Why Sustainability Matters
Sustainability is people-centric. It’s by people and for people with a much greater goal in mind: To minimize our collective environmental impact while also continuously making efforts to heal our home. The climate crisis has always been at the forefront of Book + Bottle’s values, along with supporting other local businesses and promoting diversity in our space. As a small, local business, we recognize that we have a unique opportunity in the realm of sustainability. Every decision we make is our own, which means that we represent all the ways that sustainability is feasible for every business, big or small.
Book + Bottle’s slogan is simple: We’re a bookstore with wine and a wine bar with books. Our environmental values have always been reflected in these products. We intentionally source organic, biodynamic, and sustainable wines and stock books that inform us of the urgency behind sustainability. It’s important to practice what you preach, which is why Book + Bottle’s team focuses on making day-to-day conscious efforts toward sustainability. If you’re a small business looking to do the same—or a patron looking to support sustainable businesses—here are several examples that we employ in our shop:
Re-usable food prep products (trays, accouterment jars & cups, creamer pitchers, etc.)
Conscious food ordering (better to run out than throw food away)
Re-usable towels for drying, glass polishing, and cleaning
100% recyclable and compostable sugarcane bags
All of our to-go supplies are compostable and recyclable
World-Centric (compostable) trash bags
High-efficiency bar equipment
Picking up trash on our local streets and sidewalks that would otherwise flow into the bay
LED lights
This list embodies the efforts that have been seamlessly folded into our day-to-day work. Creating sustainable patterns can certainly seem overwhelming at first, especially given the pressures that come with keeping a small business afloat. However, once you’ve integrated them into your business—and trained your employees to do the same—it becomes as easy as breathing.
There’s a value that comes with being a small business dedicated to sustainability. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy while simultaneously creating spaces that feel like home. We have an opportunity to be ethical leaders who fundamentally change the way all businesses are run; we can flood the industry with the same warmth that makes customers stop into our shops and stay awhile. If we set the bar high, big businesses can no longer go low with their sustainability efforts. A walk down Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, FL demonstrates a large crop of local businesses that populate the city. There’s a sense of community that grows from this. And, of course, the chance for these small businesses to turn what often feels like a “drop in the bucket” into real, exacting change.
Perhaps the most important element of creating a community of sustainability is encouraging avid discussions with our neighbors. This extends to larger organizations that have the same goals we do. Sometimes this looks like wine tastings with producers dedicated to making wine that serves both the planet and the winos. Or, it can look like hosting a Surfriders chapter meeting in our shop. Surfriders is an organization dedicated to protecting our marine ecosystems. All are welcome to join in on their chapter meetings which often feature guest speakers and discuss annual priorities like battling red tide and scheduling regular beach clean-ups. Book + Bottle is dedicated to being a safe space for organizations like Surfriders. It is this, combined with our daily efforts, that lends real power to small business sustainability. We’re looking to foster a community of businesses that all make small changes like this. Together, we can make a much bigger impact.
The opportunity to host the Surfriders Organization in our space spawned from a casual dialogue with a customer. Amy Bourne, a sustainability activist and Surfrider member, asked for a box to take her leftovers home from Book + Bottle. We explained that we consciously steer away from to-go containers to help prevent waste, and we offered that she could take home our re-usable container if she promised to bring it back. This effort to prevent waste resonated with Amy. Bring it back she did, along with the invitation for us to host like-minded individuals in our space. These conversations are the key to making an impact; as a small business, we can connect with our customers one-on-one to share the values that will aggregate to save the world.
When you think of a wine bar that sells books, we hope that your brain instantly registers pleasure. Yet, if our business plan were a tree you would see sustainability at its roots, our team at the trunk, and our products as the leaves and flowers that blossom at the top. This is all to say that pleasure and sustainability can be one and the same; they are intertwined with each other within our business. Our shop—along with many others—is a twenty-minute drive from beaches that desperately need our attention. This is one of many reasons why we feel so strongly about sustainability in our community. It’s crucial to remember that you can always vote with your money by supporting businesses that reflect the values you want to see in the world. If you stop into our shop, you can rest easy knowing that your support for us also works towards the larger goal of protecting our planet.