Local Businesses in Own Green Revolution
by PATRICK COBBS
Staff Writer
 

East Mt. Airy resident and Philadelphia University sophomore Lauren Drew has founded Green Clothes Recycling a free pick up service for local residents who want to recycle their old clothing rather than take them to the dump. She joins a number of local businesses making Mt. Airy business into something akin to a green commercial brand. GCR can be reached at 215-601-2364.

A shopper seeks out choice produce at the Chestnut Hill Farmers’ Market last Saturday. That market is one of a number of Farmers’ markets now operating each week in the Northwest; for information about their locations and hours, as well as Philadelphia Corporation for Aging produce vouchers for seniors which can be used at the markets, see story below.

Lauren Drew has the perfect Mt. Airy business, and summer job. The Fashion Industry Management major at Philadelphia University (an incoming sophomore) was so struck when she learned about the pollution involved in textile manufacturing and disposal that she decided to do something to nudge the industry forward even before she is able to enter it.

“I thought now would be the best time,” the East Mt. Airy resident said.

That something is the company Green Clothes Recycling, a clothing pickup recycling service for local residents with old garments that can’t make it to the Salvation Army. And in the three months the company has been in business Drew has gotten nothing but encouragement.

“Everybody I give the flyer to is like, ‘Oh wow! I’ve never heard of anything like this,’” she said.
That’s saying something in a community in which many of the businesses may just lead the way on the city’s journey to a green and sustainable future. Business consultant and Mt. Airy Business Association Executive Director Kim Miller thinks those two qualities, in danger of becoming buzz-words elsewhere, run so deeply in Mt. Airy that they make up important core components of what she sees as an emerging Mt. Airy business brand.

As a founding board member of the Sustainable Business Network, which promotes the “triple bottom line principles” of people, planet and profit for measuring success, Miller is so impressed with the overwhelmingly locally owned businesses of Mt. Airy that she plans to market that neighborhood brand in the new Philadelphia environmental magazine Grid.

But don’t take Miller’s word. Start asking questions at many local businesses and it’s clear the earth-business partnership is a natural fact in this neighborhood

“It’s very, very deep rooted in Mt. Airy and I think we have the ability to push it forward faster than most places,” said Jocie Dye, co-owner of Infusion Coffee & Tea at 7133 Germantown Avenue. Dye and her husband Jason Huber were two of the people Miller credited as being prime innovators of green and sustainable business practices in Mt. Airy.

“They have all kinds of groovy things that they do,” Miller said.

That includes always offering certified fair trade and organic coffee; buying only local and sustainably farmed milk, cheese, eggs and meat; growing tomatoes and herbs for use in the shop in the courtyard behind it (using rainwater collected from rain barrels); buying local and organic produce whenever possible; constructing a children’s space in the shop to encourage whole community participation, and paying workers a living wage.

While none of these things track as immediate money makers, Dye and Huber were determined to make them central to their business from the moment they opened the doors six and a half years ago.

“We knew that for us, if we couldn’t make a profitable business that was paying attention to people and the environment, that would not have worked for us,” Dye said.

Small wonder that so many other like-minded entrepreneurs picked the same neighborhood to root in. Consider just some of these. Like Infusion, the Geechee Girl Rice Café at 6825 Germantown Avenue always tries to buy local, organic produce and local sustainable dairy, the café grows vegetables and herbs in its back yard and it also embraces children, currently with a display of artwork by pre-K youngsters from House at Pooh Corner day care.

Owner Valerie Erwin classified these practices as growing from her personal commitments but she emphasized that in the rough world of business there is always some give and take. This view also too seemed widely shared.

Earth Bread + Brewery, which opened nine months ago at 7136 Germantown Avenue, came out of Tom Baker’s and wife Peggy Zwdrver’s vision to create “a sustainable restaurant first and foremost, and have good food beer and wine,” Baker said.

In creating the space Baker had visions of all ecologically-friendly construction materials and a green roof that people could dine on, but when you’re opening a restaurant there are some bumps in the road. The roof was put on hold, but now “Earth” sports all reclaimed wood flooring and reclaimed furniture and interior details.

For Baker, running a restaurant that satisfies customers and his principles takes a lot of consideration. Recycling everything possible was a no-brainer, even though it takes more work, but he equated some choices like compostable paper napkins or washable cloth ones with the old paper or plastic debate. Neither option seemed ecologically perfect.

This is why he was excited to connect with another new Mt. Airy business called Philly Compost, which the restaurant hires to pick up all its kitchen scraps and all its table scraps including those napkins (and biodegradable children’s cups) so it can be composted and not sent to the dump.
It requires extra focus from the staff but the results have been great. Baker estimated that recycling and composting has reduced the restaurant’s overall trash output to two or three tote barrels per week.

“We really feel great about that,” he said.

Part II of this story will appear next week.