New Website Showcases Achievements, Interactive Map and Constituent Resources Now, there is a new website that showcases Sacramento County’s green strategies, achievements and helpful information. The website – Green Sacramento County – features an interactive map to pinpoint green activity and provides constituents with green news, tips and resources. “Sacramento County can be proud of its commitment to sustainability and smart environmental practices. Our green practices used within our organization and in neighborhoods across the County save money, energy and the environment,” said County Executive Brad Hudson. Green Sacramento County Website Features Green Map is a fun way to see g

With the recent dry weather and warmer temperatures, Sacramento-area residents might be tempted to ramp up their landscape irrigation. But, the Regional Water Authority and local water providers are recommending restraint. "Plants don't need as much water this time of year, even without rain," said Linda Yager, Regional Water Efficiency Program Manager. Lower temperatures, shorter daylight hours and moisture from fog and rain all combine to reduce the water demands of a typical landscape. Edible gardens and fruit bearing trees have special water requirements, so please consult with a landscape professional or your local Master Gardeners for more information. The Regional Water Authority

     The Sacramento County Airport System has received a $150,000 rebate from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) for energy efficiencies built into the design and construction of Terminal B at Sacramento International Airport. SMUD director Rob Kerth (Ward 5) will present the SMUD Savings By Design Program check to the Board of Supervisors at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 700 H St.     According to SMUD energy advisers, measures in place at Terminal B would yield a greenhouse gas reduction of 793 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of planting more than 33,000 trees or removing 165 cars from the road.      The airport’s Big Build design team worked clo

More residential waste is created during the holiday season than any other time of the year, so the cities and counties in the Sacramento area are encouraging residents to recycle as much as possible. Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period, the California Department of Resources Recovery and Recycling (CalRecycle) reports. This extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons, per week nationwide. With this in mind, local governments are urging residents to reduce, reuse, and recycle during this holiday season. "The amount of garbage sent to the landfill increases dramatically during the holiday season," sa

As Earth welcomed its 7 billionth child Nov. 1, international concern for diminishing world resources and mounting pollution are on the rise. This concern not only stems from the number of people on the planet, but how those people consume and dispose of their resources. However, depending upon how the international community prepares for that challenge, it could serve as an opportunity for positive change. The Sacramento City College’s Student Associated Council has recognized the international concern for its impact on the planet by creating a new position to help facilitate the campus’ desire to reduce its waste by welcoming plant biology major Michael Viscuso to the newly created posi

Blue Thumb Neighbors (BTN) is offering a special workshop to provide Witter Ranch (Natomas) residents with a hands-on opportunity to apply sustainable landscape practices to a neighbor’s yard. Working with the host, the BTN team will develop an action plan for transforming one ornamental planting area with beautiful, low-water use plants and upgrading sprinkler heads in one turf area. BTN instructors, participants and volunteers will then dig in and implement those plans during the Garden Party. The Garden Party will include both instruction and hands-on application on the following topics: Soil and Soil Amendments: Discuss soil health, use of compost and how the site was prepared Hydr

Sacramento, CA - Curtis Park resident Erik deKok shares a 1926 two-story home with his family of four. It is made of brick, has an attic conversion, but like many homes of that era the house used to feel drafty in the winter and unevenly air conditioned year-round. The upstairs stayed hot while the downstairs was cold. Mr. deKok’s children always had chilly hands when they played on the un-insulated flooring of the lower level in the winter time, and his wife’s asthma was worsened by moisture and mold problems from having an unsealed crawl space. These conditions have all changed with the help of over $6,000 in PG&E and SMUD rebates through the Energy Upgrade California program, plus 3% fi

A mural and sculpture artwork more than a year in the making is set to be finished in about a month and will be installed at the Boys & Girls Club of Sacramento to both inspire and educate the children. “I wanted to do something really original and kind of something that’s never been done before and challenge myself,” said 34-year-old Sacramento artist Anthony Padilla, who is known for works such as the murals on Hot Italian in Midtown and the 16th Street Kings mural. His design for the art involves a roughly 27-foot-by-27-foot mural accompanied by a sculpture that uses solar power to charge electronic devices such as laptops and cellphones and even run devices such as boom boxes. “Basi

Restaurants accumulate anywhere between 250 and 500 pounds of organic kitchen scraps each week, according to Green Restaurant Alliance of Sacramento co-founder David S. Baker. These hundreds of pounds of scraps, instead of filling landfills, can be used for compost to fertilize the very soil that will produce the next crop of fruits and vegetables. Since March 2010, GRAS, in partnership with Atlas Disposal, has worked toward creating a more sustainable food industry in the city through the use of a “closed-loop” system. “These are valuable resources that would be just going straight to a landfill and serving no use,” Baker said. GRAS is made up of Hot Italian, Mulvaney's B&L, Selland’s

SMUD received an electrifying down payment of sorts with the delivery this week of 11 plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) pickup trucks. Three more will be arriving later as part of a $97 million Chrysler demonstration project in select markets. “We were a logical partner for Chrysler because we’ve been testing alternative fuel vehicles for more than 20 years in an effort to improve the Sacramento region’s air quality,” said SMUD General Manager John DiStasio. “Environmental leadership is one of the SMUD’s core values.” Chrysler manufactured 140 of the Ram hybrid trucks under a U.S. Department of Energy stimulus grant that was awarded in the fall of 2009. “These vehicles were still in the co

Freshii opened a new location in downtown Sacramento on April 11, and owner Eric Heffel said they are happy to be in the area. According to Heffel, there are about 12,000 daytime office workers and 3,000 residents in the surrounding area and only one restaurant within walking distance to choose from. “Freshii can now provide all of those people another choice,” Heffel said. Located at 400 Q St., on the corner of 3rd and Q streets at the CalPERS building, the newest Freshii location is providing a variety of items to patrons in the area including, but not limited to, frozen yogurt, freshly made wraps, soups and salads, and a variety of snacks and drinks. Menu prices range from $1.

There's a lot more green on a tree than just its leaves! At this month's 4WDD ISA-Certified Arborist Scott Gregory will talk about assessing the economic and environmental benefits of the urban forest. In April, Scott successfully defended his master's thesis, "Quantifying Street Tree Function and Distribution: Analysis of Environmental Services, Population Characteristics, and Sidewalk Uplift in the City of Chico, California". His thesis entailed inventory of 34,950 street trees, stumps, and available planting sites within the City of Chico and subsequent data analysis to quantify environmental services provided by the City's street trees. By identifying public and private trees in adva

Bicycle food delivery service Edible Pedal has opened a Midtown retail store with an emphasis on helping new cyclists, repairing bicycles and providing locally produced gear. The shop opened Jan. 1 in the Alley between L Street and Capitol off 17th Street, next to Old Soul Co. Originally, Edible Pedal was solely a food delivery service. “This is the perfect location,” said owner John Boyer. “We get a lot of foot traffic through here, and people are taking the time to look at the (business) signs and see what’s around them. When they drive down the major streets, you don’t really get that.” The first products for sale were bicycles on consignment, and it expanded from there. Business now

Please join us on Wednesday evening, May 25th beginning at 5:45pm at the AIA Central Valley Chapter office for the this month’s 4th Wednesday Design Dialogue (4WDD). Gus Fischer, Architect and Partner with Dreyfuss & Blackford Architects will present their project, The California Independent System Operator (CA ISO) Headquarters facility. Gus will discuss how they are achieving LEED Platinum and its impact on the culture and community. This secure 275,000 SF complex on a 27 acre site is a consolidation of the organization’s operations, offices and public education components and just completed construction. The event is FREE and open to anyone. Refreshments provided. Please RSVP to info@

Mulch, drip irrigation kits and rain sensors...What do all of these have in common? They're considered "Top 10 Products for Saving Water at Home" available at your local home improvement store. To celebrate Water Awareness Month in May, local water providers and the Regional Water Authority (RWA) are partnering with Lowe's to showcase products that can help residents use less water. These include WaterSense-labeled toilets and showerheads, rotary sprinkler nozzles, automatic hose timers and more. Water providers will be on hand to discuss these and other products, tips for saving water both inside and outside the home, as well as rebates for replacing water-wasting fixtures with newer m

Sacramentan Thomas Dodson can't chill out in an air-conditioned office when days get hot or pressure at his new job marketing treehouses in the Costa Rica rainforest heats up. His bosses tell him to go jump in the river. And they're likely to join him. One of the perks at Finca Bellavista, which is billed as the world's first treehouse community, is living and working in a remote, pristine mountain setting fed by the Rio Bellavista. They can use "sky trails," a zipline network, to get around and cool off in the river anytime it gets too hot, Dodson said. "We've got a great waterhole just down the hill," he said Monday via Skype. The 37-year-old was working in marketing for the architec

How can we design ‘greener’ landscapes in Sacramento?  With the growing focus on water conservation, responsible use of resources, and the impacts of the built environment on human health and well-being, the conversation about what makes a site design ‘green’ is being elevated to a higher level. From pre-design and planning through construction and operations, a new rating system, dubbed ‘SITES’, has been developed which sets the bar for what we can do to design more sustainable places.  Developed to be incorporated into future versions of the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, SITES is currently in its pilot project phase.  Please join us on Wed

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op is the best place in the state to purchase sustainable seafood, and No. 2 in the nation, according to Greenpeace. “(The co-op) is one of those great stores that has taken amazing steps in realizing that sustainable seafood is incredibly important,” said Casson Trenor, seafood campaigner for Greenpeace. Greenpeace ranks the 20 biggest grocery store chains on how sustainable their seafood is, and Trenor said some smaller grocers are included as well due to their commitment to ensuring seafood is sustainable. Sustainable seafood is seafood that is not being overfished or fished in hazardous ways that deplete the ocean’s stocks or destroy the environment.

We've all heard the term "Green Thumb" used to describe someone with a natural skill for gardening. Now there's a new resource for gardeners to help them develop a "Blue Thumb"--a talent for creating a beautiful, water-efficient landscape. In the Blue Thumb blog, local landscape and irrigation experts Cheryl Buckwalter of Landscape Liaisons and Vicky Bartish of EcoLandscape California share their personal and professional insights on topics such as: • Selecting and maintaining high-impact, low-fuss plants appropriate for the Sacramento region • Reading your landscape and making practical design decisions • Matching your irrigation to your soil and plant type Cheryl and Vicky also answer

The Regional Water Authority (RWA) and local water providers kick off their 2011 Blue Thumb Pledge Drive by honoring 11 Sacramento-area residents and organizations as "Blue Thumb Ambassadors." Honorees will be recognized for their dedication to landscape water efficiency this Sunday, April 10, at 12:45 p.m. at the Sacramento River Cats game. Nearly 40 individuals and organizations were nominated by water providers and landscape advisors. Ultimately, 11 were selected because of their passion for using water wisely outdoors and their work as environmental educators, resources for their neighbors and stewards of our local water supplies. "Sometimes it's difficult to appreciate the need for