#swellr

By Sara Hopson, Community Engagement Associate (@sahopson)

For four years, Greenward owners Scott Walker and his wife, Simone, have been helping Cambridge residents and beyond be more cognizant of the ways in which the things they buy affect our planet. “Our hope is that people who shop at Greenward don't feel that their environmental responsibility begins and ends with shopping here, and that they start to think more about what they buy elsewhere and how they can reduce their environmental impact in other, more important aspects”, Scott said.

By focusing on “eco-modern” goods, which they qualify as items that are eco-friendly and well-designed (attractive and functional, not just cheap and adequate), the shop’s inventory appeals to the aesthetic sensibilities of consumers and not only their consciences. With the resurgence of interest in ‘going green’ around late 2006, Scott and Simone thought a store offering those type of products – along with unique items by local crafters using recyclable materials – would fit well in the area.

For his part, Scott can point to a few instances in his upbringing and young life that inspired him to feel drawn to this industry. Although he’s always been interested in the environment, he remembers especially noticing the differences between growing up in Orlando, FL and summers he spent with family in Vermont, swimming in a pond and reading old paperbacks. That lifestyle stood out compared to those typical of Orlando, a city which could be said to exemplify the urban sprawl of 20th century America with its “wasteful suburban development, car culture, strip malls, chain stores, and tacky tourist junk”, as Scott described it.

Luckily, his New England-bred family taught him not to be wasteful or buy things he didn’t need and he believes this philosophy meshes well with an adherence to environmentalism. After studying at Cornell, he wanted to pursue a career in renewable energy or mass transit, but at the time (1998), the only viable options were to work for defense contractors. Instead, he moved to Cambridge to work for a software company before returning to school for Urban Planning. His last job doing that involved bike and pedestrian planning for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) – an apt job considering Scott hasn’t owned a car since the last year of college, and his shop also encourages residents of the area to reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible.

Greenward actually has several initiatives in place to reward community members for greening their daily lives. Their Zipcar member discount is one of these, rewarding people who do away with unnecessary ‘car culture’ in a city like ours that is so bike, foot, and public transit-friendly. To that end, they’ve also introduced customers to Bicycle Benefits and have participated in Green Streets Walk/Ride Days. Scott explains: “I've always thought that incentives for good behavior are a good idea, and it's one reason we have tended to offer discounts for things like that.”

Scott & Simone have one corner of the shop devoted to helping you green your everyday life - with brochures, flyers, and even bins for recycling corks and compact fluorescent bulbs.

Other successful ventures have been helping people learn to compost and recycle in order to rid them of habits like buying bottled water and using disposable shopping bags. Products that ease this process for Greenward customers include water bottles from Klean Kanteen (one of which I bought with my Swellr gift certificate and absolutely love) and reusable shopping and produce bags from ChicoBag. Other popular products are kitchen and home goods from bambu and one of Scott and Simone’s favorite local companies, Preserve. They’ve also recycled hundreds of pounds of e-waste with their Technotrash bins.

Scott makes it a priority to keep open channels of communication with anyone interested in the shop and going green. Greenward has an award-winning an email newsletter, a blog featuring local green businesses, and active Facebook and Twitter pages that focus on news specific to goings-on at the store or local events. In-store events have included a worm composting workshop this spring and a presentation on a co-housing community in Belfast, ME. Also, they’ve been conducting outside events with their bicycle-powered "mobile unit”, and look for them selling a selection of food-related products at the Allston Farmers' Market on the last Friday of every month.

By Sara Hopson (@sahopson)

On Tuesday, 3/5 of the Swellr team convened at Flatbread Pizza in Davis Square to help support an awesome community program, CitySprouts. We enjoyed two pizzas - the Community Flatbread and Mopsy's Kalua Pork Pie - and a game of candlepin bowling. Flatbread donated some of each pizza sale to benefit the CitySprouts program, which partners with Cambridge Public Schools to start school gardens.

CitySprouts enables educators to incorporate gardening into the curriculum in meaningful ways rather than isolating it as a strictly extracurricular activity. This makes it integral to what the students are doing in the classroom as well as in the garden. The students have access to the gardens outside of school hours as well, and into the summer. The program, which turns 11 this year, serves every K-8th grade school in the Cambridge district, numbering over 4,000 kids.

The initiative teaches kids about growing food, nurturing the environment, and sustaining resources. In a video on their site, co-program director and former school principal Joe Petner explains, "It's about finding ways to support our teachers - to give them planning time, a curriculum, and professional support - that enables them to do this, to take off and use the garden as an extension of the classroom".

Before we bowled, we also had the pleasure of chatting with program manager Kim Goldstein who was hanging out for the duration of the fundraiser. We look forward to hopefully working with CitySprouts in the future! 

(And in case you were wondering, Andrew won. Not by much, though.)

Contrary to this photo, Shonak didn't really have much to smile about while we were candlepin bowling...  it's way harder than it looks!

Be sure to check out the CitySprouts calendar for upcoming events, join their mailing list, and you may as well pencil in Flatbread Tuesdays on your own calendar - each week they hold a similar fundraiser for other community organizations. What a great excuse to embarrass yourself like I did while bowling and enjoy some delicious pizza (they also have a full bar, for those of you 21 and over).

Article written by Cece Santos from Bostoninnovation. Thank you everyone for coming out!

When I first arrived at the Venture Café last night for the inaugural Ed Tech meetup (organized by BostInnovator Marissa Lowman), I thought I had come to a networking party. Everybody – beer, wine or soda in hand – was either having a conversation or  starting one, this time related to the intersection of education, technology and entrepreneurship.

Every Thursday the Venture Café team hosts  different gathering events bringing together a diverse community: entrepreneurs, small business owners, venture capitalists, etc. to meet one another. “We encourage people to come over and start building community,” CarrieStalder, organizer of the Venture Café shared.

I had the opportunity to find out about two startups targeting the education industry: Swellr andBUILD.

Swellr is creating a fantastic win-win platform for small businesses and educators by combining local e-commerce with micro-fundraising.

“It gives the chance for educators to raise  money for their classroom and projects needs, by getting people in their network to shop at local businesses that run promotions on the Swellr website,” co-founder Nathan Rothstein explained.

So how will this soon-to-launch product actually work? First, a teacher writes a short description of the classroom need – e.g. craft materials – and posts a picture of the class. Then, to get the project funded, the teacher notifies their network via email asking them to shop on Swellr. Once the project goal is met, Swellr will ship the craft materials to the teacher’s school.

With increasing numbers in high school drop-outs, BUILD brings hope for students in need of an extra motivational push by embracing entrepreneurship.

The program engages low-income students through high school and into college success. By using entrepreneurship and providing kids with the tools to develop their own startup ideas, write business plans and pitch to VCs and Angel investors, BUILD helps turn ideas into reality.

With the first program being a success in East Palo Alto and Oakland, California, BUILD’s Boston program will launch in September with four Boston high schools and 100 students. “We are looking for mentors interested in getting involved – people who care about urban education. It’s all about helping each other,” Regional Executive Director Ayele Shakur shared.