Echo Park Businesses Make Earth Day Every Day

You don’t necessarily have to change your entire way of conducting business to do your part for the environment. Efforts to reduce waste and use of energy can be done in small bursts every day whether that means banning the use of plastic bags or simply making sure to turn off unnecessary lights.

Meet three local “green” businesses who have found ways to help the environment without hurting their bottom lines.

Being 100-percent eco-conscious isn’t easy when you specialize in delicate wares like Roland Belloir of the Echo Park music shop The Fretted Frog. Founded in 2010, Belloir’s shop is focused on wooden acoustic instruments, which have to be kept in a temperature-controlled environment meaning air conditioning is a must.

Despite this energy-consuming necessity, Belloir has found other ways to reduce his business’s impact on the environment. “We offer eco-friendly guitar lines such as Cole Clark and Godin, which are made from sustainable woods,” says Belloir. “We also sell Emerald brand composite guitars [made of carbon fiber] that avoid over exploiting forests.”

In addition to selling green guitars, Belloir has also implemented recycling and a strict no plastic bag policy in his store. With a relatively new business, Belloir can not yet afford to install solar panels or other energy-saving technology, but he hopes such things soon become the norm. “My faith is that that the market will evolve in such a way that green will move from a marketing gimmick to a real commitment from both suppliers and consumers,” he said.

With her eco-friendly design store, Kelly Green, owner and designer Kelly Van Patter has turned her passion for all things Earth-friendly into a profession. “Every day is Earth Day,” said Van Patter. “Every day is just as important to try to make a difference. … To me, it’s learning how to make changes for good, not just one day a year.”

Van Patter’s store is where it’s at in Silver Lake for sustainable housewares and accessories that also have a more modern design edge. “I found it frustrating to not be able to find well-designed products that were from companies trying to offer sustainable products,” explained Van Patter when asked why she founded Kelly Green in 2007. “I also felt that most people equated being green with a hippie aesthetic, and I wanted to show that there were many products that were quite the opposite.” For Earth Day, Kelly Green is offering a 10-percent discount on all items, from reusable water bottles to bamboo cutting boards and beyond.

One person’s discarded clothes are another person’s wardrobe refresher at the Echo Park vintage shop . Owner Micki Curtis might not specialize in sustainable wares, but she says “The very nature of selling vintage or used clothing is green as it is re-using clothing that already exists as opposed to manufacturing new items.”

As a vegetarian, Curtis is very sensitive to making sure she minimizes her carbon footprint both in her personal life and in her business. “My motto is to avoid buying anything new except veg food, underwear or technology,” says Curtis, who walks to work every day. “Before we recycle, we should first try to reduce what we use and reuse things before recycling.”

Curtis has been working in vintage clothing shops for more than 20 years, and decided to start her own business in 2007 to finally do things her way. For Earth Day, Lemon Frog Shop is offering a 10-percent discount to anyone who brings in his or her own bag and who buys two or more items.