As I spent hours riding through S. Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota, getting bored by the flat, straight roads and corn fields with occasional highlights of rural wind farms, I thought a lot about what makes Small Dog Electronics different. I am very fortunate that Hapy and I are on the same page as we measure the success of our venture by the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit.

When Hapy and I started Small Dog Electronics, it was both because we had discovered that we could not work for anyone else (so we had to roll our own jobs), and that we wanted to demonstrate that a business can be more than simply a money machine.

We have described before how we measure success by using the triple bottom line of socially responsible businesses — People, Planet and Profit — in equal measures. Early in my business career, I learned that profit was the key to being able to make meaningful change and achieve our goals for People and Planet, however, even in the hardest times, we have maintained the commitment to be a different kind of business.

As you know, we speak out on issues that are important to us and our “*Charitable Contribution Program*”:http://www.smalldog.com/charity/smalldog-com-charity includes donation matching, where we match customers’ contributions to featured, diverse non-profit groups. We concentrate our efforts and funds in the following areas:

* Women’s rights
* Human rights
* Relieving Hunger
* Protecting the Environment
* Gay & Lesbian Rights
* Dog Welfare

We have also been leaders in recognizing the important task of keeping electronic waste out of our landfills. We have held numerous eWaste collection events and I am pretty sure we are still the only electronics retailer that can claim to have recycled more electronics than we have sold (is that a good thing?). Our solar array at our headquarters here in Waitsfield, Vermont provides 100% of the electricity for our S. Burlington store and about 80% for our offices and warehouse here. We have an electric truck to ferry goods from warehouse-to-store and have regular discussions on how we can further reduce our carbon footprint.

There is so much more that we would like to do both for the world we live in and for our employees, vendors and community. We are very proud to measure our success not solely on the number of dollar bills on the table but also upon who we are, what we do, and of course, how much fun we have!

Despite the heat wave we are currently experiencing, I am seeing the signs of summer’s departure become more evident each day and as much as I love fall, I am just not ready to say goodbye just yet.

It has been a goal of mine to do more camping this summer and working at Small Dog has only fueled that desire. With all of the cool outdoor gear from companies such as “**LifeProof**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=LifeProof, “**Outdoor Tech**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Outdoor+Tech and “**Goal Zero**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Goal+Zero, I just want to try it all. This week, I was feeling extra ambitious and decided to take an overnight camping trip to “**Lake Willoughby**”:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Willoughby for my birthday. Due to the spontaneity of the trip I found that I was grossly unprepared, and going through the camping essentials checklist, I was coming up short. I was lucky to find a small store nearby with things such as hotdogs, water and even firewood. All that I needed for the quick trip were the basics: tent, sleeping bag and lantern. With the tent and sleeping bag covered, all that was left to get was a lantern or light source of some sort to carry around the camp site. That’s when I remembered the “**Torch 250 from Goal Zero**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/86294/goal-zero-torch-250-flashlight-backup-battery-solar-recharging. I had been wanting to try this lantern/flashlight/backup battery tool for a while now and this served as the perfect opportunity to do so.

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Being that this venture was on a weekday and about an hour and half away from home, I wasn’t able to arrive at the ideal time and ended up getting there around 6:30pm. This gave me enough time to set up camp but it was just late enough for it to start getting dark in the cover of the trees. It was not long before I was using the Torch 250 as my lantern, preparing “dinner” and getting my sleeping arrangement together with plenty of light (250 lumens). As I was winding down for the night by the fire, I was flipping through the photos that I took that day on my iPhone and was prompted that I had less than 20% battery left. Normally, I would not be too upset with replacing the glow of the screen with the glow of the fire but in this case, I needed my iPhone to wake me up at 6am for work. After a little bit of stressing, I remembered that the Torch was also designed to charge devices such as my iPhone and was there to save me again. I grabbed my Lightning Cable, plugged into the Torch, and by the morning I was up for work with 100% battery.

Though this camping trip was just an overnighter, next time I would love to really put the Torch to the real test on a multi-day trip. One of its most unique features is its many ways to recharge its lithium battery. Designed with a solar panel on top, foldable hand crank on the side and integrated USB charging cable, you can recharge in virtually any situation.

Looking at the calendar, Labor Day is right around the corner and there is still plenty of time to gear up for the last hurrah. Swing by any of our locations and ask about a “**250 Torch by Goal Zero**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/86294/goal-zero-torch-250-flashlight-backup-battery-solar-for your recharging needs today. It’s awesome!

_Dear Friends,_

It is definitely my year for apples! After years of trying to grow apples, my trees are loaded and I’ve been grazing the mini orchard each day after work. It must have been the lack of a late spring frost that helped me out. We had a glorious trip out to S. Dakota with a major assist once we got there from Small Dog customer, Bonnie London who got us into the VIP section at Buffalo Chip so I could have my hearing totally destroyed by Def Leppard. But it was a great time with awesome riding in the Black Hills and the Badlands. We ended up logging over 4700 miles in the 2 weeks.

We did end up in Chicago for a couple days on the way back and we got to catch a Cubs win over the Brewers. We grabbed some nice seats behind the Cubs dugout and for the first time I caught a foul ball that was sky high. I caught it in my bare hands and got a bunch of high-fives. I gave the ball to a young girl sitting nearby and it made her day as much as catching it made mine.

We used our iOS devices a lot on the trip from planning out routes to finding hotels to stay at on the road but still my favorite “killer” app for my Apple Watch is Apple Pay. While I have used Apple Pay with my iPhone, the watch makes it so easy and is the way it should be. No more struggling to get my iPhone out of my pocket, just tap and hold the watch to the terminal and bingo I have paid for my groceries or that Vente iced Black Eye at Starbucks.

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes Exclusive features the 11-inch MacBook Air. This Apple Certified factory refurbished MacBook Air has a 1-year Apple Warranty, just like new machines. We are bundling it with the AppleCare Protection Plan that provides 3 years of warranty and technical support and with SafeWare accidental damage coverage for those 3 years as well. This bundle normally sells for $1599. The MacBook Air comes with 4GB of ram and a 256GB SSD drive. This week for Kibbles & Bytes readers the “*Factory Refurbished 11-inch MacBook Air with AppleCare and SafeWare protection is only $1499*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001931/special-save-100-on-macbook-air-safeware-applecare-bundle!