Gaiam Staff

Born into an Akha hill tribe village in Northern Thailand, Ging started out with nothing. She was left with no home, no education, no work — no opportunity to live a decent life.

“We’re given one body in this precious life. It needs maintenance; it needs to be empowered,” says Trudie Styler in this video interview with her and husband Sting for the new Trudie Styler workout and healthy lifestyle DVD series by Gaiam. “I doubt that we’d be able to get through as much as we do without a fitness routine. Fitness plays a huge part in daily life for us both.”

Gaiam garden volunteers have harvested and enjoyed a bounty of delicious organic fruits and veggies this summer from the Gaiam community garden at our headquarters in Boulder, Colo.

We began harvesting our plentiful red-leaf lettuce in June and now have a healthy new crop of green-leaf lettuce.

Last month Gaiam staffers contributed 40 fully-packed backpacks to the Crayons to Calculators school supply drive, which aims to provide 5,000 backpacks to children in need to start their school year off right.

Our staff’s huge outpouring of support for the Crayons to Calculators program is clear in this mountain of donated backpacks … The girls from Gaiam’s HR team paused for a photo before prepping the packs for volunteers to fill at our Boulder, Colo., headquarters.

They’re named for our Go Zero carbon offset program — but this crew could go by “Spontaneous Combustion” for how they ROCK even though they’d never played together until the night before their debut at our last company picnic. The Go Zeros had us hoppin’ again last week with some Bob Marley, John Lennon, U2, Police, Steely Dan …  You know the band is good when people start dancing with their coworkers in broad daylight. Check out the video, and scroll down for a couple more photos plus the details on the fabulous FOOD.

You’d be amazed what you can make from an exercise ball. We were today when 20-some teams transformed BalanceBalls into all manner of animal, vegetable and mineral, competing during our summer picnic to win gift certificates to the Gaiam Café.

Go behind the scenes at our headquarters in Boulder, Colo., in this clip created and hosted by the fabulous YogaMates.com Director Kasey Luber. Our campus was a big stop on her recent “50 Days” tour of yoga studios around the west (since we do, after all, have a yoga studio right here in our building). Meet a few of our Gaiam team members and get a peek at, you guessed it, our yoga studio — plus our our solar power system, Gaiam Cafe, Gaiam Garden, filming studio, customer service center, mock retail store and more. Put a few friendly faces to the Gaiam name — and see where we do all the good things you make it possible for us to do!

Movies based on true stories really touch our hearts. The new Spiritual Cinema Circle feature film Red Like the Sky tells the true story of Mirco Mencacci, who is one of the most talented Italian sound editors working today — and happens to be blind. Here’s a preview with introduction by What Dreams May Come producer and Spiritual Cinema Circle co-founder Stephen Simon.

“Our garden has gotten people so fired up,” says Kate Weaver, a lead volunteer in a team of Gaiam employees who’s bringing a new organic garden to life at our Boulder, Colo., headquarters. “I’ve never seen so much heart go into anything.”

This July, a new kind of festival will bring together the world’s leading yoga teachers and best rock ‘n’ roll performers in a breathtaking setting of natural beauty. The Wanderlust Festival, dedicated to both “spiritual and physical exploration,” will take place July 24-26 in Squaw Valley USA, Lake Tahoe, Calif. Gaiam is a sponsor of the festival, and our Yogamates.com editor Kasey Luber will conclude her 50 Days 50 Yoga Studios road trip at Wanderlust.