Innovation

Gina the Baker implements an innovative business model that aims to make a difference in the environment and society as well as helping promote sustainability. The business model is different from your traditional bakery, for at Gina’s everything from employee commutes to the furniture of the business is environmentally friendly. The bakery implements a business model that not only aims to reduce environmental hazards, but also make a difference in society. Gina the Baker's business structure allows the business to help tackle sustainable goals such as No Hunger and Climate Action. At Gina the Baker their innovative business model allows them to make sure that nothing goes to waste, from donating leftovers to using their own garbage to make compost. Their innovative business model has allowed the bakery to not only save money, but influence employees and others to be environmentally friendly in their day to day activities.

Based on New Jersey Sustainable Business Registry, Gina the Baker highly regards energy efficiency, reducing gas emissions, reducing plastic usage and serving their community. With their innovation, it comes with an impact. Here are all the quantitative data from Gina the Baker. For energy efficiency, LED Echo-Smart Bulbs are used at their facility. They want to install more LED lights for outdoor usage. By doing this, they have saved fifteen kilowatts per hour and saved forty-nine dollars during a period of 12 months. For reducing gas emissions, Gina the Baker’s employees carpool together three to four times a week. Three of the employees live in New York City and together they carpool to reduce their carbon footprint. By their calculations, they have saved over three thousand miles along with 140 gallons of gas and over five hundred dollars from the time the store opened on August 2017 till now. For plastic reduction, the business gives their customers an incentive to bring their own coffee cup. The store offers a ten percent discount to their customers if they bring their own mug. Gina the Baker supports community initiatives by having their employees volunteer in the community garden. The food waste (egg shells, coffee grounds, and apple peels) are added to the community compost. The business has their own spot to grow their ingredients and they hope to be part of the Farmers Market. Instead of purchasing new equipment and furniture to refurbish the store, half of their equipment was bought used and their furniture was bought at yard sales. Though the business is rather small, they are creating an impact by implementing these actions towards their business’s habits.

Inspiration

The innovative business model emerged due to Gina the owner believing that there was a lack of environmentally friendly bakeries, and wanting to change that in her own business. With threats such as global warming and other sustainability problems happening around the world, Gina the Baker wanted to make sure they contributed to reducing these problems. There are multiple negative impacts that Gina The Baker aims to tackle such as water waste, pollution from vehicles, lack of clean energy, and food waste. According to a 2015 EPA study, Americans “can waste more than 1 trillion gallons annually nationwide," mainly through avoidable leaks and malfunctions. With water scarcity impacting nearly 40% of the world's population, reducing water helps meet the 6th UN Sustainable goal "Clean Water and Sanitation." Another negative impact the bakery aims to reduce is the amount of pollution that cars generate, which is harming the environment. By carpooling to work, the employees saved 2,995 miles and 136 gallons of fuel over a period of 15 months--a small but meaningful step to help achieve the UN Sustainable Goal #13 Climate Action.

Gina the Baker's inspiration was not only to be a successful environmentally friendly business, but they wanted to make a difference in their community by educating customers on environmentally friendly actions. Chelsea Almanzar the co-owner of the store stated that they wanted to “Educate people to not litter and reuse things.” The store highly values education and aims to promote environmentally friendly habits by offering customers discounts for helping make a difference.

The owners’ inspiration goes beyond a focus on the environment--they also want to make an impact to their community and make sure the most fragile members of their community, such as children and senior citizens, never went hungry. “We’ve saved over 100 pounds of food waste. We donate any food that’s left over for the day to the Ridgefield Park Senior Center. We love to give to the community and help the people living in it,” stated Chelsea during the interview. The store also donates left over egg whites to day care centers. Helping tackle the Zero Hunger sustainable development goal in their community is part of the owner's inspiration to come to work every day with a smile in their face knowing that they are making a contribution to those in need.

Overall impact

The innovation implemented by Gina The Baker has made a positive impact to the business while simultaneously benefiting society and the environment. This impact is shown in the way that the bakery and all of its employees continue to act more environmentally conscious, which can be seen from their commute to work to procedures in the bakery. Employees are now following the bakery’s footsteps into their lives outside of work, from riding bicycles, to recycling, and reusing as much as possible.

With sustainable innovations, the effects are widespread; ranging from short term to long term, and in Gina the Baker's case the same principles follow. With the store switching to energy efficient LED Bulbs, they faced the short-term effects of having to invest in these new light sources. While at the time it might have cost them some capital, their investment will save them money yearly and in the long term pay for itself and further continue saving the bakery money. For the environment, the new energy light bulbs will help save energy in the short term as well as long term, helping contribute less carbon emissions from energy use. The bakery’s carpool approach also reduces harmful emissions and saves its employees' money that otherwise would had been spent on their commute. By providing a happier work environment, Gina the Baker is making sure to provide jobs that are not only helping job seekers earn a living, but are also educating them on their vision for an environmentally friendly world.

Business benefit

The innovations implemented by the bakery allowed the company to use less electricity and therefore save money on their electric bill. Not only that, but their passion for helping the environment has made an impact on their business decisions, from buying used furniture to having their own pot in the community garden where they use their own compost made from the bakery’s own waste. Their passion to help others and sustain the environment has allowed Gina the Baker to become a well-respected business for its contributions, generating loyal customers who appreciate that a business that values their community along with profits.

A similar loyalty spills over to their employees, with their employee retention and engagement increasing, which stems from working for a business that is making a difference. With a higher retention rate, Gina the Baker has been able to save money that otherwise would had been spent on hiring new workers and having to train them. The efficiency of happy workers has allowed the store to be efficient in procedures, from baking to customer service, the employees' performance has been great.

Social and environmental benefit

When it comes to the environment, the bakery is making a big impact. From recycling to using efficient light bulbs, the bakery is making its own contributions to ensure that nothing is being wasted and that they are taking care of the environment. The innovation also brought other benefits; the store’s innovative model to have its employees carpool has saved 136 gallons of fuel from being burned and released to the environment. The energy friendly store has also contributed to its environmental benefits and has helped make a small difference in the environment’s fight for energy security, by saving as much as 15 kWh yearly. Regarding societal benefits, their actions of making sure nothing goes to waste has benefited organizations such as local day care centers and other bakeries that receive egg whites from Gina the Baker, as well as the Ridgefield Park Senior Center that receives any left-over food.

In the short term, while the quantitative data might not seem like a lot, the company is making tiny dents to help tackle environmental issues, and in the long term all those dents are going to add up and demonstrate just how much of a difference the bakery has made to the environment...from saving energy, to consuming less water, to reducing the amount of car fumes that go directly to the environment. When it comes to the organizations' members, they take the innovations that they learned/implemented in the bakery and carry it into their everyday lives. The members are now more conscious about wasting energy, saving water, recycling, and reducing the amount of food thrown out. Not only that, but they have even started cycling to get around to avoid spreading car fumes to the environment, which is one of the reasons why the bakery plans to implement a bike parking station in future locations. Overall, Gina the Baker is using its innovative business model to help make a difference in society and the environment, hoping to influence others to also take similar steps in their businesses to make the world a little better.

Interview

Chelsea Almanzar, Co-Owner