The Mandala Integrative Medicine Clinic wanted to walk our talk from the outset and we have consciously designed our space to have a low impact on the planet and to have a high indoor air quality. To this end, we have selected recycled materials from Resource 2000 and craigslist.com, natural floorings such as wool carpeting and cork flooring, low wattage halogen lighting and ecologically-sound low-offgassing paints. We worked with our architect, Brian Fuentes of Fuentedesign, to redesign an old building from the 1930’s with space and material efficient design while using ecologically friendly materials. Jeff Combelic of JDC Construction managed our myriad bunch of yogis and healers to put Brian’s design into reality. We hope our clinic will inspire others to build consciously and raise the bar for places of healing to take the environment into consideration.
Cork Flooring
Cork has been used as a flooring material for more than one hundred years. Cork flooring is durable, it provides acoustical and thermal insulation, it cushions the foot, it is resistant to moisture damage and decay, it is fairly easy to clean, and it is harvested from trees in a sustainable manner. Though imported and thus energy-intensive to ship to North America, cork flooring is worthy of consideration for use in low-environmental-impact buildings. You will be able to enjoy the delightful cork floor in the lobby of our Integrative Medicine Clinic. This naturally sustainable floor emits a soft, warm underfoot quality and has a natural sound deadening and insulation characteristic. Cork is also naturally anti-microbial, and resistant to mold and mildew.
5% Return to our Community
The Clinic has pledged 5% of the Center’s profits to non-profits working in the realm of Sustainability and Ecological Medicine both locally and internationally. We give a percentage to the Boulder Institute of Sustainability, which is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization providing hands-on experiential learning in the realms of sustainable land stewardship and sustainable community. Their mission is to create a culture of visionaries who learn from and design with nature, while teaching and modeling an integrated system of sustainable design of to address real world problems. We also give a percentage to a new organization called the Barefoot Doctors, which staffs Integrative Medicine clinics in communities underserved by medical care. They have already helped set up the first clinic in Jalmalonga and seek to create a cross-cultural exchange sharing of healing and medicines with both Native cultures and remote villages.
Wool Carpeting
A floor made from the backs of sheep, how cool is that? Known as the red carpet of flooring, wool carpets and rugs are the best flooring for the indoor environment. Wool, unlike synthetic fibers, rapidly absorbs common contaminants in indoor air like formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. Not only does wool keep the air free of many harmful pollutants, it will not re-emit them, even when heated. In fact, it has been estimated that wool carpets can continually purify indoor air for up to 30 years. We at the Mandala value the contribution of this excellent flooring that will be reflected in the improved health and comfort of those in our environment. Conventional carpeting has major environmental impacts both on the interior air quality (many conventional carpets offgas at such a rate that it can make the interior air quality of a house worse than the most polluted city air) and the larger ecosystem (conventional carpets are manufactured from fossil fuel and are non-biodegradable with over 1.8 million tons of carpet disposed of in landfills each year).
Feng Shui
Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of placement based upon a philosophy of the movement of chi or natural energy through our environments. By following the patterns of nature, a practitioner will advise on the placement of everything from an individual object in the home or workplace to the positioning of a building upon property. Feng Shui shows us how to support the flow of energy in our lives to augment health and prosperity. Chantal Monte, our resident Feng Shui practitioner, has advised on our center and you can stop by and say hello to the wonderful salt water fishies who will bring you good fortune!
Conscious Commuting
For patients who travel to the clinic via alternative transportation, the clinic offers a dollar discount on any treatment done at the clinic. For those eco-conscious students, we will be offering a 50 cent discount on any class where alternative transportation is chosen. This includes biking, walking, using buses or driving a biodiesel car. Our convenient location in central North Boulder right off of major bus routes makes this very possible. We support a fuel for the future, whether by pedal or by vegetable power, we encourage our community to start thinking about fuel for the Seventh Generation (and its not going to be petroleum!)