You’re excused if you didn’t have April 22 highlighted on your calendar. While there’s much talk about sustainability and eco-friendliness these days, very little of it revolves around Earth Day, which began in 1970 with great fanfare but has slowly receded from the consciousness of the American consumer.

Which is why GreenRow, the sustainable-centric brand launched by Williams-Sonoma in 2023, is a fascinating anomaly in the retail marketplace. If all of the next-gen customers who tell survey takers they want to shop at retailers who focus on sustainability in fact do so, then GreenRow should be enormously successful.

As Williams-Sonoma starts to max out on the number of stores it can successfully operate under its Pottery Barn and West Elm brands, GreenRow gives it another brand on which to stake its growth. It began as an online-only venture, but has recently stepped things up, opening its first store on Howard Street in downtown Manhattan. The SoHo location seems particularly inspiring as it is steps from Roman and Williams Guild, one of the most notable home design stores in the city.

The move seems to indicate that Williams-Sonoma believes it is on to something. While the conglomerate has not announced any other stores, nor said how many it would eventually want, as a corporation, it has started opening more stores again after a period in which it downplayed their importance versus online.

The company did not comment for this story, but at GreenRow’s inception, Williams-Sonoma CEO Laura Alber said that by using its existing sourcing and product development departments, “we were able to develop a new brand that addresses white space within the aesthetic of our portfolio and embraces our unwavering commitment to sustainability.” GreenRow vice president Jaimee Seabury, who led the brand’s development two years ago, added at the time: “We committed to utilizing sustainable manufacturing practices and teaching our customers how to care for our products in order to ensure their longevity.”

Of the brick-and-mortar play, Seabury now says: “The new store creates the opportunity for us to showcase our assortment and tell the stories behind each GreenRow product in a more tactile, immersive way—allowing customers to experience the craftsmanship behind each piece.”

This month, GreenRow is also hosting what is essentially a showhouse in the community of Serenbe, a planned development about 45 minutes south of Atlanta that has a strong eco-friendly pedigree, a working farm, and a decided focus on wellness in its marketing. It’s the second time the brand has worked with a development on what it calls a hospitality project, having previously worked with the Northern California resort Nick’s Cove to redesign guest cottages.

The project involves furnishing one of the several guest cottages operated by the Inn at Serenbe. Called the GreenRow Lake House, it “reimagines the resort’s signature four-bedroom lakefront cottage to provide guests with an immersive experience of the sustainable home furnishing brand’s heirloom quality furniture and vintage inspired designs,” according to a press release.

In addition to incorporating a selection of furniture, textiles, lighting and decor, the property makes good on the brand’s eco-conscious promise. “By utilizing GreenRow’s responsibly sourced materials and artisan-crafted textiles and furnishings, every element of the Lake House has been considered with both environmental impact and guest experience in mind,” the statement continues. Adds Seabury, “GreenRow and Serenbe share a commitment to sustainability and a passion for celebrating nature through design.”

Though the company is not saying if more such projects are in the works, one has to imagine it will probably look for other tie-ins with similar developments.

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Warren Shoulberg is the former editor in chief for several leading B2B publications. He has been a guest lecturer at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business; received honors from the International Furnishings and Design Association and the Fashion Institute of Technology; and been cited by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other media as a leading industry expert. His Retail Watch columns offer deep industry insights on major markets and product categories.