Green Mary

“Green Mary” Munat works to change consumer behavior, one event at a time.

If you remember the “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” you’ll remember its most famous scene (it was in the very first episode). Ed Asner (portraying Lou Grant) tells Mary Tyler Moore (Mary Richards), “You’ve got spunk. I hate spunk!” Well, the next time you bring together a few hundred of your best friends, you’re going to want someone with spunk to green your gathering. Who you gonna call? Most assuredly, you’ll call the Vermont-raised rebel, the one-time stripper, the delightfully sassy, spunky Mary Munat—also known as “Green Mary”—to manage your party’s ecosystem. For a modest fee, she’ll make sure your guests don’t trash your home, venue, county or planet.

The green spark

Just longer than a decade ago, Munat put the Vermont notion of conservation into a business plan that took event planning a giant, earth-based step forward: Social gatherings could be used not only to demonstrate common sense—in terms of recycling, composting and conservation—but also to educate people that every action matters.

“I was born in Greenwich Village in 1961, and my folks were social activists,” she says. “Dad was a member of SDS [Students for a Democratic Society]. When I was little, he bought a ski lodge in Vermont. People in Vermont believe in being self-sufficient. We had no garbage pickup in those days, as you might imagine. We took a load to the dump once per month, and we were encouraged to keep that load as small as possible, as you had to pay for your load by the pound. So we sorted out the paper and the cardboard, the glass and the aluminum. Five or six towns shared that dump, and it was important to minimize its use. I got to be pretty good about keeping the actual garbage to just a few dollars’ worth.”

Mary notes that “Munat” is a German name, originally spelled Mundt. “It means ‘mouth,’ and talking is something I’m good at! One of my first jobs was selling cars in New England, and I did OK. I worked as a stripper for eight years, then went into the Army Reserves to bring a little discipline into what had become, shall we say, a ‘rather unorganized’ life. I once decided to hitchhike across Canada and make my way to California, but only got to Chicago. Finally, in the early 1980s, a boyfriend lured me to Alameda. I did some work in mortgage banking, then had a contractor husband who encouraged me to become an apprentice carpenter. I did work in construction for five years.”

Mary had started college at the University of Vermont and eventually returned to school at Sonoma State University to earn a degree in liberal studies in 2000. “I studied at the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy and learned—who knew?—that business didn’t have to be evil. My interest in ecology had been simmering and, all of a sudden, the light bulb sort of went off: Maybe I could merge my passion for saving the earth with a business model.”

Thus “Green Mary” was born, and the idea that fun could be merged with education—that all events could demonstrate earth-friendly practices—came to life. “Water delivery, use and conservation is one of my passions,” says Mary. “We really focus on trying to get away from individual plastic bottles, so we strongly encourage people to bring their own thermos water bottles, which we refill for free from our water stations, where we provide twice-filtered water. Our tagline for that is ‘Water Your Event,’ meaning that, by bringing your own, reusable water bottle, you get around one-time-use plastic bottles that then have to be recycled.

“We also work closely with Sonoma Compost,” says Munat, explaining, “Green Sonoma businesses and households have their organic waste taken to Sonoma Compost, where tons of green waste are kept from the landfill and instead made into great soil for yards and gardens. The company can’t get enough green waste to keep up with the demand, so everyone needs to divert everything they can to green containers curbside. ‘Make soil, not trash!’ is one of my rallying cries. One of our primary mottoes involves the notion that reuse trumps recycling.” (Mary herself takes the “reuse” notion to the degree that she puts pails in her shower at home, then uses that water to flush her toilet.)

Further in that vein, Mary has created a brilliant monster, what she calls her Eco Lending Library. “The idea was pretty good,” she says with a mournful, ironic laugh, “but the mechanics of it are still causing me headaches. It’s a work in progress.”

The Eco Lending Library was set up a few years ago, when Mary realized it would be far better to reuse silverware and plates, than to run events solely with throwaway cardboard and plastic versions. “About five years ago, Sonoma Compost notified its clients that it would no longer be taking cardboard plates that had a plastic glaze. That got me to thinking. So I started going to all the thrift stores—Salvation Army, Goodwill and the like—and buying up used plates, utensils, glass and stemware, and cloth tablecloths and napkins.

“By now, I’ve accumulated enough to handle up to 700 at an event—really do it up in style—without having to throw anything into the recycling bin! That’s pretty amazing when you think about it. We recently did a big political party, with 80 wine glasses and 80 mason jars [for water glasses]—with no recycle footprint at all. I have a storage unit in Cotati where we store everything. The biggest problem is keeping up with the inventory and monitoring what doesn’t get returned from an event. We charge a low flat fee to encourage use. It’s very rewarding to know that we have this capability now.”

The learning curve

Education is a key part of Green Mary’s protocol. “We know how important it is to get the message out,” she says, “At the events we do, we make sure we have the recycle bins clearly marked so that even the uninitiated know that glass recycling is this bin, paper is that one, and plastics go over there. It’s all with symbols now, so even language isn’t an impediment. I give talks at public schools and for service organizations. I’ll talk to anyone! The main message is simple enough: If we don’t take care of the planet, the planet will no longer take care of us. What could be more essential? If you go to any landfill, two-thirds of what’s there is reusable plastic waste! That’s horrifying, on the one hand, and a tremendous opportunity to educate on the other. We have a way to go, but it can be done. It’s important to educate people to do the right thing always—at home, at events, at work, everywhere—because it’s the right thing to do. Plus, it’s empowering.”

She’s buoyed by the fact that people seem to be paying attention to the concept of recycling. “The color-coded bins were a huge step in the right direction. People, for the most part, get blue, green and black. But pictures are still the most effective means of communicating which goes where. People are pretty automatic about it now. As more and more people become educated to the process, it becomes a habit. And once a new habit is put into place, everything works a little bit better.” She pauses, then adds, laughing, “After that, we go to the tasers!”

Munat budgets about 10 to 15 percent of her time, money and energy to the education process—writing and giving talks to anyone who will listen. “It’s important to spread the word. The lessons are too valuable to us as individuals and to all of us as a planet. Just getting people to compost more at home goes a long way to lowering our individual footprints on the planet. Compost at home and you cut your garbage output significantly. But you also can create really good soil for your garden, maybe start growing vegetables and herbs for your table. Pretty soon you’re eating better, more healthful food. It all adds up.”

There’s always something to learn, she reminds. “One thing we learned was that it was actually cheaper to compost and recycle. I phoned North Bay Corporation, which confirmed that trash dumpsters always cost more than recycling and organics. At a special event at the fairgrounds last week for Amy’s Kitchen, NBC charged about $100 for a three-yard organics dumpster—into which we put all food scraps and paper food service products and paper napkins. A three-yard trash dumpster would have cost us $150—50 percent more!”

Munat says restaurants, especially, are learning that recycling and composting is a better business model. “Cricklewood in Santa Rosa and Vineyards Inn in Kenwood are really ahead of the curve, aiming at zero-waste goals. They both have onsite organics Earth Tubs for composting. And Graton Resort and Casino went green right from the start by bringing in organics dumpsters along with the more mundane recycling and trash models. Industrial Carting is overseeing that project. It has sorting crews working 24/7 to divert waste from the landfill. It’s not just that it’s being super green—there are also significant cost savings.”

Mary goes green

The whole odyssey for Munat started in Sonoma County in 2001. The moment of epiphany, she remembers, was watching Julia “Butterfly” Hill sitting in a tree for months. “She’d been a key speaker at the Eco Village of the Health and Harmony Festival, where I was a volunteer coordinator. She went 180 feet up into the tree she called ‘Luna’ to protest the devastation of the redwoods. She had to latch herself in when it got really windy. All of a sudden, I was hooked. My life changed in that one instant. I mean, I had the notion that I was concerned about the ecosystem, but when Julia went up that tree, I realized I hadn’t really done anything of significance up to that point. She was making a strong and powerful statement about the redwoods—about the use and abuse of our natural resources.”

Munat started simply, by looking inside her own trashcan. “I really started to look inward to see if I was just talking the talk and not walking the walk. I went away from the Health and Harmony Festival in tears, feeling I’d been spitting on the Earth all those years, but determined to change my outlook, to line up my action in both my mind and heart. I decided to make what was important to me on the inside important to me on the outside. What better way to start a business, right?”

Not that the business has always been smooth sailing. Take the infamous 2013 BottleRock festival in Napa, when the producers failed to pay their providers. That shorted Green Mary nearly $30,000. “That was a big hit to our bottom line,” admits Mary. “It almost put my company into jeopardy. But then something wonderful happened: The community we live in was outraged at what had happened to us. There was a fund-raising campaign that brought in $12,000 in cash and in-kind support to help us save our business. People can be amazing. Rick Theis [founder of the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy] wrote us a personal check for $1,000, and his Leadership Institute came up with a $10,000 loan at only 1 percent interest! That kept the business alive. Really.

“The case against BottleRock is ongoing, but should be resolved soon,” she continues, “but however that turns out, our business is strong and we’re doing just fine. We did $400,000 this year, and the business is growing 10 to 15 percent per year. We do more than 100 events each year, and we’re working with such fine companies as Sebastopol’s Waste Busters at UC Davis’ Whole Earth Festival, which is one of the best in the world. We also work with San Francisco’s Conservation Corps. We’re consulting with Kendall-Jackson Winery’s culinary department to turn its kitchen scraps into quality compost for its organic gardens. You know, those great heirloom tomatoes they grow? It’s all good.”

Julien Gervreau, sustainability manager for Jackson Family Wines, expands on Mary’s assistance: “On a recent project, Green Mary helped us identify new homes for a number of office supplies and even old furniture that we wanted to recycle and reuse. Instead of letting waste go into a landfill, it made great business and environmental sense. We also work with Green Mary at K-J’s annual Heirloom Tomato Festival, helping manage recycling and composting bins for all our guests—which lets us reduce waste, educate and inspire our customers and do the right thing for the environment.”

As events planning is somewhat seasonal (and she now has “rock-solid” employees), Munat allows herself a little time off in the winter. She does give some of that time to the business—planning on how to expand her reach—but she’s also a self-styled ski bum. “I’m off to Durango for Christmas,” she told me in December. “It’s great that the business is stable enough now that I can actually take a little time off and hire some of the work out. I have 70 employees now: They’re like my kids! I’m 52, and most of them are in their 20s and 30s, still trying to build a life. So I’m open to shifting their work schedules so one can go get a head gasket for her car, give a salary advance so another can make his rent. I make sure I’m not sending the younger gals out late at night. I feel like a mother hen sometimes, but the main thing is the business is going well and the people who work with me are doing something worthwhile for themselves and for the planet. That’s a good feeling.”