Ninawa Zero-Waste is a minority-owned business that upcycles clothes and home goods (curtains, sheets, leftover fabric, and dead stocks). The owner of Ninawa Zero-Waste is Aelen Unan, a low-income woman of color entrepreneur, who is passionate about sustainable fashion and redirecting waste away from landfills.

Waste management is a critical aspect of creating a sustainable future. The global waste situation is becoming increasingly challenging, with the production of waste outpacing the capacity to manage it properly.

Read about SBN Sustainable Business Awardees Berkshire Bank and UMass Five’s longstanding sustainability initiatives and commitments to helping their communities become more sustainable.

For 12 years, the Boston Local Food Festival has centered food as a crucial part of the Boston experience. Every third Sunday in September, food seekers convene on the Rose Kennedy Greenway to relish their newest go-to taste craves. This year was no exception, as the Greenway transformed into a cornucopia of hidden delights - flowing with 40,000 eager eaters and embellished with brilliant displays and savory-scented sensations.

Commonwealth Energy provides home repair and solar energy services to households in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. They aim to make the world a better place, one home at a time by allowing homeowners to go solar, save money on their monthly bills, and increase their overall home value!

Learn just how much benefit your trees are adding to your property.

Everyone knows trees are valuable, but did you know you can actually calculate their specific added value to your property?

Lochtree is an online marketplace made for sustainable goods for anything from your home to your pet. The website is customer-focused and aims to make sustainable living not only attainable, but easy.

“Bookstores Need Your Help. As booksellers are in the midst of the important fourth-quarter sales season, the American Booksellers Association encourages readers to shop local. Check with your local independent bookstore how you can shop with them — whether in-store, online, or both.”

On September 19th, the hungry, the curious, and the enthusiasts came together in the heart of Boston on the Rose Kennedy Greenway for the 11th Annual Boston Local Food Festival. With a cool sun overhead, Boston celebrated almost 60 food growers and creators who bring character and freshness to New England’s thriving food culture.

Cape Cod Coffee sources its coffee beans from 14 countries,  with its most popular single-origin coffees coming from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, Ethiopia, and India, to name a few. The local business is committed to sourcing from farms that use sustainable growing practices, and believe that supporting these practices will ensure the health of the environment and longevity of the coffee industry for generations to come. All their sources are Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance certified and organically grown without pesticides. To decaffeinate their coffees, Cape Cod Coffee employs the “Swiss Water Process” method that uses water instead of chemicals to remove the caffeine. 

Actual Energy takes a granular, scientific, and actionable approach to understanding a company’s energy usage, allowing customers to save money and help the planet by optimizing energy consumption. The energy industry has been dominated by large cap companies. The result: an industry with limited flexibility that has failed to incorporate new, renewable technologies in the past 10 years. As CEO Mark Finley states, “The retail energy industry is ripe for disruption.” This is where Actual Energy fits in, not only disrupting what has become a stagnating industry but paving the way for a more sustainable future through its own innovative, technologically advanced platform. 

Global Village Foods is on mission to bring allergy-friendly, African food to as many people as possible. Co-owner Damaris is a trained chef from Kenya who wanted to become an entrepreneur and celebrate food from the African diaspora early-on. After having a son with severe food allergies, Damaris and her husband Mel were inspired to open up Global Village Cuisine (since then changed to Global Village Foods) in Vermont in an effort to make their traditional, delicious African cooking allergy-friendly.

Greencrab.org’s mission is to reduce the population of their namesake species by developing new markets among consumers for the green crab. The invasive green crab has been responsible for decimating native soft-shell clam populations, in addition to other species, such as turtles and eels. Greencrab.org works to counter the invasiveness of the green crab in order to preserve the various marine species and marine ecosystem.

It’s no secret that hundreds of Massachusetts local businesses have gone out of business and that most small businesses are struggling to stay alive. Now that the Coronavirus is in a winter surge this puts even more pressure on our local entrepreneurs to stay alive.

To truly understand the buzz of local businesses, we’ll take a look at Best Bees, an all-inclusive beekeeping service. Spanning twelve different major metropolitan cities across the country, Best Bees installs and maintains bee hives for both corporate and home beekeeping.

SBN’s Snapshot campaign features members of SBN that are local, green, and fair within the greater Boston community. The Snapshot campaign seeks to illustrate the transition from the start of the business or organization – all the way to where it is now, as well as what lessons can be learned along the way.

Each local business has its own unique journey as it grows from a small plan into a reality. By adopting local, green, and fair qualities, these businesses strengthen the greater Boston community and local economy.

By Natalie Greenberg Dirt is the stuff you wipe off your feet when you come into the house. But soil? It’s magic. It makes the world grow into vibrant greens, reds, yellows, pinks, purples, and whites.

While COVID-19 has posed challenges for large portions of our food systems, the pandemic has also opened a new window for connecting people with locally grown and produced foods.

Gentle Giant is a proud partner of the Sustainable Business Network and a model of our mission. This partner works hard to support responsible initiatives which reduce waste as part of a sustained dedicated to environmental protection.