May 2008
Its easy being green
By Annemarie Donnelly

Danny Judy, owner of Dannys Organic Marketplace in Willoughby, sells organic products ranging from fresh fruits and vegetables to baby food, pet food and coffee.

Sustainability. It’s the word that seems to be on everyone’s lips these days, from those loitering at the office water cooler right up to the executives attending expensive seminars on the topic. Soccer moms at home are contemplating the benefits of fluorescent light bulbs, just as businesses are realizing the economic and environmental rewards from sustainable efforts.

In Lake County as in the rest of Northeast Ohio, businesses are increasingly marketing products and services geared toward “green” or sustainable initiatives, both for the everyday consumer and for the commercial community.

Organically grown

For Willoughby business owner Danny Judy, launching Danny’s Organic Marketplace in 2003 was the ideal answer for both his entrepreneurial and environmental interests. The store sells exclusively organic products ranging from food, to clothing, personal care products, cleaning agents and whole food supplements.

“I was at a place in my life where I was ready to start a business, and I wanted to do something that I was personally interested in,” says Judy, who had been using organic products for some time. “I researched the opportunity and saw that it was a growing industry.”

Judy thought he would start with a “small, 16-page catalog” but found that it quickly expanded into a 72-page catalog reaching consumers in 18 states, along with a Web site.  Next came the bricks and mortar store at 37111 Euclid Ave. in Willoughby, which today represents about 80 percent of the business, Judy says. The store now employs six full-time workers.

“Danny’s is pretty much a true family experience. We want you to feel like you just came over to our house for dinner, and we have things that you can taste and try in the store,” he says. “We are very open to someone coming in and asking for something specific that is organic. If we can find a product that meets our integrity standards, we’ll get it.”

What does organic mean?

“Organic products have no artificial flavors, preservatives, colorings – nothing but food-type products,” Judy explains. “During the farming stage, no pesticides, fertilizers or genetic modifications can be used.”

He describes “natural” products as the same as organic in terms of ingredients, but can be produced using commercial farming techniques. Regular commercial products can use any type of farming and add any ingredients.

“The worst part of it is that the consumer doesn’t even know how the foods they’re eating were farmed. They can be eating genetically engineered tomatoes and not even know it, because this is not labeled,” he says.

Using certified-organic farmers and manufacturers is of paramount concern to Judy, and all food is purchased from a certified-organic supplier in the Cleveland area. Whenever possible, he also supplements by buying local produce from the increasing number of farmers using organic methods.

“Our customers tell us that they love to come here, because they don’t have to read labels like at other stores, where they sell a mix of products,” he says. “When you come in here, you know everything is organic.”

Organically worn

Like Judy, Mentor business owner Jill Palermo started a business dedicated to promoting and encouraging those who are striving for a greener lifestyle. Last fall, she and her mother Judy Pezdir launched weaddup.com, a Web site selling 100 percent-organic cotton T-shirts to people interested in being active in the environmental movement.

“We Add Up is an organic T-shirt campaign that helps you make a difference,” says Palermo, who is also marketing director of I’m Organic®, the messaging company that developed the campaign. “From a list of environmentally friendly activities, you pick an action you’re committed to doing which is printed on the back of the shirt. And then we custom hand-print a number on the front, so no two shirts are ever alike.”

The We Add Up number represents a person’s place in the count of all of the company’s other customers who are taking steps to help stop climate change. The company is at 3,500 as of this month.

“It’s a message of hope for people who are taking steps to be more responsible. But if their neighbor drives a Hummer, it can be very demoralizing,” she says. “So this is a way to get people talking to each other about what they’re doing.”

Besides Web site sales, We Add Up T-shirts are also being sold through school fund raisers, which have proven to be a large part of the company’s sales. Instead of having children sell chocolates or gift-wrap, the students sell We Add Up T-shirts and receive 20 percent of the sales for their school. Palermo says the schools love that the kids are getting service learning while they raise funds.

“We’ve also had several companies get involved; they can reward their employees with a shirt for green activities or accomplishments,” she says. “Plus, we’ve had companies buy T-shirts for all of their employees at Christmas, as a morale-building thing.”

We Add Up is an off-shoot of Palermo and Pezdir’s first green company, I’m Organic, which sells a range of eco-friendly messaging products promoting an organic lifestyle. Launched in 2006, I’m Organic sells to natural food stores around the country.

“The market for these products is definitely growing. We just got into the Vitamin Shoppe, which is adding a green section in many of their stores,” Palermo says.

To accommodate the inventory needs of their growing businesses, the pair has recently opened a 3,000-square-foot warehouse in Mentor, allowing them to finally move out of Pezdir’s home.

“When we had to start moving boxes just to open the dishwasher, we knew it was time to find a place of our own,” Palermo laughed.

Environmentally aware

Their success in marketing a green product is mirrored in that of Chardon landscape designer Kathy Hanratty. Her 4-year old company, Enviroscapes Landscapes Design, specializes in sustainable designs that require less maintenance, less mowing and less irrigation through the use of primarily native plants. While offering services to the residential client, most of her market comprises small business owners.  

“It’s really becoming a nice niche market for me, as people are usually looking for what I do. People are very receptive to a sustainable and native landscape plan,” she says. ”My business doubled last year, and I am almost at capacity for 2008. The only thing I can attribute that to is that more people are becoming environmentally aware.”

Her customers are also dollar-savvy, as native plant designs can save substantially over the long-term.

“It’s typically a three- to five-year payback of the initial cost of the landscape, even if there is an increased cost for using organic products,” she says. “Even if you had an acre that you were converting from grass to a native plant garden – the money you save from gas, mowing, fertilizers and irrigation over time makes it easy to pay yourself back.”

Hanratty admits that in some cases, using all organic products can be more expensive, but that prices are coming down as the demand increases. The same is true of the organic food products at Judy’s store, where pricing is always of concern to the owner.

“Organic farming is more labor intensive, but I think that from there on out – from the product manufacturers to the retailers – the cost does not need to increase,” he says. “Here at Danny’s, we are very conscious of price. Because if people can’t afford my product then they can’t buy it – which is not good for my business.”

Sustainable education

While successful growth in green businesses leads some economists to tout these industries as among the fastest growing, people in these businesses may find that education is still vitally needed by consumers.

“In the last five years it’s really become more mainstream for businesses to look for renewable energy sources; it’s not just a ‘greenies’ issue, but more people are doing it for economic reasons,” says AAron Godwin, owner of the Renaissance Group in Kirtland.

The Renaissance Group provides consulting and system design for a range of renewable energy systems, including wind, solar and microhydro systems.

“I think the challenge is that now everyone wants to do it and thinks that they should be doing it, but doesn’t have much of an understanding about what really can be done. We usually get the call from someone saying ‘I want a wind turbine, I want to get off the grid and do this,” Godwin says. “But then we take the client back and start looking at all of the other issues and help establish priorities.”

By discussing the actual costs of design, installation and potential savings, Godwin says clients can see what is feasible with various renewable technologies, and what may prove to be the most cost-effective changes to make.

“Efficiency and conservation are by far the easiest things to do,” he says. “Changing light bulbs and things like that are not sexy, until you see the economic savings they can make.”

Most entrepreneurs interviewed agreed that education about sustainability leads to individuals and businesses seeking out more ways to improve their impact on the environment, and on their wallets.

“Consumers are checking things out for themselves these days, and doing a lot of research on their own,” Judy says. “We help explain what an organic product is, and why they don’t get the same side effects that they would from products with synthetic ingredients. But the bottom line is that people love the way organic products make them feel. They feel good.”

He said that while conventional food products may cost less, individuals contribute a lot over time to taxes to repair land and purify water for farming.

“It’s all in how you look at it,” Judy says. “You may save money on commercial food now, but might spend more in the last 10 years of your life in medical costs trying to fix all of the problems from what you were eating. If everyone got on the bandwagon now, it would cost less for the planet and for the people on it.”

Annemarie Donnelly is a Mentor freelance writer.