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John Ivanko, with his wife Lisa Kivirist, is the co-author of ECOpreneuring, Rural Renaissance and Edible Earth, innkeeper of the award-winning Inn Serendipity Bed & Breakfast, national speaker, freelance writer, and copartner in a marketing consulting company.
Ivanko is also an award-winning photographer and author or co-author of numerous books, including the award-winning children's photobooks, To Be a Kid, To Be an Artist, Be My Neighbor and Animal Friends, which help support the Global Fund for Children Books. He's contributed to Natural Home, E/The Environmental Magazine, Mother Earth News, Hobby Farms and Wisconsin Trails, among many others.
Former advertising agency fast-trackers, the husband and wife duo are nationally recognized for their contemporary approach to ecopreneurship, homesteading, conservation and more sustainable living. Based in Browntown, Wisconsin, they share their farm and Inn Serendipity Bed & Breakfast with their son, a 10kW Bergey wind turbine, and millions of ladybugs.I can appreciate Walt Disney World copyrighting their park. After all, they’re largely responsible for just about every inch of it, from the sculpted bushes to human-engineered lakes and waterways. Obviously, it’s well established that biotech companies currently have every right to own and patent new forms of life.
But when I was passing through Pebble [...]
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While the U.S. Postal Service bleeds red with billions of dollars in financial loses ($3.8 billion in 2008), they keep earning environmental accolades for their green roofs and energy conserving initiatives. Today, some post offices are even LEED certified by the US Green Building Council. As I wrote about last week, the US Postal [...]
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Leading the way for the green evolution for the Hilton Garden Inn franchise, the Hilton Garden Inn Gatlinburg, drawing inspiration at the doorstep of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has embarked on the fast-track to bring this upscale hotel into the green business movement. Opening in May, 2009, this 118-room hotel is nestled across [...]
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With all the talk of New Year Resolutions, many involving losing a few pounds (and inches off our waistlines), perhaps one approach to the holidays is to get off the couch (and away from the TV). Participate in an active community event like cross-country skiing, dance, or some participative sport. Or escape to the woods [...]
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Most of us have heard on NPR’s Marketplace that the GMO-giant, Monsanto — a sponsor of the program — is “committed to sustainable agriculture…Produce more. Conserve more.” Obvious greenwashing, if you ask any farmer at a local farmers’ market or people committed to growing with nature, not synthetic chemicals. For more examples of greenwashing, see [...]
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We arrived just as the sun was setting over the rolling, snow-covered hills of southwestern Wisconsin, an auburn glow fading as the sun became masked by clouds rolling in from the west. My family, including my mom, passed through the doors of the red, 5,500 square foot, barn-like Farwell Hall of the Folklore Village, located [...]
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Whether you’ve been forced to take unpaid furloughs, reductions in pay (or increases in insurance premiums and out-of-pocket medical expenses) or find only one person in your household with a job instead of two, you’re not alone in having to rediscover how to live on as much as 50 percent less in household income.
According [...]
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About 3 million twinkling, high-efficiency, quarter-watt LED bulbs are now greeting visitors to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, nestled at the doorstep of the spectacular Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Gatlinburg welcomes over 11 million visitors a year.
The City of Gatlinburg’s commitment to convert the Gatlinburg Winter Magic Celebration lights program to 100 percent LED bulbs during [...]
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