Green Exchange, a shopping center to be opened in Chicago, early in 2008 will be the first environment-friendly shopping center in the U.S. and hence a socially conscious business. With its going green, the Consolidated Printing – that has been using soy-based inks and recycled paper in its sheet-fed and digital-printing business — will be one of its original tenants.
The building would be 250,000-square-feet and will hold about 100 vendors! Besides Consolidated Printing, the Green Exchange will also be a place of attraction for connoisseurs – as it will also have an organic restaurant and cafe, along with a sustainable furniture store and a green building supply company.
It will also have an eco-friendly printer, architects and designers who will be focusing on sustainability, an environmentally-friendly clothing company, a car-sharing service, a bike shop, and many more.
And above all, to help people go greener, the mall is made easily accessible by making the location plum with an estimated 350,000 motorists passing the site each day.
Marilyn Jones, a green-business pioneer and has been the owner and president of Chicago-based Consolidated Printing since 1973 explains,
A lot of people are unaware of how many things they can actually purchase that are green. And it’s certainly going to give [small green businesses] visibility on a grander scale than they could achieve as an independent.
