Leading green execs: Yolo Colorhouse

Janie Lowe and Virginia Young’s creativity and a company-wide commitment to environmental responsibility have helped differentiate the Yolo Colorhouse brand in the $82 billion global paint industry. A unique blend of commitment to environmentally sound products, beautiful color palettes and good design caught the attention of the consumer press early on, gaining Portland-based Yolo exposure in high-profile magazines such as Dwell, Sunset, Architectural Record, and Metropolitan Home.

Growing awareness and stricter regulations on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have brought more customers to Yolo’s door. “When we first launched, people didn’t know what a VOC was, and now it’s part of the vocabulary, definitely on both coasts and more in middle of the country now too,” Lowe explains.

Recently, the Yolo founders have seen an increase in both competition and opportunities. Home Depot (NYSE: HD) launched its Freshaire Choice brand of low-VOC paints in 2008, and most of the major paint companies, including Sherman-Williams, Benjamin Moore and Kelly-Moore, now offer low- and zero-VOC options. “As the bigger guys get press, we tend to be mentioned as well because we were here first,” says Young. “It’s good exposure for us.”

Yolo has a few things going for it that its bigger competitors do not, thanks in large part to the art background of its founders. “Our color palette, our color help services, the poster-size color samples, our design kits—those all come with a lot of information that helps people feel confident in their color choice,” Lowe explains. “And, if customers dig a little deeper, they find out more about the company behind the product and that’s where we can really show our stuff,” adds Young.

Every decision at Yolo stems from a commitment to environmental responsibility, according to Young and Lowe, who cite the company’s use of 100 percent recycled plastic cans, Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood paint sticks, sustainable materials for displays and marketing materials and hand-painted color samples to reduce waste as examples.

“The authenticity of our brand is tough to beat,” Lowe says. “We started this from the ground up being a green company, not just offering one green product within a whole line of other things. Since we started fresh, we had the chance to make all those good decisions from the beginning.”