Big sustainability in little China

Shopping isn’t always fun. Aside from the lines, prices and pimple-faced teens who can’t figure out how to scan a barcode, people nowadays are becoming more concerned about their purchase’s impact on the environment around them. Words such as “fair trade,” “carbon offset” and “recycled fabric” have become part of the collective Portland consciousness. People care about how their purchases affect the world around them. It was for this reason that I was happy to see a new store move into the Chinatown area—a store that specializes in eco-conscious shopping and promoting sustainable living. Welcome to Seven Planet.

Primarily focused on the seven facets of shopping—apparel, energy, food, health, shelter, household and travel—Seven Planet provides consumer goods, fairly traded and harvested from recycled and no-impact materials, at reasonable prices.

The building itself is low-impact as well, sourcing the building materials for their fixtures from wood and scrap found in the building’s basement, as well as acquiring materials from non-profit renewal centers. The building is located right in the middle of Chinatown, where the neighborhood association has been fervently attempting to build up the area. Seven Planet came at an opportune time, as this area is at the pinnacle of renewal with the new MAX Green Line running through it as of this fall.

In this one-stop shop, you can pick up reusable sandwich bags, organic cotton t-shirts, reclaimed wood furniture, water-saving shower heads and tasty vegan treats to snack on while you’re looking at all of the other treasures within. Seven Planet also offers personal transport vehicles that go 25 miles on a single charge and move at a top speed of 16 miles per hour.

The Greenloop—an eco-friendly Web store and wholesaler that produces recycled, organic cotton clothes and environmentally sound apparel and cosmetics—provides clothing for sale in the store. Their furniture is built from salvaged and recycled hardwoods, complementing the fresh, organic food stocked on their shelves. Currently, they are in the process of installing an organic juice bar as well.

Seven Planet also provides a few other valuable services. They offer an environmentally non-toxic dry cleaning service that uses a silicon spray to remove harsh toxic chemicals used in the commercial dry cleaning process. There is a building service that will showcase environmentally sound choices for flooring, as well as an outsourcing green construction service. In addition, they offer a roadside service alternative to AAA—the Better World Club—which provides all of the same roadside services, but from a more eco-conscious, lower-impact company. Seven Planet aims to be an ecological general store that provides for a new breed of consumer.

Stores like Seven Planet are popping up all over the country, socially and ecologically conscious havens that provide consumers with green alternatives to the things in their lives that, while enjoyable and useful, harm the world around them. Little by little, stores like this are able to provide consumers with the means to lessen their carbon impact and even undo the damage they have done to the earth and themselves. Seven Planet even has a backpack that contains solar panels on the outer shell that will charge your iPod and phone—saving you money and saving the environment.

Thankfully, we have people that are passionate about the environment and are able to provide a service to their community and the world at large. As the world changes and evolves—for worse or for better—people will continue to realize the need to offset their impact on the environment and embrace their inner hippies, and Seven Planet will meet their needs.