Sun Valley Home and Design / Fall 2007 / Green Dreamers

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Green Dreamers

A Few of the Many to Watch, Follow and Emulate

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So many efforts, so many pioneers. One magazine isn’t enough to share all the stories, but in our first “Green Issue”, we offer you some people and organizations to consider when it comes to saving our resources. Once you meet them, you might want to join them.

Garth Callaghan

Garth Callaghan Construction & Energy Savers of Idaho
“Building a home or business to be energy efficient is no more expensive than conventional construction,” opines Callaghan. His company builds almost exclusively out of alternative building materials, with a main focus on energy efficiency. The financial savings are welcomed by homeowners and small business owners alike.

Morgan Brown

Sun Valley Solar & Whole Water Systems
For Brown, finding tangible ways to save the environment is a passion that has led him and wife Rebecca Bundy to build a demonstration solar home. He also has started two green-oriented businesses, helped found the Sun Valley Sustainability Conference and has become an active supporter of the nonprofit organization Citizens for Smart Growth. Morgan believes that poorly managed growth is the greatest threat to the quality of life in the Sun Valley area.

The Messengers: At work or at play, these are some of those who make “headlines” with their efforts.
From left: Garth Callaghan, Morgan Brown, Chris and Phoebe Pilaro, Scott Mason

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Chris & Phoebe Pilaro

Active professionally as a photographer, Chris recently released “Everything’s Cool,” a film about climate change. An informative and interactive blog has developed from the film, bringing dialogue to a worldwide audience. As a couple, Chris and Phoebe have installed solar panels on their home and worked with the city of Hailey to establish Jimmy’s Garden, a low-flow water park adjacent to their Hailey home.

Scott Mason

Ketchum Grill
Riding his bike from East Fork to his restaurant in Ketchum for about 11 years, Scott Mason has had ample time to contemplate not only menus, but also his surroundings. Mason’s restaurant prides itself on a local following, affordable fare and the use of home-grown products like greens and lamb whenever possible. A practitioner of the Slow Food movement, his meals are prepared on-site from the freshest ingredients, in a style guaranteed to maximize the full natural flavor.

Wood River Organics

Judd and Heather McMahan identified organic farming as a passion for their life together. Zesty greens are their specialty, and many backyards sport varieties of tomato plants they cultivate on their farm for those inclined to do minimal gardening. An anomaly in a field of farmers several decades older than them, Judd and Heather are proving it is possible to roll the sleeves up and get sustainable agriculture into the local economic environment.

Idaho’s Bounty

With the surge of awareness in industrial food production and the nationwide focus on local food, Idaho’s Bounty’s organizational goal is to create regional food sheds. On the producers’ end, a stronger demand for local food provides rural development opportunities and economic incentives for farmers. For consumers, access to healthy local food provides accountability on an intimate level. This fall two geothermal greenhouses in Hagerman will be converted to growing organic food as an experiment in year-round production capabilities. The website idahosbounty.org will soon serve as a relay point for goods.

Lava Lake Land & Livestock

Since 1999, Kathleen and Brian Bean have raised the highest-quality, best-tasting, certified organic and grass-fed lamb available while protecting the rich native landscape of the Pioneer Mountains and Craters of the Moon. While we enjoy the all-natural, hormone and antibiotic-free meat, none of which has ever seen a feedlot, Lava Lake has developed land management and conservation practices. Through a blend of niche marketing strategies and by serving a central land stewardship role in the region, Lava Lake is helping re-define the role landowners and ranchers can play in preserving and restoring the West’s great landscapes.

Webb Landscaping

With at least 160 employees traveling to Bellevue and Ketchum from cities farther south, Webb Landscaping decided to calculate the company’s environmental impact. A drive to work pattern evaluation and a sustainability study prompted van pools, which will take a million miles off the highway by shuttling up to 15 people per van from home to work. Webb’s efforts extend to their clients. Grass is cut high, organic material left on the ground, herbicide excluded in fertilizing and native landscaping encouraged. >>>