{"id":30234,"date":"2017-10-06T16:06:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T20:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?p=30234"},"modified":"2017-10-09T10:24:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T14:24:39","slug":"karen-totino-creates-company-promoting-healthy-living-inside-peoples-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/10\/karen-totino-creates-company-promoting-healthy-living-inside-peoples-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"Karen Totino Creates Company Promoting Healthy Living Inside Of People\u2019s Homes"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_30235\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30235\" style=\"width: 190px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-30235\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/10\/karen-totino-vc-190x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"190\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/10\/karen-totino-vc-190x300.jpg 190w, https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/10\/karen-totino-vc.jpg 432w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 190px) 100vw, 190px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30235\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Karen Totino is the owner of Green Conscience, 33 Church St., Saratoga Springs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">By Maureen Werther<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">While there may be some disagreement about the exact definitions of \u201cwork\u201d and \u201centrepreneurship.\u201d But one thing seems certain: one can\u2019t be a successful entrepreneur without also putting in the work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Karen Totino, owner of Green Conscience, 33 Church St., Saratoga Springs, said she always knew she wanted to help people, which is why she chose a career in occupational therapy. But she always felt she had an entrepreneurial streak. She just didn\u2019t know where to go with it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Until she had her \u201ca-ha\u201d moment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Having children made her begin to question what she was putting in their young bodies and what kinds of toxins and other harmful things were part of their environment. She identified a problem and developed a business that would address it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI live in the town of Milton, and one day I noticed that all the storm drains had signs on them which said, \u2018Discharges to Creek.\u2019 I realized that all the chemicals people use to grow green lawns were being washed into our beautiful streams and creeks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><!--more-->She contacted the stormwater coordinator for Saratoga County and learned that the problem of pollution due to runoff was huge. By that evening, she made up her mind what she was going to do and told her husband, \u201cHoney, I\u2019m starting an organic lawn care company.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">In her first year, Totino had 11 clients. Within a few years, business grew. But a compression fracture from an automobile accident caused her to take stock once again. As she became comfortable owning a business, she realized that her real talents lay in educating people about their environment She also learned that, while exterior environments are important to health and well-being, internal environments are more polluted. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Toxins from carpet glue, flooring, wall coverings and bedding materials all contribute to creating a toxic stew of which many people are unaware. Or they aren\u2019t sure where to begin to make changes and where to go to find solutions. Totino decided to mover her business indoors. A few months later, Green Conscience opened for business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">That was almost nine years ago, and Totino<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>continues to learn about what makes a successful business and what new challenges are<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>around every corner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Today, Green Conscience is a showroom for furniture, flooring, and bedding materials that are eco-friendly and non-toxic. As she continues to promote the benefits of \u201cgreen living,\u201d Totino deals with multiple challenges. One of them is the continued pressures on a \u201cbrick and mortar\u201d store to compete with online shopping. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt means so much when people choose to do business with a small local shop. Those dollars stay in the community and help other businesses to grow,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"> She realizes the amount of risk involved with having a storefront, but remains passionate about educating people and helping them improve the quality of their lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The other challenge for a business like Green Conscience is that some people may hesitate to enter her store because they feel they might be judged for not doing enough to be \u201cgreen.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI am by no means perfect and my life isn\u2019t perfectly \u2018green,\u2019\u201d said Totino, adding that the last thing she wants is for people to feel judged when they enter her store. But for those who do enter, the feeling of relief when they realize that effecting positive change is a \u201cprocess,\u201d and not something that happens immediately is empowering to many.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cPeople are so glad when they realize we are all just doing the best we can and making incremental changes in our lives to affect our health and well-being for the better,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maureen Werther While there may be some disagreement about the exact definitions of \u201cwork\u201d and \u201centrepreneurship.\u201d But one thing seems certain: one can\u2019t be a successful entrepreneur without also putting in the work. Karen Totino, owner of Green Conscience, 33 Church St., Saratoga Springs, said she always knew she wanted to help people, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":30235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurial-women"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Karen Totino Creates Company Promoting Healthy Living Inside Of People\u2019s Homes - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/10\/karen-totino-creates-company-promoting-healthy-living-inside-peoples-homes\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Karen Totino Creates Company Promoting Healthy Living Inside Of People\u2019s Homes - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Maureen Werther While there may be some disagreement about the exact definitions of \u201cwork\u201d and \u201centrepreneurship.\u201d But one thing seems certain: one can\u2019t be a successful entrepreneur without also putting in the work. Karen Totino, owner of Green Conscience, 33 Church St., Saratoga Springs, said she always knew she wanted to help people, which [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/10\/karen-totino-creates-company-promoting-healthy-living-inside-peoples-homes\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-06T20:06:36+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-09T14:24:39+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/10\/karen-totino-vc.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"432\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"681\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/10\/karen-totino-creates-company-promoting-healthy-living-inside-peoples-homes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/10\/karen-totino-creates-company-promoting-healthy-living-inside-peoples-homes\/\",\"name\":\"Karen Totino Creates Company Promoting Healthy Living Inside Of People\u2019s Homes - 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