A New Tool for Networks of Locally-Owned Businesses

Scott Cooney here in Denver reporting live on day 3 of the 2009 BALLE conference. I have continued to be incredibly impressed by the level of commitment to green and sustainable communities by this network of locally owned businesses. From the outside looking in, BALLE and other groups of independent, locally-owned businesses are not green by definition. However, in reality, there are few more powerful forces for positive change than these associations.

Think about it. Buying locally sends less money out of the area. Of course, it also means more jobs for the local area. These are well-known and documented. It also just makes sense that shortening the supply chain of the products you buy lowers its carbon footprint. In addition, locally owned businesses are much more likely to donate to local environmental and other non-profits, by some estimates 350% more.

And what other organization is going to represent the real economy in Washington? The big business community that is represented by the US Chamber of Commerce, which most media looks to for the business community’s position on issues like labor and climate change, clouds the issues around economic development and don’t have us and our communities in their best interest. We at Triple Pundit have news for you, people: that ain’t the real business community. What I’m witnessing here at BALLE is the real business community…entrepreneurs, Americans with a dream, people with values that include improving their local community. Yes, BALLE represents that hope, that someday the business community that is quoted in the media will be speaking from main street, USA, not from some faraway place. And it may be our best hope of ending taxpayer subsidies for big box development and other forms of corporate welfare.

Phew.

So here’s a question: how does BALLE help local chapters get started, without compromising their local flavor? The Northern Colorado Chapter has produced one tool that may help fledgling chapters unite their members and their community, educate their citizens, and make money in the process. They’ve developed software that will allow any BALLE chapter to create a coupon book for locally-owned businesses. The Northern Colorado Chapter has produced three coupon books, complete with maps of locally owned restaurants, and enough coupons to occupy a local-firster for a full year…until the next one comes out.

The question inevitably arises…Be Local Northern Colorado, specifically Gailmarie Kimmel, the chapter’s Co-Director, and Paul Jensen and Pam Sutton Gentile of One Tribal Creative, a design firm that is a member of the network, poured a lot of heart and soul into the development of the software and coupon book. If this was a traditional business model, they would want to maximize their return on investment by mass-producing the books for other chapters, doing all the design, layout, and publishing out of Fort Collins, CO, and just paying a local employee to distribute and sell the coupon books in each local chapter’s area. They would find one printer in their local area and print all the books for the entire country and then ship them around, to maximize economies of scale.

But this is the new economy. It’s not about making the same book and just changing out the advertisers. It’s about the advertisers. And the community they represent. So what to do?

Kimmel, Jensen and Gentile gave a workshop about this very issue (as well as some other very important branding and networking issues) at this year’s BALLE conference. They have been challenged by competition from publications that siphon advertising dollars out of their community, and do the publishing, design, layout, writing, and manufacture in other communities thousands of miles away, and ship to Colorado. But each of the three entrepreneurs agree: each local business alliance needs to retain its local flavor.

So they are making a gift to BALLE by donating their work, their sweat equity, to the greater good. The software will be available to other BALLE networks (if they want them), and the intellectual capital will be usable by all. The gift will be malleable. Each chapter can adapt it as they see fit, selling only online coupons, selling coupons of any design they choose, changing the coupon book layout to match their unique environs….or not using any of these tools at all.

This gift is truly inspirational and opens up opportunities for entrepreneurs in other communities to own their own publishing company, rather than centralizing it in one place.

It’s also a wakeup call to businesses in the Locals First movement. If you are advertising in a publication that is not locally owned, it’s not that much different than shopping at a big box store, is it?

Scott Cooney is the author of Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill), and hopes that someday, the green economy will simply be referred to as…the economy.

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GreenMoms.com Creates Green Mom Communities

Launching for Mother’s Day 2009, GreenMoms.com aims to help Moms bring healthier and more environmentally-friendly living to their families, their communities, and their world.

GreenMoms started as a San Francisco Bay-Area group of women who met regularly to discuss their childrens’ health, eat eco-friendly vegetarian food, go berry-picking, and generally get active in their community.  Melinda McNaughton, the group’s founder, said that, “Once the group got going, it felt so good to have a network of people to share successes and challenges that it made it much easier to stay motivated to make green changes. We’re constantly inspiring each other with new ideas.”

McNaughton and business partner Janice Solimeno thought the idea of “Meeting Locally, Supporting Globally” was such a good one, they decided to take the group and turn it into an online community.

Community is the key word, as the site encourages groups to form in their own area, and to use the resources on the website, including the innovative GreenMometer, to share ideas and live healthier and more sustainable lives.  The site is growing rapidly, and groups are forming in such far flung places as Israel, Alabama, and Idaho.

Bringing sustainability to Moms may be one of the most crucial bridges the green movement must make.  Moms, especially new Moms, tend to be very interested in many aspects of green business as a result of widespread acknowledgment of the effects of harmful chemicals (agrochemicals in food, lead paint in Chinese toys, BPA in baby bottles, etc.).  If the green movement is to move beyond the San Francisco Bay Area, the Pacific Northwest, and the Northeast (and into red states), reaching Moms is very important. One of the best ways to reach them is through peer-to-peer interactions, exactly the kind that GreenMoms tries to facilitate on a local level.

The ethos of the site is “come as you are”.   McNaughton and Solimeno acknowledge that there are many shades of green, and that people may be coming to the site and forming groups that aren’t quite as eco-literate as others.  The beauty of this kind of website is that the tools like the GreenMometer make it really easy to go from curious to eco-savvy in no time, and with just a little effort.

Baby steps, if you will….

Sustainable Landscape Design: Sage’s Way Landscape & Design of Salt Lake City

Spring is in the air, and in many places, it’s the time to start planning the garden for 2009.  A terrific green business opportunity exists for aspiring eco-entrepreneurs to do landscaping work.  Landscape Design refers to the design and setup of a landscape environment around a house or other building.  By designing a landscape with eco-friendly and green building elements in mind, you can help reduce water and chemical use, produce food, and reduce heating and cooling costs for the building as well.

As the work is seasonal, it’s a slightly different business model and attracts a different kind of entrepreneur.  But the work is outdoors/get your hands dirty/shovel-ready kind of work that many people enjoy.  It takes a strong back and a willingness to work hard, but it just might be a terrific opportunity for you to help green your community, one yard at a time.

In today’s spotlight, I interview Chase Fetter, founder of Sage’s Way Landscape and Design of Salt Lake City. Chase has been doing permaculture in arid Salt Lake City for a half dozen years, and just entered into the market to do landscape maintenance in an eco-friendly manner as well, but that is a subject for another article.

SC:  When you design and install a landscape for someone, what are you mainly hoping to accomplish for them?
CF:  We focus on waterwise perennials, trees, and shrubs.  We also try to incorporate edibles to encourage people to reconnect with their back yards.

SC:  The focus on waterwise plants–how helpful is that to homeowners looking to cut water bills?
CF: We can cut water bills by half [for many people].

SC:  In a water limited state like Utah’s, that must be quite a seller.  How else can you help people save money while doing good for the environment?
CF: We can also block winter winds and/or cool the house in the summer with tree plantings.

Find more information about Sage’s Way Landscape and Design at www.SagesWay.net.

Scott Cooney is the author of Build a Green Small Business:  Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill), and hopes that someday the green economy will simply be referred to as…the economy.