Sound good?
Add that it is biodegradable and won’t contribute more plastic to the oceans and landfills. Designed to last many years, the mug is manufactured through a patented process using rice husks, starch and heat activation.
New Topaz Ranch Estates resident Deborah Chang was inspired to develop her biodegradable mug after reading “The Green Collar Economy” by Vann Jones. The book pushed her to think of ways to create eco-friendly alternatives to petroleum-based products and at the same time produce new jobs, particularly in rural America.
Chang is president of Equity Incites and is owner of Adaptive Appalachia, a company she and her disabled wife, Carla, established to produce products for people with disabilities. One of their products is a cane that enables Carla to pick up trash, retrieve dropped keys and play with their two dogs.
Chang and Carla recently moved here from San Francisco. Chang founded the company Sage Sierra in Wellington to take advantage of Nevada’s business-friendly environment and tax benefits. Though the cups are now made in China, she is hoping to soon locate her production facilities in the state and obtain rice husks from farms in Northern California.
“While my company and inventory is now in Nevada and the cups will be sold and distributed from Northern Nevada, unfortunately it will probably take a couple of years at least for me to raise enough capital to start a new manufacturing factory to make the cups here,” Chang said.
The hope is, she said, to employ people who are now left out of the work force through disabilities and others, such as displaced miners, former prisoners and farmers, while at the same time help the environment.
The 14-ounce Sierra Sage travel mug has a leak-resistant silicone lid and grip. It retails for $14.95, although the mug is now on sale for $10.95 plus shipping and can be ordered at sage-sierra.com.
Chang is making plans to sell the mug online through Walmart and Amazon. For information about the mug or the company’s goals, she can be reached at deborah@equityincites.com in Wellington.
REFS
Published on recordcourier.com