After almost six years in business as a ground-breaking retailer of environmentally conscious building materials, Green Sacramento is closing its doors on February fifth. Founder Josh Daniels explained reasons for closing, “it’s the economy (that) would be the easiest answer. We’ve also seen a round of closures of green building stores for the same reason nationally. He said the construction industry in and around Sacramento has been depressed and no relief was imminent. The closing sale is Friday and Saturday from 11 AM to 4 PM at its location in the Green Living Center at 919 20th Street in Midtown. Daniels says Green Sacramento still has in stock “paint, primer, cleaning products, w

 Josh Daniels spent his summer trying to survive.  Green Sacramento, his business that specializes in environmentally-sustainable home improvement products, was teetering on the brink of collapse. "It was a crazy summer," he said.  The precipitous decline in the regional housing market and the collapse of the global financial system formed a noxious combination that was difficult to overcome. With community support, however, Daniels persevered and Green Sacramento survived its near-death experience.  "I got a lot of local support," he said. "People realized that they didn't want to lose [Green Sacramento]."  Daniels moved his business from H Street to a new location on 20th Street, be

The good news is that sustainable or "green" home construction and remodeling -- and the businesses making it possible -- have been growing in Sacramento. The bad news is that the recession and other factors are making it hard for those businesses to stay afloat. Fledgling businesses that have taken off only within the last few years during a recent green building movement are being threatened by the virtual shutdown of housing projects and a lack of widespread support for ecologically friendly building materials. Businesses like Green Sacramento and GreenBuilt Construction also are suffering due to other types of income loss. "The economy is just taking its toll," said Green Sacramento

When Levi and Jessie Benkert from local development firm LJ Urban decided to leave their Midtown business and pack up their families to start an orphanage in Ethiopia, something had to be done with their workspace until 2010. When Brandon Weber, marketing consultant to LJ Urban, found out about the company's hiatus and downsizing, he wanted to make the warehouse building into a co-working space, and he posted the idea on his blog. Meanwhile, James Pierini and his friend Janna Santoro, who had been working on bringing co-working to Sacramento, were looking for other work-at-home professionals who would be interested in sharing a physical office space, when they came across Weber's blog. Ro