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Green and Growing!
Local Earth-friendly businesses cater to eco-conscious consumers.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
"People are very interested in eco-
friendly products, and I think their interest
is starting to peak again:' she says. "There
was a little bit of a lull with the recession,
but now people are starting to have more
disposable income and we're seeing an
increase in sales:'
Downing — a former personal trainer
and yoga instructor and a health-conscious
mom — first discovered Ecostore when
her daughter, Kasey, was just a baby. She
was searching online for natural personal
care products when she found the New
Zealand-based company. Their slogan "No
Nasty Chemicals" struck a chord.
"Go under your sink and check the
products you're using in your kitchen or in
your bathroom:' Downing says. "If it says
caution or hazard or poison, isn't that a
red flag? Our products do not contain pet-
rochemicals, phosphates, nitrates, dyes or
chemical preservatives:'
Entrepreneurs Charles Kaye and Sheldon
Yellen (CEO of the property restora-
tion company Belfor USA), both of West
Ecostore USA grand opening: Charles Kaye, CEO, Lyne Appel Downing, vice president
Bloomfield, worked out a deal to bring the
of operations, and Steve Berry.
company to the United States. Ecostore
USA recently introduced some new prod-
"We partnered last semester with the
the inspiration for our new look."
ucts including honey almond, pear and
The company currently has 25 employ-
cucumber shampoo and conditioner. In
senior class at the College for Creative
December 2011, they launched a new web- Studies in Detroit:' Downing says. "The
ees and anticipates hiring 20 more.
- students broke up into six teams, studied
Downing says the business' Facebook
site. In February 2012, they permanently
reduced prices by more than 50 percent. In our brand and each team competed to
fan base quickly grew from 1,500 fans to
nearly 11,000 this year because of online
the next few months, products also are get- win scholarship money and the chance to
ting new labeling.
rebrand Ecostore USA. One lucky team was interest and dialogue among parents.
arth Mother
Northville mom creates Earth-friendly
assembly program for childre
Robin Schwartz
Contributing Writer
B
ack in 2008, Gina Adams Levy
got a rude awakening when she
attempted to do something green.
She had just moved to Northville from
Royal Oak with her husband, Dr. Phil Levy,
an emergency room physician at Detroit
Receiving Hospital, and their two children
Sydney, 9, and Hayden, 7.
She was in the habit of recycling plastic
gardening containers along with other
household waste — so Levy dug in and
did some planting and then collected her
containers — only to learn that type of
plastic was not recycled in her new com-
12
April 26 4 2012
munity.
"I was alarmed:' Levy recalls. "I thought
if I didn't know about this, other people
probably didn't know either. As a con-
cerned mother, it just seemed to me there
was a lack of awareness. Everyone says, `do
your part: so I thought maybe I could shed
some light and offer an alternative."
Thus began Levy's Earth-friendly cru-
sade, which grew into a grassroots chil-
dren's environmental education program,
her nonprofit Peace, Love and Planet. At
first, Levy's mission was to collect and
recycle as many gardening containers
as possible. With the help of volunteers,
she visited farmers markets and nurser-
ies in Canton, Ann Arbor, Northville and
4i
tf
Gina Adams Levy among a collection of
plastic gardening containers
Farmington Hills and ended up recycling
more than 46,000 pounds of garden plas-
tic.
This past fall, thanks to the installation
of a new, single-stream recycling facility,
that type of plastic now is routinely collect-
ed. So Levy shifted her focus exclusively to
education.
"Our mission is to promote environ-
mental conservation:' she says. "Fostering
environmentally conscious behavior is
In The Bag
You could say Annette Adelman, 45,
of West Bloomfield has the concept
of going green "in the bar The for-
mer attorney and mother of four, a
part owner in her family's business,
Commerce Township-based HoMedics
Inc., designs and sells fashionable,
functional, reusable shopping and travel
bags.
Adelman started her Walled Lake-
based company Sacs of Life in 2009.
She says the idea came to her in a
grocery store when she was trying to
manage her four children (Madeline,
17, Jonah, 16, Bella, 14, and Joey, 9) and
carry more than a dozen plastic bags
filled with various food items.
"I just thought there has to be a sys-
tem to eliminate all of these plastic bags
and to be able come out of the store
looking great, stylish and organized:' she
says. "Once I started creating and corn-
ing up with this concept, I couldn't stop:'
Her reusable bags are free of PVC
(polyvinyl chloride) and BPA (Bisphenol
A). They're designed with various pockets
and pouches for cell phones, wallets and
other personal belongings. Some of the
bags unzip and expand for bulk items; a
large tote and additional reusable bags
can often be found folded up and hidden
inside. She says her four-bag shopping sys-
Green on page 14
not an easy thing to accomplish - were
a society based on convenience, and
consumption is a huge part of that conve-
nience. To everyone's detriment, it causes
pollution."
Levy developed an interactive program
she hopes will give children in grades K-8
a sense of environmental awareness and
understanding they'll carry with them
throughout their lives. She takes her show
on the road conducting assemblies at vari-
ous schools and organizations for a base
price of $300 per hour. She's also added
another "r" to the traditional "reduce, reuse,
recycle" — "refuse."
"It starts with refusing to use so much
stuff;' Levy says. "Refuse to use single-use
water bottles. They're a petroleum-based
product, and, yes, you can recycle them,
but three times the amount of water goes
into manufacturing that bottle."
❑
To learn more, call Gina Adams Leg at (248) 840-0248 or go to
www.peaceloveandplanet. org.