Earth Promise “21 in 21″ Interview Series – Sharon Feldman-Rowe of Eco-Bags Products
Sharon Feldman-Rowe, Founder and CEO of Eco-Bags Products, Inc. (www.ECOBAGS.com)
Earth Promise: What changes, or Earth Promises as we call them, have you made in your lifestyle to be more green? Changes in home, travel, work, with your kids and community? Sharon Feldman-Rowe: At home since 2007: solar panels, new insulated windows, pellet stove, solar oven. We have always cooked from basics and continue to do so – my husband makes our own yogurt, ice cream, seltzer, breads, tofu (still experimenting) etc. We buy limited packaged foods & bottled drinks. We compost and are building a garden in the backyard. AT WORK: Our offices are rented so we cannot control heat/electric. However, we chose our offices to be in the same town so that we can walk to work (I do most days) and be close to our kid’s schools. We use reusable cups and plateware for foods, have company meals occasionally, keep paper usage low, have a company yoga on Thursday. When the weather gets warmer we will offer work from home on Fridays to reduce travel for one person who just moved further away. EP: Tell me a little about yourself as well as your involvement with the environment? SFR: I started this business, with my husband Blake, twenty years ago. We didn’t start with a profit motive we started because we wanted to reduce the waste we create. We thought the first step would be to reduce use of single throw away bags. We sought out the bags we thought would be the right tool. We started using them and friends and family said it was a great idea. Everyone agreed it was “something” they wanted to do. It wasn’t a “should” do at that point. It was a logical step and as we like to say – it just makes sense. My background isn’t in anything environmental however my passions are. I am an avid outdoors person and this is something we engaged our kids in. Hiking, Skiing, swimming – things that keep you outside make you aware of the beauty around us and let’s face it – no one likes it when a plastic bag wraps around their feet at the ocean. EP: Tell me about some of the steps you have taken in your professional life to help the environment? SFR: We are passionate about living in a cleaner, simpler but more abundant world. To this end every decision we make in the business is about that passion and being on that road. We sell products that we consider “tools” for simpler living and believe that bringing your own bag to the store is the first step in a long line of steps toward shifting our personal behaviors. We also believe that changes happen in community stimulated by individual decisions to make that shift. Actual steps include, but aren’t limited to – cooking from scratch, composting, walking to work, spending great deal of time walking, kayaking and encouraging others to do so, noon time stretch, etc. It’s sort of a grassroots movement that starts at every individuals core. EP: Were you “green” as a child? SFR: Not really. I don’t know what that means. But when I was growing up was before water bottles and even plastic bags. I remember paper bags coming home from the store. I was a teenager when malls came into being. My dad had an army navy store so I had all the jeans a girl could want. I went to camp and studied nature but like all young kids I just wanted to play with my friends. In those days we played outside all the time – regardless of the weather. You came home from school, grabbed snack and went outside (after Dark Shadows and Star Trek of course) EP: What was your first, ah ha! Green moment? SFR: No first moment just growing disgust with the volume of garbage. I take that back – I moved to an less wealthy part of NYC – we call it “upstate” manhattan – Washington Heights. There is more garbage in the streets in less wealthy areas. That’s when I really noticed the volume of stuff I the streets and trees plus, the stores gave out really cheap, almost instant rip plastic bags for everything you bought and stapled them shut (probably to control shop lifting) which would cause them to rip and not be useful for anything else except to throw away. EP: Sometimes if a message is played over too much, consumers will tend to ignore it after a while or tune it out or turn against it. How can green Evangelists be more effective in making sure we are relevant but not overbearing? SFR: By making the argument and telling the stories of how living green is actually a more abundant way of living. Cooking is a great example – cooking from real ingredients, locally grown (all good green concepts) creates community and COSTS LESS! That’s a real driver – changing a lot of these habits will mean MORE GREEN! Also, it’s important to acknowledge and support small shifts in behavior no matter how it occurs. One person bringing their own bag might feel good, another righteous and the third trendy. No one person is above the other for the reason they’re doing something. Guilt can work too but that’s another story. EP: What are some of the things that anger you or drive you crazy that you see people do that hurts the environment? SFR: It’s not so much what people do but what corporations ignore in order to profit. I could go on about this. They make balance sheet decisions. Now, at least they’re seeing that environmental shifts help their bottom line and they’re waxing poetic about it and trying to take leadership roles in the community. So long as they’re being truthful this is good. When they lie for market-share that’s what gets me. As far as what people do – when they litter. That really ticks me off. EP: If you had to put together an ad campaign around the climate crisis and global warming, what topics and images would you include? What do you think hits home with people? SFR: Good question. It’s amazing when they show the ice floats breaking off but what does that mean to me? I would like to see images that show how it is affecting my neighborhood and, how it is affecting the food that I eat. I would spend a lot of time talking about water and showing comparisons on how much we enjoy it (drinking, swimming, clean environments) and how scarce it is becoming. We have to find the stories of triumph over adversity (norma rae type) so that we can show the light with outcome vs just the negative. Move away from talking heads and appeal to the heart with children, too. EP: There are lots of people who fit into two eco groups – “think green”, meaning they know there is an environmental issue and they are concerned, but do not take any steps to help. Then there is the “act green” group who take action and make changes to help the environment. Getting people to move from the “think green” group to the “act green” group is key. What steps can be taken to make this transfer happen? SFR: Peer Pressure, coolness, fashion, leadership, budgeting, efficiencies. Moving toward green as a personal statement is going to reconnect people to their local communities and environments. EP: Let’s say you get a one hour meeting with President Obama. What advice do you give him about making Earth Promises in his life? SFR: I would ask him to talk about the promises he’s made and is making and to share how it affects his life on a daily basis. What’s important is the story and sharing of the “wealth” that can be created in doing something good. I would ask him, too, to share a lot of the smaller things he’s doing as well as the larger things. EP: What is the most vital message you hope people will hear regarding the environment that will lead them to take action? SFR: I read an article about Costa Rica the other day. They take their natural resources very seriously and tax companies to use the resources so that they can keep them vital. We can no longer assume that the earth will support us if we do not support it. It is vital to understand that we profit won’t matter if we’re dead or living on a dead planet. EP: What is the one Earth Promise you are going to make in the future that you have not done yet? SFR: My promise is that I will bring my expertise and passion to communities that do not have the resources I have and work with them to understand the make the shifts for a more abundant, connected life. EP: Thank you for your time. Much appreciated. 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