Gay Browne

Gay Browne, creator of Greenopia: The Urban Dweller’s Guide to Green Living, was inspired to build a healthy, eco-friendly home after her first child was diagnosed with autism-related learning disabilities due to toxic environmental influences. She has proved that it was possible to make the switch to a healthy, green lifestyle without sacrificing quality or efficiency.

In 1994, Browne built the first green home in her Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades community and began the journey that eventually gave rise to the Greenopia guides. Founded in 2005, Greenopia has developed guides for Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, with New York City in the works and plans underway for a 20-city rollout that includes Seattle, Portland, and Chicago among others. There are also plans to expand Greenopia’s web presence to create a local green community where consumers can browse Greenopia’s listings, buy and rate green products, share other products that they find, learn about living green, and much more.

With exhaustively researched, non-paid listings, Greenopia provides consumers with a resource for where to find a wide range of local green businesses, services and organizations for metropolitan cities. Gay has also created a unique, easy-to-understand Green Leaf award system that rates the level of organic and sustainable products that a listed company provides to the consumer.

Before launching Greenopia, Browne enjoyed a successful 15-year career in advertising and public relations with various publishing companies including American Express Publishing and Times Mirror.