Home Eco: Your Green General Store

If you are looking for a local store to buy your green and eco friendly products from in St. Louis, look no further than Home Eco. While there are quite a few eco friendly stores in St. Louis, most seem to cater to only one or two facets of environmental friendliness. Eco Store truly is a green general store in that it offers more than a little of everything green. From composters and rain barrels to floor cleaners and recycled cutting boards, Eco Store has just about everything green.

Earlier this week, I popped in on the way to Murdoch Perk to speak with owners Terry Winkelmann and Phil Judd about their “general store”. Eco Store opened in 2006 with a lot less products than they have today. Over the past 6 years, they have added more products on to their shelves as they discover new green and eco friendly products. The bulk of their products can be divided into four main categories; energy savings, lawn & garden, green building, and green home.

Concerning ways to lower you electric bill in a eco friendly way, Home Eco offers a variety of items to lower your costs as well as your “energy footprint”.  A few of their products include LED light bulbs, clothes drying racks, pipe insulation, and solar heating.  If you have a little time to spare, ask Terry or Phil about how you can take advantage of eco tax credits with solar electric and high efficiency appliances.

One of my favorite weekend activities (when I am not showing houses) is renovating my own home. Home Eco offers a wide variety of home building and renovating products that include flooring products, paints and finishes, chemical free insulation, and energy efficient water and home heating products.

Home Eco has more eco friendly kitchen & bath products that anywhere I have seen. A few of the brands they carry include: Biokleen, Better Life, Dr. Bronner’s, Preserve, Mystic Maid, Kleen Kanteens, To-Go Ware, and Pure Fiber. They even have a refill station located inside their store for selected cleaning and personal care items.

While there are quite a few shops offering “premium” eco friendly products at a premium price, Eco Store continues to keep costs low for their customers in order to spread the word and convert more people to a sustainable way of living. The welcome message on their website sums up their philosophy pretty well:
“From the way we eat to the way we feather our nests, every purchase we make has an impact on the planet we call home.  We can buy used, use less, share more, shop fair trade and local, and recycle.  We can ask where things come from and how were they made.  We can accept that no one “in charge” is looking out for the planet, or our health.  It’s up to each of us to “go green” as our abilities and needs allow.”

On Saturday, February, 18th, Home Eco will be celebrating their 6th year anniversary with an open house and free classes.

11:00   Garden Crafts Demo with Perennial
12:00  Solar Energy Overview
1:00    Seed Starting Tips from Botanical Interests
2:00   Chicken Coop Basics
3:00   Composting Demystified