City of Raleigh Environmental Awards 2009

Raleigh shows commitment to sustainability with the second annual Environmental Awards Program

What a wonderful way to end my celebration of Earth Day by attending the award ceremony.

Mayor Meeker opens the award ceremony

Some of my favorite folks received awards. Top of the list, I have to admit are Bob and Maria Kingery,  co-founders of Southern Energy Management, who won the Market Transformation Award.   Congrats to Bob, Maria and their fabulous staff for a well deserved award.  The Kingerys have been generous supporters of my EcoMonday Seminar series and just fabulous folks to know and admire.

Market Transformation Award Southern Energy Management

Next on my list is HagerSmith for their Lunch ‘n Learns which are right on the money with topics that help us live more sustainably:  green roofs, permaculature, solar power to name a few.   The next is geothermal. I’ll be there!

This quote from their website illustrates their commitment and their outreach program put their words into action.

“Sustainable design is smart design, because it unites ecological responsibility with financial productivity. Nothing excites us more than to partner with those who share a unified vision of what makes a building successful: functionality, cost-effectiveness, efficiency, beauty, and eco-friendliness.  We’re committed to these basic tenets of design and embrace the challenge of leaving our world a better place than when we started.”

Advanced Energy won the Legacy Award for their long time commitment just as the name implies. They have been an invaluable resource for me.

Barrington Village, Builders of Hope won the Raleigh Environmental Stewardship Award for their innovative approach to recycling homes.  The program moves unwanted homes and renovates them to be healthier and more energy efficient.  The program collaborates with the Healthy Built Homes program and uses Advanced Energy’s System Vision to build

“homes that create healthy indoor environments while reducing our environmental impact in an affordable housing market.  To show a correlation between green building practices and improvement in health for the families that live there.  To ensure that the homes are not only affordable to buy but affordable to live in. “

Ryan Berglund won one of the two Youth Awards for his rain barrel project showing commitment and entrepreneurship at 14.  Way to go!

Here’s a link to my event photos.

Can’t wait to see who emerges as leaders for the 2010 awards!

Earth Day Celebration Downtown Raleigh 2009

Lining up for the Papperhand Puppet Parade

Raleigh’s Earth Day Celebration 2009

What a stunningly beautiful day to celebrate Planet Earth!  This was the second year for the downtown Raleigh festival sponsored by the  N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, the City of Raleigh and Burt’s Bees.

Paperhand Puppet  Trash March at 5pm featured yours truly as a puppet holder.  I’ve enjoyed the Paperhand Puppet march every year at the Eno Festival and always wanted to be a puppet handler.  Voila  I was in the right place when the message came out, “pick a puppet and join the parade”.

The puppets are made from recycled materials,  bamboo and use corn starch. Since 1998 these creative puppeteers have been demonstrating their love for the earth and its creatures as visual demonstrations of their belief in justice, equality, and peace.

Check out their schedule as the next time they are back in Raleigh is First Night.

Here’s what I was able to see:

• Burt’s Bees Happy 25th Burt Day Bonanza Tent Sale -great buys!!!!
• Paperhand Puppet Intervention and the Trash March
• Eco-smart shopping in the Green Bazaar
• The hip sounds of The Junkman and his totally recycled trash band
• The 9th Annual Sustainable Design Competition
• “Ask the Experts” tent with answers to all your questions about designing and building a sustainable home.
• “How To” for green home cleaning, backyard beekeeping, and much more!
• Innovative Sustainability Projects from the Triangle’s Universities
• Southern Energy Management’s solar power race car competition
• Worm composting exhibit
• City of Raleigh Sustainability demo and contest

Bill Satterwhite-master-gardener-$10-bluebird-house

Did you know that bluebirds almost vanished?  Bill Satterwhite of  the Master Gardeners of Wake County explained how the bluebird habitat is threatened by development.  Bluebirds nest in hollow cavities of trees. With so many trees being cut for subdivisions and home owners diligently removing dead trees, these color birds have fewer places to call home. They don’t make their own nests and rely on holes created by woodpeckers or NEST BOXES which you can provide. Here’s a link to an article about the bluebird’s plight and  proper nesting box placement and more information about the bluebird box program.  $10 boxes can be purchased from the State Employee Credit Union.

Master Gardeners are available to help you with your gardening questions.

Check out my Planet Earth photos.

I spun the wheel of chance at The City of Raleigh sustainble booth and won a 5 minute shower timer and an all cotton T shirt.

Raleigh’s Environmental Awards are Wedneday  night from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Marbles Kids Museum at 201 East Hargett Street in downtown Raleigh.  Can’t wait to see who won this year.

Arbor Fest at  JC Raulston Arboretum

What a gorgeous day for a festival. NCSU’s professor hit home runs with the presentations that I heard on Organic Insect Management and Rain Gardening.

David Orr explained that typical suburban development lessens diversity and increases the need for insect control.  Learning to live with fewer pests is a moderate regulated approach.  NSCU provides a wealth of material to help identify bugs, diseases and references for organic pest control.

• Cooperative Extension Service County Offices
• NCSU Plant and Insect Clinic
• Growing Small Farms
• NC Pest Management Program

Kraus and Spafford’s presentation on Rain Gardening was brilliant. I wanted to run right home, grab my shovel and start digging!   Their slides featured Helen’s rain garden.  The detailed plant list for shady gardens is an example from their book, Rain Gardening in the South: Ecologically Designed Gardens for Drought, Deluge & Everything in Between.

Presentation on rain gardening

Afterward I visited my favorite places and enjoyed the flowering trees.  Here’s a link for you!

Great resource guide!

Grow your own food

Gardens are cropping up all over the Triangle. Yesterday’s N&O featured this article on the front page,  More People Try to Grow Own Food.

A dismal economy and a new consciousness about food safety have led to a 19 percent rise this year in household gardens, according to the National Gardening Association.

Interested in trying your hand at a garden?

Well, you are in luck as today is Arbor Fest at the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  It’s FREE and packed with topics for the topics of interest to eco-minded gardener.

Topics include:

• Composting
• Organic Insect Management
• Rain gardening
• Vermiculture (worms for ya’ll non-gardeners)

Visit the arboretum’s website for times and details.

Resources

• Guide to home vegetable gardening by the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service:  www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag-06.html.
• The chart Temperature and Times Required to Grow Plants for Transplanting into the Garden is a perfect reality check for all us anxious gardeners!
• Kitchen Gardeners International: www.kitchengardeners.org
• Community gardens in Wake County: www.advocatesforhealthinaction.org/community_gardens.html
• Raleigh Advocates for Community Gardens: http://commgardens.meetup.com/69
• NEW publication Triangle Gardener, http://www.trianglegardener.com – free copies available at the Southern Ideal Home Show, the Triangle’s largest home and garden event held both in the spring and fall.  Check out the site for a list of vendors, schedule and save a buck coupon.

More coming!  Gotta get ready for Arbor Fest.  See you there!

Leading up to Earth Day 2009

The 39th Earth Day is April 22nd.   Join us celebrate at NCSU  11-3 pm.  We’ll be on the brickyard reminiscent of how the movement started on college and university campuses.  The event is sponsored by NCSU’s  Office of Sustainability and Office of Energy Management, in cooperation with, and Waste Reduction and Recycling.

Learn about green building and living sustainably.  Stay tuned for more information and a list of participating vendors.

Get your cameras ready…EPA is sponsoring photo conteststo document Earth Day and Energy Month celebrations.

• Video Project
• Photo Project

Green homes are gaining ground.  Here’s 2008 data from ENERY STAR which is an EPA program.

In 2008, Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved $19 billion on their energy bills and avoided greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of 29 million vehicles. To date, 940,00 new home and more than 6,000 office buildings, schools, hospitals, and public buildings have earned the ENERGY STAR.

Way to go!

PS…did you know that you can now search MLS for green homes?

Green realty blooming

What does it mean to be a green real estate agent?   Iris June Vinegar’s Saturday article, The Business of Green, ties it all together.  Iris is no newcomer to the green scene. She’s been writing about energy efficient homes for years.  Look for another story about Iris soon! She’s an amazing octogenarian.

CityGate Real Estate is leading by example with a green expansion and the agents demonstrating commitment working with buyers, sellers and education.

CityGates office expansion re-purposed materials. Principal broker, Doro Taylor creatively created office cubbies using glass patio doors from Habitat’s recycling store.   The offices are located in a 70 year old building in the historic Glenwood South district showing a commitment to reusing existing buildings.

First Friday
When you enter CityGate’s office you may think you walked into an art gallery. Well, sort of.    CityGate participates in the Downtown Raleigh

Alliance’s First Friday along with Kohn Associates and the Allen Fletcher Insurance Agency who share the office space.  Here’s a link to the Green First Friday on  October 3, 2008 as we celebrated the 30th anniversary of NCSEA’s Green Building and Solar Tour.

Buying and Selling Green

These  EcoBrokers know how to find green homes for eco-conscious buyers and help green home sellers effectively market the homes unique features.   Green homes come in all size, styles and price ranges.    Some of the features and styles include:

• ENERGY STAR homes
• Green Home Builders of the Triangle certified
• Green modular
• Living roof
• Cistern
• Solar hot water heater

Education

CityGate participates in shows and hosts Triangle Green Homes EcoMonday Seminar series on the 3rd Monday of the month.    The calendar is located on my companion site, Triangle Green Homes.com.

The year long seminar series provides straight talking information about energy efficiency, green building and living sustainably.  The monthly programs feature experts who are ‘green myth busters’. No green washing here.

Future topics include resources for green materials, co-housing, community gardening and a very exciting affordable new solar product.  Let us know what you’d like to learn more about.