Ilchi Lee

In striving to create harmony between humanity and the Earth, the Sedona Mago Retreat Center has made an inventory of its green credentials – how it is becoming a model of ecotourism and sustainability.

Diane Dearmore, Executive Director of the Institute of Ecotourism, visited the Retreat Center recently and commented, “The green efforts you have made are unique. The name Mago, meaning Ancient Mother [in Korean], is beautiful in itself. I was most impressed with how your sustainability is from the ‘inside out.’ The things not seen by the visitors, such as the water and waste management system, are in place. Often we find businesses focusing on what visitors see, which would be from the outside in.”

In 1997, Ilchi Lee visited a spartan retreat center with strong vortex energy and exceptional beauty in the middle of Coconino National Forest. It was for sale, and he envisioned its potential to become a worldwide magnet for people seeking innovative holistic health training and treatment. He eventually acquired the property and donated it to the Tao Fellowship, a new nonprofit organization with a mission of “Love for the Earth and Love for Humanity.”

The Retreat Center’s green credentials – accomplished, planned and under serious consideration – can be divided into the areas of air, land, water and resources. Here are some examples:

~ Four electrical cars are used by the educational and housekeeping departments.

~ Naturally purifying the air with 2,000 juniper trees from when the Center acquired the property 10 years ago, and 1,272 trees (fruit, Cottonwood, Pine, Oleander, etc.) and 2,040 plants (Butterfly Bush, Rosemary, Common Sage, Mint, and 50 other varieties) planted in the past 10 years.

~ 163 pathway lights are solar, and 138 are reduced output (converted from 60 watts to 20 watts), with planned conversion to all solar-powered lights.

~ Old Casita Guest Rooms, designed by a Frank Lloyd Wright student, were built into the hillside for esthetic and temperature reasons. Constructed in the late 1980s, some have solar-powered water heaters; more installations are planned.

~ New Casita Guest Rooms were built to have cross ventilation. Constructed in 2006, the plan is to convert to all solar-powered water heaters in a few years.

~ Mago Hall is a stressed membrane structure, built by Sprung Instant Structures. It has a heated floor, and excellent insulation and ventilation.

~ Water run-off from mountains is captured to fill the man-made lake and the two ponds terraced above it.

~ Gray-water recycling system takes water from all Casita Guest Rooms and Welcome House (sinks, bathtubs/showers and toilets), filters it four times, stores it in two 10,000-gallon tanks, and sends it through rubber pipes to water trees and plants.

~ Earth Hall uses a system in which run-off is stored in a septic tank for watering the plants around it.

~ All toilets are low-pressure.

~ The Dining Hall gathers food items for composting (14,600 gallons a year) used in the Organic Garden. Manure from the Horse Stables also fertilizes the Organic Garden.

~ In season, various vegetables and fruit grown in the Organic Garden are served in the Dining Hall.

For more information about the ecotourism activities at the Sedona Mago Retreat Center, contact Heather Han, 928-204-3391.

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