Vanderbilt Magazine Profiles The Green Wagon

The Vanderbilt Alumni Magazine highlighted The Green Wagon in their latest issue in an article titled, "Big Ideas for a Small Planet.

Jennifer Casale, owner of The Green Wagon and graduate of Vanderbilt, is interviewed in the feature about living Green.  "The common misconception is that you have to have a lot of money if you're going to buy products that are environmentally friendly."  explains Jennifer.

Jennifer Casale had always been a proponent of good environmental practices, but she never truly appreciated the earth's delicate balance until she lived in the desert. After earning a Vanderbilt degree in English, Casale worked in the music industry for a few years before pursuing a graduate degree in creative writing at the University of Arizona in Tucson. There she took a part-time job teaching elementary students about recycling and water conservation. These young children understood the challenge.

"Water is becoming a critical issue," Casale says. "The environment is so extreme that people who live in the desert are forced to be more aware of how to interact with it and how to survive there."

Soon Casale was informally consulting about ways to be more environmentally conscientious and advising people on where to get organic and planet-friendly products. Although she could find these products, she had to drive all over town to get what she needed. She decided to open a one-stop shopping place for an array of "green" products-an old-fashioned general store for a new generation. She considered Nashville ripe for such a venture, so she returned to her college town and opened The Green Wagon on Murphy Road, only a few miles from Vanderbilt.

Read the rest of the feature at Vanderbilt Magazine Online.