People without plastic
When I was much younger (and more foolish!), I used to think that business was a soulless activity that occupied itself exclusively with money, to the exclusion of all other forms of profit. In many ways, Lunapads’ growth as a business is representative of my own journey in understanding that not only can be business be about way more than financial profit, but that business, like practically anything else, ultimately comes down to being about relationships.
While our recent trip to the Green Festival in San Francisco was planned primarily around attending to receive our Shining Light Award from Green America (thanks again to all our fans and customers who voted for us!), we extended our trip to attend the Green Business Conference. The conference was a valuable reminder of the importance of establishing and building relationships.
At the conference, the first woman we heard speak was Margot Frasier, founder of Birkenstock USA . After having met her several years ago, I was thrilled to see her still going strong. Margo, along with another powerful woman entrepreneur Lisa Lorimer, she has just written Dealing With the Tough Stuff: Practical Wisdom for Running a Values-Driven Business. Reminder to any friends who happen to read this: my birthday is coming up soon!
My choice of title for this blog post is a play on the name of a wonderful company: Life without Plastic, whose co-founder, Jay Sinha, we had the excellent fortune to meet at the Green Business Conference. “Plastic-free” is an apt description for Jay on a metaphorical level as well - his authenticity and passion for a cleaner, healthier, more “plastic free” planet are indisputable and contagious.
Jay in turn led us to another anti-plastic superhero, blogger Beth Terry (aka Fake Plastic Fish). Beth is one of those deceptively humble people who are in fact deeply powerful. An accomplished activist, she single-handedly created the North American campaign to pressure Brita water filters to start taking back and recycling used filters. Thank you, Beth, for being a living inspiration for how one person can make a massive difference. Here is a picture of Jay and Beth at the Green Festival.
I was also deeply impressed with Joshua Onysko, founder of Pangea Organics, who gave a rollicking presentation about his entrepreneurial journey: “7 lessons in 7 years.” His all-organic line of skincare products is amazing, and his success as a leader in a crowded category is a credit to his chutzpah as much as his commitment to “eco-centric” skincare products.
We often roll our eyes these days whenever we come across “social media experts” because it seems like a lot of people are marketing themselves as such without a ton of experience or qualifications. That said, we were blown away by the quality of the presentations by Joey Shepp and Jerry Stifelman about social media and branding.
Joey’s presentation was a face-paced yet thorough review of what is happening in social media today, with insights on the importance of building your “social currency” (a virtual bank account of goodwill you build with your online community.) Joey also organized the Green Festival’s huge tweetup, which we attended, with a live large screen Twitter feed going on as people responded to his questions during his presentation. We were also inspired to meet Shepp’s wife and business partner, Stacie, whose goal at their company, Earthsite, is “to build a global network of sustainable brands” - count us in!
Jerry Stifelman’s presentation about branding was a cool and insightful perspective about branding in the age of social media. His core message: “the truth is your best tool” and “be the opposite of bullshit” (no plastic for sure!) From anyone else, his words could come across as arrogant; but Jerry’s entire presentation and style of delivery was extremely humble and totally authentic (how can you not admire a guy with long flowing hair, dressed completely in black and wearing a Utilikilt, tights and boots?)
Other notable products and people that we connected with included ToGoWare (we bought their reusable bamboo “takeout” cutlery sets as gifts for our staff) and SunPod greenhouses (grow vegetables year-round with their gorgeous, handcrafted “pods”) and one of my all-time personal sheroes, Starhawk (she has just written a children’s book called “the Last Wild Witch” - guess who is getting a signed copy under the tree this year?)
We have long aspired to join the ranks of the Social Venture Network, an amazing social profit group dedicated to supporting mission-based businesses. After reconnecting with SVN’s Executive Director Deborah Nelson, she invited us to attend our first-ever, big league SVN meeting the next day. We look forward to attending SVN’s Spring meeting near Portland Oregon in April 2010, where I have a strong hunch that we will be meeting even more plastic-free folk - will we see you there?
March 10th, 2010 at 4:46 am
umm … let me think