Blog
The Riverworks Restaurant & Tavern Joins the Green Alliance!
In an age of antiseptic, generic, cookie-cutter restaurants that get their food deliveries from factory farms that evoke memories of Soviet gulags, it's refreshing to see independent restaurants that still serve a vital role in their communities. And a delicious role, at that!
Such is the case with The Riverworks Restaurant and Tavern, located smack dab in the middle of historic downtown Newmarket in a building proudly constructed in 1840. While the building has housed various businesses over the years, Riverworks established its restaurant and bar 31 years ago, and has since proudly served as one of Newmarket's iconic institutions, where residents, students, and visitors can relax, dine, and hoist a frosty mug in a true old New England style dining room and tavern.
Jennifer Jarvis, the owner of Riverworks since 2002, has maintained the tavern's cozy ambiance and historical charm while bringing the menu completely up to date. Of course, the menu includes New England favorites such as mussels, clam chowder, and beer-battered fish sandwiches, but now even the most cosmopolitan of us can find something for the palate: lobster aracini, cranberry walnut salad, haddock amadine, Hereford beef tips, and Kobe burgers highlight a menu that appeals to your date as much as it appeals to your drinking buddies, who'll appreciate the authentic tavern known as "Newmarket's Living Room" among locals. Except in this living room, you can drink cold beer, sip martinis with a bite, and peruse a robust wine list with no one admonishing you to get off the furniture.This may help explain why Riverworks sometimes sees its regulars up to 4 times per week!
And if it's an event you're hosting, why not take advantage of Riverwork's full-service catering? You can work with the Riveworks' team to customize your order. And Riverworks will gladly allow you to pick up your catering order, or deliver it right to your door.
Green Alliance to Host its 2nd Annual Summer Cruise
It’s back everybody! The Green Alliance is hosting its 2nd annual Summer Bash on July 28th. The event will take place on the MV Thomas Laighton as it sails around Portsmouth harbor.
The cruise will include live music, great opportunities for networking, and -- perhaps most excitingly -- a FREE raw bar of shrimp and oysters, courtesy of Robert's Maine Grill!
The evening gala will bring together local non-profits, green business leaders, and Seacoast activists. The party will run from 6-10 pm and make sure to get there before the boat departs at 7.
Conservation NH (CNH) will be provdiding an interactive booth to spread the word on current policy to take sustainability to the next level. CNH is an organization that aims to “enrich the quality of life in New Hampshire by improving the environment and conserving natural resources”.
Susie Hackler thinks this will be “a perfect way for all of us at Conservation NH to celebrate the summer and network with members of local green businesses and the Green Alliance!”
The Isles of Shoals Steamship Company (ISSCo) is also excited to partner with the GA for this event. Both partners have a long history of working together to connect green businesses and lessen the environmental impact of our economy. Currently the ISSCo is working to transition to biofuel and hopes to move beyond a gas-guzzling era of maritime history.
The event will be free to all Green Card holders, but members are asked to rsvp to sarah@greenalliance.biz with their card numbers. Non-members may purchase tickets through the ISSCo for $30, or on the night of the cruise for $35. Tickets include a free one-year membership in the GA, and passengers can pick up their Green Cards during boarding. This is a great chance to become a GA member and cruise the harbor by night!
cardea center for well-being Day of Pampering today!
(1).jpg)
Cardea Center for Well-being will be once again hosting one of their amazing Day of Pampering events today, July 15th from 12-6pm. Proven to be a great success in the past, this day will be centered on relaxation while celebrating and appreciating everything life has to offer. The day of leisure will include chair massages, mini spa services, organic treats, a personal trainer, Latin Dance and much more.
While Cardea clients are encouraged to join, new friends are also just as welcome to enjoy the day. Cardea will be working with Arts in Reach, an organization devoted to better empowering teenage girls through mentoring and arts. Participants are asked to make a donation to the worthwhile cause in lieu of payment. Clients will receive a complementary visit if they make an appointment for the Day of Pamering and are also asked to make a donation to the AIR organization for a suggested amount of $25. New friends and family will receive an initial evaluation with a $55 donation to AIR. For more information about Arts in Reach visit ArtsinReach.org.
Learn to appreciate your mind, body and soul by attending this great event. Those who RSVP early can also bring a friend! For more information or to RSVP contact Cardea at (603)-433-2023 or at http://www.cardeawellbeing.com/.
For TMS, Altus, cooperation yields many benefits
Altus Engineering and TMS Architects are quite the duo lately. The two recently completed a project at Phillips-Exeter Academy, and are currently working to transform a car dealership in Portsmouth.
But this relationship is nothing new: the two Seacoast companies have been working together for over a decade now.
In 2009, TMS designed four LEED Gold houses for Phillips Academy in Exeter. Altus, in turn, assisted TMS on the project by designing and installing rain gardens to capture water runoff. The combination of super-efficient houses and a storm water retention system made this project especially green – something in which both companies take great pride.
Altus designed and installed the rain garden at the behest of Phillips Exeter Academy, who wanted the project to reflect their own mission statement for a sustainable stewardship of the land. A rain garden fulfills this mission by filtering out pollutants and replenishing ground water.
“Rain gardens are great because they slow water, filter it, and promote groundwater retention,” explains Jeff Clifford of Altus Engineering.
For the Exeter project, water runoff from the roofs and driveways collects in a banana shaped depression. The basin is covered in a layer of sand and mulch to filter the water, while native species help increase water absorption. After it rains, water remains in the garden for a couple of days, during which the ground absorbs it anew.
Redhook's summer events now in full swing!
Summer is synonymous with fun events at Redhook, and Redhook has raised the bar this summer, even by their lofty standards. But since 2011 represents Redhook's 30th birthday, it's no wonder they're pulling out all the stops.
You alreay know the Cataqua Pub at Redhook is now selling Green Alliance Green Cards, which get you 10% off everything on Redhook's menu, including its all-natural section of the menu.
Now, they've rolled out a summer music series featuring some great bands performing right in Redhook's Backyard, including the Redhook Battle of the Bands on Wednesday July 27. Plus, this Sunday, July 24, from 11 am - 4 pm, Redhook is delighted to be hosting this year's annual Operation Thank You, a day to celebrate our military personnel and their families, with family fun, food, music, and beer. And that event is just $10, with kids under 12 and all active duty, currently-serving Guards & Reserve get in FREE!
And of course, the piece de resistance of Redhook's Summer events is its 15th Annual Redhookfest on Saturday, August 6! This event will feature outstanding bands such as Citizen Cope, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Soulive, and Mitten. The gates open at 2 PM, and the event runs all day into the night - rain or shine! And for kids, the events will offer festival-style games and activities, so this really is an event for thew whole family. You can even bring your own folding chair or blanket, as well as sealed bottled water to stay comfortable throught the event.
Tickets are available for a discounted price of just $30 if you buy in advance, while kids 12 and under get in for just $5 when accompanied by a paying adult. There will also be a variety of local food vendors to satisfy your culinary cravings.
Habitat for Humanity films Rochester build project
By now, many people have heard of -- and shopped at -- the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Dover. There you'll find all sorts of useful and good-as-new products, furniture, and other home accessories for drastically discounted prices.
But sometimes it's important to remember and appreciate the mission of Habitat for Humanity itself. Below is a video made during the Southeast New Hampshire' branch's recent project in Rochester. Enjoy!
University of New England Marine Animal Rehabilitation Program
The University of New England Marine Animal Research Center (MARC) focuses on research and education. One of many marine rehabilitation centers approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, MARC not only rescues and releases marine animals into the wild, but also documents the best ways to treat the injured animals.
The Center helps injured sea turtles and seals found in the local waters. The marine animals are nursed back to a healthy state 
and released once the researchers have approved their progress. While the turtles and seals are being nursed, they can be supported by local donations through the adoption program.All the proceeds will benefit the animals at the Marine Animal Research Center (MARC).
They are also holding a psecial event on Saturday, August 13 from 6 - 10 PM called Rhythms by the Sea, at the Seaside Pavilion on Old Orchard Beach in Maine. The event will host a lineup of catchy bands: Entrain, Rick Miller and His Band, and the Four Fathers of Rock. For more information about the event or information about MARC or other concerts at the Seaside Pavilion, click here!
Become a certified corporate sustainability change agent!
Guest blog by Alyson Genovese, Cause Solutions.
NHBSR and UNH partner to launch the region’s first professional Certificate in Corporate Sustainability
The request came loud and clear from NH Businesses for Social Responsibility (NHBSR) members: they want an intensive corporate sustainability program that would be “more than a one day conference, but less than an MBA.”
As a result, NHBSR and the University of New Hampshire have developed the professional Certificate in Corporate Sustainability.
There are two components to earning your professional certificate. The first is to attend a three day institute held October 4 – 6, 2011 at UNH’s Durham campus and led by UNH faculty, regional business leaders, and a supportive cohort of peers. The Institute focuses on tools, techniques, and solutions for implementing environmentally and socially responsible business practices. Topics taught will cover all aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility – from triple bottom line financing and understanding how environmental trends affect the business world to employee and stakeholder engagement.
After completion of the Institute, students will conduct an independent, mentor-supported workplace project. The program offers continuing education credit for professionals. Information, including tuition rates and more details, is available at www.nhbsr.org/certificate.
“The professional Certificate in Corporate Sustainability fills a gap that our members say has been missing,” says NHBSR’s Kate Luczko. “Sustainability in business isn’t a trendy concept but an integral part of how companies large and small do business today.”
Metal Wave turns ugly business into something good
Chances are you’ve seen the photos or video clips: mountains of printers, televisions, hard drives, cell phones, and other outdated and discarded electronic equipment peppering urban slums and third world outposts in a surreal metalscape as vast as it is alarming.
Once you see it, the question becomes obvious: What happens with those ancient PCs and cell phones we toss unknowingly to the curb? More often than not, they’re sent to developing nations – China, South Korea, Malaysia, and South Korea are major destination points – where lax environmental standards, combined with primitive “recycling” technologies, compel poor communities and residents to extract what valuable plastics and metals they can.
For many, the attitude has long been “better over there than over here.” While it’s true that simply tossing a spent PC or television to the curb isn’t exactly appealing most, neither is the idea of noxious chemicals leaching into the land and water – regardless on which continent it’s happening.
Luckily, a healthy, sustainable, local alternative exists. Based in Amesbury, Massachusetts, Metal Wave Inc. was launched in early 2010 as a way to provide customers with a more transparent and cost-effective alternative to the traditionally shady world of e-waste “downstreaming”.
Walking into their 25,000 square foot facility, you’re immediately struck by the Metal Wave handling floor’s neatness and organization. Save for a few scattered nuts and bolts here and there – understandable given the countless hundreds of individual parts dealt with daily – no piece of equipment is stranded; no cardboard box left empty.
“Our approach is to keep everything as organized and as clean as possible,” explains Sousa. “The more organized you are, the more efficient you are.”
ZES's Zach Smith to speak at upcoming technology and marketing conference
This Thursday, the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel will play host to the New Hampshire eCoast Summit. Aimed at exploring the fast-growing market of smartphones and their potential for dynamic marketing, the conference will include a number of speakers from across industries and sectors, with representatives from Adobe, Microsoft, Localytics, etc. all providing their insight.
Included in the cast of speakers will be the GA's own Zachary Smith, owner of ZESstudio. Smith, who launched ZES in 2009, will be on a panel featuring other marketing experts, as they share their strategies and stories of how smartphones and other technologies have advanced their business and message.
Immediately following the Summit, eCoast will host a cruise aboard the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company's M/V Thomas Laighton. There conference-goers will enjoy food and drink as the famed party boat makes it's way around Portsmouth Harbor.
To learn more or to sign up for Thursday's event, click here!
Looking for Green Alliance Members to Tell Us What They Think!
We know the Green Alliance can do more - for you and for our community. We have some ideas but want to make sure they make sense 
to you - our valued members.
If you would like to collaborate with our team, in the form of a five minute phone conversation - simply send us an email to scott@greenalliance.biz. We are looking for Green Alliance members in good standing (have you renewed your card if it has expired?), and we want you to be honest with us about what you like and perhaps don’t like about your membership.
I promise it will be fun! And to thank you for your time and ideas, we would like to give you a very cool Green Alliance tote bag (limited addition and usually not for sale!) and your choice of a gift certificate from the GA’s own ReStore or a free tkt. for an Isles of Shoals Cruise! Thanks everyone!
Sarah Brown,
Director, Green Alliance
Clay Hill Farm Hosts Interactive Dinner Series
Come join Clay Hill Farm Restaurant in York, Maine, as they welcome Ruth Kramer, an International holistic healer for their interactive nights of ‘Feeding and Reading’. Looking to provide people with more than just great food, Clay Hill will be hosting a three-course dinner as well as a private, open-forum round-table dinner.
Taking place on July 11, 18 and 25th, Clay Hill asks people to make reservations for this night of holistic energy. This event will begin at 6pm and will host a meet and greet until 6:30pm. Following, a delicious three-course meal will be served with holistic reading entertainment by Ruth Kramer. For reservations please call (207) 361-2272 or visit clayhillfarm.com. Tickets are $35 per person and it will be open seating. Everyone is welcome, especially those who are curious about holistic and energy work.
Clay Hill Farm is one of the Seacoast’s most premier restaurants and wedding event destinations. The first restaurant in the country to be certified by the World Wildlife Federation, they have been paving the way with sustainable practices ever since. With many events held each year, Clay Hill Farm has been providing education about various subjects for many years. To learn more about Clay Hill Farms sustainable practices click here!
Jewett Farms holds flooring up to [green] light
.jpg)
For years, Jewett Farms & Co. has fostered a reputation for being a company as committed to sustainable wood products as they are to fine craft and good old fashioned Yankee ingenuity.
But while the company’s unique cabinet and furniture-making has long been their hallmark, recently they’ve begun to train their eyes on another, lesser-known aspect of their business: flooring.
Truth be told, Jewett has offered flooring options since opening their original York, Maine showroom in 1999 (they’ve since opened a second design studio and showroom in Newburyport). For most of that time, however, flooring served more as icing than the cake itself.
Enter Tim Buckley. After years working with Carlisle Wood Plank Floors – a frequent collaborator in Jewett’s Continuing Education Series – Buckley joined the Jewett team as a flooring specialist in 2010. Right away, he knew his new company needed to market in a more targeted away their unique style of sustainable flooring.
“There’s a very integral mixing of woods with both the cabinetry or furniture and the wood below it,” explains Buckley, “For a while the flooring was sort of on the dessert menu so to speak. But when people kept coming back to talk about floors, we knew we had to start embracing it is as an integral part of our portfolio.”
Jewett has long been associated with beautiful cabinets, furniture, and finish work. Now, they’re hoping they can bring that same reputation – and the same commitment to sustainability – to the flooring fore.
As with their cabinets, Jewett’s waste-eschewing approach to installing floors is front and center. Because the company avoids cutting out knots and other “flaws”, the resulting varying widths make for a look that embraces the wood’s character as much as it reduces needless cutoff waste.
Riverfront Music Festival is Back for its 10th Year!
Next week the 10th Annual Riverfront Festival will kick off with performances by Mike Doughty, Marc Broussard, The Damnwells, and Scars on 45. This event has been huge in the past, drawing thousands to Waterfront Park in Newburyport. The Festival is FREE to the public and offers a great chance for friends and families alike to enjoy a great show in a beautiful setting.
The event will showcase downtown Newburyport and offer attendees a chance to shop, eat, and chill out to live bands all afternoon. "I look forward to a terrific day of great music, shopping, dining and enjoying Newburyport", says Ann Ormond, Presiden of the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce. In addition to the charm of the historic seaside city, Market Square will be packed with vendors from across the region.
According to Catie Wilber, Program Director of 92.5 The River, the event "promises to be better than ever! Another great free concert with tremendously talented musicians- Audiences will be charmed! There's something for everyone- from alt pop to alt country." So grab some beach chairs and lay down a blanket on Saturday July 16th and make sure to get there before 1 pm to land a great spot.
Cruise the Coast and Protect It
On Wednesday August 10th, Greenovations and Jewett Farms will be teaming up to bring you a night of great music, dance, and company aboard the Thomas Laighton. Both businesses are working together with New Hampshire Coastal Protection Partnership to improve our state's coastline.
NHCPP works throughout the Seacoast Region to protect both Atlantic and tidal coastlines. As an organization, they are "dedicated to combining sound science with education, collaboration and advocacy to protect the natural resources of the coastal watershed and effect long-term visible change". They have instituted programs and workshops to promote rain gardens and rain barrels as well as launched campaigns to halt the influx of nitrogen into Great Bay.
The event will begin with a cocktails and hors d'ouvres at 5:30 pm. At 7, the boat departs for a Reggae Cruise around portsmouth harbor. There will be a cash bar and live performance by Hot Like Fire, a renowned Boston-based Reggae Band.
Become a Green Alliance member today and START SAVING on local, green goods and services! JOIN NOW
