It is hard to believe that we are approaching the end of week 5 already! I am continuing the growth of the Sustainable Business Directory with 425 businesses currently in the database. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, I forgot to cross reference businesses that are members of the Columbus Greenspot Program. Through the good relationship between Simply Living and Greenspot, I have my hands on a spreadsheet that contains all the current Greenspot business members. What I decided to do to cross reference these businesses was give them a tag that says “Greenspot Business Member” which is essentially a key phrase that can be searched in the search bar. All of the businesses that have that tag are pulled up once searched. This hiccup was easily fixed thanks to the strong relationship between Simply Living and Greenspot. 

Earlier this week, I met with a few Simply Living board members and employees to discuss the Sustainable Business Directory. The board members wanted to learn more about the directory and asked questions. The goal of the meeting was to improve the functionality of the website. The meeting went incredibly well and I was encouraged to give my thoughts to ensure that the directory will be successful and pertinent. After discussing and hearing from everyone in the meeting, we ended with two takeaways. First, it is important that Greenspot business members get sufficient recognition in the directory. A tag is great for those that are aware of Greenspot and what they do. But there also needs to be some visual aid on the web page of members. Meaning, once someone clicks on Pistacia Vera’s page in the directory, for example, there must be a “Greenspot Business Member” badge displayed. Secondly, we should email every business in the directory once the website is launched to indicate their inclusion in the Sustainable Business Directory. Thanks to the website software, there is a tool which allows us to export all of the information of each business into a separate spreadsheet.

The Sustainable Business Directory is not only important for our local economy and environment, but also the future of Simply Living. This directory will help us build relationships with local businesses in the community and encourage them to become members of Simply Living.