The Uncommon Life

It Ain’t Easy…

April 21, 2010

As Kermit the Frog so wisely said, “It ain’t easy being green.” That’s especially true when you work at UncommonGoods.

Three years ago, UG packed up in Manhattan and headed south to an emerging neighborhood in Brooklyn – Sunset Park – home to amazing tacos, friendly neighbors, few trees and tons of concrete. It also houses the Brooklyn Army Terminal, a massive penitentiary-style complex that served as the largest military supply base in the U.S. through WWII and is now the headquarters of businesses ranging from a family diner to a division of the NYPD. While functional, it’s not exactly stunning.

We want our enthusiasm for our company to shine inside the office and out. So here at BAT we are doing what we can with what we’ve got. A plot of dirt among the sidewalk? We’ll take it! A corner in the lobby for a potted plant? Don’t mind if we do.

Last Thursday, the gang (looking like a chain gang clad in matching UG blue t-shirts) of volunteers spent the day planting fruit trees, arranging flowers in planters for the lobby and atrium and working up a sweat scraping off old paint and freshly priming the fence that lines BAT.

During the process we realized that we ordered the wrong composter and hit giant stump while trying to plant a tree, but with the fuel provided by Welch’s fruit snacks and Capri Suns (childhood snacks never go out of style!) we kept on truckin’ and completed our goals by the end of the day. It felt good to complete something together, outside, and in our own neighborhood. And who knows…maybe we inspired someone else along the way.

We encourage you get out there too and get a little dirty tomorrow on Earth Day, or just any day that you feel like being green.

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