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StartupNation, a leading online business advice site for entrepreneurs, compiled a list of the 100 best home-based businesses in America. These are the greenest. (Read more at StartupNation.)
1. Sweet Onion Creations, Bozeman, Mont.
Jake and Lee Cook started Sweet Onion Creations to capitalize on a passion they have for architecture and for the environment (see "The smallest 'green' buildings in America"). Their company, they say, "is all about ideas you can touch." They make architectural models that reduce the confusion between blueprints and architects' clients. The architects send over a digital file, and days later the architects' models arrive at their doorstep. The Cooks are big on recycling, ensuring low usage of nonrecycled materials and conserving energy, and they are finding that they can save money and win special consideration from customers through their "green" practices.
2. Write 2 Market, Atlanta
Lisa Calhoun's Write 2 Market proves that going green can also mean great revenue. Her business is a Top Ten Best Financial Performer as well. It's not her core service, writing copy for clients big and small, that qualifies her as a Greenest business, however. It's Calhoun's focus on how working from home helps create much more sustainable business practices. No more gas-guzzling commutes for her staff, for example. And Calhoun takes being green much further. She reduces paper usage through streamlined processes and digital workflows. She also actively engages in local environmental causes and supports them with a $5,000 monthly charitable donation budget.
3. Greenraising, Agoura Hills, Calif.
Lisa Olsonis on a mission. Her company, Greenraising, is an innovative new fundraising company that helps schools and nonprofits raise money while selling products that benefit the environment and other people. All products are eco-friendly and fairly traded. Some 25% of all Web site sales and 40% of all catalog sales go directly to participating nonprofits. The general public can shop online at the Greenraising site and choose where their money will be donated.
4. Healthy Living Group, Bayshore, N.Y.
While his main focus is air and water purification, green by any measure, Anthony Carvalho has taken his green agenda even further. He has created a consortium of similarly minded business operators he calls the Green Team. It's an enthusiastic group of fellow entrepreneurs whom he promotes through his Web site and recommends to his customers because of their greenness. Furthering his social agenda, he also supports Toys of Hope, a nonprofit charity, with some of his proceeds.
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5.Valaset Services, Livonia, Mich.
When you visit this company's "About" page, you learn of the priority that Tom Stroup places on recycling. Valaset helps businesses recycle their used computer equipment and business phone systems. They first wipe all data off of servers, desktops and laptops, and then all equipment is recycled in an environmentally safe way. Virtually nothing ends up in a landfill. To make this green service appeal to the other kind of "green" in business, Valaset purchases the equipment from the customer at a competitive market price.
6.Coldsweep, Mountain Green, Utah
Randell Heath's company uses dry ice made from recycled CO2 to clean surfaces for industries involved in power generation, oil and gas, food processing, and disaster and historic restoration. It's like sandblasting without the mess. What makes Coldsweep green is that its dry-ice particles disappear on impact, leaving no secondary waste to clean up and making its process eco-friendly. The dry ice itself is a recycled material. This also reduces use of cleaning solvents and other chemicals that can harm the environment. Dry-ice blasting is an FDA-, USDA- and Environmental Protection Agency-approved cleaning method that will solve problems for many industries.
7.Artistic Lifestyling, Raleigh, N.C.
Lisa Richards'Artistic Lifestyling offers creative home design, home management, workshops and classes. It uses products that protect the environment; it always goes digital instead of using print materials, to reduce waste; and it sources all work from independent craftspeople. It also practices the three R's: reduce, reuse, recycle. In fact, the company has added a fourth R, for "redesign."
8. Kim's Specialty Paper, Durham, N.C.
Kim's Specialty Paper is an online store dedicated to eco-friendly paper products. LaMont Johnson sells only Earth-friendly products produced by eco-friendly manufacturers. All of its products are made from recycled materials or are in an eco-safe way. And all paper items it offers meet or exceed the EPA's post-consumer regulations.
9. RM Battery Doctors, Milleville, Pa.
RM Battery Doctors of northeast Pennsylvania is a recycling, manufacturing and distribution company that offers top-quality chemically remanufactured lead-acid batteries. To encourage maximum longevity of these power sources, Jeff Machamer and Keith Reese also offer extended battery warranties and battery life-extension services.
10. R.H. Grover Tree Service, Carlton, Minn.
How could we not include a tree-care service in our Greenest ranking? Sue Grover's goal is to be as environmentally friendly as possible -- proactive in caring for the environment and striving for as little waste of product as possible. R.H. Grover Tree Service burns low-sulfur fuel in all of its vehicles and equipment. It also has plans to convert to bio-fuel trucks. Downed trees still in good shape are turned into lumber to be sold locally. Wood chips are sold to a local paper mill. Not much goes to waste.
Published Nov. 5, 2007
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