The Green House of the Future

Via - Wall Street Journal - APRIL 27, 2009 - CONSUMERS- By ALEX FRANGOS

"....A fresh look may be long overdue, given the amount of damage that homes can do to the environment. It's easy to envision a power plant spewing pollution or a highway full of cars burning billions of gallons of petroleum. But buildings -- silent and unmoving -- are the quiet users of much of our energy, through electricity, heating and water consumption. The U.S. Energy Department estimates buildings are responsible for 39% of our energy consumption and a similar percentage of greenhouse-gas emissions."

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Living Green SA

For those living in the San Antoino/Hill Country area, there's a great new website dedicated to living green!  Browse through it and you'll find an events calender full with green events, tip of the week, local and national green stories/news, forums and lots more.  

Earth Day Houston

EARTH DAY HOUSTON

Start celebrating Earth Day, which falls on April 22

Where: Discovery Green, downtown, near McKinney and Crawford

When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; an Earth Day 5K run begins at 8 a.m.

Information: For more on the event and 5K, go to www.earthdayhouston.org

All the events are free. Most of the activities will be divided into zones:

• Air Zone includes smelly scavenger hunts for hidden air-pollution sources and a find-it-and-fix-it leak-detection test.

•Land Zone offers activities to help people with the four R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle and respect the Earth.

•Water Zone involves interactive activities, a look at a pile of trash gathered from Houston’s bayous, games and puzzles.

•Renewable Energy Zone has solar ovens, displays and a microwave powered by solar and wind energy.

• Environmental Education Zone houses 30 local green nonprofits.

• Kids Energy Zone includes inflatables, recycled art and the Discovery Green playground.

Solar America Cities

The 2nd annual meeting for the Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities is taking place right now in the Alamo City, March 31 through April 2.  City leaders from across the nation will talk about the best ways to promote solar energy use and how to use solar energy for a cleaner more secure energy future.  This year Houston and San Antonio were the only Texas cities to be named Solar America Cities and joins Austin which became a Solar City in 2008.  For more information visit Solar America Cities.