Green Guide: Selling Green 

In Boston’s Fenway Park, the Green Monster is a hurdle for hitters trying to hit a home run. In the retail business, becoming genuinely green is its own type of monstrous challenge. Many stores have come to the plate and are now selling earth-friendly, sustainable or socially responsible products, either by choice or by customer demand. Here are some local businesses that knock it over retail’s “Green Monster” by selling goods—ranging from pillows, pennants, paint to potatoes—that help the planet and improve community on a local and global scale.

Earth Goods General Store
From sofas to scissors, everything Earth Goods sells is eco-friendly. Customers can find just about everything for their body, kitchen, office and home, just like they would at other “regular” stores, but here each product is rigorously researched and scrutinized to meet Earth Goods’—and, they would argue, Earth’s—quality standards. Earth Goods doesn’t just sell eco-products; it has a sustainable mission. It minimized its ecological footprint as much as possible when remodeling the store two years ago and adheres to green initiatives during day-to-day operations, like recycling byproducts, minimizing resource-consumption, buying 100 percent renewable energy for power and more.
1249 S. 900 East
801-746-4410
EarthGoodsGeneralStore.com

The Green Building Center
Eco-home-remodeling wares not only make Gaia smile, but look good enough to make interior designers squeal with glee. The Green Building Center sells environmentally conscious flooring, countertops, finishes and tile—everything is sustainably harvested, has low toxicity or is recycled and recyclable. They sell to building professionals as well as casual consumers, be it DIY renters or homeowners. Customers don’t mind spending slightly more for the Earth—probably the same demographic that buys organic food whenever they can. They also sell books on green building, sustainable living and gardening.
1952 E. 2700 South
801-484-6278
GreenBuildingCenter.net

Green the World
Up in Ogden, Green the World owner Beth Bell adheres to the three R’s—reduce, reuse, recycle—plus one: rethink. Her store is one of a kind in Weber County, selling Earth-friendly goods from sundries to gift baskets—even the walls of the store are green. Although customers can buy myriad products to suit their eco-fancy, Bell encourages people to start by doing a little at a time—like changing stationery, rather than the whole office—until customers reach a level of contentment.
4171 Riverdale Road
Ogden
801-781-3931
GreenTheWorldStore.com

The Market Hall
As the Park City-area farmers market was closing down in November 2009, The Market Hall co-founders Jesse Swing and Kurt von Puttkammer envisioned a place for vendors—seasonal and nonseasonal—to sell year-round, indoors, undercutting rising commercial rent. At the solar-powered Market Hall, it’s definitely a team mentality: “We all work together to make it happen,” Swing says. Local, sustainably focused shops selling food and dry goods—like The Original Way, Intermountain Wind and Solar, Calcium Springs Farm, Canyon Meadows Beef—are located in 10-by-10-foot spaces at the indoor market. On most days, the founders are there and happy to educate folks about products or pertinent green-topics.
1680 Ute Blvd.
Park City
435-645-6004
TheMarketHall.org

Your Planet
The Salt Lake City International Airport might seem an unlikely place for a small retail store focused on environmental and socially responsible products—or maybe it’s perfect. As tourists and locals alike enter or depart Salt Lake City, they see a store with a worthy mission. Your Planet originally opened in 1961 in the airport, moved once to Library Square, then ultimately found home back at the airport. Through the moves and the decades, the shop has never strayed from its core values. In airport retail, it’s the first of its kind, and in 2007 they won the trade industry award for “Best Green Concession or Concept.” They don’t necessarily sell “need” items, but the whole concept is for customers to make better choices for “wants” like jewelry, accessories, gifts and health and beauty products.
Salt Lake City International Airport
Between Concourses C and D
776 N. Terminal Drive
801-575-2540
GoToATG.org