Less than three weeks ago, the Clif Bar Facebook page hit 10,000 fans. And as a “thank you” to all our loyal friends, Clif Bar & Company committed to donate one dollar for every new Clif Bar Facebook fan up to 15,000, in conjunction with our environmental initiatives as a 1% for the Planet member, to an environmental organization.

Well, you responded in droves to say the least. In well under a month, we reached our $5,000 goal, hitting 15,000 total fans in record speed—and the environment reaps the reward.

So thank yourself for contributing! And if this is the first time you’re hearing about 1% for the Planet, above is a great video that will bring you up to speed on everything this great organization does—helping tilt the scales of giving toward the thousands of under-funded nonprofits dedicated to the pursuit of sustainability, and preserving and restoring our natural environment.

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Do you have a garden? A pot of basil in your window, perhaps? A tomato plant on your back stoop? No?

Shame on you for ignoring the biggest trend since organic food!

From small rooftops to backyard acreage, gardening has become the “hip” thing to do. There is even an organic garden planted by the First Lady herself on the White House lawn. I love it when something positive becomes cool. These days people are planting gardens for all kinds of reasons. It saves on the grocery bill, it seems safer and it reduces stress. What’s not cool about that?!

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My son’s fourth birthday is fast approaching, and when I went to the grocery store to look for birthday party provisions I was completely grossed out at what was being passed off as “treats” for special occasions. Next to Halloween birthdays carry the biggest potential to serve up the most artificial colors, artificial flavors and genetically modified all-around junky “stuff.”

With so much for parents to concern themselves with these days, I try not to worry myself or others too much about what kids are exposed to during special occasions and various celebrations. BUT – of course the “BUT” – the special occasions are becoming increasingly less “occasional” as my son gets older.

If you are like me, striving (key word) to feed the family a mostly organic and natural menu to limit your kids’ exposure to the other nasty things out there, you might find yourself a little uneasy as the next birthday invitation rolls in.

What I want to know: Why is the junky food, bad-plastic party favor and lead-based paint jumpy seemingly all there is to work with when you begin the preparations? I set out on a mission to do a better birthday party full of fun, flavor and all kinds of fancy party zing without having to compromise natural and organic home-baked goodness.

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San Francisco bike peoples—the CLIF BAR 2 Mile Challenge team wants to treat you to a free day at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. And all you have to do it hop on your bike!

On Sunday, August 22, Clif Bar’s hosting what we’re calling a “Fun Ride to the Academy.” If you’re San Francisco Bay area-based, you probably know of the pure awesomeness that is the new California Academy of Sciences. So here’s the deal. We’ll give away free tickets (that’s up to $24.95 per ticket!) to the first 100 people who arrive by bike.

As a bonus, those first 100 people also get their bikes parked safe and secure at a San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s free bike valet.

And don’t think we’ll let you go hungry. Clif will sustain you on your journey through the museum with free CLIF BAR samples. Believe me, you’ll need it...the California Academy of Sciences is the only place on the planet with an aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum and a four-story rainforest all under one roof.

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UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who submitted a comment and for supporting Jay’s new book. The winners (who will receive signed copies of Jay and Gary’s books and a month’s supply of CLIF BARs) are: Samantha, jnylyn78 and mommaof3ontherun. Congrats!

Way back in 2006, Clif Bar & Company founder, co-owner, and co-CEO, Gary Erickson published his book Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business: The Story of Clif Bar & Company recounting Clif Bar’s origins and our journey to become a different kind of company. Today in 2010, Clif Bar is once again the subject of another great new book: Design is How it Works, How the Smartest Companies Turn Products into Icons, by Jay Greene. In this book, Jay Greene, former Seattle bureau chief for BusinessWeek and an award-winning journalist, explores how Clif Bar and other successful companies have made design thinking part of their DNA.

Jay visited Clif Bar & Company for a few days in October, 2008. He caught us at a particularly exciting time — not only did he visit us a few weeks before the 2008 presidential election, his visit also coincided with our Annual Epiphany Ride and Halloween festivities. In celebration of Jay’s book hitting shelves, I asked Jay to tell us about his book and his visit to Clif Bar & Company. We will also be doing a little giveaway — leave a comment on this blog post today and three people will be randomly chosen to receive an autographed copy of Jay’s book, an autographed copy of Gary’s book, and a month supply of CLIF BARs in your favorite flavor!

Kate: What is “design thinking”?
Jay: It’s really the practice of applying the skills designers use to create products to solve all sorts of business challenges, even ones that don’t require a focus on aesthetics. Designers intuitively use creativity and empathy to help them create something that has an emotional connection with customers. They prototype concepts and collaborate with colleagues to test theories and come up with novel approaches to new products. Design thinking applies those concepts to businesses where appearance doesn’t count for much. Design thinkers use anthropology, sociology and psychology to study customers in order to understand their unstated and unmet needs. 

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