We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Kristian Edwards recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Kristian, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
I am the founder of BLK + GRN and a Public Health professor. I read, “Study: Women of Color Exposed to More Toxic Chemicals in Personal Care Products” by the Environmental Working Group. The article concluded that products marketed to Black people are more toxic than products marketed to every other demographic. I was personally committed to using products that were natural and non-toxic. On this journey, I read the book Our Black Year, which discussed how individuals had a lot of power to uplift Black businesses if they purchased their products. So I modified my list to be natural products by Black-owned companies. However, I had to go to a lot of websites to order the products I wanted and I had to test them for effectiveness. I created BLK + GRN to be an easy one-stop shop to find non-toxic and Black owned products
My mission has and always will be to connect Black women to the tools, resources, knowledge, and products they need to lead happier and healthier lives. I believe that a life free of toxins and all things artificial is a life worth cultivating. My purpose through BLK + GRN is to help Black women do exactly that while also elevating and incubating a group of Black women artisans who otherwise would not have a place to share their stories or their products with the very people they created them for. Since 2017, BLK + GRN has elevated over 150 Black-owned brands and shipped over 18,500 orders of non-toxic products placed on our marketplace. We also launched Retail Ready, a program designed to guide Black women into converting their passion project into a thriving business.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Dr. Kristian Edwards is a graduate of Yale and Johns-Hopkins University, a yogi, and the founder of BLK + GRN – an incubator for Black women entrepreneurs and a marketplace of all-natural personal care products from hair, to skin, to home.
BLK + GRN a 7-figure business has elevated over 100 Black-owned brands since 2017.
BLK + GRN has been featured in Essence, Forbes, Blavity, USA Today, and The New York Times – to name a few.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
As a mission driven company, pitch competitions is how BLK + GRN got access to capital. We have secured $140,000 in grants since opening in 2017.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Being authentic to the community I’m serving – Black women. We serve this community through social entrepreneurship. Solutions to social, cultural, and environmental issues is the core of BLK + GRN.
Black women spend twice as much on personal care products, yet 75% of the products marketed to Black women are formulated with ingredients that are considered toxic and linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and reproductive damage. Black women are looking for higher quality Black-owned products, but there isn’t an easy way to purchase these green products. At BLK + GRN, our marketplace connects Black women with natural lifestyles to high-quality, toxic-free brands. We align the natural green movement with the Buy Black movement by increasing the number of Black women owned products in the marketplace and streamlining access to non toxic personal care products.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.blkgrn.com/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/blkandgrn
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blk-grn
- Youtube: http://YouTube.com/blkandgrn
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/blkgrn/