Healing Lifestyles & Spas

Lara Merriken

0
By on Healing Blog

Lara Merriken

Founder, CEO of LaraBars

Former college volleyball player Lara Merriken was sick of eating so-called energy bars that made her crash and feel depleted. Ten years after graduation, the avid runner and hiker conjured an all-natural, raw-food energy bar (the LaraBar) without baking, processing, or adding preservatives.

After spending three years mixing fruits and nuts in her food processor, Lara sold her first shipment of bars to health food stores in Colorado. Athletes, mothers, and others flipped for her naturally sweet Cherry Pie, Cashew Cookie, and Apple Pie flavored bars. In about three years, Lara’s super-healthy, fast food bars have generated a $6 million business, with sales in all 50 states, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Mexico. Along with creating a corporate program that donates LaraBars to charitable organizations around the U.S., Merriken is now developing raw food meals.

Anita Roddick

Founder, CEO of The Body Shop

Anita Roddick grew The Body Shop from a tiny handmade cosmetics shop in Brighton, England, into one of the world’s most successful retail operations. One of the first beauty industry CEOs to endorse recycling and speak out against animal testing, Roddick has used her business as an activist platform; she has awakened millions to various urgent political issues through public information campaigns, television shows, books, and Web sites.

Through Anita Roddick Publications (www.anitaroddick.com), she is now publishing works to help people create a safer and healthier planet. Roddick’s titles cover such vital subjects as how water supplies are increasingly affecting political decisions and the fate of citizens around the world.

Paulette Cole

CEO and creative director of ABC Carpet & Home

A self-dubbed “spiritual capitalist/philanthropist,” Cole co-founded the ABC Home & Planet Foundation, a nonprofit that raises funds for charities around the world. The foundation (separate from the ABC Carpet & Home store in Manhattan that she runs) operates a Mission Market on the shop’s main floor. It sells Gifts of Compassion, which allow customers to donate on someone’s behalf to specific charity efforts, such as funding women’s business cooperatives in developing nations. Shoppers may also donate directly to organizations through the market.

Gifts of Compassion range from $40.00 to $1,000; the recipient receives an embroidered silk pouch with a recycled paper card that indicates what cause they have helped support.

Darryl Hannah

Actress and environmentalist

An articulate and influential proponent of green living, Hannah’s eco-groovy Web site www.dhlovelife.com streams videos that she produces on such topics as Rwandan gorillas, vegan junk food, the benefits of using biodiesel, as well as her May 2006 tree-sit in downtown Los Angeles in support of an imperiled community garden.

A keynote speaker at important eco-business events such as the Natural Products Expo, Hannah is a vegetarian whose Colorado ranch house operates completely off the grid. What’s more, this green queen wears primarily organic and vintage clothing, belongs to a non-profit bio-diesel cooperative in Los Angeles, and fuels her car with vegetable oil.

Michael Crooke

CEO, Revolution Living

Created by America Online Inc., founder Steve Case, Revolution Living invests in businesses that promote sustainable lifestyles. Crooke oversees such holdings as Miraval: Life in Balance Resort and Spa in Catalina, Arizona; Flexcar, a car-sharing service; and the media company Lime. He also holds a minority stake in Gaiam, Inc., a distributor of health and wellness products.

Former President and CEO of Patagonia, Inc., Crooke is also the former president of the Conservation Alliance, the outdoor industry’s environmental grant-giving organization. Through his corporate and non-profit endeavors, Crooke embodies a seamless, sustainable business paradigm of environmental activism, social integrity, and high financial performance.

September/October 2006

Healing Lifestyles & Spas Team
Latest posts by Healing Lifestyles & Spas Team (see all)

Comments are closed.