Sustainable Business NYC July/August 2009

It's been three months, but we're still excited about our recent move to the GreenSpaces office in downtown Brooklyn, a cooperative workspace to help launch green business. To learn more about this amazing workspace and community, visit www.greenspacesny.com.

In May, SBNYC staff and members joined over 400 social innovators and business renegades in Denver, CO for the 7th annual BALLE Conference. Network leaders shared their impressive work and all were inspired to hear from key leaders helping to build the movement. Click here to read more about the conference.

SBNYC was proud to be a partner in the first annual Green Business Competition this past May. The business models and innovation behind each finalist (not to mention all the semi-finalists) was inspiring. Congratulations to the competition winners: DBA, ECO Incorporated and Gotham Greens. And welcome to SBNYC!

In June, Founding Members of SBNYC gathered in iCi's private room for the first annual Founding Member dinner. Brought together by delicious local food, we learned more about each other's businesses, discussed the incredible progresss and current position of SBNYC, and were delighted to have iCi's owner, Catherine Saillard, speak to the group about the inspiration and story behind her restaurant.

Starting this October, hear leading NYC entrepreneurs speak frankly about their trials, tribulations and triumphs in creating socially responsible business ventures in this inspiring bi-monthly SBNYC series. Whether you are a student or already running an established business, these personal “confessions” can be instrumental to understanding the challenges and successes of building businesses with a double or triple bottom line.

This fall members of SBNYC will be working together to create an internal reference book of members of the network, as well as all of the local businesses that we rely on in order to operate a successful business. Next time you need a caterer, find out who is recommended from within the network and why!

SBNYC is excited to be partnering with PUREBROOKLYN, a 3-story LEED-certified building on Smith Street, to help launch a cafe and pop-up retail space showcasing socially responsible businesses. With exclusive offerings for SBNYC members, and a full calendar of business and community events, this is the perfect opportunity to test out your retail market or even a second retail location!

We love a good party. We want the next generation to love them too. So we're out to provide economically and environmentally conscious alternatives to standard partyware. Sustainable Party is a place to buy cups made from corn, potato starch-based silverware, and more.

At sustainableparty.com you can also:
- download customized signs highlighting the eco attributes of SP products
- print party-friendly signs that encourage guests to save natural resources
- use SP's sustainability checklist and help make your event a conscious one (contributed to by fellow SBNYC-er dvGreen)

Native NYC eco-freak & performance artist Emily Doubilet founded Sustainable Party because providing a forum for people to make smart purchase decisions is vital to creating a paradigm transformation towards sustainability. [disclosure: Emily also works as sustainability coordinator for fellow SBNYC Founding Member, IceStone.] It's important to incorporate sustainability into everything we do, from business time to party time! Email weloveyou@sustainableparty.com for an exclusive 10% discount code, only valid for SBNYC members via email.

PDS Development Corporation