I was at a footwear trade show in Las Vegas a few months back when I was approached by a sales representative from another footwear company who asked me "How 'green' is Pure Juice?' My answer to her was "Pure Juice has always been green."

Our company policy has always favored keeping as small of an environmental 'footprint' as possible. Our warehouse is located within a mile from where we (and our employees) live. The warehouse is lighted most of the time by natural sunlight through skylights in the ceiling. We use cool lighting only when necessary. Our packaging materials are made from recycled cardboard and kept to the very minimum. Incoming packaging materials such as cardboard is reused for large, outgoing shipments or is recycled. We use no wooden pallets and we don't use propane-burning forklifts. All of the paperwork generated by our office staff (which is very little) is either filed or shredded and placed in the recycle bin. We generate little, if any, waste.

We are currently planning to build a large wooden barn on our recently purchased ranch in the pine forests of the San Jacinto Mountains in California. The barn will house our sandal inventory and will be powered entirely by photovoltaic cells that transfer sunlight into electrical power. The barn will be designed using passive and active solar technology and will be fully insulated - requiring very little heating or air conditioning. We will also live on the ranch which will allow us to walk to work. The landscaping will consist of native, drought-resistant plants that use very little water.

The greenest element of the company however, is the product. We feel that by making Pure Juice sandals as durable as we can increases the life span of the product. By doing this, replacement sandals will not be needed as frequently and, as a result; less waste will be absorbed by our already overburdened planet.

We at Pure Juice are proud to be Green. We are also glad to see other companies becoming more and more aware of our collective environmental problems and hope that they become active participants in the caretaking of Planet Earth.