ABC Carpet & Home

Web site
New York
Revenue: $80 million (for ABC Home)
Employees: 262 (for ABC Home)

ABC Home, along with sister enterprise ABC Carpet, were born out of three generations of carpet businesses in Manhattan. Today the company has several stores across metro New York and outposts in Delray Beach, Fla., and at Harrod's in London. ABC Home CEO Paulette Cole—whose great-grandfather Sam and Pescha Weinrib began selling carpets from a street cart in 1897—rejoined the business in 2003 to recast it as a socially conscious company. "We made a very conscious decision to take a left turn," she says. Her new strategy sounds simple enough: "To use business and beauty to effect change in the world." ABC partnered with the Rainforest Alliance, and its staff traveled the world asking suppliers where they were sourcing their wood. Other changes included using nontoxic cleansers and protecting furniture with blankets instead of disposable packaging. Now, ABC carries 650 pieces of so-called "good wood" furniture, and about 30% of its sales are of products that are both eco-friendly and made by indigenous artisans. Says Cole, "When there is an agenda to the product, it makes the investment and the purchase so much fuller. We really believe we are an antidote to empty consumerism."