A couple months ago, I plucked a business card for Seattle Green Dogs [1] off the bulletin board at Top Pot Doughnuts [2]. I was there for, um, a cup of black coffee. I dropped the card in my pocket, and there it lived until I discovered it a week after Earth Day (when I had failed to join the blogging hordes with an eco-greenie-themed message).
So now, I'm either a little late or very, very early with a heads up about Lori Campion and her eco-friendly dog-walking business. Obviously, walking your own dog in your own neighborhood is the greenest option of them all -- but we can't always do that. Campion tries to recreate this environmental ideal with simple choices. She fuels her doggie transport Suburbans with biodiesel, uses all-natural hemp and recycled material leashes on walks and biodegradable and natural soaps for clean up. Her dog treats, from Simon and Huey [3], are organic and local.
Even her waste bags are green. "As much as I love and appreciate Seattle's awesome off-leash parks," says Campion, whose clients hail mostly from the North End. "There has been one issue that has always bothered me: plastic poop bags, and the fact that we put something that is 100 percent degradable into plastic bags that take at least 100 years to decompose." She uses BioBags [4], which can decompose in fewer than 45 days.
Campion is also a real estate agent for John L. Scott at Seattle Center, and she recently earned her green certification as an eco-friendly real estate agent. "I wanted to extend that environmentally conscious mindset to the dog park community," she says, "reducing their ‘carbon paw print.'"
Oh, and one other thing about Campion: She's a singer and guitar player in an all-girl band called the Hot Rollers [5].
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
