| Newsletter Jan. 2011 Serving Bloomington and Monroe County |
Support for a Downtown Public Recycling Drop-off Center in Bloomington
Chad Roeder, the owner of Bloomington Pedal Power, a bicycle delivery service that focuses much of their energy on delivering recycling from downtown businesses to the recycling center south of town, would like to grow his business. Many downtown businesses would also like to find a way to recycle. Roeder is looking for a place downtown where a Downtown Public Recycling Drop-off Center could be developed. Read more here. |
Local First Indiana Sustaining Member
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Work with IU Class to Make Your Business More Sustainable
Z255 Sustainable Businesses is currently being offered through the Kelley School of Business at IU. Students will spend the first half of the semester learning about the aspects of sustainability that pertain to businesses and how to create online corporate sustainability reports. During the second half of the semester they will work in groups paired with local businesses to help those companies create and post their first online sustainability report, and to get set up to continue posting annual reports.
Going Green refers to adopting a few sporadic policies such as energy or trash reduction. A sustainability report is a bumper-to-bumper accounting of everything that enters and exits the business. It's all about metrics. Sustainability reports are also baselines to encourage and guide a company's sustainability progress through policy and initiatives.
The principle deliverable will be an online sustainability report with a program in place to do yearly reports thereafter. It will follow industry standards based on the nonprofit Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) protocols. The vision is to begin getting local businesses seriously interested in their sustainability. If more and more are doing it the habit and practice will begin to spread.
Contact Andrew Libby through the Service Learning Dept. for more details: alibby@indiana.edu |
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Wandering Turtle Closes Doors After Eight Years
After 8 years of supporting local and regional artists and musicians as well as promoting fair trade import practices, Wandering Turtle is closing its doors. Owner Jaime Sweany thanks the community in a closing statement for supporting her establishment for such a long time.
A longtime favorite establishment, "The Turtle" was as much a hangout as it was a retail store. Sweany sought to create an atmosphere that invited lingering, with musicians, art shows, and she sought to fill her shelves with one-of-a-kind handmade items. Community projects like the Día de los Muertos Altar offered a chance for community members to celebrate together in a new way. A longtime community favorite, The Wandering Turtle won the 2009 Downtown Business of the Year Award from Downtown Bloomington Inc. The kinds of items and art she carried really spoke to her loyal customers, and several of them included the Wandering Turtle in their lists this year for the Local First Holiday Guide and Bloom Magazine's Holiday Guide, simply writing that you could get "anything from The Wandering Turtle." The Wandering Turtle will be missed. Thanks to Jaime Sweany and her crew for 8 years of contributing to our local economy, and strengthening the artists' community in our city. We wish her the best of luck in her next endeavor. |
Local First Indiana Sustaining Member
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Thanks for Participating in our Think Local First Gift Guide! 
Thanks to all of you who grabbed a copy of our Think Local First Holiday Guide. In total, 649 guides were picked up from 23 local, independent businesses in Bloomington. We had great feedback from businesses. Sources at the By Hand Gallery said that in the past, people seemed to wander in off the street and find them, but this year, people came in saying that were they specifically shopping locally this year, but also armed with talking points for why they thought it was important!! Also, many folks paid with cash because they didn't want the money going to credit card companies and knew that the businesses would have to pay fees. Our web stats were also way way up for the months of November and December, with people checking out the site and looking for the guides.
Thanks to Michelle Hartz at Baugh Enterprises for designing and printing the books for us, and to all of our sponsors for helping us make it possible. Thanks also to Martin Sorge, our Resource and Technololgy Coordinator for all his hard work in making the guide look great and getting it up on the web for us, as well as overseeing and inspiring the new Holiday logo.
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 | | Local First Indiana Sustaining Member |
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New Local First Indiana Members!
See the full list of Local First Indiana Members in our Directory |
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 Discount Blinds and Verticals
3910 S. Walnut
812-333-8412
Offering a full array of window treatments, mini blinds, wood blinds, shades, shutters, window toppers, drapery and more! If you've got a window, we'll help you cover it!!
Free Estimates!
www.blindsandverticals.com
*We are running this ad again, as we made a mistake last month and confused their name. |
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 Mythdemeanor
Unique Clothing for Unique People
Screenprinted, hand-dyed and sewn clothing - everything from T-shirts to OOAK custom gowns. Our items are currently available locally at the Paper Crane Gallery & the Wandering Turtle Gift Shop and in Indianapolis at INDYSwank.
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Know Yoga Know Peace
234 N. Morton
812.822.1101
A yoga studio to heal and strengthen the body, mind and spirit. Offering HOT yoga, Hot Flow and warm hatha at the moment, as well as Hoop Class ! See their website for monthly specials.
www.knowyogaknowpeace.org Open Every Day. Please check web page for class times.  |
 | | Art by Sadly Harmless www.sadlyharmless.etsy.com |
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Local First Indiana Sustaining Members
click on the logos below to link to the webpages
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The Center for Sustainable Living is the Fiscal Sponsor for Local First Indiana
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Become a Member of Local First Indiana Today!
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Local First Indiana Decal |
Bloomington residents want to shop local and we aim to make that easier!
Benefits
Window decal,
Cooperative marketing campaigns, such as poster campaigns, press releases, coupon promotions, interviews with local media.
Listing in our online directory
Twitter and Facebook postings
Access to network of over 22,000 local, independent businesses throughout the U.S. through our affiliation with BALLE.
Monthly Newsletter
Prices $10 a year per employee,
min. $35, max. $350.
Part-time employees count as half.
Sustaining Members
$500, $1,000, or $2,000
Sustaining Member Benefits: Promotion at Local First Events, on our website, and in our monthly newsletter. Size of logo or business name will correspond to size of contribution.
For more information about becoming a member, please visit our website here
identifies your business as local and independent
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Local First Indiana Steering Committee
Una Winterman, Founder
David Baas, Roadworthy Guitar and Amp
Dan Coleman, Spirit of '68 Promotions Rick Dietz, Stranger's Hill Farm
Jessika Hane, Oliver Winery
Darcy Harvey, Bloomingfoods
George Huntington, Stranger's Hill Farm, Bloomingfoods Nate Jackson, Move University David Rollo, Stranger's Hill Farm, Bloomington City Coucil
Jaime Sweany, Wandering Turtle Art Gallery and Gifts
Martin Sorge, volunteer
Brian Winterman, Indiana University Libraries
Sheryl Woodhouse-Keese, Twisted Limb Paperworks
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