It’s a great thing when I see an abundance of marketing efforts for green homes.  The HGTV home I wrote about last week has started their tours in Plymouth, MA.  Now, Country Living magazine is going to build a certified LEED home into the middle of New York City at the World Financial Center.  They have partnered with New World Home to create modular homes that reflect the tastes of Country Living’s readers, with a eco-friendly edge. I think it’s a great opportunity to showcase the latest in home design to a very large audience.

Here is some information about the tours they will be offering for their Green Home:

Country Living’s 2010 House of the Year will be open to the public June 4th-June 16th, Monday-Friday 11-5, Saturday and Sunday 9-6 and Thursday June 17^th 10-2 at The World Financial Center. Tickets are free. Following the open house the home will move to Crystal Springs Resort near Vernon , N.J. where it will become a permanent Country Living Green Modular Home design center. Country Living will be donating $5,000 to benefit National Parks off the New York Harbor Conservancy. To see the complete collection of Country Living green modular homes visit www.newworldhome.com/countryliving.


 If you could renovate part of your house and make it greener, what would you want to do?  On my list, a larger recycling area and a greenhouse to grow more of my own food. Has anyone experienced building their own green home?  I would love to hear about the challenges you faced and how you learned about all the options in building materials.


Happy Monday!

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There are still many people without access to proper recycling facilities. Either they live in an apartment building, condo, or lack curbside pick-up.  Recycling becomes a more challenging endeavor for these folks.  In this case, it is even more important to reuse what “waste” you currently have.  One of the top waste items is paper, and I put together a creative list of ways to reuse paper, in all it’s many forms.

*Paper towel and toilet paper rolls~ kids love playing with these.  Store them in a bag and you are ready to outfit an army!
*Credit card bill envelopes~ most people pay online now, so save your envelopes to reuse for collecting receipts, coupons, and more.
*Paper printouts bound for the trash~ flip them over and let your kids color on them.  They don’t care what’s on the other side.  Or cut it up for your own scrap paper.
*Old business cards~ I stash a couple in my little one’s mini handbag.  She likes to take the cards out and play with them.
*Print on both sides of your paper, you can reuse sheets once you are done with the information.
*Newspaper~ where do I start!  It is a great addition shredded in your compost.  Or, use the comics for wrapping over-sized gifts.  It’s also great packing material, both for rolling items and padding.  You can also create planters out of newspapers for the more crafty kinds.
*Coffee filters~ again, a great addition to the compost or rhododendrons.
*Old Books~ pass them along.  Give them a new life in a new readers hands.  Or donate them to a library or shelter if they are in good condition.
*Magazines~ fly swatter anyone?  I also use the magazine renewal postcards as bookmarks.

What other ways do you reuse paper in your home or office?  I would love to hear your suggestions.

I received a lot of comments about my Plane vs Train post last week, with the last one from a critic of Global Warming.  See below: 
“Carbon footprint is such a stupid concept as is this whole global warming farce. Attacking the idea is like attacking religion.

Here’s a question for the Global Warming advocates: If science has long since proven the existence of several ice ages, why is it that people don’t believe that temperatures are cyclical because of a multitude of reasons (e.g., cyclical solar activity)? The resources being wasted on questionable global warming science is out of whack with the real science.”


My anonymous reader is hot and bothered by the idea of global warming.  I feel I need to share my thoughts on the subject.  Yes, I agree that there is a cyclical pattern to the temperature of our Earth.  Yes, I agree that there is a possibility that we are in a cycle of increasing air and water temperatures.  What I don’t agree with is using this as an excuse to do nothing but further pollute our environment.  What the past several ice ages didn’t face was industrialization, and a rapidly expanding human population.  They didn’t have SUVs on the roadways, bananas in Boston in January, or China.  My feeling is that if there is some truth to the “whack” science of global warming, don’t we owe it to ourselves and our children to try and improve our world?  Why wouldn’t we, especially when there is a chance that all those critics are actually wrong.  What, exactly, do we have to lose?  Pride?  I’m sorry, but no one will remember if the global warming proclaimers were wrong, as they are helping to inspire a host of new industries of renewable resources, smart energy grids and more.  


So, to the critics of global warming, my challenge is this. Why not?  What is the harm in finding ways to produce energy more efficiently, reduce our waste and consumption, and limit the number of miles our food travels to our dinner plates.  Why not?

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