Support Local, Earth-Conscious Small Businesses on Earth Day
Happy Earth Day, friends!
After moving back to my home state of Massachusetts, I’ve met and worked with wonderful people who’ve been nurturing soulful, earth-conscious, community-centered businesses. If you’ve been following me for a while, you may have noticed I’m kind of in love with attending farmer’s markets of any sort, specifically for the unique finds and the vibrant people I get to meet.
Although it’s sort of become a trendy thing to shop local and support small businesses, here are two important, actual reasons why it’s the smart, more sustainable, and meaningful to do so, especially in light of this pandemic.
Smaller businesses typically have a smaller carbon footprint.
Smaller businesses have a smaller carbon footprint than larger companies, as it takes less energy to keep them going (some businesses are literally just in people’s homes or small studios), they require less in forms of transport, have less waste, and many of them are also dedicated to shopping small and locally, and are intentional about where they purchase, what materials are used in their products, and their overall production process.
Small businesses are personally invested in your community and its wellbeing.
When you purchase something from a small business, you’re interacting with actual people, not an algorithm, a board, or stockholders. The money you contribute to a small business goes right back into your community, further enriching its growth and economy.
Small, independent businesses are able to add a unique touch to the customer experience, and they pour more time and care into their creations and the way they serve you. Supporting them means supporting the diversity in the people, products and services offered in your community, and investing into places that have a tangible effect on the feel of your local environment.
If you want to get a feel for a community and their character, culture and lifestyle, you visit their small businesses.
Here are three small businesses from my home community that I deeply admire, especially for their commitment to keeping our earth as healthy as possible. A lot of the things we used to do pre-rona (especially in regards to going green) aren’t possible right now, but it’s still possible to shop online, share their pages, and support in any way you can.
Bedlam Book Cafe:
Bedlam is a gem of a bookstore. Located in Worcester, MA, they’re dedicated to fostering an aesthetic, literary, and healthy hub in selling unique used books. One of the big reasons I fell in love with them was their intentional stance on going green. They strive to produce as little waste as possible by purchasing the produce for their juices from local farms, so that less fossil fuels are needed to get them delivered to their store; supporting organic growing farms (and selling their items in the store!); composting all the produce used during the juicing process, along with leftover coffee grounds and tea leaves (I work there, so I can vouch for this); using clean electricity to power their store; and selling only used books among several other things.
Although they’re currently closed and abiding by social distancing laws, they’ve transferred their book hauls to their online store. Go purchase some goodies from sustainable family farms, bookstore merch, or exceptionally unique reads (especially since many of us have a lot more time to read now).
Amber Haney of AHaneyArt
Amber Haney is a rising Artivist currently earning her masters degree in counseling and art therapy. She intentionally creates art that sparks discussion on ethics, social issues, and mental health among many things. I’ve always admired the way she so intricately and genuinely captures human emotion in her creations and the care she puts into anything she contributes to the world.
Amber promotes sustainable fashion through her work, and has hosted several workshops on creating reusable canvas tote bags at Three Match Creations, our little hub of creativity in Clinton, MA. She’s a linocut artist and an illustrator, and all of her works are handmade with love.
But my favorite thing about her is probably that she’s literally adopted the identity of an Artivist (art + activist), launching a Massachusetts-based, ongoing ARTivism Initiative that encouraged many to partner art and activism as tools to bring change to their communities, raise awareness to delicate issues and spread consciousness. The first event was hosted in the summer of 2019, featuring themes related to womxn’s rights, animal rights, gender issues, mental health, stigma and sustainability.
The mission is to encourage open-mindedness, acceptance, compassion, and gratitude, bringing people from many backgrounds and walks of life to inform and bring to light the issues they’re passionate about, using their craft as their catalyst for a kinder, safer world.
This year, Artivism is being hosted virtually as a juried gallery show, and Amber has been encouraging artists to create postcard designs confronting social issues of any kind using a 4x6 canvas. On the backside, postcards should feature a hand-written note and address entities in power (persons, places, organizations, etc.).
Here’s an example of a post card design, along with a few more of her creations, and some tote bags I snagged from a giveaway of hers.
If you feel compelled to create and submit a postcard during your extended free time, see the rules/guidelines and read more about Artivism.
The deadline for submissions is May 3, 2020 at midnight. While the initiative is grounded in visual arts, any form of artistic expression will be considered.
K Sense.Co
K Sense is a small team committed to sourcing ethical products, focusing on reducing waste by using minimum to no packaging, reusing and repurposing products. Owner and operator of K Sense, Katherine Aguilar, makes soy candles out of beer and wine bottles and has been invited to several pop-ups and markets, eventually starting an installation of her own at Worcester Public Market. Her online and retail store has become a platform for other local artists and people of color to share their hand crafted jewelry, art, and photography prints, and has expanded her product selection to other eco-friendly products in efforts to reduce our carbon footprint.
Recently, she’s been selling home-made hand sanitizers and face masks and using the funds to donate needed supplies to the Emergency Covid Homeless Shelter in Worcester, Massachusetts, and is offering free hand sanitizer refills to those in need (what a QUEEN). Check out her store here, and choose from one of her seven year-round scents!