Results Are In!

Team Germany came in first, Illinois second, and California third - and all twenty houses exhibit the most progressive green building technologies of our time. More results, photos and video can be found at the official Solar Decathlon website: http://www.solardecathlon.org
My personal favorite? That's a tough call. Every home on the mall exhibits some quality that I adore. It wouldn't take much twisting of my arm to get me to live in any one of these houses. Congratulations to all the teams!

Cute Koozie

Most days I try to remember my reusable, stainless-steel coffee mug when biking to work. However, there are those days that I am without it and am in desperate need of my americano from the fancy coffee shop down the street. As I order my americano "to go, please" I always think about how much waste we produce from drinking coffee! There is the paper cup, the plastic lid, and the coffee sleeve so that we don't burn our little hands. The lid can be recycled, the cup and sleeve compostable --- but remember that there are THREE R's people. First comes REDUCE, the most important. Then comes reuse, and lastly... lastly, recycle. So, here's an innovation to help us reduce on those days that we forget our travel mugs - a stylish wooden bracelet by Contexture Design (http://www.contexture.ca/coffeecuff.php?wood=a) that can double as your coffee cup koozie.