Environmental Excellence Award

2019 Winner: The Refill Shoppe

The Refill Shoppe is an eco-awesome bath store making a difference one bottle at a time since 2010. Born & bred right here in Ventura, The Refill Shoppe is an early pioneer of the ever popular (for good reason) zero-waste industry. Always striving for innovation while diligently working to live up to the idea behind the scenes makes The Refill Shoppe an eco-emporium for the modern day. Not to mention all the thoughtful, personalized, practical & eco-friendly gifts they offer for those wishing to shop local.

Upon completing the rigorous ’B Corp’ certification in 2015 The Refill Shoppe declared their official benefit as ‘enabling and encouraging individuals to use less single-use & live more sustainably.’ In addition to offering over fifty unique (and often customizable) bath, body, home & cleaning products in bulk, the shoppe offers loads of vetted reusable swaps & earth friendly everyday items. Simply put, The Refill Shoppe works to make eco easy & efficient. Most recently that has meant developing an innovative ‘Subscription’ service that ships custom-scented, near zero-waste refills all over the country.

Through their commitment to 1% For the Planet, The Refill Shoppe has donated over $20,000 to environmental non-profits including many local organizations such as the Ventura Land Trust, the LosPadres ForestWatch, the local Surfrider chapter & the California Wilderness Coalition. And very recently with the help of the City of Ventura Environmental Sustainability Division, The Refill Shoppe became the very first ’Innovator Tier’ Certified Green Business in Ventura! To become an Innovator Business, the Refill Shoppe had to show leadership as a green business steward and mentor, exceeded 90% waste diversion, showed influential business innovations to propel our community towards sustainability, and implemented practices to promote social equity and sustainability that met B Corp Certification standards.

Founder Michelle credits her early exposure to nature, loving family and supportive community for the inspiration to continue ever onward.