Company Profile
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Introduction - The Nature of the Business
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Ann Caverzan and Liz Crocker opened P'lovers Environmental Store in May, 1992. They describe P'lovers as "an environmental department store". In addition to the main store in Park Lane in Halifax, P'lovers also has a store in Mahone Bay (which opened in May, 1995), a North American 1-800 number, and franchises in London, Stratford, Port Perry and Kingston, Ontario.
As stated in its Mission, P'lovers is dedicated to helping people "live more sensitively with the earth". Some examples will help to illustrate how Ann and Liz have demonstrated their commitment to quality by consistently applying their vision.
Our mission statement outlines our intention for P'lovers and the screening questions that guide our purchasing decisions. While the inclusion of the words "mindful living" in our criteria might be surprising for an environmental store, they are there as we believe those who are taking time to pay attention to their lives also will likely pay attention to and have respect for the world in which they live.
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Mission Statement
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever does." - Margaret Mead
P'lovers was created to help people live more sensitively with the earth.
We believe the actions of each and every one of us can positively affect the quality of the world in which we live. By modifying our lifestyles, using our purchasing power to reflect our values, and supporting activities which respect and protect the diversity of life, we can make a difference.
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Creating the Retail Environment - Practicing What We Preach
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(a) In terms of wall coverings, imaginative use has been made of natural cloth and recycled paint.
(b) Old furniture has routinely been used to display products rather than buying new store fixtures. For example, the main store counter used to be the store counter in the general store in Blockhouse, NS.
(c) The Halifax store has a floating cork floor - a sustainable substance - the bark of trees which naturally replenishes itself without the tree having to be cut down.
(d) An old telephone pole from the corner of Spring Garden Road and Dresden Row was saved from being landfilled by being claimed by P'lovers to become an occasional in-store "bulletin pole" or a display pole.
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Selecting Products
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P'lovers' Mission Statement includes the questions that P'lovers founders Ann Caverzan and Liz Crocker use to guide their product selection. As a result, a vision-based or criteria-based rationale exists for every product in the store.
These criteria questions have led to some interesting developments in terms of product selection. For example, originally Ann and Liz sourced bat houses (a single bat can eat 1000 mosquitoes a night and so bats can replace the need for toxic insect repellants) from Maine. Because of P'lovers' commitment to try to find products regionally or locally, Ann and Liz approached a local carpenter to make bat houses for them. As a result, the transportation costs associated with this product, both in terms of money and pollution resulting from transportation, have been eliminated. As well, this initiative on the part of Anne and Liz has generated work locally and lowered the price of this product for P'lovers' customers.
These selection criteria act as quality standards for the businesses that P'lovers' deals with and sometimes isolate good products that will not be carried. By way of example, P'lovers received an initial order for rechargeable flashlights, nightlights and light sensors. The products themselves were good but, in Ann and Liz's estimation, they were over packaged in non-recyclable materials. As a result, Ann and Liz wrote the company saying they would not be able to re-order these products unless the company changed its packaging.
Ann and Liz involve their staff in a number of product selection decisions and everyone at P'lovers is able to explain the selection basis and the environmental attributes and benefits of every product carried by P'lovers.
Click here for more information on our selection process.
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Staff Involvement
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When P'lovers first opened in 1992, Ann and Liz hired a full-time manager and a couple of part-time staff. After eight months, their manager moved to Ontario to be with his family.
Ann and Liz realized they had a choice - to hire another full-time manager or to talk with the part-time staff to determine if they wanted to increase their hours and to take on some of the duties that would normally be carried out by a manger.
At a full staff meeting, Ann and Liz discussed the options available with the staff. The staff members indicated that they would like to assume more responsibility for different functions associated with running the business. For example, one person assumed more responsibility for monitoring and ordering products; another person was quite involved in the financial and systems side of the business; and a third person was involved in display strategies.
In addition to supporting staff members' desire to take more responsibility, it was also agreed that a more horizontal approach to management would be a more ecological approach and therefore consistent with the mission of the store. In other words, in nature, everything is interrelated and everything has an integrated role to play. As well, if tasks and responsibility are more evenly shared, then everyone can "live more sensitively on the earth" in terms of stress levels.
The horizontal approach was in place for 15 years and worked well. In 2010, however, based on conversations with staff, it was decided that it would be helpful and would clarify decision-making if one person was designated as the manager. Shelby Lendrum, who has worked with P’lovers for many years and who also owned the Canmore franchise in Alberta for a couple of years, is the Manager of the Halifax store.
In addition to the day-to-day communication among staff, P'lovers has regular staff meetings during which everyone is encouraged to identify concerns and share ideas. Overall, the P'lovers' management culture is very open and participatory.
Staffing schedules are flexible and designed and modified to meet employees' needs in terms of courses and personal commitments. Ann and Liz realize that happy, involved and educated staff must be at the core of a business that prides itself on knowledgeable and friendly service.
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Materials & Supplies
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P'lovers tries to use only non-toxic materials and low-energy equipment for its cleaning needs. For example, P'lovers uses Down East cleaning products and a cloth mop to clean the store. P'lovers only uses a vacuum cleaner in the store as necessary. For in-store signage and window displays, P'lovers tries to use "found materials" as much as possible - such as recycled cardboard and paper and items such as twigs and shells found in nature.
In terms of shipping materials to fulfill special orders, once again P'lovers reuses shipping materials it products were received in.
By doing all of the foregoing, P'lovers has been able to limit operational costs and reduce the amount of waste generated by the store.
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Dealing with "Waste"
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In addition to reusing as many materials that it receives as possible, P'lovers also separates its garbage in terms of recyclables (glass, tin, aluminum, waxed, cardboard, corrugated cardboard, newsprint, bond paper, and PET), and miscellaneous waste. Most days, P'lovers has very little garbage to put out and some days none at all. Any compostable food waste from snacks and lunches is taken home for composting in municipal composting programs.
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Public Education
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All of P'lovers' staff are continually reading books and journals related to environmental products and issues to try to ensure that their knowledge base is as informed and as current as it can be.
A number of informative books are available to help customers understand how things work and how they relate to issues such as conservation, recycling or appreciation of nature. The store windows are often used to communicate information about environmental sustainable practices. As well, staff can often be found sharing information with customers such as what "organic cotton" is or what the difference is between pre-consumer and post-consumer fibre in paper.
Appearances on Breakfast Television provide additional opportunities to share information about environmental issues with the public.
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"Caring Capitalism"
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When Ann and Liz were establishing P'lovers, they were inspired by the philosophy of "caring capitalism". Ann and Liz believe that businesses should be involved with their communities and should share their profits with those who are trying to bring about constructive changes within society.
As a result, Ann and Liz regularly donate to local organizations working on environmental issues and helping others. P'lovers donates gift certificates and a number of products for door prizes and auctions to a wide variety of organizations holding conferences or trying to raise funds.
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Beans For Bags
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In an effort to reduce waste, P'lovers has eliminated the use of plastic bags completely and switched exclusively to using paper bags. However, and more importantly, we do not assume that a customer want or needs a bag at all.
Each customer is asked, when a sale is rung in, "Do you need a bag today?" If the customer says 'yes', then a paper bag is used BUT, if not, then we say "As our way of saying thanks for not using a bag, we're going to use put this bean in this jar (which is a big, fat, dried bean) to represent a 5 cent donation on your behalf to Hope for Wildlife". (In Mahone Bay, we make the 5 cent contributions to Hope for Wildlife).
SO FAR, IN ONE YEAR, OUR "BEANS FOR BAGS" PROGRAM HAS DIVERTED OVER 30,000 BAGS FROM THE LANDFILLS!
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Community Involvement
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Ann and Liz believe that businesses have a responsibility to the community beyond the concept of profit sharing outlined above. In the spirit of mentoring, they have responded positively to students who want to interview them and/or study various aspects of the business.
For several years, Ann and Liz were invited to speak to combined classes of Dalhousie's School of Resource and Environmental Studies and its Business School. As well, Liz is the Past-Chair of The Natural Step Canada and is a former board member of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, the Ecology Action Center, and Eco-Justice Canada.
Ann and Liz have also taken appropriate opportunities to constructively share their views about issues in the broader community. For example, P'lovers submitted a letter to Price Waterhouse, which was seeking input for their audit of the Nova Scotia Department of Supply and Services. Ann and Liz wrote to suggest the government consider adopting a policy of "principled purchasing".
On behalf of P'lovers, Liz appeared before the Nova Scotia Law Amendments Committee to comment on legislation related to the management of the waste stream which, in Ann and Liz's view, would have been counter-productive to new and emerging developments that constructively reuse and recycle waste.
Ann and Liz made a similar presentation about the negative impact of an incinerator on economic development opportunities to the Environmental Assessment hearings about the incinerator, which is proposed for the metropolitan region.
P’lovers is proudly an active member of I Love Halifax Local, a collection of locally-owned, independent and community-minded businesses. Go to I Love Local HFX on Facebook to learn more.
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Future Plans
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As we learn more and as environmental knowledge evolves and changes, we are constantly raising out standards for selecting our products. For example, when we started, it was very difficult to find organic cotton baby clothes and so, for years, we carried natural cotton ones. Now, we have dropped natural cotton baby clothes completely and only carry organic cotton or bamboo baby clothes. This process or constantly looking at what we have and asking ourselves whether we can do better will be a permanent feature of our future.
We are eager to work with other retailers and businesses to share what we've learned about dealing with waste, reducing packaging, and reducing our overall footprint. An example of this type of initiative is that one of the owners is currently working with one of the local hotels which is interested in 'greening' its operations.
P'lovers is also interested in considering additional franchise locations. If any reader is interested in this option, please click here for more information.
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External Recognition
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In 1993, P'lovers received a Certificate of Merit under the Nova Scotia Environmental Awards program in the Sustainable Development category for "outstanding service in the protection and preservation of the Nova Scotia environment".
P'lovers has also received national and international attention, having been written up in an environmental magazine in Japan, in "In Business, The Magazine of Environmental Entrepreneuring", in "Earthkeeper", "Canadian House and Home" and "Harrowsmith". In 1997, Ann and Liz were selected as 'Women of Excellence' by the Halifax Cornwallis Progress Club.
As well, Ann and Liz have been regional finalists in both the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
In 2008, 2009 and 2010, P'lovers was recognized by The Coast Magazine as Halifax's 'BEST ECO-CONSCIOUS BUSINESS'
As environmental issues get more play in the mainstream, p'lovers, the environmental department store in Park Lane, is "raising the bar" on the criteria for the products they carry, according to store co-owner Ann Caverzan. "Most of our personal care products are certified organic, our women's and men's clothing is either organic, hemp, bamboo, soy or reused materials," she says, also mentioning their variety of organic baby clothing, bedding and skincare items. "A new Canadian-made reusable diaper is making moms very happy. More and more our products are Canadian-made or made in North America, with locally made our first choice!"
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Results of a Quality Focus
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Because of their uncompromising commitment to quality in terms of product selection and customer service, Ann and Liz are able to increasingly position P'lovers as a unique business with a comprehensive selection of hard-to-find environmental products.
P'lovers' customers often comment how glad they are that P'lovers exists. It is not uncommon to hear people say things like "I am so impressed with the range of products you have" or "I'm glad someone else cares as much about the environment as I do". As well, customers often praise the helpful information provided by staff as they have asked about items such as worm composting, carbon face masks for those who are sensitive to chemicals, local recycling opportunities, or how to make various cleaning products.
Customers who visit P'lovers from other parts of the world often comment that they have never seen anything like P'lovers and wish they had one where they live. These customers are particularly delighted to learn that P'lovers has other locations and a 1-800 number to help customers access information and to place special orders.
P'lovers' customer base is constantly growing as is the percentage of repeat customers. Given that P'lovers opened in the middle of a recession, given that many of the environmental products are new to customers, and given that one of the store's basic messages is that everyone should consume less (as opposed to buy more - which is the usual retail message), Ann and Liz believe the store faced a number of challenges from the very beginning.
Happily, P'lovers has been profitable for many years now which enables the store to continue to pursue its environmental mission.
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Profile of Owners' Business Experience
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Ann Caverzan - Ann owned and operated the Cape House Inn in Mahone Bay for a number of years. Before opening P'lovers, she also had a small business devoted to creating and selling decoratively painted furniture.
Liz Crocker - Liz co-founded Woozles Children's Bookstore in 1978. She continues to co-own Woozles with one other partner. Liz also co-founded Frog Hollow Books in 1984 and she and her partner sold it as a successful business in 1987. In 1982, Liz created and produced The Hospital Game which she and a partner marketed under the name of Fantasy International. After the first printing sold out, Liz and her partner sold the production rights to a company in California.
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