GreenSmart Notebook - Tom Larsen

Here is why being Socially Responsible is important to GreenSmart?

At 4:45, just before all the workers would go home on March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on an upper floor of the Asch Building, the floors occupied by the Triangle Shirt Company in New York City. The Company had no evacuation plan and only one fire escape, inside the building. The fire took off burning everything on the 8^th, 9^th and 10^th floors. The cages on the stairwells that restricted the mostly women workers in their respective places to work could not be opened.

In all, 146 women burned or jumped to death from the fire. It was the worst single event loss of life ever in the history of New York, up until the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Two years earlier, some of these women, mostly immigrants and the wage earners of their families, had gone on strike against Triangle, only to be dismissed following the ensuing women’s workers movement through the garment district of New York. The one concession not agreed to in the final outcome of the negotiations were working conditions. Worse, Triangle refused to honor the agreement anyway.

I was in New York last week, at the NYU Computer Store (which carries GreenSmart), which is physically kitty corner from the Asch Building, now called the Brown building, where the fire occured. The fireproof building even at the time (not the contents however), shows no damage from the fire experience and now has a few plaques to commemorate the event.

I don’t exactly know where I first learned of this event, but, it was a long, long time ago and has stuck with me all these years. I spent a number of years touring manufacturing plants in different industries and have for a long time been sensitive to “work environment” issues. I’ve spent a number of years now contracting with sewing companies.

It’s because of this small piece of what most might find an obscure event in history, that GreenSmart pays close attention to the relationship between its factories and their workers. I’d like to think that all manufacturers do.

Some links to significant historical repositories:

Cornell Research Website

Remember the Triangle Fire

HBO Centennial Special Link

Emmy Award winning TV Show 1979

The Big Green Bus Coming to Grass Valley

You may not have noticed, but GreenSmart has changed in the last 6 months. We've launched an all new laptop sleeve made from Neogreene. We have just landed the full program of the Bottles 2 Bags backpacks and messengers, fabrics made from recycled plastic bottles (rPET polyester). We're only days away from launching a newly refreshed website. We've added many retailers across the country. GreenSmart is rocking. Kind of why I've not been blogging, to be honest.

This news is way cool. the Big Green Bus, the Dartmouth annual summer eco-tour in a vegetable oil powered bus, is coming to Grass Valley on August 13. It will be parked at the Briarpatch from 11 to 2 showing off this year's educational pillars to the local community. As multi-year sponsors of the Bus, we're very excited to have them in our backyard and will do all we can to make their brief stay fun and memorable. Maybe we can even find a Dartmouth alum just to make it feel like home for the "bussers".

We've got a lot of work ahead. Getting our website finished and circulating backpacks far and wide takes a serious effort. Knowing our efforts continue to put eco-friendlier alternatives in the hands of consumers everywhere is a great motivator. I'll keep you posted on the website update, the new product developments and whatever new marketing relationships we create. It's going to be a great summer.