Natural Capitalism - Sarasota

From an email on the World Cafe email list ...

A Bit of History
Some of our newest people have asked me about our Sarasota Green Connection history, so here goes...... As president of Bowie Urban Planners, in 1994, I (Mary Anne Bowie) began speaking at national urban planning conferences on sustainable urban planning solutions. It was then that Bowie Urban Planners joined Co-op America' s Business Network, an organization that has been growing the green economy for over 30 years. In 2002, I authored the Venice Vision Plan that envisioned, as a revitalization tool, a Green Marketplace.

Sarasota Green Connection, Inc. doing business as Sarasota Green Marketplace has just completed its fourth year of "mainstreaming green products and services". Our motto is "Change Begins With Choice". On September 7, 2002, we convened the initial Green World Cafe at our Bowie Urban Planners office. Then our first Sarasota Green Marketplace was held January 11, 2003 that featured 15 vendors. Sarasota Green Connection held a variety of vendor Sarasota Green Marketplace events during 2003 and 2004.

Then the County decided to take over the vendor marketplace idea and put on Sarasota's First E-Fest, that is now a region-wide effort that has been purchased from the county former employees by the publishers of Natural Awakenings. We wish them well as they help us all mainstream green products and services.

By 2005, Sarasota Green Connection had developed the Sarasota Green Connection Approved Business Directory, which now numbers over 165 businesses, accessible at www.sarasotagreenconnection.com We obtained the first license in the country from Co-op America to publish 20,000 copies of the Sarasota Green Pages in late 2005 and we continue to distribute these copies for free at Whole Foods Market customer service desk (in the basket).

We opened our cooperative showroom at 1093 Central Avenue inside Sarasota Architectural Salvage in June 2004 which we closed last year. We will be opening our new and improved Sarasota Green Marketplace early next year and we have spent the year getting our dealerships and distributorships in place. And our custom carpenter and floor installer, Phil Yoder of Rainforest Carpentry, has been with us all the way. Our new Sarasota Green Marketplace will help you build and live green and will be one of the few all-green building stores in the country. We also continue to grow our on-line directory of SGC Approved businesses, that provide environmentally preferable products and services. Visit www.sarasotagreenconnection.com for up to date information on these local businesses and for our latest Sarasota Green Marketplace opening date information.