Lunapads Blog

Before we ring in some news about what’s new for 2010, we wanted to reflect upon 2009, and how it brought Lunapads some great new people, products and inspiration.  Here are a some of the highlights:

Pads4Girls expands:  During 2009, we expanded our Pads4Girls program by eagerly partnering with new groups that reached out to communities in Cuba, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.  Thanks to customer support and the work of courageous individuals and NGOs, hundreds of girls and women are now able to stay at work or school while menstruating, and deal with their periods safely and with minimal environmental impact.

Recognizing there are practical solutions closer to home, we created our  “Make your own cloth menstrual pads” video series that has been viewed by thousands. These videos are regularly used by women in Africa (and here in North America) to make their own cloth pads. And in December 2009, Lunapads partnered with Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) by donating 20% of holiday sales for 2 of our top-selling gift items to their program, which makes biodegradable disposable pads from agricultural waste in Rwanda.

Fabulous folks and adventures abroad: One of the perks of our work is choosing to take some strategic business trips and while doing so, connecting with some truly amazing people.  During 2009, we had the good fortune to meet some real treasures and leaders in our community: In March 2009, we attended the always mindboggling Expo West Natural Products Trade Show in Anaheim CA and reconnected with our friends Francine and Carinne Chamers, founders of the DivaCup and also met Sarah Kraft, founder of the online Mindful Mama community.

While walking the trade show, we spotted Mothering Magazine Founder, Editor and Publisher Peggy O’Mara and couldn’t miss the opportunity to stop and tell her how much we adored her.  This conversation led to the plans for a personal visit from Peggy right here at Lunapads the following month.  Leveraging off of Peggy’s rock star status as a natural parenting pioneer and leader, we brought together a group of friends and colleagues to hear Peggy speak at a warm and inspiring tea party benefiting Pads4Girls.

In September 2009, I took a first-time trip to the ABC kids expo in Las Vegas, where I also had an insightful visit to Zappos.com‘s headquarters.  Meanwhile Suzanne had yet another transcendent experience at the Social Venture Institute (SVI) at Hollyhock, BC.  In November 2009, we both attended the Green America Business Conference and Green Festival in San Francisco.  While we were there, we had the great fortune to meet up with  SHE founder Elizabeth Scharpf and one of our business heroes, Reusablebags.com founder Vincent Cobb.

New products and fabrics: We expanded the Lunapads collection with several new products and fabrics: the P-style, Wysi-wipes, Cloth Wipes (which elicited one of our most discussed blog posts of the year) and our first-ever custom 100% organic cotton print, Magenta Mandala.

Lunapanties, our very own period underwear, made a long awaited comeback in November 2009, with the introduction of our new Hipster style and magenta colored organic cotton.

Staff changes: We bid a tearful and fond farewell to Sandra, one of our longest-term employees, as she moved on to continue her work as a bicycle safety educator. While it is hard to replicate Sandra’s incredible personal flair for customer service, Sara, the newest addition to the Lunapads team, is doing a fantastic job!

Media and accolades: In the summer of 2009, we learned that Lunapads and the DivaCup were featured in an entertaining and informative book by Canadian journalist Vanessa Farquharson called “Sleeping Naked is Green“.  At the end of 2009 Lunapads was profiled in our of our local papers, featuring a funny photo of Suzanne and I having a “tug-of-war” with a clothesline of Lunapads and Lunapanties.

By far the biggest highlight of the year was being voted into the top 10 of Green America’s People Choice Awards and so you can imagine our reaction when we found out that we had placed in the top 3 and received the newly-minted Shining Light award.

While Suzanne and I celebrated our award San Francisco, we never lost sight of the unsung heroes in the exercise: staffers Lisa and Morgan (whose idea it was in the first place), Facebook and Twitter (follow us! @Lunapads, @Luna_Diva (me) and @Luna_gal (Suzanne)) for providing the forums to drum up votes, and last but far from least, YOU, our awesome customers, for taking the time to cast your votes – it couldn’t have happened with you.

On that note, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a great 2009, and wish you all the best for 2010 from the Lunagals!

When I was much younger (and more foolish!), I used to think that business was a soulless activity that occupied itself exclusively with money, to the exclusion of all other forms of profit.  In many ways, Lunapads’ growth as a business is representative of my own journey in understanding that not only can be business be about way more than financial profit, but that business, like practically anything else, ultimately comes down to being about relationships.

While our recent trip to the Green Festival in San Francisco was planned primarily around attending to receive our Shining Light Award from Green America (thanks again to all our fans and customers who voted for us!), we extended our trip to attend the Green Business Conference.  The conference was a valuable reminder of the importance of establishing and building relationships.

At the conference, the first woman we heard speak was Margot Frasier, founder of Birkenstock USA .  After having met her several years ago, I was thrilled to see her still going strong.  Margo, along with another powerful woman entrepreneur Lisa Lorimer, she has just written Dealing With the Tough Stuff: Practical Wisdom for Running a Values-Driven Business.  Reminder to any friends who happen to read this: my birthday is coming up soon!

My choice of title for this blog post is a play on the name of a wonderful company: Life without Plastic, whose co-founder, Jay Sinha, we had the excellent fortune to meet at the Green Business Conference.  “Plastic-free” is an apt description for Jay on a metaphorical level as well – his authenticity and passion for a cleaner, healthier, more “plastic free” planet are indisputable and contagious.

Jay in turn led us to another anti-plastic superhero, blogger Beth Terry (aka Fake Plastic Fish).  Beth is one of those deceptively humble people who are in fact deeply powerful.  An accomplished activist, she single-handedly created the North American campaign to pressure Brita water filters to start taking back and recycling used filters.  Thank you, Beth, for being a living inspiration for how one person can make a massive difference. Here is a picture of Jay and Beth at the Green Festival.

I was also deeply impressed with Joshua Onysko, founder of Pangea Organics, who gave a rollicking presentation about his entrepreneurial journey: “7 lessons in 7 years.”  His all-organic line of skincare products is amazing, and his success as a leader in a crowded category is a credit to his chutzpah as much as his commitment to “eco-centric” skincare products.

(more…)

For the past few years, I have had the pleasure of attending what I consider to be one of the best business leadership retreats for mission-based entrepreneurs and social change leaders.  Hollyhock’s Social Venture Institute is a unique blend of business, inspiration, education and fun.  Situated on picturesque Cortes Island overlooking the coastal waters of the Strait of Georgia, Hollyhock is a little piece of paradise.

While it can be quite a trek getting there, I make the effort (and my family makes the sacrifice) to attend this five day retreat so that I can connect with other social entrepreneurs, learn and become inspired by successful leaders, give back to the business community by offering my time to others, and rejuvinate my soul.

This year, I managed to pack into one particular day, what could be described as the ultimate SVI experience: nourished on a delicious vegetarian buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner (read: no cooking or cleaning!), gathered valuable business tips from an interesting case study about Sprig Toys (cool recycled plastic toys), took a refreshing swim in the ocean, indulged in a craniosacral massage therapy treatment, received some kick-ass business advice from some seasoned strategists (watch out world, here we come!), provided some one-on-one advice for a start up entrepreneur, collaborated with some colleagues on e-commerce and social marketing strategies, feasted on raw & barbequed Cortes Island oysters, and listened to the success story of the first female CEO of Canada’s largest credit union.  Phew!  Yes, that was a rather jam packed day, but it is those types of experiences which makes SVI so special.

Another great outcome at SVI is the strong sense of community that builds up during the conference, and endures well beyond the retreat.  While many of us have travelled from all over the world to attend this conference (including SAWA hero Seleman from Rwanda) we quickly discover, after spending 5 meaningful days together, that the world is really quite small and that, in spite of the enormous challenges we individually and collectively face, if we stay connected and support each other, we can still make a measurable impact on the world.
(more…)