‘One-stop’ green shopping is goal of industrial park business

Benicia Patch periodically profiles businesses in the Industrial Park. Following are excerpts from an interview with David Nuss, vice president of marketing and media relations for Runka.com, an online website carrying 700 eco friendly products at discount prices. Runka.com hopes to expand offerings to 2500 products in six months, said Nuss.

Can you give me some background on Runka.com?
Five business partners launched Runka.com in 2004. All of us have been involved the recycling industry for 25 years with a focus on scrap tire markets and technologies for recycling rubber. These processes divert millions of tires from landfills. Located here (at the industrial park) is , our warehouse for used tires, which we sell both to the public and other outlets.

As we attended green industry conventions, we noticed that there were many products that were not reaching the market. Runka. com was founded to make those products available online and to provide a green ‘one-stop shopping’ solution. Last year, we received an award of excellence from the International Green Industry Hall of Fame for outstanding achievement in the green industry.

 How do you find your products and assure consumers they are ‘green'? 
We attend numerous conventions. I don’t know if you are familiar with the term, ‘greenwashing,’ where people will just put the word natural on a bottle or a box, so we have to vet these products. We have to   . . . see how they are actually made. For example, this stuffed bear - the outside is soy, the inside is kapok fiber. These socks are recycled cotton.

What is your most popular product?
Our most popular product is Blisscuits, created by actress, Mariel Hemingway, an advocate for healthy living and sustainability who spoke at our company launch. 

Does Runka.com speak do speaking engagements?
We get out and speak to numerous industry groups, for example, EcoTuesday. We speak at schools and clubs. We are asked us to talk about the way people are shifting their purchasing to green products. So a lot of what we speak about is finding natural products, or finding ‘Fair Trade’ products.

And, I understand Runka.com is also a discount store. 
Price has to be a consideration because a lot of great (green) products are a lot more expensive.  We discount by cutting the MSRP. You can go out and find a product more expensively, sometimes less, but we are generally discounted from the standard price. Our idea is let’s go out and find these products . . . and bring them to one spot.