Welcome to Metro’s Earth Day coverage!
Each Monday until Earth Day, April 22, we will highlight a business owner who is trying to make New York City a greener, more sustainable and healthier place to live.
David Kistner didn’t want toxic fumes seeping into his pregnant wife’s belly.
Kistner, the owner of Green Apple Cleaners, had no plans to delve into dry-cleaning — that is, until he read how-to parenting books that warned against letting his pregnant wife get her clothes dry-cleaned.
“One of them said, ‘Do not let your wife wear dry-cleaned clothes,’” he recalled. But with a Wall Street job, spotless suits were a regular necessity.
With a bit of research, he found that dry-cleaning without toxic fumes was simple — and in fact, liquid CO2 and water give a competitive clean.
But he was shocked to find New York bereft of these facilities.
A familiar sentiment to all small-business owners, he thought: “There’s got to be people like me in this big city that would want this kind of service.”
In 2006, the Bayside resident, 38, opened his first store on Greenwich Avenue; and five years later, the business operates four different locations.
His favorite part of the job? Seeing strollers roll into the shop.
“I know I’ve done my job,” he told Metro.
Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter at @AlisonatMetro.
