LITE FOOT COMPANY 2.0: THE SUSTAINABILITY HUB
Hello Lite Foot Friends! Welcome to 2022.
On January 13, Lite Foot Company celebrated its first anniversary as a small business and assisting community members on their sustainability journeys. But this innovative company has even greater ambitions for year two: opening a brick & mortar store front in Savannah, GA!
If you’re new to the blog, Lite Foot Company is an environmentally-friendly home goods store with the goal to make sustainability simple for everyone. The company’s name is derived from its mission to help customers reduce their carbon footprint and understand that intentional action on the part of individuals and families can help make a difference as we battle the effects of climate change around the globe.
As Georgia’s first refillery, the Lite Foot Company community made a huge impact in its first year by diverting thousands of single-use products from landfills and oceans.
To be specific, LFC purchases helped:
328,323 plastic bags;
11,749 rolls of paper towel;
22,700 menstrual care products;
60,066 cups, water bottles and straw;
1,335 plastic sponges;
2,902 plastic bottles;
129,000 cotton swabs;
3,407 pieces of plastic and
1,360,000 dryer sheets from polluting the planet!
Lite Foot founder, Katie Rodgers-Hubbard, has always been an eco-mined individual. She’s been on a personal mission since 2018 to eliminate single-use products from her own home. Using her first-hand experiences and knowledge of sustainable home goods, Rodgers-Hubbard helped LFC grow from its first days of visiting pop-ups and markets with a few tables of products to a the mobile refillery we know and love—Hillary the Refillery. She plans to evolve the company even further in 2022 by establishing a brick & mortar store that will serve as a sustainability hub for the community.
“This may seem lofty,” said Rodgers-Hubbard, “but honestly, a year ago, buying an ugly, big, blue box truck and turning it into a mobile refillery was pretty lofty. And look at [w]here we are today.”
Rodgers-Hubbard has seen a large increase in the demand for zero-waste markets around the country. She said while there are hundreds of package-free stores in the United State, nearly 80 percent of them opened within the last 3 years. Additionally, sustainably-marketed materials are growing at a rate of 7.1 times faster than that of their non-sustainable counterparts.
As a local businessperson, Rodgers-Hubbard jumped into the small business scene of Savannah right away. Lite Foot Company was a sponsor of the city’s 2021 Earth Day activities, which included events throughout the month of April; she’s participated in panel discussion about female entrepreneurship; and she’s spoken at over a dozen events throughout the area, emphasizing the important roles individuals play in the fight against climate change.
Rodgers-Hubbard’s believes Savannah is primed for the services that will be provided through Lite Foot’s new venture.
“Savannah is full of artists, makers, and changers who work extremely hard to do their craft well,” said Rodgers-Hubbard. “I see no difference in devoting hours to weaving beautiful tapestries and trying to live more sustainably. Yes, you can buy a tapestry made overseas for $10 bucks, or you can use your Ziplock bags and plastic cutlery. But the city of Savannah knows the difference and has chosen many times over to invest in quality products that are good for the community.”
While this expansion will help Lite Foot Company increase inventory and offer consistent hours of operation, there is much more Rodgers-Hubbard has envisioned for this new version of the business. She plans to offer a space for clothing alterations, so customers have an option to mend their favorite pieces of apparel. Lite Foot Company will also host regular closing swaps with the goals of normalizing second-hand wearing and reducing customers’ reliance on the fast-fashion industry.
Another component of Lite Foot Company’s brick & mortar store will be to provide educational resources to the community. Rodgers-Hubbard wants the sustainability hub to act as a space for experts and knowledgeable locals to facilitate workshops and classes on environmental issues and trends in the sustainability movement.
She also intends to host package-free markets in the store.
“This will allow businesses, makers and farmers the freedom, and the demand, to sell more of their products package-free,” said Rodgers-Hubbard. “It will also allow the community of Savannah an even bigger opportunity to live life without plastic.”
Finally, Lite Foot’s expansion will allow the company to partner with other local businesses to establish “take back” programs throughout the city. The store front will act as a drop site for containers from partnering businesses. Lite Foot Company will work to clean and sanitize the receptacles, then return them to the original vendor to create a closed-loop system for reusable products.
Of course, Hillary the Refillery will continue making her rounds to local markets and pop-ups, so you can get LFC’s quality products on the go.
To fund this expansion, Lite Foot Company launched an IndieGoGo campaign. The goal is to reach $15,000 to make the sustainability hub a reality. All the money raised with go right back into opening the brick & mortar store, expanding package-free inventory and purchasing sanitation equipment for the new take-back programs.
“If you want to see more change in Savannah, or if you just want a greater opportunity to reduce your carbon footprint no matter where you live, please consider donating to this campaign,” said Rodgers-Hubbard.
Check out Lite Foot Company’s IndieGoGo here, and please consider giving to this movement to continue making sustainability simple for all!
Do you have questions about Lite Foot Company's sustainable home goods or the IndieGOGO campaign? Leave a comment or reach out to us at blog@litefootcompany.com.