Nicole Doucet
Co-Founder and CEO, Green Sheep Water
Plastic water bottles may be convenient, but they′re not the best choice for the environment. Reusable bottles are ideal, but how many of us remember to take them along before running out for the day? Enter Green Sheep Water, the first company to solve the problem of finding environmentally friendly water on the go with a bottle created out of 100 percent recyclable aluminum. (Two other reasons Green Sheep rocks? They source their materials solely from the United States and give 5 percent of their profits back to Water.org, a non-profit that delivers clean water where it is needed.) Nicole Doucet and co-founder Jess Page came up with the idea in 2009 after watching a documentary about the environmental problem plastic poses. The product was introduced in 2014 and, soon after, began spreading like wildfire in Chicago, where it currently can be found at almost 100 retailers. The two not only want to build on that distribution, but also add some new products to the brand in the future. Those looking to build a similar kind of success would do well to follow the lessons these two have learned in their time as eco-conscious entrepreneurs: “Be patient and work with people who are smart and as passionate about the product as you are,“ says Doucet.
