6 Innovative Entrepreneurs Accelerating Local Business Self-Reliance in Arizona
Let’s celebrate entrepreneurs who are future-proofing their business while building their neighborhoods and communities’ resilience by participating in Cohort 10 of SCALE UP!! 6 business owners learned new strategies to realize significant cost savings by making their business operations more sustainable. Each entrepreneur brought their own rich knowledge, unique insight, and joyful engagement to the green business acceleration program. Look out for these 6 businesses and the innovative solutions they are designing for the betterment of all Arizonans.
Is your business or nonprofit ready to launch a transformational sustainability project? Please reach out to Nick Shivka at nick@localfirstaz.com to learn more.
Kaya Holistic - Phoenix
About
Kaya Holistic is an eco-conscious lifestyle boutique focused on handcrafted, sustainable goods & botanical wellness products. ‘Conscious Goods for Conscious People’ is the inspirational framework behind Founder Cathleen Mitchell’s intentional selection of eco-friendly products (for kitchen & garden, bath & body, baby & kids, and pets) as well as books on wellness, mindfulness, gardening, nature, and sustainability.
How They Scale Up
Kaya Holistic’s short term goal is adopting the Conscious Goods for Conscious People framework for all products found at Kaya, keeping the carbon footprint from Kaya’s supply chain at a minimum while maximizing human and environmental outcomes by choosing goods that are sustainably harvested and made.
In the long term, Kaya Hemp Co., Mitchell’s other business that has been formulating and manufacturing premium CBD products made with USDA-certified organic hemp since 2017, plans to identify and work with local farms and growers that could convert to growing hemp, while working with processors and other businesses in the local textile economy to grow capacity for hemp material production in Arizona.
FilterClean - Tempe
About
FilterClean provides the Valley with a water-saving and efficient pool filter cleaning service while recycling and conserving as much water as possible in the process. They also maintain and re-band each filter as needed to extend its life and reduce waste. Customers can drop off their filters and have them cleaned in as little as one hour, saving them time, money, and thousands of gallons of water that it would have taken to clean them at home.
How They Scale Up
FilterClean’s mission and core values revolve around health, community, and environment, with the goal of saving 2 billion gallons of water every year in the Phoenix metro area alone. They will do this by scaling their closed-loop filter cleaning system and implementing a pick up and drop off service, meaning pool owners are never without clean, working filters.
Smart Window Creations, Inc. - Sedona
About
Since 2002, Smart Window Creations, Inc. founder Aileen Smart has been serving Sedona and the Verde Valley, Prescott, Flagstaff, and surrounding areas customizing window treatments to the tastes of each client and taking into account the unique climate needs of buildings in Arizona. Smart strives to offer personalized, attentive services and actually listen to residential and commercial clients. Her window treatments showcase the natural beauty of the region, offer privacy, and are designed to help homeowners conserve energy in both summer and winter.
How They Scale Up
Smart has been practicing sustainability throughout her career, running her home-based business on solar, composting and reducing waste, and sharing the energy saving benefits of her window treatments with all of her clients. In SCALE UP, Aileen created a plan to purchase an electric fleet vehicle that can be powered by her home solar panel system while eliminating the air pollution from deliveries and attending client consultations. Smart will track her ROI and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to support the business case for transitioning to electric vehicles.
Let’s Go Compost - Scottsdale
About
Lauren Click came up with the idea for Let’s Go Compost as she searched for an affordable way to compost her own kitchen scraps. She realized that a community-wide approach was needed to tackle the problem of food waste in an accessible and impactful way. Let’s Go Compost is a new nonprofit already making a huge impact in the Phoenix community, upcycling hundreds of bulk ingredient buckets from restaurants (so far) into free worm compost bins. Click’s short-term goal is to supply over 1,000 compost bins (worms included!) to classrooms and expose students early to soil health and best practices in upstream and downstream waste prevention.
How They Scale Up
Let’s Go Compost aims to connect to local food businesses to upcycle more containers and to help them compost their food waste. Lauren wants to eliminate plastics from landfills and reduce strain on recycling plants, while limiting organic waste in landfills by distributing free 3.5 and 5.0 gallon indoor compost bins. These bins can be built quickly and efficiently, and the worms inside turn over the food scraps, quickly producing usable compost. The entire process is a learning experience in building soil health for those who participate. Click plans to make kits accessible to STEM classrooms across Arizona for students to receive hands-on experiences with composting, soil building, monitoring soil health, and studying their intersections in our food systems.
Strategic Energy Investments - Scottsdale
About
Strategic Energy Investments (SEI) serves businesses who are passionate about sustainability in their operations, supply chain, communities, and industry. They provide the levers for positive change through development of company sustainability plans, supply chain optimization, and community engagement programs, all backed by data, analysis, and reporting. Businesses can work with SEI on customized tools that fit their specific sustainability needs.
How They Scale Up
SEI Founder Jim Mulloy knows that small and locally owned businesses are leading the charge in making Arizona’s economy stronger and more resistant to disruption, yet do not have access to powerful sustainability tracking and reporting tools that only large corporations have the resources for. That is why he is developing a Personal Supply Chain Program for small businesses and nonprofits to optimize their supply chains to reduce costs and environmental impact, while providing a growth engine for the business to thrive in a local, sustainable fashion.
45 West Entertainment Venue - Phoenix
About
In the lively and growing heart of downtown Phoenix, an historic 18,000 square foot warehouse is being rejuvenated to create 45 West, a live music and entertainment venue with a full service farm-to-table restaurant that will source produce from local growers. Stay tuned!
How They Scale Up
The new high end, multi-use live music venue will take into account all aspects of sustainability, from smart energy and water fixtures to renewable energy generation via solar panels to reducing waste by composting and offering reusable containers in the attached restaurant. 45 West will also go the extra mile by planning to deliver extra food to those in need, collecting biogas from their compost pile to heat water (instead of using fossil gas) and build a Green Team so that staff are aware of best practices and can continue to step up their efforts to be as sustainable and community-minded as possible.
Check out examples of other participants and their projects!
Do you work for, own, or know a business or nonprofit in Arizona that is thinking about sustainability? Interested in joining us for our next cohort of SCALE UP, the Local First Arizona Green Business Bootcamp? Email nick@localfirstaz.com or check out www.localfirstaz.com/scale-up to learn more.
