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Jerome Alicki
Marketing and Customer Service,
Industrial Woodworking Co., Knu Furniture
Writer and creator, Black Bear Speaks
Location: Riverside Park, Grand Rapids
How does a staunch environmentalist come to work in marketing for a manufacturing company? Jerome Alicki didn’t think it was possible to mesh the two worlds, but his epiphany came when he discovered Industrial Woodworking Company, a Zeeland-based furniture maker focused on sustainable practices and products. “You can’t do good business without a healthy environment. We’re a wood products company. We manufacture furniture day in and day out, and we need a healthy supply of materials. We need a healthy ecosystem to grow these products, to keep these jobs going.” But he knows not all companies think like IWC, and he’s not afraid to expose their wrongdoings on his blog, Black Bear Speaks, which he started as part of a dare from a lifelong friend. As a John Ball Zoo School alum who went on to study journalism and ecology at the University of Oregon, he matched his writing ability with his scientific knowledge to be able to speak with credibility. “I try to be informative and educational. This is what I’m reading about and studying. This is what I know, and I hope everyone else realizes this is important.”
A gathering of the week’s sustainable business news powered by the editors of MiBiz sent every Tuesday.
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