green

Tomorrow evening, many parts of the world will go dark in honor of Earth Hour 2012, a worldwide initiative led by the World Wildlife Fund to promote awareness of energy conservation and sustainability in general. Will your house be dark tomorrow at 8:30pm?

Great news! The city of Minneapolis will now accept ALL types of plastic in their curb-side recycling program. That includes #1-7, milk and juice cartons, and frozen food boxes. Watch for this mailer to come in the mail soon.

More info at MNEnergyChallenge.com.

Sam's at it again - she'll be hosting two FREE educational classes in March and April at Natural Built Home in Minneapolis. Learn about selling your green home in today's market, or the pros and cons of remodeling your basement or attic. More info on our Event page.

Green Real Estate - March 22, 2012, 6:30-7:30pm, at Natural Built Home (4020 Minnehaha Ave, Mpls).

Your Green Remodel: Basements and Attics - April 19, 2012, 6:30-7:30pm, at Natural Built Home (4020 Minnehaha Ave, Mpls).

Thought there wasn't one eco-friendly product out there to rule them all? Think again, and get Less.

Here's a breakthrough for you...a newly discovered fungus from the Amazon rainforest can eat plastic! These little guys not only love eating polyurethane, but they can also do it in anaerobic conditions (meaning they can survive in a landfill). It will be interesting to see how this affects our waste management system. Read the full story here.

GreenBottle, the UK inventors of the paper milk bottle, has invented the world's first paper wine bottle. It features a compostable and recyclable paper shell around a recyclable plastic liner that's 0.5% the size of a regular plastic bottle. They cost the same to make as a regular glass bottle, but have one-tenth the carbon footprint.

Would you drink wine out of a paper bottle?

Via Treehugger.com.

Don Shelby, the former WCCO anchor we all know and love, is building a brand new energy-efficient home in Excelsior. Read about its green features, why he's building it, and about the "inukshuk" in the front yard at MinnPost.com.
Image via MinnPost.com


Excerpt:

Building a house that will consume a fraction of the fossil-fuel electricity and natural-gas heating is more expensive than a code-minimum house. There is the solar and geothermal and the triple-pane argon windows. There's the post-consumer plastic pavers made from recycled materials, and roof shingles made of recycled tires, and wood floors that came from buildings and barns where the lumber was cut from the forest 100 years ago. We will retain rainwater in a cistern, rain-gardens and a water retention sink below the driveway.

Wondering what the hottest color to put on your walls next year will be? Color experts have already narrowed it down to their top three: Bold Blue, Vibrant Green*, and Magestic Violet - all colors inspired by nature.

(*Looks like Morph was ahead of the trends?)

Via Styled, Staged & Sold, a blog hosted by REALTOR® Magazine.

This great infographic by One Block Off the Grid does a great job comparing the upfront costs, savings and payback times of various 'green' home upgrades. Obviously, solar, geothermal and other large-scale projects have the highest up-front costs and longest payback times, but there are a few winners when it comes to low investment and quick returns: high-efficiency shower heads, programmable thermostats, and sealing & insulating air ducts. These small upgrades start saving you $200-$300/year, each!

Click to see larger.

Hipcycle.com just launched this weekend, and it's a website that sells only upcycled products (products that are hand-crafted using waste items that would otherwise be thrown away). Check out what they have to offer!

Beer bottle business card holders:

Rain barrels made from food transport barrels:
Record coasters:
Traffic light kitchen bowls with brass stems: (!)
And a door mat made from reclaimed tires: