From garage startup to community staple: Greener Good opens new ‘creative reuse hub’ in Arlington Heights

Amanda Moller can hardly believe the business she co-founded with her mom in her garage nearly seven years ago has grown tenfold.

Now, Moller and her mother, Beth Parsons, have shifted their operation — Greener Good — into a newly purchased 4,400-square-foot space at 935 E. Rand Road in Arlington Heights.

Greener Good is an environmentally-friendly, one-stop shop for every Chicago-area artist looking for supplies and hands-on workshops.

The business uses the “creative reuse” model, where the store acquires arts and crafts supplies, such as fabric, yarn and art supplies through donations, and sells them to customers at a more affordable cost “to make being creative better,” Moller explained.

Greener Good also hosts interactive workshops for the community. Some popular events include sewing, knitting, junk journaling, jewelry-making and mending.

The store’s reopening faced zoning issues, delaying the date by months. Moller has now set a tentative reopening date for June 17.

They will also celebrate with a “Grand Reopening” on June 27, featuring arts and crafts demos, raffles and custom Greener Good T-shirts, if all goes as planned with the village.

Moller and Parsons were inspired to launch the business in 2019 by the award-winning, Addison-based environmental advocacy group SCARCE. As the business became more popular, it had to keep finding larger accommodations.

“Our goal is reducing waste in the community, first and foremost, (and) keeping things that are still useful in use that are in the creative and school supply of things,” Moller said.

Moller also cited the high cost of supplies that teachers spend out-of-pocket every year for their classroom. She noted one of the missions of Greener Good is to help those teachers acquire low-cost supplies for students who may not have them.

Last year alone, about 110 teachers came to Greener Good to get free supplies, which amounted to around $8,000 worth of materials, Moller said.

“This is just a backdoor, secondary effort,” she said. “They can come here and get those materials for free.”

For some schools, like Winston Campus Middle School in Palatine, Greener Good has turned into a close partner. Melissa Teuscher, a teacher at the school, first connected with the business about six years ago when she was looking for a place to donate books.

Since then, she has championed the business, and is a frequent Greener Good customer.

Teuscher said she keeps coming back because of the business’ work preventing landfill overflow, promoting sustainability and offering low-price, reusable products.

“Whether you’re a new teacher who needs everything or a veteran, like myself, just being able to go there and get supplies at a discounted price and feeling good about it, it’s really a one-of-a-kind place,” she said. “It’s just awesome.”

Moller said she is also looking forward to possible new customer perks at Greener Good, such as a membership for discounts on classes and craft items, and open studio time for customers to use supplies and tools.

To her, everything Greener Good accomplished would not have been possible without the “amazing” support from the volunteers and customers.

“I definitely have had my shared moments of tears welling up because this has happened so fast,” Moller said. “It’s hard to believe we’ve been able to do this.”