Mike Monroe tries to convince businesses to use environmentally
friendly, fair trade products.
Gilroy – Mike Monroe is changing how companies do business one cup, fork and plate at a time.
It all began a little more than three years ago after the local businessman listened to yet another sermon on the sad state of individuals living and working in Third World countries.
“I thought, ‘this is it,’ ” Monroe said. “If they’re talking about justice, making people get out of poverty, hey you can do it by buying a cup of coffee.”
And since establishing Integrity Express – which, like so many small businesses, began in the garage of his Gilroy home – little by little Monroe has convinced companies, churches and schools that less is not necessarily better.
He jump-started the business, which he explains is a for-profit company designed to make cash, by looking into a product many are familiar with: fair trade coffee. Since Monroe knew that individuals picking coffee beans in South America, and often the farmers, live in poverty, he decided to first try to hawk coffee, the most prevalent fair trade product.
One of Monroe’s first victories was close to home. He managed to persuade Saint Louise Regional Hospital, where his wife is a nurse, to switch over to a fair trade java brand.
Monroe, comfortably seated among skyscrapers of boxed up products in his warehouse, placed Pura Vida on his desk and excitedly began telling the story behind the Seattle-based brand. Two Harvard graduates, one a divinity major and the other a business major, decided to mesh their talents and establish a profitable company that cares, he explained.
Monroe loves telling the tale behind the items piled up on the concrete floor and lining the shelves of his Morgan Hill warehouse. He likes knowing that the bar of dark chocolate he so enjoys isn’t the product of harsh child labor in the Ivory Coast, that the off-white T-shirts he sells weren’t made in sweat shops in South America.
Or that Sindyanna, a soap company he recently picked up, is a cooperative between Israeli and Palestinian women, a peaceful effort in a war-torn land.
Monroe’s had his successes – after all he outgrew the original Gilroy locale and is planning on renting out another space near his Morgan Hill warehouse – but he admits it’s not an easy job winning over a business when profit is the bottom line.
“The challenge is, yes, it’s expensive, more expensive than what you’re currently using,” he said.
This summer the father of two convinced the organizers of the Gilroy Garlic Festival to use biodegradable utensils, plates and cups at their hospitality area. Now that he’s on the Internet he contracts with companies across the nation.
One day he received a call from Stonyfield Farm. The New Hampshire-based company, which sells organic yogurt products, purchased about 500 cases of environmentally friendly sample cups and spoons.
And he easily persuaded Jeanne Gaffney, pastoral associate at St. Catherine Church in Morgan Hill, to switch over to fair trade coffee. The Catholic Church also uses all biodegradable products. At post-Mass coffee socials, parishioners can be found sipping the hot beverage out of paper cups lined with a vegetable-based oil coating that makes it friendly to the environment.
“I freak out whenever I see a foam tray,” Gaffney said.
Gaffney explained that she understands the importance of eliminating the middle man and by using fair trade, eco-friendly products, she’s spreading the word that there’s a direct correlation between religion and the environment.
“You should travel gently on this earth,” she said.
Still, Monroe has met some residence and he’s aware that it’s difficult to change minds, particularly when that change translates to more cash.
Styrofoam remains the biggest challenge because the price difference is so extreme. A eco-friendly paper plate runs about 14 cents a piece versus about 3 cents for a Styrofoam one.
“It’s hard,” Monroe said. “Where were my Levi’s made? I don’t know.”
But, the New Balance tennis shoes he was wearing? Those he knows were assembled in the USA.
“It’s microscopic but this is how change happens,” he said. “We can do something and the least controversial way of doing it is how you spend your money.”
