Green Drinks chapters exist in over 540 cities around the globe. Our Charleston chapter brings together those people who are both living, learning, and practicing the principles of sustainability and those seeking to find out more. The setting is low-key, the crowd changes each month, and talking points are often suggested by our members. We also organize the Poplar Grove Pedal Tour, Charleston Carrotmob, an upcoming waterless car wash at Fuel, Going Green for the Girls, and other events throughout the year.

We represent entrepreneurs and students, architects and educators, athletes, moms, retailers, financiers, fishermen, attorneys, personal chefs, pilots, and writers...and everything in between. As you can see, many of our guests also contribute on this blog - in addition to other findings from the internet that are posted here.

So, come join us...meet colleagues, have a bite to eat, collaborate on a project, or just enjoy a conversation with others who wish to further a greener Charleston. It is our pleasure to have you involved! If you have something to share, are interested in sponsoring, or would like more information please contact us.

Thursday, July 9

Watch, enjoy, and share the CARROTMOB film!

Posted by admin at 5:35 PM

Friday, June 19

Atlantic Green Conference features a Tour of LEED residential projects

The Sustainability Institute’s Atlantic Green Conference starts today, June 19, and while tickets to the conference are sold out, you can still get in on some of their tours – including the Green Residential Tour, featuring Mixson, Hunley Waters, and Oak Terrace Preserve. The tour runs on Saturday, June 20 from 12-2 and tickets for the general public are $15.

The Atlantic Green Conference brings together experts from a multitude of green building backgrounds: solar energy, jobsite deconstruction, LEED documentation, greening historic buildings, green roofs, and countless others. The conference is being held, appropriately, at 10 Storehouse Row, in the Navy Yard in North Charleston.

The Navy Yard is a high-density, mixed-use center in the heart of Noisette, North Charleston’s master-planned sustainable city-within-a-city. North Charleston is well on its way to becoming one of the nation’s most sustainable cities, as projects like Noisette and Mixson testify.
Posted by Vladia J. Spencer at 10:36 AM

Sunday, June 7

Top 10 Reasons to Green Your Home







By Emily Shapiro of AgentOwned Realty Park Circle

1. Guests always comment on the nice breezes going through your home…but your windows and doors are all shut. http://www.greenhomeguide.com/index.php/knowhow/entry/974/C236

2. Your monthly visits to the allergist are starting to cost about as much as your mortgage payment. http://www.earthcrafthouse.com/documents/abn/abnjuly07.pdf or http://www.greenhome.com/info/articles/fighting_allergies/5/

3. No, the previous homeowner did not sponge paint your bathroom in brown – that’s mold silly. http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/fix-leaks-fight-mold.html

4. The office coffee is pretty bad, but you had to stop your morning trips to Starbucks so you could afford to pay your electric bill. http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/green-electricity/green-electricity-top-tips.html

5. You decide to have a home inspection before you put your home on the market (good idea) but during the radon testing, the inspector darts out of your house without giving you an invoice. http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/hmbyguid.html

6. You just spoke to your neighbor and your recent water bill is about the same – nice, but they just filled their pool last month. http://green.yahoo.com/blog/amorylovins/33/low-cost-ways-to-conserve-water-at-home.html

7. Even the White House is doing it! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29944122/

8. You’ve calculated that your carbon footprint alone is bigger than that of the First Family living in the White House. http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator

9. You can’t take a hot shower while your dishwasher is running. http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/tips/tankless-water-heaters-460225

10. It will help you feel better about the future! http://www.charityguide.org/volunteer/fifteen/greenhouse-effect.htm


More Useful Links

The10 easiest ways to green your home:
http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13107876
How to go green home buying:
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/home-buying
Green Home Environmental Store:
http://www.greenhome.com/
EarthCraft House certification:
http://www.earthcrafthouse.com/About/criteria.htm


Posted by Emily Shapiro, Realtor at 1:26 PM

Tuesday, June 2

Three Ideas for Creating a Zero-Impact City Block in Dallas

BY CLIFF KUANGTue Jun 2, 2009 at 12:37 PM

How would you create a city block that was fully sustainable? A competition to redevelop an entire block of downtown Dallas asked urban planners to do just that, and the finalists have just been announced. | Continue reading from Fast Company here...

Posted by admin at 8:20 PM

How to Plant a Green Garden


When landscape designer, Patty Craven, left her high power job in corporate America to follow her passion for landscape design, she didn’t even dream that seven years later she will lead a full service landscape design and consultation business with clients in residential, commercial and municipal properties. Working side by side with Nicholas Popovich as the owners of DIG Landscape, they collaborate to design innovative and functional gardens with "wow factors."

DIG’s refined landscape designs also integrate green elements that can save homeowners money. Constantly challenging themselves to think green led Craven and Popovich to take part in a new green building project, the 2009 Green Idea Home. According to Popovich, thinking and being green is an important movement that only reinforces DIG’s beliefs that reusing basic materials and giving them second life to minimize cost and impact on the environment is crucial in reclaiming the past and providing for the future. Their plans for the Green Idea Home include integration of the structure with the landscape, installing irrigation systems that use recycled water, utilizing drought resistant plants that provide sustenance for the family as well as for the natural environment and its inhabitants.

Here are simple green tips:
1. Plant native and indigenous plants as they adapted to local conditions; native plants are easy to grow and maintain, generally requiring less fertilizer and water. This will also bring butterflies and bees to your garden.
2. Adopt smart-watering habits such as adding mulch and compost to your soil to retain water.
3. Reuse materials such as used concrete for stepping stones, tree clippings for mulch, recycle rainwater for watering.
4. Use solar outdoor lighting to save energy and buy garden furniture made from recycled materials.
5. Plant garden that is a food source.
Posted by Vladia J. Spencer at 8:15 PM
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