Shop at These 5 Bay Area Businesses To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Go green… with your green
As a consumer, it often feels like contributing to climate change is unavoidable — and to some extent it is. However, there are ways that we can reduce our trash output in our daily lives, oftentimes by switching up the products that we buy, and from where we buy them.
The Bay Area businesses below are here to help guide, educate, and provide customers with alternatives to products that are known to end up in landfills — or the ocean.
So, why not go green with your green? Here’s where to do some local sustainable shopping.
Rainbow Grocery Co-Op
A worker-owned cooperative, Rainbow Grocery has strived to offer organic products to the Bay Area since 1975. Known for its affordable vegetarian food, sustainable bath, and body products, and bulk foods section, Rainbow is known far and wide as a grocery store that practices what it preaches.
In fact, Rainbow Grocery is a certified Green Business, meaning that it has met stringent standards set by the San Francisco Department of the Environment.
In addition to selling food, Rainbow Grocery runs a cooperative grant program for aspiring worker-owned businesses, contributes to local schools, and donates to nonprofits in the area.
Located at 1745 Folsom Street in the Mission District of San Francisco; Rainbow Grocery is open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. More details.
MudLab Oakland
Self-described as a “cafe and store with a mission,” MudLab is a zero-waste coffee shop and grocery store with the goal of creating a circular economy and phasing out single-use plastics.
MudLab encourages local businesses to rethink the traditional single-use model, hosts zero waste events, and sells household items that help to promote a low waste lifestyle in and around Oakland.
Located at 440 Grand Ave. in Downtown Oakland; MudLab is open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; additionally, the store offers volunteer opportunities, including cleaning up the area around Lake Merritt. More details.
Fillgood
The idea for Fillgood was born after owner Stéphanie Regni took a class about recycling in San Francisco and learned about the immense islands of plastic in the ocean. Horrified, Stéphanie was convinced that there had to be a way to curb our plastic addiction.
Thus, Fillgood was created.
Both an online shop and brick-and-mortar store, Fillgood sells home and personal care products that can be refilled, composted, or otherwise disposed of in a way that circumvents the one-and-done model of traditional products that are sent straight to the landfill.
The store serves as both a place to shop for goods (both packaged and in bulk), and as a refill store, where customers can bring containers back to give them a second life.
Fillgood is located at 1579A Solano Ave. in Berkeley; Fillgood is open from Tuesday through Friday, Fillgood is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday, their hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More details.
Bathing Culture
A San Francisco-based company, Bathing Culture was born in 2015 out of the need to find an all-natural body wash that scrubbed off the dirt and grime that came with post-work bike adventures up Mount Tam.
Today, Bathing Culture sells a variety of different products, from body wash to body oil and mineral bath, all with sustainability as a pillar of product development.
In fact, once you’ve finished a container of Bathing Culture’s Mind and Body Wash, there are refill stations around the bay (and beyond!) to fill up the glass bottle it comes in again, avoiding plastic entirely and limiting the waste associated with it.
How cool is that?
Bathing Culture is an online-only brand with refill locations around the Bay; [lace an order on their site, or stop by one of the refill locations linked above. More details.
Zero Grocery
Zero Grocery is an online grocery store that delivers right to your door… but with next to “zero” packaging. With local products including vegan treats from The Butcher’s Son, pastries from Starter Bakery, and pre-made meals from The Alice Collective, Zero Grocery tries its best to prioritize local businesses that use local ingredients.
Once you’ve finished using the jars that your ravioli or peanut butter arrived in, get this, you can leave them outside of your front door to be returned to Zero Grocery upon the drop off of your next order.
Zero Grocery is an online-only grocery store local to the Bay Area (and has recently expanded to the Los Angeles Area). Place your order on the company’s website and pick a date and time frame for drop off at your doorstep. More details.
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