We’ve scoured Portland to find the latest shops that’ve gone green! Everything you need—or desire—can be found with sustainability in mind. The eco-conscious have hung out their shingles all over town in converted warehouses, turn-of-the-century homes, and even old Maytag repair shops. From the reclaimed to the local, from the handmade to the sustainable, here are some of our new favorite places!
URBAN LIVING FOR THE KINDERGARTEN SET
When people say there aren’t children in the Pearl District, Kim Sibley, who, with her mother Suzanne Sibley, owns LITTLE URBANITES (916 N.W. 10th Ave., 503-227-8729), begs to differ. “This section of the Pearl is kid-friendly,” she says of the store’s location near Jamison Park. The store sells eco-friendly modern furniture, clothing, and accessories for kids as old as 6. The project table ($250) and stools ($125 for two) are made from FSC-certified wood and colored with natural stains. For newborns, there are Baby Soy onesies ($14) and roaringly colorful crib sets (below, $390) from Pixel Organics. Leftover wallpaper transforms into animal wall decals ($75 to $120) and hours of fun can be had with a set of colorful wooden rainbow blocks ($59).
So what’s it like to work with your daughter? “It’s fabulous,” says Suzanne. “We have a lot of fun. We take the business seriously, but leave all that family stuff behind when we come to work. Our customers love that Kim and I are working in this business together.”
BEHIND THE LABEL
It’s not every shop owner who can give you the background on every product for sale, but Cathy McMurray, the co-owner of OLIO UNITED (1028 S.E. Water Ave., 503-542-5000), can. “Every item has a story,” she says. “We care about the products and how they’re made.” The store is chock-full of eco-friendly clothing, home accessories and jewelry. All the shoes sold in the store are recyclable, like the vegan blue-and-silver dance-all-night flats (below, $170) from Beyond Skin, which hand-produces eco-friendly footwear in a family factory in England. Preloved sweaters ($125) are reconstructed from cast-offs and Good Society jeans ($105) are fair trade and organic. To jazz up your leather sofa, you’ll find Anna Joyce pillows ($125, above) cheerfully appliqued with vintage fabrics.
FOR HOME AND HEARTH
“We started the store around the kitchen,” says Lynn Hanrahan, who, with her husband Steve, owns MIRADOR COMMUNITY STORE (2106 S.E. Division St., 503-231-5175). “One of the most sustainable things you can do is cook and eat healthy food,” says Lynn. Since opening nine years ago, Mirador has expanded to include bedding, toys, local art and dishware, like these glasses ($8.50 each) made from recycled wine and beer bottles that are sandblasted and etched with designs. Flying-off-the-shelf items include organic sheets by Coyuchi ($57 for a queen flat sheet), handcrafted brooms ($38) and anything for food preservation ($12.50 for 12 Mason jars) “We’ve created a community here,” says Lynn. “People bring us homemade cookies and jam.”
LOVELY IN LETTERPRESS
“What I love about letterpress is that you can feel the texture of the design,” says Jean Sammis, the owner of LARK PRESS (3901 N. Williams Ave., 503-546-9930). In the back of the shop, she handcrafts custom invitations, announcements and business cards on three vintage letterpress machines. At the front, she sells her own greeting cards (left, $4 each), colorful recycled notebooks ($10), recycled book journals ($14) and plantable cards ($6), which are embedded with wildflower seeds. When she’s not in the shop, Sammis goes birdwatching. “I’m a birder,” she says. “It’s fun for me to incorporate birds into my designs.”
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FOR HOME AND HEARTH
Dustin McGuirk modeled GREEN SOURCE (4530 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 503-239-2276) after European shops, which have home and garden supplies under the same roof. “Someone will come in for flooring, and leave with some soil,” he says. Everything in the store is eco-friendly, such as biodegradable pots ($7.95 each), Caroma dual flush toilets ($300 to $400), EnviroCycle composters ($164) and Green Planet Paints ($54 a gallon), made with soy-based resins. There’s also Timberworks natural deck stains ($30 to $40 a gallon) and Roots Organics fertilizers.
IMMACULATE SALVAGE
When you walk into OLD PORTLAND HARDWARE AND ARCHITECTURAL (4035 S.E. Division St., 503-234-7380), located in a former Maytag repair shop, you’ll marvel at how orderly it is and how the items, ranging from lights and windows to furniture and drawer pulls, show the lustre, not the ravages, of time. “We try to be organized, which most salvage shops aren’t,” says owner Bret Hodgert, who worked for more than 10 years in architectural salvage before opening his shop last fall. “I love discovering the old stuff.” He finds many of his pieces through estate sales or word-of-mouth. Pieces that don’t meet his standards are recycled or placed in the dollar bins at the back of the 4,500-square-foot shop.
Finds include a to-die-for front door with stained glass tulips ($725), this conversation piece ostrich foot lamp ($875) and a marble-and-slate mantel ($3,200). You can choose an escutcheon ($12) from a wall that has them in all shapes and sizes, and a four-chambered decanter ($120) is perfect for your next soiree. Check out the original Maytag carpet on the floor. “In the salvage business,” Hodgert says, “you should always have an homage to the past.”
MIX AND MATCH WOOD
At ECOPDX (2289 N. Interstate Ave., 503-287-8181), all the furniture, like this chest ($230), is built from colorful logs with beautiful grain once buried by earthquakes or submerged in rivers in Indonesia. While the shop sells everything from carved beds ($990) to cantilevered side tables ($225) to wall units ($1,290), the most popular item is the dining room table.
“We sell a lot of dining tables,” says co-owner Darren Morgan. “It’s one of the first real pieces of furniture people usually purchase.” A rustic farmhouse table ($750) will look perfect in an old-style kitchen or go all out with a trestle table ($1,450) from river-salvaged wood with matching benches ($135 to $250).
GREEN, NOT GRUNGE
At the GREENLOOP (8005 S.E. 13th Ave., 503-236-3999), owner Aysia Wright says clothing can change how people think about the environment. “Clothes are an easy way to start a conversation,” she says. “Clothing is visible and expressive. Someone can compliment you on your shirt, and you can start talking about how it’s made of organic cotton.”
Located in a restored Victorian home, the store is a fashion lover’s sustainable dream. Accessories such as recycled vinyl messenger bags with GM seat buckle closures ($110) or a handbag made from recycled inner tubes ($85), look great with these eco-friendly summer fashions. A 100 percent organic cotton sundress (right) from Passenger Pigeon ($212) with cashmere shrug ($283) is party perfect. A black organic tee (left, $76) and pleated skirt ($189) are from Stewart+Brown. A recycled glass necklace ($120) completes the look. {mospagebreak}
TREAT ME RIGHT
At SYDNEY’S (1800 N.W. 16th Ave., 503-241-4313), you can choose the milk for your espresso drink from the milk menu, which includes organic, rice, soy and hemp options. All the in-house pastries are vegan and some are also gluten-free such as the delectable mini-cupcakes (below, $1.25 each), but you’d never guess it from their mouth-watering flavor. The food is made with local and organic produce. If you like meat, don’t panic: the Florentine-style house-made pancetta can be had in the two-egg breakfast ($5.50). 
NO WORRIES! WHEN IT RAINS, THIS STORES!
Sure, you can complain about the rain, but one thing it does is keep Portland green. Why not use that rain to water your garden? THE RAINBARRELMAN COMPANY (5024 3/4 N.E. 30th St., 503-978-1668) hand-crafts rustic barrels that look great in any yard. As its Harry Potteresque address suggests, it’s a little off the beaten path, but once you find it, its display garden will have you waiting for rain. Each barrel comes with a spigot and is made with Western red cedar from a family-owned mill in Washington. Standard rainbarrels start at $170, and the most popular is the 55-gallon Rain Saver System ($250) “I love being in a sustainable business,” says Jon Elliott, a.k.a The Rainbarrel Man.
A SUSTAINABLE, MODERN SENSIBILITY
At EWF MODERN (1122 N.W. Glisan St., 503-295-7336) modern style isn’t sacrificed for sustainability. “We wanted to see if we could push the envelope further by finding good design using reclaimed material,” says owner Renee Russo.
The store carries a line of repurposed furniture from century-old reclaimed buildings, such as this platform bed with plank headboard ($3,995) and matching nightstand ($1,235) or a dining table ($2,565) that seats eight. For after-dinner lounging, the cushy white leather Nicoletti sectional sofa ($9,628) is filled with eco-friendly foam.
