By Joyce Gannon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Rarely does a business relocate from Tucson to Pittsburgh.
| |
| Josh Knauer, left, founder and CEO of GreenMarketplace.com, stands by as Jim Harland, center, trains Tom Hancock in packing the company's products. (Tony Tye, Post-Gazette) |
And rarer still is the fledgling Internet retailer that taps a nonprofit organization such as Goodwill Industries to handle its shipping and distribution needs.
GreenMarketplace.com has just done both.
Company founder and chief executive Josh Knauer admits he miscalculated when he established GreenMarketplace's warehouse and shipping center in the sunny Southwest eight months ago.
Knauer figured most customers for GreenMarketplace's wide array of environmentally-friendly products -- from non-toxic household cleaning supplies to organic soaps and toys -- would reside on the West Coast. But sales actually have been stronger east of the Mississippi River, so Knauer decided to move the warehouse closer to GreenMarketplace's Squirrel Hill headquarters.
During a search for a suitable warehouse facility in the region, Knauer learned that Goodwill had space at its South Side headquarters. Moreover, it could supply workers through its training programs that target people with disabilities or who face other employment barriers.
Knauer is ecstatic that he found a warehouse partner that, like his company, is dedicated to promoting social values.
"We're helping to benefit people in the area with job training, and that helps fulfill the overall mission of our company," he said. "I walked out of my first meeting with Goodwill knowing this is what we were destined to do."
Goodwill estimates it will be able to train about 70 workers over five years through the GreenMarketplace venture.
The trainees are paid minimum wage to fill, pack and ship orders and to verify to GreenMarketplace that shipments are made.
GreenMarketplace pays Goodwill a fee to cover the trainees' wages plus other costs of using the warehouse, said Michelle Bond, director of business services for the nonprofit.
Since launching the partnership a week ago, Goodwill has hired one part-time employee and is training two others to work in the warehouse.
Knauer, a 1995 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, also is founder of EnviroLink, an online environmental information network he started in 1991. He launched GreenMarketplace to meet demands from EnviroLink users for a retail site to buy natural, organic and environmentally friendly products. He retains a board seat on EnviroLink but is no longer involved in day-to-day management.
GreenMarketplace has 13 employees. Knauer declined to disclose revenues, but said sales have grown an average 15 percent a month since the company was created in March.
Its online catalog includes products from a range of manufacturers, including the prominent eco-friendly brand Seventh Generation.
Goodwill isn't the first nonprofit to do business through GreenMarketplace.
The company has a partnership with The Enterprising Kitchen, a Chicago-based organization that assists women with job training and business skills. GreenMarketplace sells all-natural soaps and organic foods made by The Enterprising Kitchen.
Knauer, 26, a New Jersey native, studied environmental ethics and policy at CMU, a self-defined major. He calls himself "one of the few who came to CMU and stayed."
He's found Pittsburgh to be an "excellent environment for a small, growing company." He particularly likes its central location relative to the eastern seaboard, which allows him to ship products to customers from Maine to Florida within three days.
Back to We're in the News