November 2002
Josh Knauer | Age 29
Founder, Envirolink Network/Founder and CEO, Green Marketplace.com Inc.
Josh Knauer is making the world a better place -- one cotton diaper and recycled planter at a time.
An environmentalist since childhood, the New Jersey native founded one of the first public websites, Envirolink Network , with the help of Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee, in 1991 while a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University. Still one of the largest clearinghouses for environmental information on the Web, Envirolink showed Knauer that there was a demand for environmentally friendly, socially conscious products.
After graduation with a B.A. in environmental ethics and policy degree (and a 2 1/2 month detour into the world of advertising), Knauer worked in the nonprofit world before gathering the capital to start Green Marketplace in 1998.
The company that started off as a one-man operation begging for merchandise has evolved into a corporation with four full-time and one part-time employees, a waiting list of 220 companies wanting to sell on the site and projected sales of more than $1 million this year.
The company has garnered numerous accolades -- from Time magazine's Heroes for the Planet in 1999 to Alternet and Utne Reader's New Media Visionary Award in 2001. But one of the figures that Knauer is most proud of is the 90 mentally and physically challenged people who got job training at Green Marketplace's South Side warehouse experience (in conjunction with Goodwill Industries) and now are happily employed elsewhere in the community.
Knauer plans on continuing to grow the company in a way that helps him reach his goal of entirely changing the way people consume products. (Every product sold by Green Marketplace is guaranteed to be made in ways that are not harmful to the environment or to animals, do not contain hazardous chemicals, are made by companies that respect their workers and pay fair wages, and are fairly priced.)
He'll also continue bringing his dogs, Luna and Simon, to work, and spend his down time with his wife, Kathleen (executive producer of "The Allegheny Front" at WYEP and a 2001 "40 Under 40" winner) and his 11-month-old daughter, Olivia.
"I want to do things in my life that make me feel fulfilled," says Knauer. "I will not compromise on that. I think it's so important for people to pursue a career path that makes them personally fulfilled."