Big Medicine, Nfp dba Green Element Resale

The mission of Big Medicine, NFP is to promote sustainability and green economics education by operating a thrift resale shop as a funding source and a dual purpose. When the general public donates and buys resale items they are participating in GREATLY slowing down the environmental degradation that is the result of resource extraction including mining, logging, and harmful pesticides used in toxic conventional production of cotton, etc. Air, water, ground water, soil, food, human health, wildlife, & wildlife habitat are all also greatly helped by reducing virgin resource extractions. Landfill and incineration are also greatly reduced when many of our donors who may have procrastinated and missed being able to get on the schedule of the bigger thrift resale companies, are able to call us for a quick response instead of haul off services, which are also very environmentally unsustainable and ecologically destructive. People in a bind on time are often more than half of our donors – it is the who and the why of how we came to exist, because of our ability to be nimble and flexible to accommodate their donation pickup requests. Founded in 2004 Big Medicine, NFP promotes prescriptions for a sustainable planet through highlighting sustainable practices and market aware solutions via our website, community discussions, and daily conversations. Starting in 2010 we began operating and maintaining a brick and mortar thrift resale shop where our team sources, protects, moves, transports, repairs, restores, sorts out resalable from non-resalable items, maintains, displays, sells, & delivers furniture. We pick up furniture and other donations from all over Chicago land including from downtown high rises and huge mansions of the north shore suburbs, and so many points in between.

It's a crime against humanity and our shared earth that 80% of furniture ends up in landfill or inci

Goal One: Educate more people through awareness of our resale shop and website

Goal Two: Bring on more interns to further our reach

Goal Three: figure out how to obtain more retail space - because we have been bursting at the seams for years now, unable to take in all that is being offered to us continuously

We have figured out how to give our people more flexible schedules so that they can go to college or pursue higher paying possibilities in other fields of their choosing - we would love to pay more to keep people but we are constrained by the economics of having to make revenues off of sales - we do not have the luxury of grants, $ donations, endowments, bequeaths, etc. Still though, we have been able to increase the wages of all of our staff that are mid managers - increase ranges 38 to 40K

Adapting to wearing masks as often as possible while moving future was no easy task, for sure - but we did as the state of Illinois required We didn't love it, but we did it - we deserve extra credit for that one.