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Living off the Grid
Retailer Spotlight: Community Eco Store
Stephen Beebee worked hard all of his life to make a $1 salary.
Let us explain: Beebee’s background is in marketing and logistics. He also owned a software marketing company. He was financially set but felt he had a bigger mission in life. Five years ago he retired from a demanding career to pursue his passion for green living.
Today he and his wife, Deborah, own Community Eco Store in historic Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, located west of Valley Forge. Their business focuses on resource saving and sustainable living products for the home, office, garden and beyond.
The store sells locally made—brooms, clothes drying racks, environmentally friendly laundry soap; solar—panels, attic fans, hot water heaters; and green—composting supplies, LED lighting, reusable mesh bags. Customers are inspired to replace plastic with products like Weck glass preserving/storage jars and stainless steel containers from Klean Kanteen and ECOlunchbox.
Dissatisfied with the plastic dryer balls the store was carrying, Beebee searched the Internet for an alternative and discovered LooHoo Wool Dryer Balls. He was sold. And now, so are his customers.
“Most of the people who buy LooHoos get it,” Beebee says. “They’re all natural and made in the U.S.”
Beebee is so entrenched in his mission that he uses most of what he sells at home.
“It’s an amazing thing to be a part of the green movement,” Beebee says. “It’s the largest movement worldwide. I’m trying to diversify as much as I can yet purchase as many things from the U.S. as possible.”
When he’s not in the store, Beebee encourages other to live green in an urban environment through lectures like Living Off the Grid at the community library. He is also a board member of the non-profit Phoenixville Green Team, volunteers who advocate green living through local initiatives and events like the annual Green Earth Festival. He is also working toward B Corp status, which would certify Community Eco Store as one of 1,600 companies from 42 countries dedicated to social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
Beebee hopes to encourage others to invest in resource-saving and sustainable living products by starting a blog and expanding his social media presence beyond Facebook.
His ultimate goal?
“I want to create a non-profit sustainable business and give it away,” Beebee says. Visit the Community Eco Store at www.communityecostore.com.
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MaryAnn
May 18, 2016
The term ‘green’ has obviously been muddied to some extent. For example, we didn’t buy a Prius to save the planet, but because it had zero emission, although I like driving a car that doesn’t poison the neighborhood air: A lot more has come out of a tailpipe than CO2!! It was mostly the 60 mpg, which turned out to be a lie! LOL! THAT and the pollution caused by BUILDING the car! As an engineer, I learned a lot about how scientists are told to lie about their data: My husband and I were both asked to lie about our data, before we ever met, and both of us had said “No.” There are climate science managers who change the climate data to get contract money during a time of great financial chaos. With a little bit of research the truth can be located, and it turns out CO2 is necessary for oxygen creating plants and trees to thrive and the planet balances itself. It also turns out that honest scientists admit they cannot prove people are or are not causing climate change, as well as the low probability. It thirdly turns out that the
Homo Capensis species seeks to take the economy of the world down by taxing every level based on the production of a gas that doesn’t harm the earth. That’s right: A different species. So thanks for selling stuff that keeps the local pollution down: I have been in touch with a scientist in Australia who verified the carcinogenic chemicals in most dryer sheets: She claims even the unscented ones have issues, but much lower. Of course, the organic wool dryer balls are the best!!
Bless you all,
Mary Ann
maryann@thebestsuperfood.com
Go there!