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Greensburg, Kansas to Tuscaloosa (and now Joplin): Rebuild green!

 Posted by on June 10, 2011
Jun 102011
 
Greensburg, Kansas to Tuscaloosa (and now Joplin): Rebuild green!

As a monster tornado bore down on Tuscaloosa last week, residents of Greensburg, Kansas were preparing for a weekend of festivities commemorating their recovery from a 2007 tornado.
The May 4 twister that nearly blasted Greensburg off the map was rated an EF5. It turned 95 percent of the town’s buildings to tinder and claimed 11 lives as it skidded across the western Kansas town.

Rebuilding the community of 800 has become a testament to how people can plunge in to a new way of living. While some residents left after the storm, many more have worked diligently to turn that dark event into an opportunity, constructing a new village made of sturdy, energy-efficient, sustainable homes that employ the latest technology.

[caption id="attachment_75275" align="alignright" width="303" caption="Greensburg GreenTown's demonstration silo home"][/caption] >> Read More

10 ways to save water in the landscape from HGTV’s ‘The Gardner Guy’

 Posted by on May 3, 2011
May 032011
 
10 ways to save water in the landscape from HGTV’s ‘The Gardner Guy’[caption id="attachment_1609" align="alignleft" width="161" caption="Paul James offers expert gardening advice on HGTV."][/caption]

Water shortages are coming, though it seems not to have registered with most Americans, who will expend billions of gallons of water on their lawns this summer so they can grow non-indigenous grasses and thirsty ornamental flowers. Blessed with abundant water until lately, Americans also will continue to shower, clean, flush and eat with little thought of the water scarcity predicted to imperil far more than our lawns.

But by 2013 – in just two years – some 36 states are expected to face water shortages over part or all of their territory, forcing rationing and restrictions.

It’s time to drink in that information, and blunt the blow by taking a variety of conservation steps, especially in the yard, where most homeowners (except in rainy regions) use more than half of the water piped to their household.

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Greening your home a room at a time: Eco closets

 Posted by on April 12, 2011
Apr 122011
 
Greening your home a room at a time: Eco closets

Feng Shui experts advise people to clean or reorganize their home one room at a time, thoroughly, to create oases of calm, rather than performing a slap-dash job on the whole house, and creating a discordant environment.

This is good advice: Conquer the chaos instead of leaving a residue of disarray at every turn. And we think this concept works well for adopting green living standards. Take it a room at a time and you’ll be able to carefully select the products that fit your needs and make the changes that are workable.

Let’s start with the closets.

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Junk and jetsam, heirlooms and gems — reusing old stuff can be fun

 Posted by on April 5, 2011
Apr 052011
 
Junk and jetsam, heirlooms and gems — reusing old stuff can be fun

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Recycling is often the first thing that comes to mind when people consider greening their lifestyle. Kicking those cans, and milk jugs and newspapers, to the curb can put a dent in the trash and save natural resources.

But “reducing” and “reusing” also can have a big impact. Reducing packaging, for instance, can circumvent the need for a product altogether. And reusing can result in some elegant re-imaginings that help conserve resources by re-purposing, shifting or extending the lifespan of an item.

And, of course, reusing, by definition, also reduces. That’s what’s so great about it; there’s the joy of discovery as you breathe new life into something that would have otherwise decayed in an attic or landfill, and there’s the fun of discovery and refurbishing.

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U.S. communities adopting electronic waste laws, recycling programs

 Posted by on March 29, 2011
Mar 292011
 
U.S. communities adopting electronic waste laws, recycling programs

There is a growing problem of what to do with electronic waste such as old televisions, computers, radios, cellular telephones and other electronic equipment. Electronic trash, known as e-waste, is piling up faster than ever in American homes and businesses. People do not know what to do with old televisions or computers so they throw them in the trash.

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Proposed grocery bag tax in Maryland meets opposition

 Posted by on March 22, 2011
Mar 222011
 

Prince Georges County in Maryland could become the next large urban region to adopt a tax on grocery bags, pushing consumers to adopt reusable totes by levying a 5 cents per bag tax on disposables.

This green measure has support among people wanting to de-litter the landscape and move to more responsible use of nature resources.

Still, the measure could go the way of a similar recent effort in California in which a bag ban proposed by a Santa Monica legislator failed to win approval in the state Senate.

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