulting in more environmentally and culturally appropriate designs.
Architecture for Humanity: Making the World a Better Place Through DesignArchitecture for Humanity works on a wide variety of design projects around the world, including everything from single family homes to large community centers.
One Architecture for Humanity project currently under construction is the Mahiga Rainwater Court, part of The Nobelity Project‘s Mahiga Hope High School. The Mahiga Rainwater Court will be a full-size basketball court incorporating a rainwater collection and purification system capable of collecting and treating 90,000 gallons of rainwater per year. The court also incorporates a covered performance area for local music, theater, and film performances, an outdoor covered classroom, and a dining area.
Architecture for Humanity has been deeply involved in efforts to rebuild Haiti following the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010. Their current projects in Haiti include the Haiti Schools Initiative, which seeks to get children back in safe schools as quickly as possible, and training programs in earthquake and hurricane resistant construction and design for local Haitian masons, builders, and architects.
Architecture for Humanity: Making the World a Better Place Through DesignArchitecture for Humanity’s commitment to innovative open source, community based design is especially evident in one of their most well-known projects: the Open Architecture Network. The Open Architecture Network is a online sustainable design social network that allows designers to share plans, elevations, even CAD files, with the goal of creating and open source architecture database to share knowledge and drive innovation in sustainable design.
Architecture for Humanity offers a wide range of ways for for design professionals and interested laymen to get involved. The organization offers both traditional donation opportunities and the ability to sponsor an individual designer. Architecture for Humanity also uses a variety of different events and social networks to raise awareness of its work, from formal fundraisers to casual gatherings and Tweets. You can also become involved in your local chapter of Architecture for Humanity (or found one if there isn’t one) and become involved in improving design in your own local community.
In addition to contributing to the Open Architecture Network, amateur and professional designers might also be interested in offering design services, entering any of Architecture for Humanity’s frequent competitions, or seeking a design fellowship with the organization.
They say, “Follow your passion and the money will come”. In the tech world, a similar proverb might be, “Build it and they will come.”
I will tell you from experience that this is a lie. Well maybe not entirely. Sure, if you are passionate about something and work really hard at it, you can develop skills and expertise that have marketable value. But unless you have a way of marketing your passion, you can just as easily spend a lot of money on it, and never make a cent.
This is not a business. The IRS allows you to write off 2 years of business losses, after which the IRS considers your “business” to be a hobby. And continuing to write off business losses beyond these 2 years will only increase your risk of being audited.
Some of the staunchest, bright eyed, crystal wearing Law of Attraction gurus might say, “Well, you weren’t attracting success because you weren’t focusing hard enough about it, you haven’t activated your personal power,etc…” And if you did so:
Well you know what?
“Fuck you.”
It’s important to keep passion and the Law of Attraction in perspective. Yes! Passion is a powerful motivator. Yes! The Law of
Attraction has worked for me many times.
Self help books, life purpose workshops and motivational seminars abound to siphon away your hard earned dollars so you can connect with your inner power, true calling and even help you vision board / mind map your path to fulfillment and success. But a vision board is no substitute for a business model. And a business plan does not guarantee business success.
And you know what? Those feel good workshops are awfully addictive. There’s nothing more awesome than coming out of a transformational workshop feeling like you can change the world. And once that feeling starts to ebb away, there’s this other transformational workshop by another guru who has just we you need. But at a certain point, the reality starts to sink in – who’s the one making all the money? The guru holding the workshop, perhaps?
There’s nothing wrong with following your passion. You owe it to yourself to be a passion-based entrepreneur. But passion-based entrepreneurship is made up of two components: passion and a monetization plan.
As a person with a corporate day job, a strong entrepreneurial streak and various side hustles, I’ve been reflecting a lot about when it makes sense to quit your job and follow your passion. I’ve talked to all kinds of entrepreneurs about this. Here are the different camps and my thoughts about them:
take the plunge and follow your passion
Most entrepreneurs I’ve spoken to strongly recommend keeping the day job as long as humanly possible until the side hustles generate a sustainable income. This is a very wise and safe approach. However, you need to be aware of the tradeoffs:
I’ve met a few entrepreneurs who have done this successfully. One thing I noticed they all had in common was the presence of a supportive life partner. You see, this is much easier to do if you have a partner who agrees to take on all responsibility for life drudgery – cooking, cleaning, making sure the car gets fixed, kids get to school, etc. so that the other can 100% focus on getting the side business to monetize.
Better yet, if your life partner also happens to be your business partner, not only are you able to cohabitate and share chores, if he handles all the web development and she handles all the online advertising and customer relationships, that can work out nicely too.
If you are single and under 30, chances are, you can still tap into the stamina of youth to work all the time, get minimal sleep, and not have your body demand payback at a later date.
A minority say, if you have a business idea you believe in, it not only deserves 100% of your attention, you owe it to yourself to believe 100% that you can make it successful. Because, unless you are able to devote yourself 100% to your green business idea, you will not fully give it the chance it deserves. Your creativity will be impacted by the level of exhaustion you may currently be operating in, and your time to market will be impacted because it will take you longer to get things out the door when you are working cobbled together late nights and weekends, and your competition is working full time.
Sure, the day job provides nice cash flow. But you can always take out a business loan to get started, or hustle friends and family for seed capital. An entrepreneur I recently spoke to who now earns over a million a year suggested that the best thing I could do was lose the day job, because employment was an opportunity cost to successful entrepreneurship. A life circumstance forced him to choose between his family and his 6 figure job. He chose his family. After leaving that job, he went on to make even more money as an entrepreneur.
You will never make more money as an employee as you can as an entrepreneur. Your upside at a day job is a 5% annual salary increase. Big fucking deal. If you hop companies, you can negotiate a 30% salary increase. As an entrepreneur, there is no limit. But of course, there is more risk and uncertainty.
Around the world, an estimated 700,000 people die every year thanks to counterfeit medicines, and up to 1 in 3 medicines sold worldwide may be counterfeit or otherwise defective. The counterfeit medicine industry is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, with anti-malarial and anti-HIV/AIDS drugs the most common to be counterfeited.
Fake medicines can kill either passively, by not treating the condition they are intended to treat, or actively, if they have been deliberately or accidentally contaminated by a poisonous or harmful substance. For example, last year at least 34 children in Nigeria were killed by a batch of counterfeit teething medicine that contained antifreeze. Counterfeit drugs containing small but insufficient doses of the drug they are intended to copy also threaten future public health by encouraging disease organisms to develop resistance to the drug. Drug resistance is already a problem with certain diseases such as tuberculosis, MRSA, and malaria, and counterfeit medicines can speed the development of resistance.
Fighting Counterfeit Medicines With Cell PhonesA new social enterprise named Sproxil is aiming to end the scourge of counterfeit medicines in the developing world with cell phone technology.
How Sproxil Works
Founded by Ashifi Gogo, a native of Ghana, Sproxil hopes to incorporate a scratch-off authentication label into the packaging of all drugs sold in the developing world. When a drug is sold, the consumer can send a free text message to a number posted on the label, and within seconds, he or she will receive a message authenticating the drug or warning that it is fake.
Sproxil recently underwent a successful trial in Nigeria, which has 70,000,000 cell phone users, the highest number in Africa, and is also known as a center of the counterfeit drug trade. In 2008, a survey found that an estimated 80% of all drugs sold in Lagos, the biggest city in Nigeria, were counterfeit. Attempts to bring the situation under control, though they ultimately succeeded in reducing the percentage to an estimated 16%, were met with vandalism, death threats, fire bombs, and even an assassination attempt.
Sproxil hope to defuse this dangerous situation, and others like it around the world, by, in effect, crowd-sourcing pharmaceutical inspections.
This benefits the drug companies, who do not need to worry about their brand being diluted by ineffective or poisonous fake medicines, the consumers, who do not need to worry about purchasing ineffective or fake medicines, and law enforcement, who are able to track “fake drug” text messages in an area and can make targeted pharmacy inspections instead of relying on inefficient random sampling. (The tracking is done anonymously in order ot protect the privacy of the consumer and reduce danger to him or her from counterfeiters. Sproxil also believes that the technology will benefit telecom companies, by encouraging more consumers to purchase cell phones.
Sproxil is a for-profit social enterprise and the service is supported with fees from drug companies and consulting. In the future Sproxil may also offer analytics services and delivery of targeted ads with each authentication text message. In the future, Sproxil also hopes to target counterfeit cell phones and counterfeit CDs and DVDs.
Statistics show that 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide are released into the air each year in the US. This is as a result of driving cars and light trucks around the country. Cars and light trucks, usually for private uses, are driven over about 2.6 million miles each year. With each car consuming at least 600 gallons of gas, the impact to the environment is huge.
Driving cars not only affects the environment, but it is also very expensive for the car owners, especially if you consider the traffic problems experienced in different cities. Many individuals are discarding their cars and going for more affordable and safer alternatives. With this move, the electric scooter is gaining favor among many automobile users. These scooters provide an opportunity that those interested in business can venture into.
Electric scooters are easy to operate. In most regions, insurance is not needed for a scooter, and neither is a driving license required. Modern scooters are engineered with stronger batteries to last between 30 and 50 miles when charged. Again, charging them takes about an hour.
Contrary to cars, electric scooters release no carbon to the atmosphere. In the case of a scooter charged with electricity from wind or solar, pollution on the environment is reduced completely. This helps users save on gas bills, reduce congestion on roads and enjoy reduced maintenance costs.
There are different businesses you can start, that relate to electric scooters. First off, you can start selling electric scooters. At least a third of all Americans have considered using an electric scooter at one point in their life. This saw the sale of these scooters triple from 1998 to 2004. The number of buyers has continued growing.
Scooter rentals are another popular business idea. You can start your rental business near college campuses, downtown areas, and tourist destinations. Any locality with a high population comes in handy for an electric scooter business.
Another viable option is to venture into repairs, maintenance, and parts. As the number of scooters in the market continues to increase, so does the demand for electric scooter repair and maintenance.
Provision of power stations is another business opportunity to consider. Electric scooter owners will require a safe place to keep their scooters and recharge them. This is where a power station and scooter safekeeping comes in.
To diversify the business, you can sell, rent or service other scooters, electric bikes, electric motorcycles, and electric mopeds. The number of automobiles that your service will depend on the location of your business, local laws, and the local market. Your personal preferences will also determine the types of automobiles your service.
This is a business serving San Francisco Bay area. It has been in operation since 1996 selling bikes and scooters. In their shop, they offer a wide collection of automobiles including bicycles, scooters, tricycles and golf carts among others. Besides sales, the business runs Electric-Bikes.com, a website on which they offer extensive information on electric automobiles.
Eco-Scooter is a rental service operating in Parksville, Vancouver, Canada. It targets tourists who flock the area. The business has electric and biodiesel scooters and rents them for up to eight hours. Besides rentals, Eco-Scooter retails 500w electric scooters. Buyers have their scooters assembled and inspected on a purchase.
This is an e-commerce website retailing bicycles, motorcycles and electric scooters among other automobiles for children and adults.
Looking for blogging inspiration? Need a little boost for getting the content rolling for your green content strategy? Finding interesting, valuable information to convey to your readers can be a challenge, especially when you’re trying to balance all of the other green marketing strategies for your eco business. But with these 12 sources for green blogging inspiration, you should be writing – and moving up Google rankings – in no time at all.
Make people laugh
One of the easiest ways to get your readers to engage in your blog content is to make the smile or even laugh out loud. Perhaps you don’t consider yourself the funniest person around, but even the most mundane things can be humorous when presented in the right light. After all, the world of eco-friendly living can be pretty serious at times.
Try out these strategies:
Keep an eye out for current events that are pertinent to your green business. For instance, if you work in the field of eco-friendly cosmetics, find out what recent chemicals have been banned or legislations established that impact your industry. If you produce solar panels, blog about the most recent green tech innovations. Or if market interested has recently shot up in your electric bike industry, talk about that. You get the idea. Keep it current, relevant, and interesting. Treehugger.com, Planet Green, and Grist.org are all great sources.
Draw connections between your green business and other eco fields
There are always interesting ways to connect the dots and these connections often make for interesting conversations. For example, if you produce toys that get kids outdoors, talk about the psychology of being in touch with nature. Does your home energy efficiency monitor rely on software development? Then talk about the latest advances in that field.
Look deep into the eyes of your email
Newsletters from similar organizations or personal messages from friends can often be a source of interesting ideas for your next blog post. Perhaps you can share a personal experience about your client’s recent product marketing through a cross-promotion. Or talk about a nonprofit organization trying to solve a similar problem as your green business.
Green media for blogging inspiration
Have you recently run across an interesting photograph or video that pertains to your green business? Media such as these can be a great source of inspiration and may spark some dynamic conversations with your audience if they’re thought-provoking enough. Again, sites like YouTube and Flickr.com can be great sources for inspiration. Do a quick search on your topic to see what you find!
Offer free content give-aways
Freebies like ebooks and white papers that provide practical, up-to-date information on your green business or the field in which you work are a great way to get people really engaged in your content. If you’re not a writer yourself, hire a freelance writer through a site like Elance.com or Guru.com where you’ll be put in touch with dozens of green writers and communications experts. You can then do several spin-off blog posts on the content within your ebook or white paper to increase the likelihood of being found by potential readers.
Come back next week to read more blog inspiration ideas to get you writing for your green business with ease.
Green living is not only fashionable, it’s also smart, and for nobody is this more true than for families with young infants.
Nobody is more sensitive to the harmful chemicals and toxins surrounding us in the modern world than young babies, and as awareness grows of the harm we are doing to our children with products we use around the house every day, green baby boutiques are growing in popularity around the country.
Green baby boutiques carry safe, eco-friendly clothing, bedding, furniture, toys, and other gear for young babies and toddlers. They may also carry clothing and products for pregnant and nursing mothers. In addition to shopping, many green baby boutiques provide education for families to help them make the safest and healthiest choices for their children as they grow.
Examples of the types of products carried by many green baby boutiques include:
In addition to choosing eco-friendly and socially-conscious products, green baby boutiques can go green in many other ways as well.
Printing advertising materials and educational pamphlets for parents on recycled paper with non-toxic inks is a great way to spread the word about your green baby boutique and its products.
Building or remodelling your store with eco-friendly building materials, low VOC paints, and other beautiful, safe green construction materials is another way to extend your commitment to green living beyond the products you carry. Some green baby boutiques even use wind or solar powered electricity, or purchase carbon offsets to reduce their carbon emissions.
Another way to go green is to skip the storefront altogether and open an online boutique using green website hosting. This allows most employees to telecommute, reducing carbon emissions. You can reduce environmental impact even further with green shipping and packaging choices, such as recycled boxes and wrapping paper.
Happy Green Baby is an online green baby boutique with an extensive collection of eco-friendly and non-toxic clothing, begging, toys, gifts, and gear. The site also offers a green baby gift registry, a learning center with information about green baby products and green living for families, and a blog.
A Mother’s Haven, located in Encino, California, is a green maternity and baby boutique that carries an extensive line of organic and eco-friendly gear for expectant mothers and babies. The store also offers a variety of classes for new and expecting parents, including prenatal yoga, infant massage, and infant sign language.
Jilly Bean Green is a hip eco baby boutique located in Studio City, CA and focusing on stylish and eco-friendly organic, “upcycled,” and handmade products for babies and young children. The store offers an online gift registry, green living tips, and a page dedicated to celeb favorite green products.
Taking care of a lawn organically leads to, not only a beautiful and healthy lawn, but also one that is safe for your family and pets.
Americans have a love affair with green and lush lawns, and many use various products to achieve them. Awareness is, however, growing regarding the environmental damage, and health risks that arise from the various chemicals spread across their yards each year. This has led to more lawn owners switching to organic lawn care methods and making organic lawn care a viable business opportunity.
A normal suburban lawn, compared to a normal agricultural field, requires three times as much chemical herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides per acre.
Among the thirty most common pesticides applied to lawns, thirteen have links to birth defects, nineteen contain carcinogens, and twenty-seven are irritants. Herbicides and pesticides are particularly dangerous among pets and children because of their smaller physical sizes. Applying pesticides on gardens and at home increases childhood leukemia risks by as much as seven-fold, while dogs exposed to lawns treated with herbicides double their rate of canine lymphoma infections and bladder cancer chances rise sevenfold.
A need to make that switch to organic lawn care procedures does not rest on health risks alone. Chemical fertilizers tend to contaminate surface and groundwater supplies and remain a major cause of pollution in the water today. Harmful insects are the principal pesticide target, but beneficial insects die too, and so do creatures such as mammals, amphibians, and birds. Furthermore, organic lawns tend to consume lower amounts of water, thereby making savings on water bills.
Taking care of an organic lawn represents a win-win situation for the lawn-care service provider, the property owner, the lawn itself, and the environment. Since organic lawn care procedures focus on attacking the core problem rather than using chemical shortcuts, organically managed lawns are greener, healthier, and more lash over time compared to conventional lawns.
For an entrepreneur on a budget, an organic lawn care business is a great business opportunity since it needs relatively low starting capital. To start an organic lawn care operation may simply involve taking your lawnmower around to your neighbors, friends, and relatives’ lawns and asking them to make recommendations to their respective neighbors, relatives, and friends.
Numerous options exist for incorporating green procedures into a lawn care business besides avoiding harmful herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides.
For small yards, you could help in reducing carbon emissions through using electric or the old-fashioned reel mowers. In addition, using electric mowers reduces noise pollution by as much as seventy-five percent compared to gas-powered mowers while rotary powered mowers go even further in reducing noise.
An organic lawn care enterprise, besides lawn care, has other services to offer such as landscaping. A commitment to green gardening may be enhanced through offering xeriscape design services, butterfly gardens, rain gardens, and habitat restorations all of which would provide fascinatingly beautiful surroundings for visitors while conserving water, giving food to and sheltering wildlife, while reducing urban heat island effect. Furthermore, you could make contributions to local food movements through assisting property owners design beautiful and edible landscapes.
Numerous institutions provide accreditation and other diverse services for those who practice professionally in the organic lawn care industry. Founded by Paul Tukey, the author behind The Organic Lawn Care Manual, SafeLawns is an organization focusing on the organic lawn care industry. For the aspiring organic lawn care professional, their website provides an avenue for listing and approval. NOFA, The Northeast Organic Farming Organization is another institution offering accreditation and classes for professionals in the organic lawn care industry, via their program on Organic Land Care, in addition to an enlistment in their accredited professional and searchable directory.
Based in Wells, ME, TLC for Safe Lawns offers a full set of services in lawn care. TLC for Safe Lawns begins by testing the soil, thereby determining from the onset the specific requirements for a lawn, and proceeds to apply customized mixtures of organic manure onto a lawn making it the best it can be. Other services offered by TLC for Safe Lawns include regular lawn pest inspections and tick, deer, over-seeding, and core aeration control.
Soil Alive from Texas has a service on offer called Its Possible Soil-Building program that covers scheduled liquid compost treatments, regular inspections, and an entirely organic weed, disease, and pest control. In addition, Soils Alive provides soil management services that enable plants to develop healthy and deep root systems needed by plants to survive Texas hot summers, while making savings on water bills through prevention of overwatering.
Clean Air Lawn Care operates offices powered by wind, and its lawn mowers are powered by solar or biodiesel. All grass clippings and various other organic waste is composted at local composting venues or on site, while all herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers are entirely organic and natural. Clean Air Lawn Care was founded in Colorado, and its services are available in several other states, such as North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Washington, California, and Oregon.
Recycled designer handbags are all the rage in the fashion world right now. Celebrities and fashionistas alike are sporting beautiful handbags made from repurposed materials such as candy wrappers, automobile seatbelts, and even soda pop tops!
The process of creating recycled fashion is often known as “up-cycling.” Recycling waste products saves natural resources, reduces air and water pollution, cuts carbon emissions, creates jobs, and saves space in landfills. Up-cycling waste products has all the same environmental benefits as recycling, while also turning what was once a discarded piece of garbage into a beautiful, fashionable, and functional work of art. Recycled fashion is often handmade by artisans in disadvantaged countries, so they even help fight poverty around the world. Recycled handbags are an accessory that you can truly feel good about!
Waste products used in designer recycled handbags are salvaged or donated and cleaned. An astonishing variety of products can be turned into recycled handbags.
These are some of my picks for the most stylish recycled designer handbags:
1. Chica Tutti Frutti Bag
The Chica Tutti Frutti Bag is a bright, stylish clutch bag made from recycled candy wrappers! It is perfect for carrying keys, IDs, and other small things. The Chica Tutti Frutti Bag is handmade in Mexico and fair trade certified, which means that in addition to the environmental benefits, the workers who produced the handbag are guaranteed fair wages and safe working conditions.
2. Mandala Handbag
For an offbeat look, the Mandala Handbag is a funky creation made from soda pop tops. The pop tops are hand crocheted into spiral patterns by Neide Ambrosio of Brazil for a unique and creative accessory. The handbag has a polyester lining and zipper top. It come in baby pink, black, blue, and terra.
3. Woman Warrior Purse
Another of Neide Ambrosio’s glittering creations is the Woman Warrior Purse, a recycled designer handbag made from golden zipper pulls. The zipper pulls are woven into a mesh and linked together with aluminum rings and the purse is then lined with satin and closed with a secure lobster claw clasp. This eye-catching handbag is also available in a style called Silver Treasure, which features silver zipper pulls and a sturdy polyester lining.
4. Red Star Tote
The Red Star Tote (shown above) is a popular design made from recycled sailboat sails. This handsome tote bag is lined with blue denim on the inside and has contrasting bright orange trim, with an inside pocket designed to keep small stuff like keys, IDs, and cash organized and easily accessible. The orange nylon webbing strap is 26″ so it fits comfortably over your shoulder but is short enough to tote, and the back of the bag is decorated with a diagonal sail seam. The Red Star Tote is handmade in the United States.
5. Carriage Hobo Handbag
The stylish Carriage Hobo Handbag is made from recycled auto seatbelts with an eco-friendly organic hemp lining and antique nickel hardware. The lining is silk screened with environmentally friendly water-based inks and has four internal slip pockets and one zip pocket. Designed by Harveys and made in the United States, each Carriage Hobo recycled handbag is completely unique and one-of-a-kind.
These are just a few of the amazing variety of beautiful recycled handbags available today. Other popular designs include handbags made from art posters, newspapers, truck tire inner tubes, carpets, skateboards, and even bamboo chopsticks! The creativity and skill that go into crafting recycled designer handbags is truly unmatched.
Many enterprises profess that they are green, but how true is this? What qualifies an enterprise to be termed green? A clear definition of what constitutes a green business is key to identifying enterprises that have a true environment-friendly mindset.
A green enterprise chooses earth-friendly operations as their core way of doing business. They create products that are safe for the environment and/or ensure that their policies, principles, and practices are eco-friendly. They aim to create smaller environmental footprints.
Green enterprises have altered their manufacturing operations to make eco-friendly products. The triple bottom line, a concept coined in 1994 by John Elkington, often features as a benchmark that measures how far an enterprise has adopted environmentally friendly sound practices and policies.
In essence, the triple bottom line places prominence on serious social and ecological performances, building it through a three-part model of organization that functions in three axis; planet, people, and profit. This means that instead of mere profit making as a measure of success, the requirements of triple bottom line call on the enterprises to think beyond profit to its environmental and social impact as well.
This means a truly green enterprise should take into consideration a number of environmental and societal strategies.
Conservation of Water: A green enterprise understands that fresh water supplies are limited and therefore careful usage is important. As such, not only should every stage in its manufacturing and product distribution process, reduce the amount of water consumed, but also the product should consume less water during its lifespan.
Conservation of Energy: Conservation of water goes hand in hand with energy conservation where green enterprises feature. A sustainable business must recognize climate change has a profound effect on the world; including business success. By building energy conservation into its long-term plans, a green enterprise minimizes the risks and impact of rising energy costs and saves money. It also demonstrates to and garners support from its stakeholders and affected populations that it takes a serious interest in climate change. For a manufacturer, this means making factory-floor energy savings and emphasizing on making products that need less energy.
Solid Waste Recycling and Reduction: The amount of waste coming out of a start-to-finish product production process calls for limitation. A production process that minimizes waste through the entire process while having in place waste re-usage and recycling procedures needs to be a cornerstone of a green business. In addition, the finished product must reduce waste emissions.
Prevention of Pollution: A truly green business will have pollution prevention operations as part of its practices. Many manufacturing businesses tend to use toxic ingredients or spew toxic waste and effluent into its environment, resulting in either ground, water, or air pollution. Green enterprises are those working to reduce toxins that go into their products, lessen toxins in their production processes, and make products that function toxin free too.
A truly green enterprise may decide to go above and beyond through giving back to the environment. It can come up with products and processes that will actually help in making the environment better, e.g., high efficiency solar panels or new water filtration processes that have a less negative environmental impact.
Supposing the company does not manufacturer directly. How would such a company be described as green? In general, a green enterprise that operates within an office or distribution center needs to apply similar principles outlined above although with slightly different applications as outlined below.
Conservation of Energy: Green office buildings need a construction that minimizes how much energy occupants consume. Such buildings should incorporate efficient cooling and heating systems, natural or low energy lighting. Having policies that ensure energy efficient appliances and electronics are purchased and used also defines a green enterprise. For such, energy efficiency also spreads to corporate fleets through the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles.
Solid Recycling and Waste Reduction: A truly green business will use resource reduction strategies, including minimizing the waste that comes out of operations. This means a reduction in wasteful packaging or making orders in bulk. It also means having policies that reduce waste and encourage proper waste handling. Employees should be encouraged to conserve the environment through strategies such as using fewer disposables and less paper. In addition, comprehensive recycling programs must be put in place.
Conservation of Water: Any green business will be keen on how it utilizes water with the aim of cutting back consumption and wastage. This means putting measures in place to conserve water; from the washroom fixtures to their cleaning practices.
Prevention of Pollution: Green enterprises will endeavor to reduce pollution through eco-friendly practices in landscaping methods, the use of green janitorial provisions, and even going much further and purchasing carbon offsets that mitigate greenhouse gas pollution created.
Below are two examples of enterprises whose eco-friendly practices are making a difference on the planet.
Charles Thibeau wished to make his own version of colonial-style furniture created using old-fashioned techniques and therefore opted to go for milk paint. By devising a formula made of clay, lime, earth pigments, and milk, all readily available and natural ingredients, he created a product applicable on furniture and wall interiors and exteriors.
He consequently incorporated the Old-Fashioned Milk Paint Company once he realized he could make a business venture out of the high demand for his creations. The products are made with renewable and sustainable ingredients. This is in contrast to conventional paints, which are often made of non-renewable petroleum by-products. They have no volatile organic compounds, chemical preservatives, fungicides, and pigments, all of which are toxic ingredients contained in conventional paints. This truly green business is making truly green products.
In recognition of the millions of toothbrushes disposed of in American homes yearly, Eric Hudson decided to build Recycline, a company making eco-friendly products such as the Preserve Toothbrush. This toothbrush is green as its handle is made of purely recycled plastic and practical as well.
Every product from their production line, including Preserve Toothbrushes, is recyclable from waste plastics. That, right there, is a perfect example of the triple bottom line in real life.