Liberty Valley Doors Wins Green Business Award

The Cotati-based custom door manufacturer Liberty Valley Doors won January's Sustainable North Bay Award for their commitment to environmentally-friendly business practices. The local company uses reclaimed wood to manufacture custom doors, powers the company with solar energy and even has goats do the lawn-mowing.

State Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, presented the award to owner Mike Pastryk and his small staff of 11 in the company’s show room on Friday afternoon. The Sustainable North Bay Award has been presented monthly since Huffman took office in February of 2007. 

Since then companies throughout the North Bay have garnered "green" accolades, including Petaluma Green Taxi, B.R. Cohn Winery and Olive Oil Company in Sonoma and , in San Anselmo, just to name a few.

“I wanted to recognize what I saw as some amazing success stories in my district, for entrepreneurial, small business that were not only providing jobs and contributing to the community economically, but also embracing their social responsibility to the environment,” Huffman said.

Huffman praised Pastryk for making the jump to solar.

Pastryk started his company, now called Liberty Valley Doors, in 1978. He quit his day job and, with the help of a partner, opened his own shop in a former Petaluma chicken coop. However the partnership would not last long.

“After [my partner] and I got in to business, his wife got pregnant with twins; way back then we were not making any money at all. He needed to make more money so I offered to buy him out,” Pastryk said.

That’s when he dedicated all his time and effort into growing his business. As the company expanded, Pastryk added a second chicken coop, and then in 1982 moved the shop to its current location on Gravenstein Highway.

Over the years he has paved, remolded and expanded the facilities from 10,000 to 15,000 square feet.

The conversion to recycled wood was inspired by an order for doors made from reclaimed Douglas Fir, which Pastryk saved from the landfill.

That project started an entire line of doors made from reclaimed wood, and catapulted Pastryk into thinking of other ways he could make his shop environmental-friendly.

Today, Pastryk uses standards put forth by the Forest Stewardship Council, which requires that wood used be tracked from the forest, to the mill, to the shop — to guarantee that it is a sustainably made product.

“I truly believe that had I not become a sustainable company and gone solar we be out of business,” Pastryk said.

Pastryk’s move towards a “green” business increased when, in 2008, he installed a solar power system on the roof of his shop. That move grew from the desire to have lower energy bills and to increase the sustainability of his business — it's an ethos that extends even further.

The rolling ranchland that surrounds the shop has a gardening staff made up of three sheep and four goats. The animals roam the grassy hills around the shop and on occasion, wander in to the shop with a tinge of curiosity.  

Editor's note: Liberty Valley Doors is located at 6005 Gravenstein Highway. For questions or additional information, call 707-795-8040.