Seeing Green

Seems that adult Americans have gotten the message that environmental
responsibility is something they must embrace if their children are to inherit a more viable planet than the one they did. But now the babies can pitch in and do their part, too, and the Go Green Baby Co. of Salisbury is ready to show us how.

 

“My husband, Jamie, and I have been very aware of the environment and our impact on it for a long time, and we’d always planned to run our own business one day,” said Jennifer LeCates, owner-operator of Go Green Baby. “But it wasn’t until our second child, Daniel, was in diapers, and we realized just how impossible it was to get reusable diapers in this area – to say nothing of other organic or natural baby-related products – that we determined what kind of business it would be.”

 

That realization caused the married pair of Salisbury University graduates to launch the Go Green Baby Co. in March of 2008 as a Web-based business that would seek out and provide the kinds of eco-friendly products that have been so elusive in these parts.
It began around a nucleus of reusable cloth diapers in different styles and colors, but the response and customer feedback were so overwhelming, LeCates soon diversified her product line and began scoping for some actual square footage.

 

“We wound up opening the store only four months after we’d launched the Website,” said LeCates, who has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. “For now, we have about 1,400 sq. ft. here, with a 1,000 sq. ft. showroom, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough for a whole lot longer.”

 

Lining the shop’s west wall, for example, is a panoply of viable diapies that makes the whole concept of poopie pants almost exciting. They are all environmentally friendly reusable cloth in a rainbow of colors that are as absorbent and soft to the touch as they are economical, which is a central theme of LeCates’ entrepreneurship.

 

“I’m quite cognizant that green products have a reputation – a well-earned one, incidentally – of being exceedingly if not outrageously expensive,” offered the mother of three, “but that’s not why we opened this business; quite the contrary, in fact. The only way to get everybody on this green bandwagon is to make the products affordable to basically everybody. So, we reduce our profit margins and keep overhead costs as low as possible, which allows us to sell our products for a lower price.”

 

That point is especially clear when it comes to the diapers. Each year Americans spend $7 billion on disposable diapers, which, for a family with one child in diapers, translates roughly to $400-$450 per year. That same $400 easily buys you a three-year supply of one-size-fits-all cloth diapers, making them as little as one-third the cost of disposables. Even better, the cloth diapers may be used on more than one child, so the more kids you have in diapers, the more you save with the cloth reusables.

 

There’s actually lots of fun stuff to choose from at Go Green Baby, some of which really needs to be interacted with at the store despite the obvious convenience of online shopping and the fact that their Website (gogreenbabyshop.com) offers everything the store has plus a couple of drop-ship items that are too large or heavy to stock on premises. One such example is the line of bamboo – that’s right, I said bamboo – clothing by Kicky Pants that not only comes in beautiful, vibrant colors but is so soft and comfy, I’m trying to see if I can get one in a 42 long.

 

But there are also plenty of socks, T-shirts, onesies, baby carriers, burp cloths, crib sheets, blankets, toys, BPA-free bottles and cups, rubber pacifiers and all-natural body products, as well as many other accessories and specialty products. There are even handmade dresses by talented local moms like Marie Williams and Rachel Borello that are all-natural and top quality.

 

Go Green Baby Co.

443-736-8611
www.GoGreenBabyShop.com

 

 

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