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• Best Green Business: B. Lime: A Green Store

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B. Lime offers many locally produced products. (Abby Toms, buzz Photographer )

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Organic cat treats lie adjacent to pamphlets for Zipcars and bicycle maps on a dimly lit, round table. Unbleached coffee filters, along with organic coffee and tea, sit atop a shelf just a few feet away. And on the opposite end of the store sit organic spa products, bamboo nesting baskets and organic cotton T-shirts.

B. Lime: A Green Store, which just celebrated its first anniversary, sells a variety of environmentally-sustainable products in downtown Champaign.

“Our mission is this: to bring these [green] products to this area,” said Wendi Lindsay, co-owner of B. Lime, who added that she wants customers and CU residents to think differently about their everyday purchases and buy things that are made by environmentally-focused companies.

Wendi, who opened the store Nov. 8, 2008 with her husband, Bart, emphasized the issue of climate change and how the couple try to incorporate their green lifestyle at home into their business.

“This is how we’ve always lived ... nontoxic, living healthy,” she said.

According to Wendi, B. Lime sells over 50 products, ranging from clothes, books and kitchenware to cloth diapers, shoes and iPod docs.

“There’s such a variation of what we carry,” said Wendi. “We do carry a lot of things that are fair-trade, organic, [and] made of recycled materials.”

Bart also discussed the cost aspect of organic products.

“A lot of things in the store are pretty cost-efficient,” he said. “Information and research is out that says some of these things are better for the environment, and if they don’t cost too much extra ... why not use them or try them?”

Wendi emphasized the idea of making daily small changes, no matter where one lies on the spectrum of environmental issues.

“Small changes ... shift the mentality of a population [and] start to shift the thinking little by little,” she said. “And when you have that happen, then you have policy changes.”