As days get shorter and temperatures sink, it’s an ideal time to take a look at your home garden and start thinking about ways you can increase bloom times next growing season. Growing a pollinator-friendly garden is easy and planning ahead can give you plenty of time to ponder which plants you want to introduce next year and think up new, creative ways to increase blooms to feed next year’s hungry pollinators. Early winter is a great time to reflect on which blooms you had in your home garden throughout the past year and identify any times when blooms could have been increased to support more bees. 

Author Timothy Pina once said, “Philanthropy is not about money…it’s about feeling the pain of others and caring enough about their needs to help.” In other words, philanthropy, to effect real change, must go deeper than throwing funds at the surface of a problem; it must attempt to address the roots of an issue. But how does someone—whether an individual, a small business, or a corporation—find the act of giving that makes sense for them and effects the kind of change they would like to see in the world? 

I sat tucked beneath the juniper tree, my head resting on the pillow of her fibrous bark. I was absently twisting and wrapping the aromatic leaves of a sagebrush around my fingers, each crush igniting fragrant oils into the air. My eyes gazed out across the vast stark white lakebed of the Alvord Desert. The air had begun to cool as the sun migrated closer to the mountain’s edge, preparing for the freezing starlit night. It was here on my very first solo camping trip that I began to contemplate what it means to ‘belong’ and to question why I felt so inextricably disconnected and foreign sitting upon the Earth.

Mountain Rose Herbs has been in a years-long process of shifting our procurement policies steadily away from wild-harvested botanicals. This policy shift is in direct response to the increasing impact of overharvesting on wild stands of some of the most beloved herbs and spices around the world. White sage (Salvia apiana) is one example. In the past few years, white sage has come under a dual attack. The arid regions that are home to wild stands of Salvia apiana have been badly impacted by climate change, which has caused wildfires and other devastation. At the same time, there has been a meteoric rise in the commercialization of smudging, which has created a lucrative market for illegally harvested white sage, much of it taken from public lands. It is for this reason that Mountain Rose Herbs made the decision in 2019 to procure 100% of our loose-leaf white sage from a special cultivation project in the rocky hills of San Diego County’s North County region. We consider ourselves fortunate to have the opportunity to support such an important project.

We work hard here at Mountain Rose Herbs to be an example of a business that puts people, plants, and planet before profit. You’ve heard of “the bottom line,” which in business parlance means thinking about profitability. But in our changing world, business leaders are considering whether there is a better, more sustainable model than a purely profit driven one. The “triple bottom line” model brings social and environmental impact into play. It insists on corporate responsibility and sustainable development, it prioritizes people, plants, and planet. We strive to raise the bar for ethical business practices and to model how to integrate sustainability into business strategies in a way that drives company success.

In 2016, Mountain Rose Herbs became the first company in Oregon to receive a TRUE Zero Waste Facility Certification. The TRUE program is part of Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), the premier organization independently recognizing excellence in global green business industry performance and practices. TRUE is a whole systems approach aimed at changing how materials flow through society and encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to solving pest problems in our yards and gardens. Every system is unique and constantly changing. Thus, it’s important to equip your garden with a wide range of tools that will help it flourish. Fortunately, backyard biodiversity offers a broad and adaptable range of ecological services through methods like protecting predatory insects and supporting their reproduction, or working against the reproductive cycles of the pests you want to reduce. Let’s talk about why it’s necessary to equip your home garden with the multitude of tools it needs to strengthen resilience and reduce weed and pest pressure naturally.

Women are the leading providers of agricultural work in many regions of the world, including in the fields of our organic farm partners in India. Learn how the Fair for Life fair trade program helps empower this female-led labor force through equitable wages, paid time off, and working conditions that are safe for farmers and the environment.

You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make. —Dr. Jane Goodall

Environmental stewardship is woven into the fabric of Mountain Rose Herbs’ company culture and sustainable business practices. Striving towards zero waste is one way we take responsibility for our impact. Thanks to our dedicated staff, we became the first company in Oregon to achieve a TRUE Zero Waste Facility certification from Green Business Certification Inc. We completed a peer-reviewed scorecard and on-site audit to achieve the highest-level certification—platinum!

There is a growing recognition on the part of conscientious consumers about the sources of the botanical products they purchase, both in regard to where their favorite herbs come from and how their own purchasing behaviors impact environmental sustainability. This increasing awareness that there are people and places tied to every item we buy involves not just knowing where a botanical comes from, but also acknowledging the context in which it is harvested.

As our amphibian friend Kermit the Frog says, “It’s not easy being green"—and that’s particularly true for businesses! Since spring of 2014, our cross-departmental, volunteer-based Mountain Rose Herbs Green Team has helped our management team look at all aspects of our business operations through a sustainability lens. Recently, we received the honor of being featured in international corporate sustainability consultant Nikki Pava's guide to building successful workplace sustainability teams, so we thought we'd share some of the strategies that have helped us cultivate a culture of environmental responsibility across our organization. For those interested in building a green advocacy team in their own place of work, we hope these ideas can inspire and guide you!