Event date: Sep 25, 2010

Event location: A tour of sites featuring green building applications around the city of Portland and free info fair at Ecohaus, 819 Southeast Taylor Street

Presented by the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, twenty-two inspiring and innovative green residential projects will be open around the Portland Metropolitan Area. Chat with homeowners and contractors about small space living, Passive House, ecoroofs, rainwater harvesting, natural landscaping, affordable housing, aging-in-place, water and energy conservation, healthy building materials, alternative more...

Image courtesy of Google Maps PDC Kicks Off Gateway Park Development The Portland Development Commission officially kicked off the planning efforts for the proposed Gateway Neighborhood Park, the first park added to the neighborhood in the past eight years. The park will sit on a four-acre brownfield site near Northeast Halsey Street and 106th Avenue. The site is currently being cleaned up and removed of contaminants more...

Ooligan Press produces more than books—they create book professionals. Natalie Guidry is co-manager of the Sustainable Publishing Initiative at Ooligan Press, a student-run press at Portland State University. Guidry and her colleagues learn the business of publishing through acquiring, editing, designing and marketing books about the Pacific Northwest. Built into a master's degree program in book publishing, Ooligan is more...

The Grant Street Fayre in the Richmond neighborhood. Photo: Allen Field   Once school is out, block parties pretty much go steady from June until October. It’s all about encouraging good relationships with neighbors and creating community. When Southeast Portland resident Allen Field decided over a decade ago to help his neighbor plan a block party as a celebration for his birthday, he had no idea what was more...

The delawning movement is gaining serious strength and speed in Portland. Just look around town—in nearly every neighborhood this week, people came out (with the sun) to uproot tough turf, readying the parking strip or front yard to plant veggies and herbs, digging in the dirt to make way for more native species, creating gravel Zen gardens and designing outdoor patio space in anticipation of warm evening dining. My neighbor more...

Governor Ted Kulongoski and Portland Mayor Sam Adams today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded the City of Portland and State of Oregon $20 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) funds for residential and commercial energy retrofits across the state. More than 150 communities submitted applications worth more than $3.5 billion for the $452 million available. The Portland and Oregon more...

A new energy efficiency home retrofit pilot program from the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability is helping Portland homeowners reduce their energy cost, while also providing green construction jobs for Portland’s underrepresented communities. The program is called Clean Energy Works Portland. It offers Portland homeowners access to low-cost financing for energy efficient improvements, like more...

The City of Portland’s Office of Solid Waste & Recycling—a branch of the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability—has unveiled a new pilot program that will make curbside food scrap pick-up available to just under 2,000 households in four Portland neighborhoods (one in Northeast, one in Southeast, one in Southwest and one in East). Also during the pilot program, yard debris/compost material pick-up will move from more...

The City of Portland’s SmartTrips program is revving up for another successful year as the SmartTrips Green Line program gets underway at the end of March. SmartTrips is an individualized marketing program sponsored by the Portland Bureau of Transportation. The program, which was implemented by the city in 2004, is designed to reduce drive-alone trips by increasing biking, walking, carpooling and public transportation more...

Statewide service project to commemorate Oregon's sesquicentennialPORTLAND, Ore. (April 30, 2009) - The largest volunteer event in Oregon's 150-year history, Take Care of Oregon Days, will take place throughout the month of May 2009 as part of the state's sesquicentennial celebration.An anticipated 20,000 volunteers will work on more than 500 projects across the state to clean up and give back to Oregon as part of the state's 150th more...