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It’s been a very busy last couple months here at COOLA. We moved into a new office space in September, and added an additional 50% more space this January! Finally we have almost all aspects of the company under one roof. There is nothing like total oversight to achieve the highest quality control. It feels Awesome!
Perhaps the most universally appreciated aspect of the new offices is how doggy friendly it is. Our offices and warehouse space are all inter-connected and everything is on one floor. Most of the floor surface is smooth poured concrete – which makes clean up easy :-).
Everyone at COOLA is allowed (and even encouraged) to bring his or her pets to work. So far it’s all dogs… We’ve heard hilarious stories from our peers at Petco (a fellow San Diego business) who have received company wide emails with the subject header along the lines of “Loose Hampster on the 3rd floor.” Fortunately everyone here is always accounted for!
San Diego has to be one of the most dog friendly cities we know. The Del Mar dog beach is truly amazing. At any given time, there are always a lot of friendly dogs and owners, but never too much that it’s crowded. Somehow it always manages just the right equilibrium.
Attached are photos from the Dog Beach at Del Mar in December, the daily dog run at the office, and a case of bad timing when Heather had 5 dogs about to go outside for a walk just as UPS showed up. It’s a dog’s world and we’re happy to be here!
We are lucky enough to live in a land where the sun makes frequent appearances in our day-to-day life. After all, sunlight contains the all-essential Vitamin D, which our bodies use to promote bone growth and immune function. But there’s a fine line between healthy and dangerous amounts of sun, which can lead to melanoma and more.
Meet Chris Birchby, who alongside wife Kristian founded COOLA organic sun care in 2002. The Birchbys, longtime residents of L.A., now run the company from their home in northern San Diego County. Inspired by melanoma scares on both sides of their families, they offer a safer sun care solution to those wanting to avoid the excessive chemicals in traditional sun care products.
Recently, we spoke with Birchby about COOLA and community outreach.
COOLA products are known to contain 95 percent natural and 70 percent certified organic ingredients. How does the company further its green commitment?
We are very proud that our California manufacturing facility is solar powered. Furthermore, everything we produce we try to keep as locally sourced as possible. An incredible amount of waste is generated when shipping components and product around. We do as much as we can to reduce our footprint, whether that means utilizing FSC certified paper, wind power, and collapsible sample packaging that uses 93% less plastic than similar sized bottles and tubes.
Last May, we donated approximately $50,000 worth of sunscreen to the Mississippi flood clean-up volunteers. Doctors were treating second-degree burns every day. Despite our small size, we felt we made a difference.
Who do you admire most in the green movement right now?
Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Intelligent Nutrients and Aveda. He was able to bring plant-based cosmetics to the average consumer. He has continued to evolve and always seems to be looking for new ways to innovate instead of resting on his accomplishments.
When did you first know you were an environmentalist?
My wife Kristian grew up on a small farm in Nova Scotia. She really showed me how much more I could be doing. Our current compost pile is about 20 feet long and three feet tall.
If you could ask a potential presidential candidate one question about the environment, who would you ask and what would the question be?
I would ask Ron Paul why clean energy could not be subsidized as a matter of national security.
It’s Al Gore and you in a cage match. Who would win?
My wife.
You can learn more about Birchby and safer sunscreen here.
Summer is here! And we have never been busier. It’s been an exciting time here at COOLA as we manage the new demands on our ever growing and evolving small business.
We are honored to have more interest in our products than we even optimistically anticipated, however the downside is that we are experiencing our first ever back-orders! While selling a lot of natural suncare products makes us feel great, we feel horrible when we can’t fulfill all our customer’s orders. Fortunately, all products should be back in stock in the next week or two and the necessary arrangements have been made to ensure we don’t have this issue in the future. In the meantime, we really appreciate everyone’s patience while we craft our fresh sunscreens!
There has been so much going on, that we really need a dozen blog entries to try and catch everyone up! New partnerships, new products, new employees, big events - even a new office, COOLA East, in Naples, Florida! (We will fill you in on all the details shortly :) Going forward, to keep our interested customers as up-to-date and in-the-know as possible, guest COOLA bloggers will help out and provide an inside look into the daily activities around our office. For example, I know our Sales DIrector Michelle Iannaccone, who is on the front lines every day, has some interesting stories to share, and Brad Adelson our Operations Manager can fill you all in on the joys and sorrows that occur daily in the world of manufacturing.
It’s always exciting for us to see COOLA out in the “real” world, and not just in our office, our countertop, or our sports bag. Here is a product review video created by one of our fantastic accounts in Chicago, Merz Apothecary. Open since 1875, Merz Apothecary is a Chicago landmark (tour buses from around the Midwest make regular stops at the Apothecary) and a mecca for people who want unique and natural products for their bodies. Their passion, product knowledge, and thoughtfulness demonstrate how they have been, and remain, such a success! Thank you Q Brothers!
Until next time, have a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July and Happy Sun-Blocking!
Chris & Kristian
Well, we tried to update the blog sooner – we did! But we won’t complain about how busy we are. Truly we feel blessed to have such interest in our small company and the products that we are so passionate about.
A couple weeks ago we were honored to have the Vineyard Vines clothing company team here photographing us for their Summer 2011 Catalog. We love Vineyard Vines. The clothing is great, as is their whole company philosophy. Each one of their slogans we feel could also apply to us. “Every day should feel this good”, “Live the good life”, and “We didn’t know that having this much fun was possible.” That sounds like us here at COOLA!
The Vineyard Vines story is an inspirational American business success story, at a time when America could use a lot more of them. Two brothers, Shep and Ian Murray, built their company from the ground up - or in their case the water, since they started selling their Ties in Martha’s Vineyard from a boat. Now, they retail in over 400 locations, including several of their own stores, and this year they expect to hit 100 million in sales!
Instead of paraphrasing, here is their story directly from them…
“Thirteen years ago, while sitting in the sun, taking a break form the ‘real world’, we decided we didn’t ever want to go back to trudging along Monday through Friday just to live our lives the way we wanted to on the weekend. We were on a mission to find a way to make every day feel as good as that vacation day. Once we figured out that we could actually do what we loved, we knew we would never have to work another day again.”
Inspiring!!
We are very happy to partner with Vineyard Vines this summer, as they introduce their limited-edition women’s swim collection. With every purchase of Vineyard Vines women’s swimwear, you will receive a complimentary COOLA Mini SPF. Look good naturally at the beach this summer! Find out more about their new swimwear collection (and pick up some amazing threads while you’re at it) at www.vineyardvines.com
Until next time, Happy Sun-Blocking!
Chris & Kristian
First, we want to give a huge shout-out “Thank You” to all the hard-working creative members of our team (both in-house and out) who helped bring this baby to life. You all rock and we deeply appreciate your efforts!
One of our favorite aspects of the site is our new store locator. COOLA is incredibly fortunate to retail in so many prestigious locations. We realized nothing could accurately depict these amazing locations other than a photo directly from each of our resorts/spas/boutiques! Click on “Locator” and continue to each individual account and see for yourself why they are so great.
As it seems with everything we do, this website is a work in progress and will continually be updated with our latest news, product launches, retail locations, COOLA events and more. Although we’ve never kept a blog before, we decided this would be a great way to keep in touch and share an inside look at our small world. And just like our real home, both business and pleasure will have a home here.
We like ending things on high notes. It’s the George Costanza in us :) . So without further ado, meet our new office puppies, brother and sister French Bulldogs Woodrow (Woody) and Gabriel (Gabby).
