One of my favorite things about running Ekologicall is getting the chance to work with amazing brands and small businesses; I meet so many great people who are committed to make a positive impact by offering products or services that contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle.

Today I want to introduce you to Brodie Levadnuk, President - CEO of ZolaTerra, a local small business.

I currently live in Matthews, NC and am happily married with one daughter and two fur babies. I spent years in Corporate America in a wide variety of roles where I gained a lot of experience with the consumer product marketplace and business development strategies.  I have always wanted to go down the entrepreneurial path and build a company from the ground up, so I leveraged my prior experience to develop and launch ZolaTerra.

I have an overwhelming passion to help people, businesses and the Earth in any way I can.  Starting my business over five years ago, my main tenants were, and continue to be, to treat customers in a moral and ethical manner and create healthy living and healthy lifestyle brands that are good for the Earth.  My first product launch is ZolaTerra.  

At ZolaTerra, our mission is to create healthy living and lifestyle products that are safe for people, plants, animals and the environment. Keeping things simple and straightforward, you can trust our products to keep your space clean and promote a healthy living environment for everyone.

ZolaTerra’s products are plant-based, vegan, cruelty free, biodegradable, non-toxic and safe to use around children and pets. Our wide product line covers a variety of applications from household, pet and office cleaning to industrial cleaners and degreasers.

ZolaTerra is a plant-based cleaner that is perfect for environmentally conscious companies and people who value sustainability and eco-friendly solutions.  We aim to eliminate one of the most hazardous items from a business or home.

ZolaTerra is a plant-based cleaner that is non-toxic, non-flammable, non-corrosive and does not contain caustic or abrasive materials. Our products, even in a concentrated state, are safe for the skin with virtually no odor and do not require gloves, respirators or special handling.

ZolaTerra works on a microscopic level using a combination of plant-based solvents, micelles and de-scalers to safely remove all types of grime, from a surface or substrate. ZolaTerra effectively cleans while near or practically at neutral pH. Simply stated, ZolaTerra lifts grime to easily wipe, scrub and rinse it away. 

Unlike other "green" products in the market, ZolaTerra is the only plant-based, biodegradable, food safe cleaning product line certified with the NSF Non-Food Compound Product Registration, USDA Certified Biobased Product designation and contributes towards LEED certification points & Materials and Resources Credits.  

As you know, at ZolaTerra, we aim to replace all types of caustic cleaners (such as bleach) with plant-based, more organic, safe and environmentally friendly products.  To prove this, we have received our NSF certification, which means our products can be used around food contact surfaces and the USDA Biopreferred designation, which means ZolaTerra is readily biodegradable.  Our ingredients are not listed on the California Proposition 65 list, and our surfactants are listed on the CleanGredients list, the EPAs’s published list of clean, safe ingredients for products to become Safter Choice certified (in process for ZolaTerra.)  We value the safety of our products and not using ingredients that are caustic or chlorine based is a large part of that effort.  We ensure our products, bottles, labels, etc. are cruelty-free and not tested on animals, which is why we also have the PETA and Leaping Bunny designations.

Mineral free water, which is a key foundation and equates to about 95-98% of the product, is simply water without any minerals.  It is extremely pure, with no additives at all. Our ionic and non-ionic surfactants is just a fancy word for soap. We blend non-ionic surfactants, which help detach grime from a surface, with an ionic surfactant (or liquid soap), which helps to pull away and suspend the grime. Our plant-based solvent is naturally distilled from plants to help dissolve and remove grime. These ingredients work synergistically and are much, much stronger together to get the cleaning done!  These aren’t new super ingredients, but the way we blend them together allows each ingredient to work at its strongest, and is what makes ZolaTerra uniquely powerful and safe for you, your family, your pets and the Earth.

There are many different direct and indirect ways ZolaTerra can help prevent or reduce waste.

Directly, ZolaTerra purchases and reuses recycled materials for our pails, bottles, sprayers, labels, boxes and especially packaging material.  For our industrial customers, we sell them concentrate and provide education on how to best dilute it for their application.  This saves on shipping, fuel and the amount of product purchased.  

Additionally, we look for partnerships with small businesses, like Ekologicall, that share our passion for reducing waste through reusing and recycling plastic. By providing customers a way to refill and reuse their bottles, Ekologicall is the perfect example of how these partnerships help to reduce the number of plastic bottles in landfills. 

Indirectly, ZolaTerra is safe for all surfaces, is readily biodegradable, meets all OSHA and EPA regulations and is accredited by the EPA’s Bio-Based Program. Independent lab testing confirmed that ZolaTerra products are safe when discharged with wastewater and reduce the chemical and biological load upon municipal sewer systems, making it easier for them to process waste.  

For industrial applications, ZolaTerra cleans at a lower temperature versus traditional cleaning methods, reducing the impact of energy consumption on the environment.

We just launched a new eyeglass lens cleaner and are working on developing a new disinfectant.  Creating a safe, non-chlorine-based disinfectant that works with our formula is a challenge, but we expect to have a product solution and sanitation certification shortly.  

Follow us @zolaterraclean on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on our latest product developments!

Find ZolaTerra products at Ekologicall.com here, at the South End Market every Saturday mornings or delivered right to your door.

Black Friday is a concept born in the USA and continues to spread all over the world. It marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and bargain hunting, encouraging overproduction and overconsumption without worrying about its environmental impact. Some are not fooled and counterattack by pleading for a Green Friday.

The origins of Black Friday

The origin of the term “Black Friday” as we know it today goes back to the 50's in Philadelphia. It was invented by the city police who dreaded the day after Thanksgiving, the last Thursday in November. Indeed, this day officially opens the Christmas shopping season and the approach of the Army-Navy football game. An impressive crowd would then come to town causing terrible traffic jams, traffic accidents, crowded sidewalks, shoplifting and other scenes of violence. No need to tell you that the term Black Friday did not have a positive connotation. The brands tried to change the term in vain. With all of the sales made, the Friday after Thanksgiving has become one of the most profitable days of the year. And because accountants used black ink to signify profit when recording each day's entries (and red to indicate loss), the name ultimately stuck...

Today, Black Friday has become a real tradition and has spread around the world. This is THE day of discounted deals! In fact, the sales now run from Thanksgiving until the following Monday. Monday is called Cyber ​​Monday, the day for exclusively online promotions, and has even overtaken Black Friday in terms of revenue.

In 2019, Black Friday weekend generated $25 billion in the United States. An increasing share of the sales is now done online which unfortunately does not prevent scenes of hysteria in stores where some come to hands for a television or a simple sweater... 2020 will probably be different on this point and it is good news!

Black Friday: a real bargain?

Although Black Friday remains a day of incredible promotions, some consumers are increasingly skeptical of this phenomenon. With sales all year round, sometimes slashing prices up to 80%, you end up wondering what the real price of a product is and if we are not just getting ripped off the rest of the year.

But more importantly, the awareness of climate change, the impact of hyper-consumption on our natural resources and on our environment is giving rise to more and more reflection.

Black Friday is responsible for tons of greenhouse gas emissions, due to the traffic of clients to the malls but also to the transportation of millions of packages home delivered, not to mention the waste produced by packaging and the accumulation of unnecessary products that will eventually be thrown in the trash.

If we take the example of textile, the 3rd most polluting industry in the world, this represents huge amounts of poor quality clothing, made from plastic (nylon, polyester, acrylic or polyamide) which requires toxic chemicals during their manufacturing process, polluting the air, the rivers but also the soils and the oceans once discarded. I was shocked to learn that in the United States clothes are on average worn 5-7 times before being put in the trash and that 60% of clothes are thrown away within a year of manufacture! To this incredible waste is added the working conditions and exploitation of textile workers (women and even children).

Facing this (literally) black Friday for the environment, new movements want to take the opposite view of Black Friday such as the “Buy Nothing Day” born in Canada in 1992 or the “Small Business Saturday” which encourages to support small local businesses. But it is above all “Green Friday” that has been gaining ground in recent years.

What do we do for Green Friday?

Green Friday aims to make as many people as possible aware of the dangers of overproduction and overconsumption and offers alternatives. Here are a few examples to consider:

- We go outside! But we are not going to lock ourselves up in the stores, we go outside to reconnect with nature by taking a good breath of fresh air in the forest, at the sea, in the mountains. I guarantee you a much higher level of happiness than if you buy the latest gadget at half price.

- If you want to do your Christmas shopping or treat yourself, prefer local shops, small businesses and responsible and sustainable products! Visit second-hand websites, there are new or very good quality items at low prices.

- Take part in a waste collection in the forest, on a beach or even in your neighborhood. 

- Take online classes to learn how to sew, repair household appliances, cook, grow your own food...

The idea here is not to make consumers feel guilty but to make them think about what they really need, to buy responsibly and thus push companies to change their practices.

So, are you ready to make Black Friday green?

When embarking on a less wasteful lifestyle, the 5 steps described by Bea Johnson, one the pioneers of the Zero Waste movement, are very inspirational and to be kept in mind: 

• Refuse what we do not need

• Reduce what we do need

• Reuse what we already have

• Recycle what we can't refuse, reduce and reuse

• Rot the rest

REFUSE WHAT WE DO NOT NEED

REDUCE WHAT WE DO NEED

REUSE WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE

The 3rd R identified by Bea Johnson @zerowastehome, who popularized Zero Waste Living, is #reuse.
Reuse anything that we can, repair what can be fixed, give a second life to things, repurpose instead of throwing away.

The possibilities are endless and I can't list them all but here are the ones you can start with:
- Reusable bags to do your shopping 
- Reusable produce bags for your fruits and veggies, bulk grains, cereals...
- Reusable water bottle
- Reusable cup/mug
- Reusable utensils for work lunch, take out or picnic
- Reusable cloth towels and napkins
- Reusable food wraps
- Reusable snack bags 
- Reusable rags to clean the kitchen and the floors

If you are ready to go a little bit further:
- Refill your shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, body lotion, laundry detergent, dish soap containers
- Buy second hand
- Repair electronics, shoes, mend clothes...
- Borrow, rent what you won't use on a regular basis
- Use handkerchiefs 
- Use reusable menstrual pads and/or a cup
- Use a safety razor
- Make vegetable stock with your vegetable scraps. There are many DIY recipes to use our food scraps
- Use rechargeable batteries
- Reuse pasta sauce glass containers to freeze leftover food. And any other containers to store odds and ends.

By skipping the disposables, taking care and reusing what we have, we reduce drastically the amount of waste that we produce, we limit the extraction of natural resources and save money. Bonus: we become very creative!

RECYCLE WHAT WE CANNOT REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE

Once we've refused single-use plastics, reduced the things we don't really need, reused what we have, then the 4th "R" - Recycling gets pretty easy as we have already eliminated a lot of waste.

We've been made to believe that recycling is the right thing to do and the solution to our environmental problem but it is not true. Only 1/4 of our waste is recycled, more than half goes to landfills, 1/8 is incinerated and the rest, about ‪1/10‬ is composted. These are the 2017 Environmental Protection Agency's data for municipal solid waste management in the USA and this doesn't count littering.

To solve our pollution and environmental crisis, we have to take the problem to its source. The recycling or up-cycling of a product should be thought through during its design and before it goes on the market.
Until that happens, we, as consumers, are responsible for recycling right:
- Visit your local solid waste management website, learn about what can be and what cannot be recycled in your county
- Consider visiting your local recycling facilities, they often provide free classes 
- Research recycling centers in your town for material that don't go to the trash nor the recycling bin (batteries, corks, computer equipment, tires...)
- And don't bag your recyclables!

ROT THE REST (COMPOST)

Last but not least the last 5 Rs of Zero Waste is Rot! Understand compost.

40% of the food in the US is thrown away, ending up in landfills and producing methane. You might wonder why it doesn't decompose and return to the soil. It's because once trapped under tons of trash, organic material lacks oxygen to properly biodegrade.

Our food scraps represent about ⅓ of our waste. It's huge when we know that so many people are suffering from hunger (more than 37 millions in the USA) and we think about how much land, water, energy and time is required to grow food. 
But food waste doesn't have to go to the landfill, it can become a nutritious soil for our garden (or our local farmer's) if we compost it.

There are many compost options available:
- Worm bin: small container full of worms that process food waste through their organisms, if you see what I mean :)
- Bokashi: Japanese term for "fermented organic matter," a specialized system in which waste, including meat and dairy, breaks down without oxygen to produce a compost “tea” and a small amount of organic waste to be buried. 
- Compost pile: easiest of all if you have an outdoor space
- Tumbler: same as a compost pile except the compost is inside a bin suspended off the ground.
- Trench method: if you have a yard, dig a 12 inches deep trench or hole, put your compost and bury it with the soil you dug out of the trench or hole. That's it.

If you don't feel like starting your own compost, your city might offer that service or you can use the app @ShareWaste to find someone who will put your food scrap to good use.

Here in Charlotte, Crown Town Compost will gladly provide you with a bucket to fill up with fruits and vegetables scraps, corn cob, banana peel, grass clippings, used paper napkins, towels, tissues, plates, egg shells, nuts and grains, tea bags/leaves, coffee grinds...They can come to you or you can come drop off your bucket @southendmarket on Saturday mornings!

Note that composting is great but reducing food waste by planning ahead is even more important.

Living a less wasteful lifestyle is a journey: don't try to apply the 5 Rs all at the same time, start with something small that you can achieve and add on to it progressively. Producing zero waste is quite impossible in the world we live in but being conscious of the consequences of our consumption choices is a huge step into the right direction.