Bike MN 350
Come find out about a 350-mile bike trek starting on Saturday and the 350 International Day of Climate Action coming up on October 24th. Hear from organizers of October 24th action events as well as staff and Copenhagen delegates from the Will Steger Foundation.
Oct 10, 10:10am-Noon
Harriet Alexander Nature Center, 2520 North Dale Street, Roseville

Image: Flickr/russell.bride More...

Every now and then you run across a situation where instinct tells you to zig when you really ought to zag.

For saving electricity and keeping a few more dollars in your bank account, THIS SPACE is about to bend your mind around the idea of using electricity to save it.

This week’s ONE THING you can do to conserve energy is to try online billing for your utility bills and any other payments you need to make. The switch will increase your time on the computer, which would seem to increase your energy consumption, but this is a situation where one step back can lead to two or three steps forward.

Here’s why. More...

Bicycle Film Fest
Join other bike enthusiasts for a week-long celebration of the many ways bicycling can transport us. The festival includes art, film, and musical performances about bikes. 
July 8-July 12
For a complete list of events click here

Greener is Greener
Learn how to green your home affordably by taking the right steps for testing, diagnosis, and planning. Pre-registration is required.
July 11, 9-11am
Whole Foods Market, 3060 Excelsior Blvd, Minneapolis

Go Green with a Splash Party Weekend
As part of the Arboretum’s on-going Waterosity summer exhibition, they decided to throw a party!  The weekend's line-up includes fun family activities such as performances by Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre and helpful information on ways to conserve water in your home and garden.
July 11-12, 11am-3pm
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, 3675 Arboretum Drive, Chaska

Image: iMorpheus/CreativeCommons More...

Fantastic Fourth at The Walker
Celebrate independence day in The Walker sculpture garden with music, art-filled activities (including an Art Bike contest) and hula-hooping lessons.
July 4, 10am-3pm
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at The Walker, 1750 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis
FREE

Picnic Time at Mill City Farmers Market
Learn how to create delicious picnic treats with your market produce from the chefs at Mill City Farmers Market. 
July 4, 8am-1pm, cooking demo at 10am
Mill City Farmers Market, 704 2nd Street S, Minneapolis

Concerts in the Park: A Minnesota Summer Tradition
A quintessential Minnesota summer evening involves packing up a picnic, gathering a group of friends and heading over to one of the many local parks that offer free music in the evening.
Throughout the summer in Minneapolis and St Paul

Midtown Farmers’ Market
Starting in July, the Midtown Farmers’ Market is open Saturday and Tuesday, adding one more glorious day of local produce for the pickin’. 
Tuesdays 3:30-7:30pm through October, Saturdays 8am-1pm through October
Midtown Farmers’ Market, Lake Street E & 22nd Ave More...

I want to add the phrase “everyday cycling” to our language. I first heard this when I was a guest on the KBOO Bike Show in Portland. Before the show, I head co-host Tori Bortman use everyday cycling, and being the word geek that I am, I asked about the nuances of her phrase. A discussion ensued, and I am now convinced that everyday cycling needs to be part of our language.

There is a sizable group of people who fall under the term everyday cycling, myself included, but my riding habits are usually described as bike commuting. Until now.

Image used with permission of metrofiets.com. Pictured: Ella Ross and Phillip Ross. Picture taken by Maile Leithea. Check out the Metrofiets photostream! More...

After an extended, gray winter, Seattle is now enjoying the kind of summer that reminds us why we live here.

As the long-awaited sunshine pulls us from our fleece cocoons and recharges our vitamin D levels, THIS SPACE is here to remind you that sunshine also offers one of the simplest, low-investment opportunities for saving electricity -- the solar clothes dryer. You might recognize this energy-efficient technology better as a clothesline.

Hanging clothes to dry used to be a commonplace event, but largely disappeared with the arrival of affordable, convenient appliances.

That convenience comes with a cost, which you can turn into a savings. More...

Anyone who can relate to the recent cell phone commercial about “butt dialing” knows how our dependence on technology can sometimes get in the way of our best intentions.

Beyond the inconvenience of dialing or answering some unintended calls, there’s an energy cost as well. More...

Continuing along on our journey through the land of weird foods you’ll find in the farmer’s market, this week we’ll taste a green of many names:  mizuna.  Mizuna also goes by the names of Japanese greens, Japanese mustard, and California peppergrass.  Botanically, it is classified as Brassica rapa.  B. rapa is commonly known as “field mustard” or “turnip mustard” and includes cultivars such as tatsoi, napa cabbage, turnips, and rapini.   

When my friend Katie showed up at my door with a bouquet of freshly-sliced mizuna leaves and told me what she’d brought me, I gave her a look of disbelief.  When I plucked a leaf and popped it in my mouth, however, I was pleasantly surprised.  The intricate, delicately shaped leaf had a flavor to match. More...

On a recent trip to the supermarket, my wife brought home a new detergent for the dishwashing machine. We both responded favorably to the “Eco” labeling on the soap, which indicated that it did not include phosphorous.

Increases in phosphorous in waterways can cause harmful algae blooms, so finding an opportunity to cut back can be a good thing. Unfortunately, the good feelings of reducing our impact on the water system faded with each new load of dishes. The soap left a lot of filmy residue, and more importantly failed to remove the food particles we wanted to wash off.

To get them clean, we had to run the dishes through a second cycle, which obviously brings us to the point of THIS SPACE: how to save electricity and keep a few more dollars in your bank account. More...

The Guide Girls are Winnie and Maxine, two sassy and silly women who will walk you through basic sustainability habits with crass jokes and occasional knickers shots. For those that are hard to win over, or have just heard the same maxims too many times, their comedy is a good dose of fun.

If you prefer your information via video, their Guide Girl Instructisodes are all available at their site or YouTube. I recommend starting with How to Compost with the Guide Girls.

For readers, try their Facty Sheetoids, printable PDFs that answer the tough questions about green choices, such as How to Change a Lightbulb: "Last time I tried one of these bulbs I looked ill" goes one question. Their answer: "You fool; you probably bought a 'day light' or 'bright white' bulb. Choose 'soft white' and the light will be softer and more yellow." Or, "I am fancy and live in a castle filled with antique chandeliers."

 You can find the fancy answer and more at TheGuideGirls.com.

(Screenshot: Introducing the Guide Girls, TheGuideGirls.com) More...