MassLive, November 29, 2017, by Jim Kinney
Real Pickles, a Greenfield worker-owned cooperative, buys 300,000 pounds of local organic vegetables each year and uses solar energy from rooftop panels to turn them into 300,000 jars of pickles, kimchi, kraut, beets and other fermented foods.
That’s how Real Pickles earned one of five 2017 Sustainable Business of the Year Awards from the Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts. With 22 employees, Real Pickles is a winner in the small business category for Western Massachusetts.
This is the third annual Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts awards. The ceremony is Dec. 14 in Somerville.
PeoplesBank, headquartered in Holyoke, won in the category of midsize business for Western Massachusetts.
Equal Exchange, a fair trade, worker-owned food cooperative headquartered in West Bridgewater, won in the category of midsized business in Eastern Massachusetts.
Preserve, of Waltham, which takes in recyclable plastic and makes consumer products including toothbrushes, razors and kitchenware, won as a seasoned, or established, small business in Eastern Massachusetts.
Bon Me, an Asian food truck in Cambridge with sustainable business practices, won in the category of budding small business-Eastern Massachusetts.