Stylish sustainability

Stylish sustainability
Eco Shoppe’s first retail store creates an inspirational, personal connection with green living

By Jessie Bove, Managing Editor
October 01, 2009

Jon Miller, Hedrich Blessing Photographers, Chicago

As a brand long known for promoting health and wellness, North Bergen, N.J.-based The Vitamin Shoppe decided to take things to a “greener” level by launching a new retail concept completely devoted to green living, called Eco Shoppe. “After testing a small assortment of green living products in The Vitamin Shoppe stores, we conducted market research that showed a 70 percent crossover affinity with our Vitamin Shoppe core customer and the health- and sustainability-minded community,” says Steve Rolfes, director of business development, The Vitamin Shoppe. “It was clear that there is a strong synergy between a Vitamin Shoppe customer that takes care of their health and a person wanting to be eco-friendly. An entire store of green products seemed like the natural next step—and Eco Shoppe was born.”

The first Eco Shoppe store debuted in Austin, Texas, followed by a second location in Walnut Creek, Calif. Both stores, which are connected to neighboring Vitamin Shoppes, are currently  seeking LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

In opening the new concept, Vitamin Shoppe’s goal was to bring eco-friendly items to a wider audience and make it more convenient for the consumer to find them in one location. Eco Shoppe offers a large collection of Fair Trade and small, independent eco-friendly products, including products from many local vendors, with merchandise broken down into the following categories: home and garden, office, pets, kids and baby, jewelry, yoga and conservation.

To help bring their vision to fruition, The Vitamin Shoppe tapped St. Louis-based design firm Kiku Obata & Co. to develop the brand, store experience and design, as well as the merchandise and segmentation strategy. “Our goal was to create a brand position for Eco Shoppe that makes green living more inspiring, personal and meaningful for people,” says Kiku Obata, president of the self-named firm. “While Vitamin Shoppe focuses on inner health, Eco Shoppe builds on this story to focus on outer health—one’s home and environment. The Eco Shoppe brand elevates green living to beyond being ‘just green’ to connect personally with how shoppers live and their desire to create their own safe, healthy and nurturing lifestyle. The brand inspires, educates and gives customers the tools to make sustainable, meaningful and forward-thinking choices about how they live.”

The vision for the design was based on “the idea of a living, growing, vibrant, modern lifestyle in a fresh, natural, thriving environment,” Obata says. “We wanted to make sure that Eco Shoppe, in both design and merchandise mix, communicates a sense of style and sustainability.” The store layout is comprised of multiple merchandise categories to communicate the action and the benefit of green living, such as Create & Thrive, Purify & Renew, Care & Comfort, and Enrich & Delight. Each merchandise area is differentiated by versatile fixtures, fresh colors, and imagery and graphics. Product signage, informational panels and a “Learn & Discover” area all work to educate and engage customers.

In order to make Eco Shoppe’s environment a blend of inspiration with information, the store incorporates an educational element through both its signage and employees. “As the customer explores the store, they see items they use on a daily basis that have been made into something else,” Rolfes says, citing examples such as drinking glasses and vases made from recycled glass, mops crafted from soda bottles and paper made from elephant dung. “Even the signs used in the store to tell the story have a story of their own,” he adds. “They are printed on paper that contains wildflowers, and once the store is finished with the sign, it is cut up and given to customers to plant.”

Eco Shoppe’s mission and values are further reinforced by its various green design elements. Healthy air quality, non-toxic materials and energy efficiency are all important to the overall mission of the 4,400-sq.-ft. Austin store. Energy-efficient lighting “enhances the store’s natural essence,” Obata notes, while materials, paints and finishes are sustainable and ethically sourced. Store fixtures are made of sustainably harvested woods or recycled, non-toxic materials. Store maintenance and operation practices are environmentally safe, responsible and energy-efficient. In-store signage is printed on Mondi Board, with 92 percent recycled content and fiber board that is recyclable; and on Duraprene, a wallcovering material that includes 30 percent Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified wood pulp, 6 percent post-consumer recycled paper and 24 percent pre-consumer recycled paper content. The store also has a recycling area for customers to bring in old cell phones, ink cartridges and bottles, among other items.

St. Louis-based idX Corp. teamed up with Kiku Obata and The Vitamin Shoppe to help establish Eco Shoppe’s fixture design priorities in order to gain the most LEED credits. Green services provided by idX included sustainable material discussion and application, as well as LEED documentation for the fixtures and an overall advisory role in the LEED submittal process. “idX used low-VOC (volatile organic compound) products in all the fixtures, including glues, adhesives and veneers,” says Lisa A. Thompson, LEED AP, director of  environmental development, idX. “Composite wood substrates were FSC-Certified and contained no added urea formaldehyde. The entire fixture program has 36 percent recycled content, which significantly contributed to the total 42 percent recycled content of the entire build out.”

Display tabletops and countertops throughout the store utilize unique sustainable materials, such as Caesar Stone Solid Surface, which includes 17 percent post-consumerrecycled content, Avonite Solid Surface and Alkemi Solid Surface (made from 35 percent post-consumer scrap metal). Additional rapidly renewable materials used in Eco Shoppe include bamboo composite products and veneers, and specialty lighting fixtures made from silk cocoons. Wood flooring is FSC-certified, 100 percent recycled and includes seven different species of wood reclaimed from various locations throughout the country.

From its merchandise offerings to its fixtures and flooring to its overall mission and brand values, Eco Shoppe breathes sustainability from the inside out. Carving out its own niche in an emerging green marketplace, the brand is poised to satisfy both the diehard eco-conscious consumer and the everyday shopper intrigued by a little green.