Hilltown Tree and Garden commitment to the arts, environment, community and its employees.
The Arts
Hilltown Tree and Garden in its continued support of the arts will be a sponsor of the Umass Dept. of Music & Dance in their 2010 music and dance series. This includes a $1000 donation to the Seventh Annual Pops Gala held Sat. May 1st 2010 making us a prestigious “Table Sponsor.” At the event we will be personally thanked by the Chancellor and have our business on display.
Ecologically Balanced
Limiting our impact on the environment is paramount to our values as a green business. We are “Carbon Balanced” certified by Terrapass. This means that all the carbon that we put into the air during our normal business day (mostly transportation related) has been balanced out by agreeing to pay for a portion of a green energy project through what are called Renewable Energy Credits (REC). This may take the form of investing in a biomass, wind, or an industrial efficiency project.
My home/office receives 100% of its electricity from solar electric panels. My home / office is super insulated, built with many recycled materials and the wood to build and heat the structure was / is harvested in a sustainable way right from the building site. The land where my home/office is located has been placed in a federal program called Forestry Stewardship. In this program the land will be managed to promote wildlife habitat, air and water quality, and sustainable timber and cordwood harvests.
Our Local Community
We regularly donate our services to various local not for profit auctions and to nonprofit organizations. These include Habitat for Humanity, Pioneer Valley Symphony, Bonnie’s Program, Cummington Community House, West Cummington Church, Russell Memorial Park in Chesterfield, Forbes Library Garden Tour, The Trustees of Reservations, Chesterfield July 4th Parade, Mass Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and many more. We have sponsored such recreational activities such as Chesterfield Baseball and the Hilltown Jr. Olympics.
We made a charitable donation of eleven trees and installed them at the Hilltown C.D.C. to landscape around their new office building. We also donated our services to the Trustees of Reservations for the design and installation of a native permaculture garden.
This year we were part of a 24 man crew of arborists who spent a day donating our large tree pruning services for the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge Ma., one of the nations oldest botanical gardens . This group of arborists donates a day of services for various not-for-profit institutions every year in the Berkshires.
Calvert, an investment firm, has the “nation’s largest array of socially responsible mutual funds” and this is where we reinvest our profits. The “Social Investment Fund” and the “Global Alternative Energy Fund” are two such funds that meet our reinvestment criteria.
Employee Well-Being
The well-being of our employees is what our business values stand on. Work schedule flexibility is given to employees with families. Employees can also receive healthcare, a matching I.R.A. retirement plan, and paid education for workplace safety or horticultural related topics.
