I have been on a big “DIY swap” kick lately. It all started with a growing interest in leading a more sustainable lifestyle, which for me, meant finding ways to eliminate single-use and non-recyclable packaging. The DIY aspect of this project was born out of necessity. I knew the easiest way to avoid purchasing products packaged unsustainably was to just make them myself. There were some growing pains of course. I will be the first to admit that I am not always the best at planning ahead, so adjusting from simply buying an item in a store to carving out the time to make the product did not always go smoothly. However, since I have embraced the process, I’m finding it deeply gratifying to craft my own products, especially my own body-care products.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how to reduce the presence of plastic in my life. With the recyclability of plastics becoming more and more of a question mark, and a disheartening one at that, the place that I keep arriving at is to just try as hard as I can to remove plastics from the equation altogether. The kitchen was the first place I started with my sustainability makeover. I slowly began to change my shopping habits so that I would wind up with less leftover single-use plastics at the end of the week. It wasn’t easy but it was incredibly liberating; it eased my conscience a bit to know that I was able to take steps toward a greener lifestyle. As my interest in living more sustainably snowballed, I began seeing problems everywhere I looked in my house, particularly with my cleaning products, and especially with my bathroom cleansers.

Before I moved to Eugene in March of 2010, I drove a car every day, everywhere. Living in the suburbs of Boston, it was necessary. I didn’t know anyone who didn’t drive to work, to the grocery store, or even to the gym. When I arrived, I brought my mindset with me and drove everywhere: to work (ten blocks from home), to the grocery store (twelve blocks), and the gym (just over a mile). In my first three months here, I clocked fewer than a hundred miles and made three car payments—clearly not an economical way to get around! I sold my car that June and bought a used bicycle.

While some people may be naturally born with heightened senses, most of us must hone and practice these skills throughout our lifetime, and particularly when we are children.

During my years of mentoring in environmental nature immersion, I’ve seen countless children develop “super senses” (hear, see, feel, smell, intuit) that astounds their parents. I love stories like the one when a father was flabbergasted by his seven-year-old daughter. “She could hear the sound of an owl hooting way off in the distance,” he excitedly said, “long before I even could sense it and her observation skills are through the roof – I can’t keep up!”

A few years ago, my friend gave me the oddest gift. As she handed it to me, she sheepishly said, “I’m not sure how you will like this, but I use them at my house, and I hope you’ll have a use for them too!” Inside the neatly wrapped brown paper package was a roll of cloth squares. I admitted that I was confused by the gift and jokingly asked if it was toilet paper. Turns out I wasn’t too far off – it was a roll of Unpaper® Towels! It turned out her “odd” gift inspired me and seeded my passion to look at my home in a new way, to ask myself, “How sustainable are my household habits?” 

Mountain Rose Herbs is proud to be an EarthShare Oregon Business Member. EarthShare is a national network that connects environmental organizations across the United States using businesses as fundraising platforms. In 2011, we launched our very first EarthShare Oregon campaign by organizing an employee giving program that connects our staff with like-minded environmental organizations working to protect and defend the places we hold dear. Through this program, we have successfully connected our employees with over 100 environmental organizations that they are passionate about supporting. That is nearly $100,000 given the past 8 years! Read on to learn more about EarthShare Oregon.

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.