Scarsdale Residents Offer Sustainable School Supplies

Scarsdale residents Sara Kober and Naomi Shapiro run a unique business that helps parents and students find sustainable school supplies. Here is an interview with founder Naomi Shapiro:  Tell the users a little about you an your partner? What is your professional background? Sara and I are both lawyers and moms who met through our daughters. I have been an enforcement attorney with an environmental agency for 17 years, mainly concerned with toxic substances, pesticides, and petroleum management. Sara is now retired, but practiced corporate and real estate law in both a large firm and in house at a corporation. As part of her law practice, Sara was involved with the trading of air emissions credits, so her work had an environmental component as well.

What lead you to start Green My Locker and when was the business launched?

Sara and I volunteered to run the environmental committee at our local elementary school (Heathcote). As part of those activities, we created water and air quality conservation weeks, sponsored a concert featuring the "Junk Man" (music on found instruments), and published a monthly environmental tip sheet. When Heathcote held its first school supply fundraiser featuring products that were largely disposable and made in China, we suggested that something greener would be more consistent with the district's efforts to reduce its environmental footprint. The PTA directed us to go find a greener vendor and when we couldn't, we founded Green My Locker to fill that void in 2008.

How long have you lived in Scarsdale and do you have children of your own?

I have lived in Scarsdale most of my life and have an 8 year old son (4th grade) and a 13 year-old daughter (9th grade). Sara and her family have lived in Scarsdale for over 15 years. She has a 14 year-old daughter (9th grade) and a 15-1/2 year-old son (11th grade).

As far as you know are there other similar companies located around the country?

There's a company in Utah that offers some green supplies, but their primary mission is not environmental sustainability; they began as a conventional supply company and that's still their focus and the biggest portion of their business. We exist to provide a sustainable alternative to conventional supplies. Also, given the distance the goods have to travel and the packaging involved with shipping from out West, they are really not a viable alternative for a local school that wants to "go green."

For which grades do you supply school materials?

K-12. The market in environmentally-sustainable supplies started with college bookstores and has expanded downwards through the grades. The breadth of available products-- from flash drives to washable markers -- is staggering and is increasing all the time.

How does the cost to purchase them through you compare to purchasing at stores like Staples or Office Depot?

The vast majority of our products are not available at Staples or Office Depot, so it is hard to compare directly. Where those stores do offer the same products, our prices are lower than theirs -- it's just not what they do. If you compare our high-quality recycled products to the Staples or Office Depot in-house budget brands of conventional school supplies, however, our products are going to be more expensive. As parents ourselves, we are sensitive to price --we discount all the items we sell, and package them together in order to provide the best pricing we can to our customers.

What has been the reaction to your service from parents, teachers and children?

Really gratifying. The kids love our products and understand right away what is different and special about them. Teachers like the concept of receiving consistent, high quality supplies from the students and have been terrific about trying new brands and providing us feedback. Some PTAs see our mission as congruent with their values and a natural extension of their efforts to "be green." Others are still naive about the real costs of production -- socially and environmentally. As a generation, we grew up thinking of school supplies as inherently disposable and an extension of our tastes and brand loyalties. As much as some parents want to embrace green, they are still seduced by the sparkly pack of pencils or the Superman notebook, regardless of how or where it is made.

Do you offer other services in addition to school supplies?

Yes. We also sell water filters that we install on school water fountains to remove 99.9% of all bacteria and sediment, including chlorine, lead and scale which greatly improves the taste of the water, as well as bottle filling faucets so that in addition to getting a quick drink of water, children can fill reusable water bottles that they bring from home. We also offer home-packs of supplies: parents can order order environmentally-sustainable supplies to support homework -- printer paper, poster boards, colored pencils, flash drives, you name it! In addition, we have started carrying items for a waste-free lunch – reusable containers, sandwich and snack bags and bpa-free water bottles, which can also be offered as a PTA fundraiser.

Where are your offices? Right here in Scarsdale.

What have been the biggest challenges you encountered and what are the pleasant surprises (if any?)

The best surprises are the phone calls we get from new school districts. A PTA volunteer will call us, for example, and say a parent is a teacher in a district that used your supplies last year, how can we do that too?

The biggest challenge is the turnover in PTAs. Every year there is a new executive board in most districts and each arrives with a different idea about the purpose and goals of a school supply fundraiser. We are obviously most successful with schools who see this program as a piece of their efforts to be environmentally-conscious. The energy savings in just switching to recycled paper in every classroom is enormous. Our program has all the convenience and money-raising aspects of conventional programs, plus this added benefit.

Anything else you want to add?

We understand how hard it is for the average consumer to evaluate environmental claims for any given product -- "greenwashing" is the latest trendy marketing scheme. We invest a significant amount of our time (and our professional experience) researching and verifying the claims our vendors make for their products. We share what makes each of our products "sustainable" and the country of manufacture with our clients, so they know what supplies they are getting and why we selected them.

Interested in learning more or ordering school supplies through Green Your Locker? Visit www.greenmylocker.com