Live: Turning a Home Remodel into a Green Energy Retrofit
This seminar will spotlight the best methods for making your home remodel a genuine green retrofit. Topics include smart energy-efficient products and materials; tighter building envelopes and improved indoor-air quality; and working with contractors to ensure a quality green installation. Learn the best ways to make your home more energy efficient, comfortable and cost effective.
Sat, Jan 23, 9-11am
Truitt & White Conference Room, 1817 Second St (at Hearst), Berkeley
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Play: "The World in a Woman's Hands" - Shotgun Player's
A wonderful show sung in cool jazz about Rosie the River gals during the war in Richmond. Anyone who buys a ticket before this September 27 for any performance until the closing date will get a $5 discount on their ticket.
Now - October 11
Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Avenue, Berkeley
View coupon at ecometro.com

Play, Eat: Rockridge Out & About
This is the third year of the Rockridge District Association's annual street festival. On top of its usual delights, College Avenue becomes the stage for musicians, clowns, street performers, fashion shows, cooking demos, in-store workshops, and wellness activities. Come visit us at the EcoMetro Guide booth: pick up your 2010 edition, support a fundraiser, and enter to win great prizes!
September 27, 11am - 6pm
College Avenue from Manila to Claremont, Rockridge, Oakland More...

Eat: Laurel Farmer's Market Every Saturday
The Oakland Community Farmers' Market is held in the Laurel District on Saturdays YEAR ROUND. Sponsored and maintained by Oakland Food Connection, a nonprofit that strives to promote nutritional awareness, access to healthy foods and the connections between people and our planet. The market includes certified organic produce from J&P Organic Farm based out of Salinas, CA and a youth-led prepared food booth called the Purple Lawn Cafe.
May 9, 10am-2pm
4173 MacArthur Blvd, (near Maybelle St) in the parking lot of the Laurel Office Center/Trattoria Laurellinos, Oakland

Image: Flickr/CreativeCommons View more in our Berkeley/Oakland Sustainable City Pool. More...

Eat: Vegetarian Cooking Class: Hearty Homestyle Italian
Join Compassionate Cooks’ founder Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, author of the Joy of Vegan Baking, in her monthly fun-filled Vegetarian Cooking Classes that celebrate healthful and humane eating! Designed to fill you up and warm you up, these hearty Italian dishes will satisfy anyone and everyone you feed! Cook up Italian-style Hummus; Polenta Squares with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce; Pizza Marinara; Spring Vegetable Risotto; and Chocolate Cheesecake. $55 (in advance), plus $5 food/materials fee due on day of class (Discounts for registering for class packages.) Register online or mail a check to Compassionate Cooks P.O. Box 18512, Oakland, CA 94619.
April 25, 10am-1pm
First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St, at Castro
View Coupon at ecometro.com

Live: UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Spring Plant Sale
The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden has an incredible number of beautiful and unusual plants that are sure to make a spectacular addition to your garden. Check out their website for a list of practical workshops.
April 25, 10am-2pm
UC Berkeley Botanical Garden
View Coupon at ecometro.com

Eat: All about Tomatoes Workshop
Peggy Kass from Kassenoff Growers will be describing some of the varieties of locally-grown tomatoes Ploughshares is selling this spring. Peggy will also teach us how to help these tomatoes succeed in your back yard.
April 11, 10am-12pm
Ploughshares Nursery, 2701 Main St, Alameda
View at ecometro.com

Play: Montclair Lion's Club Annual Easter Egg Hunt
Firefighters from the Shepherd Canyon Fire Station will blast a horn at 9am to start the annual Easter Egg Hunt in Montclair Park. Kids can exchange their found plastic eggs for candy and other treats, so the Lions Club can reuse the eggs next year. Don't be late.
April 12, 9am Sharp
Montclair Park, near Montclair Recreation Center, 6300 Moraga Ave

Live: City of Oakland 15th EarthEXPO
Join the EcoMetro Guide crew and other green exhibitors in Downtown Oakland this Wednesday. Learn more about local green businesses, environmental groups, artists, agencies, and products. Get how-to-tips on all things Green. Make a commitment to take one new green action and receive a pledge pin, reusable bag, special edition poster, or other items! Exchange your mercury thermometers for a digital thermometer and recycle used household batteries and cell phones. Includes a Farmers’ Market and Prizes. Free. Stop by the EcoMetro Guide table to get your EcoMetro Guide and sign up to win a fabulous prize.
April 15, 10am–2pm
Frank Ogawa Plaza (14th & Broadway), Oakland More...

Oakland has always been outside my everyday radius, even though it’s just a few miles from home.  Recently, on a lovely sunny weekday with several hours to fill, I decided to head for Oakland City Center and the nearby Historic District.

Within an amazingly short BART ride, there I was, smack in the middle of “new” Oakland.  I was impressed with the juxtaposition of modern high rises melding with 19th century landmarks – Beaux Arts City Hall, Rotunda Building, Tribune Building and the Art Deco  Financial Building. More...

With Valentine’s Day come and gone, you may begin pondering just how many artificial ingredients are in those little candy hearts. Amongst the flowers and teddy bears, it’s impossible not to notice all the red and pink candy displays at the market.

It’s also impossible that all that packaging doesn’t end up in the garbage.

Here are some ideas on how you can cut down on waste and find creative gifts made from what is normally thrown away. More...

Sitting in the Urban Grind Coffeehouse in Portland, OR, talking about natural building with Lydia Doleman, owner of the Portland-based natural building company Flyer Hammer Productions, I could feel my jealousy of her job coalescing. I had just completed her class An Introduction to Carpentry for Women, and was ready to trade in my computer – my current primary tool – for a table saw. Inspired and empowered by the possibilities that my new skill presented, I was compelled to find out what it’s like to be a woman in a (stereo)typically male profession and to understand the spin that natural building puts on the construction trade.

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A planet-friendly trend appears to be taking off around some new thinking in how we use energy.

There are many activities from manufacturing steel to storing data on computer servers that require significant electricity or other power and generate heat as a byproduct. Until recently, much of that heat was considered a problem to get rid of. Data centers use air conditioning to cool server rooms and the furnaces of a steel plant are vented after melting the metal. Now, some organizations are recognizing how that heat can be put to additional use. More...

EcoMetro Events Calendar

To view EcoMetro coupon offers for these merchants, click the business name. Leave reviews for your favorites on their profiles! These events originally appeared in our monthly green tips email. Sign up to receive it next month by creating your profile.

EarthDance: Short-Attention-Span Environmental Film Festival
The fifth annual EarthDance at the museum features 22 humorous and provocative juried short films in two separate showings at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Comedies, animations, documentaries, and adventure films celebrate our connections to the natural world. EarthDance: Helping You See Green, just one of the many exciting happenings at the museum on First Fridays After Five! See site for film descriptions and video clips. Included with museum admission.
April 4, 7-11pm
Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak, Oakland More...