Here is a wonderful way for you to see, learn and experience some of the latest in home technologies.

The Tour features ENERGY STAR® products, eco-friendly construction methods and innovative technologies to demonstrate to thousands of consumers how to integrate energy efficient products into their homes. High performance, low maintenance building materials, home systems, and appliances will be showcased. (more…)

The Sears Tower

It has been known that commercial buildings take a lot of energy to keep them going.

The Sears Tower (Chicago) is going to be renamed to the Willis Tower later this summer and is now going to undergo a $350 million “green” retrofit for the 110-story office tower.

The plan calls for a reduction in its electricity consumption by 80 percent and water usage by 40 percent.

To achieve the savings, owner American Landmark Properties and its partners plan to: (more…)

Concentrating the Power of the Sun

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is emerging as one of the most promising sources of renewable energy for the 21st century. Tessera Solar International, headquartered in Houston, Texas, (Tessera Solar International, based in London, United Kingdom), will develop, build, operate and own large-scale solar power plants around the world, using the new SunCatcher Solar Dish Stirling System, developed by Tessera’s sister company, Stirling Energy, Inc. (SES), headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. (more…)

There is a new environmentally friendly washing machine on the horizon that uses only one cup of water and leaves clothes virtually dry.

The University of Leeds, has set its sights on saving up to 90 percent of water used by conventional machines, use 30 percent less energy and the environmental impact would be like taking 5 million cars off the road and it would save 1.2 billion tons of water per year – the equivalent of 17 million swimming pools. (more…)

I found this on CNN and just had to pass it on. This is what we are talking about why we need to go green.

PICHER, Oklahoma (CNN) — Wearing powder blue pants and a plaid fedora, 84-year-old Orval “Hoppy” Ray arrived fashionably late to a celebration in Picher, Oklahoma, a vacated mining town at the center of one of the nation’s largest and most polluted toxic-waste sites.

Hoppy Ray, 84, was among the last people to leave the toxic town of Picher, Oklahoma.

Former residents, bought out by the government because their town was deemed so dangerous, gathered in Picher’s elementary school to say farewell to a place where kids suffered lead poisoning, where homes built atop underground mines plunged into the Earth and where the local creek coughs up orange water, laced with heavy metals.

A toothpick dangling out of the corner of his chapped mouth, Ray greeted several old friends as if he were in any other small town in America. (more…)

It’s All Greek To Me

A Bit From The Green Glossary For Everyday People:

Eco-footprint – Measures how much land and water area a human requires to produce the resources he consumes and to absorb his wastes. It compares human demand with planet Earth’s ecological capacity to regenerate. Estimating how much of the Earth (or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody lived a given lifestyle. Example: For 2005, humanity’s total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.3 planet Earths – in other words, humanity uses ecological services 1.3 times as fast as Earth can renew them. If you want to calculate your own eco-footprint, try this site … (more…)

I’m actually out of town on a family “rescue mission,” but I’ll be returning shortly. In the meantime, please enjoy the following solar video by GreenInsights