Mohonk Mountain House, a 265-room resort styled after a Victorian castle, has anything but a Victorian view of modern environmental concerns. The resort, which is located 90 miles North of New York City, has long been a lover of nature. Founder Albert K. Smiley demonstrated his inspiration by natural beauty by expanding the original few struggling wildflowers tucked away on the property’s 7,500 acres in 1869 into the current award-winning gardens. Here, visitors can walk among orchids, begonias, peonies, and fuchsias, as well as ornamental grasses, herb collections, rock gardens, and a butterfly garden.

“My great-grand-uncle understood the need to provide guests with an opportunity to experience nature directly,” says Mohonk’s President Albert K. Smiley III in a press release. “People today have little free time, so it’s increasingly important to provide a place where our guests can easily connect with a strikingly beautiful natural environment and immediately feel nurtured by that connection.”

Posted by Sascha Zuger on Jun 20, 2007 at 11:29 AM
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Build-A-Bear Workshop quickly grew from its original St. Louis location in 1997 into a stuffed empire of more than 275 stores today. To celebrate the 10th anniversary, Build-A-Bear Workshop founder Maxine Clark has launched several new charitable programs. One of her goals is to help the national forests grow as successfully as her teddy bear making business.

“Our guests come to Build-A-Bear Workshop to make friendships through their furry friends,” said Clark in a press release. “And we know they also want a friendly environment. What better way to create one than to build forests around the world, especially in areas where trees are a scarce commodity.”  

The initial “Friendship Forest” will include the company’s donation of 10,000 trees to be planted with the help of the Arbor Day Foundation in the US, Canada, and the UK. In addition to the donation, the Friendship Forest program will be present in all of the retail stores where customers will be encouraged to make a nominal donation ($1) to have a tree planted in honor of a friend or loved one. Customers will then receive a certificate detailing the gift.

Currently, the program has netted donations of 66,119 trees in the US, 5,752 in Canada, and 9,892 through private purchase of the certificates. Added to the initial Build-A-Bear Workshop donation of 10,000, this brings the total to 91,763.

The company is further encouraging the participation of its associates by announcing a company challenge for an additional 6,500 associate-donated trees, which Build-A-Bear will then match.

The proposed locations for replanting within the United States are the Huron-Manistee National Forest in Michigan, the Sequoia National Forest in California and the home of the grizzlies, Flathead National Forest in Montana. The planting will start the season after the campaign. At that time, specific recipients of the replanting will be finalized based on need.

“Build-A-Bear Workshop’s commitment will have a tremendous impact in national forests that are in desperate need of replanting,” said John Rosenow, president of the Arbor Day Foundation. “Donations made by the Build-A-Bear Workshop Foundation, Build-A-Bear Workshop, its customers and associates will help restore wildlife habitat, clean the air, protect the soil and waterways and restore national forests in three countries for people to enjoy for generations to come.” 

Posted by Sascha Zuger on Jun 13, 2007 at 10:12 AM
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Longtime energy bar producer, CLIF Bar, has always left a small footprint on the environment by opting for organic ingredients, improving packaging to reduce waste, using recycled products, and recycling/composting more than 80 percent of the waste generated at their headquarters.  

The Berkeley-based company is now putting its own unflagging (and renewable!) energy into teaching musicians and touring bands how to scale back their effect on the environment while on the road. The company’s CLIF GreenNotes program continues to add new artists to their roster as the movement gains popularity. The first step for incoming bands or solo performers is an environmental assessment to find areas of greatest waste or eco-damage done in the process of their typical tour process.

Gomez, the inaugural band to join, made changes like reducing the idling time of their new bio diesel-fueled tour bus and using soy-based inks for written materials.

Guster powered their recent Campus Consciousness Tour with wind power and other renewable energy.

Xavier Rudd is launching a Better People Campaign as part of the CLIF GreenNotes program. Modeled after a musical tribute to all the people in the world working to improve things, the campaign will encourage and inspire people to join together and support programs and ideas that will make a positive difference.

Newest arrivals to the group are O.A.R. who request organic food backstage and provide organic cotton options for fans interesting in promotional and souvenir items.

Hot Buttered Rum have been working toward using environmentally sustainable practices since meeting on a backpacking trip in the High Sierra Mountains years ago. They fuel their tour bus, in part, with recycled vegetable oil and are outspoken advocates of the alternative fuel movement.

Garret Brennan contributes to CLIF GreenNotes in a more direct manner through the environmental message in his storytelling and songs and donation of a percentage of his sales to the Organic Farming Research Foundation in Santa Cruz, California.

Martin Sexton reduces tour waste by recycling on the bus and at the venues, as well as staying at hotels identified as environmentally sustainable.

The John Butler Trio have long been promoting social and environmental activism, creating the John Butler Seed art grant which assists numerous artists with their projects and offsetting the tour's CO2 emissions by purchasing NativeEnergy renewable wind energy credits.

Curious about what you can do to put a dent in CO2 emissions? CLIF BAR has suggestions for you, too.

Posted by Sascha Zuger on Jun 8, 2007 at 12:46 PM
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When two women took over Nettle Meadow Goat Farm and Cheese Factory in the southern Adirondacks and put up the sign, “Happy Goats – Great Cheese,” neighboring farmers laughed. A tour of the picturesque farm yields a designated retirement home for old milk-goats no longer able to produce, as well as a bachelor pad that houses the male goats born on the farm. The pampered goats—all 120 are called by their individual name—munch on organic feed made up of garlic, kelp, and wild raspberry branches.

Determined to keep from the slaughterhouse the young males they bottle fed by hand as babies, owners Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan allow the goats to roam the land until they can find a good home as a pet or 4H project. Nettle Meadow’s no-kill policy even extends to the wolves and coyotes that threaten the herd. Finding the idea of shooting the intruders repugnant, they hired a top-of-the-line security force—a trio of no nonsense llamas.

To outsiders, it probably seemed unlikely that a business that spoils its goats so and ladles (as opposed to drains, which is less time consuming) the product to protect the architecture of the curds, could survive. But, Nettle Meadow farm’s unique organic Kunik cheese was recently listed by the celebrated Murray’s Cheese as one of the World’s Best 300 Cheeses and is featured in many top New York City restaurants.

Posted by Sascha Zuger on Jun 8, 2007 at 12:13 PM
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