Generation Reinvention # 40: Boomer Consumers Living and Buying in the Natural World

Podcast: Download

About a year ago last June I attended the LOHAS Forum in Boulder, Colorado. LOHAS, you may know, stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, and has grown in a decade from a local grassroots movement into an international business juggernaut, embraced by small companies and international corporations alike.

The Forum is a fascinating and stimulating annual conference for companies and individuals involved in the organic, natural and sustainability industries. On that crisp June day, I walked through the main lobby of the Saint Julian Hotel and registered at a table reserved for guest speakers. The registrar then handed me a stunning gift box filled with Colorado organic products from a gift company called Colorado’s Best Organics. I consumed everything in the box, but I still have that colorful gift box; it’s too stunning to recycle or give away.

As I was proceeding to an outdoor gathering area, someone stopped me and introduced himself. It turned out that his company created the gift box, not only for VIPs at this conference but as a gift program to promote the best organic and natural products grown and manufactured by Colorado companies. That person is my special guest this time.

Steve Hoffman is co-owner of Best Organics LLC, a leading organic gift company, and serves as chair of Naturally Boulder, an economic development initiative established by the City of Boulder to promote the growth of natural and organic businesses in the region.

Steven is also cofounder of LOHAS Journal and the annual LOHAS Forum. He brings 30 years of expertise and contacts within the natural and organic industry as managing partner. He is a wordsmith and marketer fueled by a passion for all things green and sustainable. Since I’m now on his email list, I receive a parade of press releases about myriad natural products and special industry events.

Steve served as Managing Director of The Organic Center, a national nonprofit research and education institute from 2007 – 2010. He is the former national Marketing Director and Rocky Mountain regional Sales Manager for Arrowhead Mills. Steve served for more than eight years as the Editorial Director of Natural Foods Merchandiser, a leading trade magazine published by New Hope Natural Media and as Education Director for Natural Products Expo. He served as President of People Planet Profit Colorado, now CORE Colorado, the state’s leading sustainable business association.

Steve served in the Peace Corps in Central America, and is fluent in Spanish. He received a M.S. in Agriculture from Pennsylvania State University, and as director of the Urban Gardening Program in Philadelphia in the mid-1980s, oversaw the establishment of more than 120 community food gardens in two years in low-income areas of city.

VISIT WEBSITE

http://www.bouldersbestorganics.com/

http://www.compassnaturalmarketing.com/