Awareness amid luxury

<p>Melissa Attanasio might just have the greenest job title in Sonoma County: “eco-champion” at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa in Sonoma.</p><p>This means the 31-year-old native of Fort Bragg is in charge of all of the luxury resort’s green initiatives, from landscaping to composting, conservation to energy management. If it grows in soil, bears fruit or can possibly be reused or recycled, Attanasio is on the case.</p><p>“At a lot of companies, sustainability is only something they talk about,” she said. “I’m lucky that my employer has made it a priority and asked me to take charge.”</p><p>Some of Attanasio’s latest projects exemplify this call to action.</p><p>In the spa area, near the resort’s Wat-Su Japanese meditation pool, she and some colleagues recently replaced a bamboo garden with fast-growing shrubs and drought-tolerant succulents.</p><p>Near the kitchen, out of view from the public, she manages an herbicide- and pesticide-free garden with chard, arugula, bok choy and oregano, as well as a composting program with worms that eat through 280 pounds of biodegradable waste each week.</p><p>Attanasio even oversees the hotel’s annual holiday decoration program, which takes the better part of a week and includes tree selection, ornament hanging and poinsetta maintenance.</p><p>“At a hotel where everything has to look beautiful, balancing aesthetics with xeriscaping and other environmentally friendly landscaping techniques can be a challenge,” she quipped.</p><p>Among her favorite tasks: landscaping the flower beds that line the resort’s driveway, cultivating edible flowers such as borrage and day lilies, and interacting with visitors who express curiosity about her work.</p><p>The slender and ebullient Attanasio has been around the Fairmont for a while. She was hired at the resort as a colorscapist (a “flower girl,” as she likes to joke) in 2002, took a break to go to school and was rehired as landscape manager in 2006. She added the title of eco-champion last year.</p><p>Today, she spends most of her professional life in boots. The tools of her trade: Felco clippers, a cell phone and gloves for handling moist soil.</p><p>Attanasio’s average work day begins around 8 a.m. By the time she arrives at the resort, her team of four landscapers (all men, by the way) has spruced up the flowers and plants in public areas and is ready for the day.</p><p>The gang gets together to discuss the chores for the day. Then they get to work, pruning and planting and doing whatever they can to make the property sparkle.</p><p>“Whatever we might be doing on a given day, our goal is to be out of sight and out of mind for the guests,” explained Attanasio, who usually ends her work days around 6 p.m. “People who pay to come and stay here don’t want to see people doing projects, so we try to limit the intrusions at all costs.”</p><p>When Attanasio isn’t tackling day-to-day responsibilities, she’s busy coordinating the resort’s Green Team, a group of 18 employees from various departments who volunteer on different ecology-oriented projects around the county. </p><p>The next outing is scheduled for Earth Day, when Green Team members will take one of the resort’s compost boxes to El Verano Elementary School in Boyes Hot Springs and teach groups of first- through fourth-graders about the benefits of composting over throwing everything into the trash.</p><p>Diane Dalenberg, academic coordinator of the school, said school officials and students alike were looking forward to the visit.</p><p>“Some of our students are studying worms, but composting will probably be new for a lot of our students,” Dalenberg said. “This program will go a long way toward raising eco-consciousness and helping to turn our kids into stewards of the environment.”</p><p>Attanasio has been in touch with her own eco-consciousness since childhood. She and six siblings grew up near Fort Bragg, and lived an entirely sustainable lifestyle on a half-acre parcel of land. Looking back, she says the family grew all of its own vegetables, and owned goats for milk, chickens for eggs and rabbits for meat.</p><p>“We always had a piece of livestock we named Charlie so we didn’t get that attached to it,” she said, noting that her first job was at a nearby orchid and fuchsia farm. “I think all of these experiences prepared me for a lifetime of respecting the Earth.”</p><p>Looking forward, Attanasio plans to formalize her focus on sustainability. She expects to earn a bachelor’s degree in social ecology from John F. Kennedy University this fall.</p><p>After that, Attanasio says she plans to continue doing what she does best — championing green.</p><p>“Environmental consciousness isn’t something you do for a while and say, ‘I’m done,’” she said. “The best part about my job is that there’s always something more to accomplish.”</p>