Many Marin residents at the core of Bay Area's rise in enviro-friendly businesses...
Above: Forrest Kolb (left) and Joe Paone, seen in Sausalito, co-founded the classifieds Web site EcoFlip.org in an attempt to become the craigslist for green products and services. (IJ photo/Alan Dep)
From the Marin Independant Journal
ENTREPRENEUR Neal Gottlieb was 28 when he started Three Twins Organic Ice Cream in Terra Linda in 2005 and now bills it as the first "chain" of organic ice cream stores.
The owner of two ice cream stores also sells his ice creams, gelatos and sorbets to restaurants and at farmers markets and grocery stores. He is hoping to expand production at a plant in Petaluma.
Gottlieb is among Marin entrepreneurs whose businesses are young and green. He chose ice cream because it was a business that could be started small and grow.
"Organic sets us apart," Gottlieb said. "When you think of what is done to cows and the chemicals you put into our body - we are so lucky in Northern California to live in close proximity to so many great organic dairies and having an abundance of organic produce."
Gottlieb tried the corporate world for a while after graduating from Cornell University in New York in 1999, but he decided it wasn't for him.
"After Sept. 11, I thought about how I would feel about my accomplishments if I got killed in the World Trade Center," Gottlieb said. "I wanted to do something more meaningful."
He said that if he was going to work 40 to 80 hours a week, he wanted to feel passionate about what he was doing.
"It's such a great opportunity to make people love you and not just think about the bottom line," Gottlieb said. "Customers talk about you and they spread the word - they want to support you."
Green businesses, or environmentally friendly enterprises, are on the rise in the Bay Area, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments, which started a green business program in 1996. Since then 1,375 businesses have been granted green certification.
Marin launched its program in 2002 and now lists 254 certified green businesses.
To qualify for certification, a business must comply with a checklist of requirements, such as buying only recycled paper and copying on both sides, cleaning premises with nontoxic products, installing energy-efficient lighting systems and conserving water with low-flush toilets and faucet aerators.
Sarah Diefendorf, executive director of the Environmental Finance Center at Dominican University of California, said green business momentum is building. "We're not at the crest of that wave yet," Diefendorf said. "Everything is pointing in that direction, but we haven't reached a point where industry is saying 'we need this.'"
She noted the university's green MBA program is beginning to see a demand for hiring sustainability coordinators.
She said the future is bright for Marin's young green entrepreneurs. "We are going to be forced into energy efficiency and conservation, and those who are ahead of the curve are always going to fare better."
Sausalito resident Forrest Kolb, 25, earned a bio-engineering degree at the University of California at San Diego and got a job in research and development at Genentech Inc. in the East Bay. He moved to Marin about three years ago.
He was inspired to start his business, BizzFlip Inc., while he was driving through Silicon Valley, noticing how many technology company names were posted on buildings. He realized businesses needed a way to talk to each other. He and a business partner, Joe Paone, began to research a Web site that would serve as an online classified advertising site for entrepreneurs.
BizzFlip.com was launched in May 2007 and includes postings for businesses for sale, business services and venture capital pitches.
This year, Kolb and Paone launched EcoFlip.org, a platform for environmentally friendly listings for products and services. Users can place free online postings for buying and recycling green products, fuel-efficient vehicles and environmentally friendly services.
"Our vision for EcoFlip is for it to be the first place people go for eco-friendly and green business," Kolb said. "We want to be the craigslist for green products and services."
He loves living in Marin and setting his own schedule so he can enjoy the outdoors while working long hours.
"We are on the computer all day," Kolb said. "When you're really passionate about your business, it's not work.
"We are looking at taking investments from angels to scale it up," Kolb said. "We don't want to take money and lose control, we want people who are passionate."
Another young Marin entrepreneur, Jorge Lee, grew up in Mill Valley and graduated from Cornell University in December 2006. After working as an intern for the Clorox Co. in Oakland and then in payroll at Catholic Healthcare West, the 23-year-old Lee decided he didn't want to sit in a cubicle and do paperwork.
"I wanted something where I would keep learning," Lee said. "I talked to entrepreneurs and they said they wished they had started earlier."
Lee spent time in cafes learning about Web sites. He knew he needed to learn how to sell so he took a door-to-door sales job with AT&T in Oakland. "You learn real quick how to sell," Lee said. "You have to impulse someone."
Lee saw a need for nontoxic house cleaning services and decided that would be his niche. "I wanted a low start-up cost that would grow," Lee said. "Growing up in Marin I was very aware of green."
Lee experimented with nontoxic materials such as baking soda, club soda, vinegar, borax and Castile and developed his own line of cleaners in his parents' garage.
He brought in a family friend and the two began cleaning the houses of friends in March. He developed a checklist to let clients know exactly what had been cleaned.
He was certified as a Marin green business, boosting visibility. His Web site is www.marinhousecleaning.com and he has about 15 clients. Lee plans to hire a manager to head several teams of cleaners and let the business run itself.
"I've learned so much about sustainability doing this," Lee said. "It's going pretty much according to the business plan - the business is scalable.
"I'll knock on every door in Marin before I see this business fail."
Gardening provided a green ticket for Zachary Wahle of Fairfax, who grew up in West Marin and developed a passion for sustainable agriculture. He earned a master's degree in ecological agriculture and did his thesis on banana sustainability while living in the Caribbean.
When he returned to Marin, he started Edible Attractive Terrains, or EAT, a certified green business, and began to work with clients, designing, installing and maintaining sustainable, organic landscapes and gardens to produce food for the household.
Wahle, 29, said his plan was to start a business that would let clients produce food no matter how small the property.
"I wanted to build food security - I saw the threat to our food sovereignty," Wahle said.
Wahle plants fruit trees, artichokes, strawberries, okra, root crops and blueberries, among others, along with edible flowers such as roses and marigolds. He uses natural pest control and water-conscious designs. "I don't have a mower, a blower or a weed wacker," he added.
He thinks of himself as a mobile farmer and works with clients based on the level of service they prefer, from being a guide to maintaining gardens and harvesting crops.
"People can produce more than they think," Wahle said. "It's all going to depend on how much of their property they want to devote to it and on how much time they are willing to spend - or how much they are willing to pay me to do it."
