The Crazy Wisdom Community Journal • September - December 2012 • Page 24
Leaps of Faith: Tales of Newer Local Businesses By Mary Runser Photography by John Fredericks This is another in our series of articles on local business owners and their relatively newer businesses in Ann Arbor. From major corporations to small companies, business owners all over the state have been downsizing, reorganizing, and closing their doors in the last several years. And yet, even as the economy in Michigan has declined, and is now on a plateau, there are still brave souls who have taken the leap of faith to open their own businesses here.
Bgreen Today: Healthy Homes, Sustainable Products Daniel and Delphine Stephens, owners Bgreen Today, 2111 Packard Street, Suite A, Ann Arbor 48104; 734-214-3000; www.bgreentoday.com Going Green is all the buzz these days, but the truth is that each and every one of us makes a definite impact on the environment around us, whether positively or negatively. Thankfully, there are choices we can make to help our homes and our local — and even global — communities become healthier, safer, and more sustainable places in which to live.
Bgreen has two sides: one side is dedicated to wholesale restaurant supplies, while the other side is dedicated to retail building supplies. The two fit together nicely, because they are both focused on energy efficiency and reducing consumption. Delphine is originally from Switzerland, but her background and heritage are too diverse to explain in such a short space. She and Daniel met in Managua, Nicaragua, in 1994, during the time when the Sandinistas lost control of the government. Daniel was working as an accountant with Witness for Peace, which was involved in getting funding to the Contras stopped. They made their way to Michigan when they began selling a line of wool sweaters at Ethnic Creations stores. “We realized that the colder the climate, the more sweaters we sold,” Daniel explained. “So, we are definite transplants to the community, and I fully intend to transplant again when our son graduates from high school — and to a warmer climate, like the Caribbean!” They might be transplants, but they’ve put down some solid roots in the community and are firmly devoted to making the local and global community a better place to live.
Daniel cut his teeth in his early twenties with companies such as Co-Op America, which was strong on socially responsible issues. He firmly believed in the ideals he’d learned and cultivated through these companies. So when he and Delphine opened [their first business], they did so with the goal of selling the most natural products possible, made as cooperatively as possible. These same ideals resonate in Bgreen Today. In Ann Arbor, one of the places you can go for help in making positive changes in your environment is Bgreen Today, located in the former Hollywood Video space on Packard Street. “Our primary objective is to sell products that are sensitive to our environment and contribute in some way to reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses that are released into the atmosphere,” owners Daniel and Delphine Stephens explain on their website. Daniel and Delphine have been residents of Ann Arbor for the last 20 years. Daniel originally hails from Cincinnati, Ohio, where his parents were both professors at the University of Cincinnati until 1973, when his father was fired from the university because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. He then took a post at Bowling Green State University, and the family made frequent trips into Ann Arbor to browse the many bookstores. His mother is also a published writer, primarily of fiction, but also of a couple of biographical works.