North Bay Woman

F A L L 2 0 1 5 | NORTH BAY WOMAN 31 It was Hawken's business philosophy that resonated with the couple. "He really drove home the point that business is a potential source for good and that it's possible to run a business for people, the planet, a purpose and a profit," she recalls. "It gave me a roadmap for an integrated life and peace of mind by having a work-life balance." Griffin-Black returned to the United States, became a distributor for Neal's Yard Remedies, and, over the course of several years, studied aromatherapy under international masters. She was prepared to leap, when, in 1995, Bloomingdales commissioned her to develop a private label line of four products for its holiday catalog, and that was the launch of what would become EO Products. Expanding EO Today, EO Products has expanded into more than 150 products, branched out into two brands (EO and Everyone), and has required larger quarters as it sequentially outgrew its nascent garage in the Portrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, a workshop in a Corte Madera shopping center, and a nearby industrial space, until it finally settled into a 40,000 square foot facility in San Rafael that was once a Lucasfilm studio. Inside, there are laboratories for quality assurance and control and for the two full-time chemists; offices for the financial, marketing, human resources, manufacturing operations, product development and creative design departments; and a plant where the products are made and packaged. All of EO's products – ranging from soaps, bath salts, shampoos and body lotions to deodorants, a hand sanitizer and a breath spray - are cruelty-free ("There's no reason to be testing on animals," Griffin-Black insists) as well as synthetic-, GMO- and gluten-free. The EO brand is composed of more sophisticated essential oils and botanical extracts than its more affordable cousin, the Everyone brand, which delivers "a value-driven, clean safe product for a great price," she explains. "What we've wanted to do always is lessen the environmental load and to choose the best, cleanest, safest ingredients that weren't toxic, carcinogenic or endocrine disrupters," she insists. EO Products is also a Certified B Corporation, subjected to annual audits for sustainability, and is on-track to eventually become zero-waste. "We do everything from recycling cardboard to using recycled plastic for our bottles, biodegradable packaging and recirculating the water in our heating and cooling tanks," she says. The products are sold to hotels, gyms and spas and are available at stores such as Whole Foods, Kroger, Safeway, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and in health food stores across the country, in Canada and Japan. They are also available at EO Exchange, the company's retail outlet in Mill Valley, where Griffin-Black lives. Evolution of an entrepreneur Griffin-Black attributes the strong entrepreneurial spirit she shares with her two sisters (including Leslie Goldberg, owner of Mill Valley's Tamalpie) to her father, a retired hospital administrator who moved to California in 1995 at the age of 82 to start a vineyard in Paso Robles. "He was naturally intellectually curious and always ahead of his time," she says. "He was very keen on us being independent, meeting our potential and figuring out our unique strengths and paths. By the time she was 22 years old, Griffin- Black was already an entrepreneur with two clothing stores in her native Pennsylvania under her belt. She moved to New York where she became a clothing designer and moved again to San Francisco in the 1990s where she opened her eponymous clothing store on fashionable Sutter Street. Ultimately, she went to work Photos of Susan Griffin- Black and EO products at right by Susan Adler Photography. Photo above of Susan and Shannon McDonough at EO offices by Stuart Lirette. Above: Susan Griffin-Black and Shannon McDonough at the EO offices in San Rafael. Susan designs her packaging with recycling in mind to using recycled plastic for EO bottles, and biodegradable packaging. Right: EO prides itself on products that are cruelty free as well as synthetic-, GMO- and gluten-free. >>

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