by Jennifer Stokes, Program Manager, Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership

There is increasingly more green activity on Myrtle Avenue.

There are businesses that by mission and/or nature of their products are green. Examples are Green in BKLYN, the one stop eco-friendly shop for products and information; Green Pets, the eco-friendly pet daycare spa and pet grooming store; RePOP, the popular vintage furniture store and of course, Bikes on Myrtle.

There are also companies that do not market themselves as green but in business practice or special “lines” are so. Examples of these are Karen’s Body Beauty, the spa and hair, bath and body shop that uses natural and earth-friendly products; the Polish Bar of Brooklyn’s ‘Green Gals Beauty’, which offers greener product and service options and Gnarly Vines, the wine store that has quite diverse wine offerings and includes a focus on small-production, sustainable or stricter wines. Additionally, Brooklyn Junior, the kiddie clothing and toy store, prints all of their onesies and tees with water-based and eco-friendly non-toxic inks and the PrattSTORE has a rental center for various art supplies, such as drills, easels and airbrushes and a buyback program for unused art supplies. Also, one can return excess plastic bags at both Associated and Bravo on Myrtle Avenue and can return hangers at many of the dry cleaners on the Avenue, including Yes Cleaners and Fantastic Cleaners.

Business build-outs have also been increasingly green. The latest is Myrtle Hall, Pratt Institute’s building which houses its Digital Arts Department and several offices. Myrtle Hall is expected to meet the United States Green Council standards for LEED Gold certification based on its eco-features, which include exterior sun shades and solar photo-voltaic panels that generate on-site electricity. Many small businesses have also extensively preserved, reused or repurposed in the build-out process, including Chez Lola (including using mattress springs found in the restaurant as a wine rack), Root Stock & Quade, (including gravel used to promote drainage, low odor and low VOC paints and wallpapers from almost another era still on walls) and Green in BKLYN (including reusing fittings, such as lights, fan, storage shelves from the former doctors’ office and buying from a closing business).

The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership operates a Farm Stand from July thru October where the focus is on selling local produce which both reduces the carbon footprint with its focus on ‘local’ produce and addresses the limited access to fresh produce on the western end of the Avenue.

Also, the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership (MyrtleBags) as well as a few local businesses such as Green in BKLYN, Barking Brown and Byme Brooklyn sell reusable shopping bags in hopes of building a critical mass of earth-friendly shoppers on the Avenue.

Lastly, the majority of food establishments on the Avenue (more than 30) are signed on for free grease recycling through the Doe Fund’s Resource Recovery Program or Tri-state Biodiesel and other companies.

Please visit the Myrtle Avenue Partnership at www.myrtleavenue.org for additional eco-info. Also look for a more extensive Earth Day blog post on Myrtle’s green activities.