Strike a Chord Shirts!

Due to the overwhelming demand for the "Strike a Chord. Go Green." T-shirts at this years festival we have decided to place another order so that all of you who were not able to get the shirt in your size will now be able to do so. Orders will start shipping out in early to mid May.


All sizes are $12.00

Size

Men's Small Men's Medium Men's Large Men's XL Women's Small Women's Medium Women's Large Women's XL

P.S. The buy now button has been updated and should be working now...Sorry for those of you who tried to order and were not able to.

The Merchant Village Lets You Shop Eco-Friendly at the Earth Day Festival!

In the past, you could learn all about eco-friendly living at the Nashville Earth Day Festival, but you couldn't actually buy any green products to put all your new Earth Day knowlede into practice.

But now, for the first time ever, the Merchant Village makes its debut at the Nashville Earth Day Festival, giving you a chance to buy eco-friendly products straight from the producers.

All the products at the 20 Merchant Village booths are eco-friendly. Some are made from all natural ingredients. Others are created using reclaimed wood or recycled fabrics.

Among the merchants in the Village you'll find a wide array of products, including all-natural cosmetica and skincare products made in Knoxville (along with a makeup artist to help perform green makeovers) and all-natural toothpaste from a dentist in Murfreesboro.

In the past festival organizers were reluctant to allow product sales at the festival for fear of inadvertently selling 'greenwashed' products. But this year local entrepeneur Jennifer Casale, proprietor of East Nashville eco-emporium The Green Wagon stepped up to organize the Merchant Village.

"We have all kinds of amazing people participating in the Merchant Village," says Casale. "These are people who are making sustainable products that support the Environment and health of the people who use them."

So come on out to the Festival, learn about how to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle and then shop the Merchant Village to find Earth-friendly products you can take home to incorporate in your daily routines.

The Merchant Village should be easy to find at the Festival. All the merchants will be grouped together under a huge 80-foot long tent which should be open for business throughout the day from 11 am to 7 pm.

You're already saving energy - now you can save the environment too.

You know that saving energy is eco-friendly, so maybe that's why you already switched from old-fashioned incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs that require less electricity to produce the same amount of light.

But did you know that CFL bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, a hazardous metal, and therefore should not be disposed of with regular household trash?

Bring your old CFLs to the Nashville Earth Day Festival where Metro Beautification (a division of Metro Public Works) and TDEC will be collecting the bulbs for proper disposal.

You can also bring in old-style mercury thermometers and swap them for new free digital thermometers. The digital thermometers are safe because there's no risk of mercury exposure if the thermometer breaks.

Metro Beautification will also have information on how to properly dispose of other types of hazardous household waste by bringing them to Metro's hazardous waste disposal center on Doctor Richard Adams Road, off Trinity Lane.

You're already saving energy. Now you can save the environment too and ensure your own health by keeping mercury out of landfills.

Earth Day Festival Model Home

How would you like to save some money on your household utility bills – while helping the planet at the same time?

Sound intriguing? Then stop by the Green Model Home at the Nashville Earth Day Festival and let the experts at E3 Innovate show you how easy it is to reduce your home’s energy needs.

E3 Innovate is a Nashville-based home performance company. Simply put, E3 helps homeowners make their homes more energy-efficient, comfortable and healthy. The firm focuses on cost-effective upgrades such as insulation, air-sealing and duct-sealing.

The Green Model Home will demonstrate how investing in energy efficiency can greatly reduce your utility bills while making your home more comfortable and healthy.

Green aspects of the Model Home could include eco-friendly interior finishes, like sustainable flooring (bamboo or renewable hardwoods) and paints with no volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The Model Home will contain environmentally preferable products like high-recycled sheetrock on the inside, while highly-recycled outside cladding and reflecting shingles will be featured prominently on the home’s exterior. “The reflecting shingles reflect radiant heat to keep the house cooler in the summer,” explains E3 Innovate co-owner Jeff Middlebrooks. “Reflecting shingles can keep the heat in your attic down in the 90-degree range in mid-summer instead of letting it become a 150-degree box.”

The Green Model Home will also feature renewable energy systems such as a geothermal heat pump and solar panels.

Homeowners will be relieved to know that some of the eco-friendly materials on display in the model home (such as the recycled drywall, no-VOC paint and recycled interior cladding) cost no more than conventional materials. Other products, such as spray foam insulation, may cost more up front, but can save homeowners a lot of money in the long-term. The calculation works the same as with CFL bulbs – they cost more than incandescent bulbs up front, but they last longer and provide impressive energy cost savings too.

The Model Home gives E3 Innovate a chance to teach people how they can combine energy-efficiency improvements with renewable energy systems to create a zero-energy home that actually produces as much energy as it uses. “We want to demonstrate how easy it is to make a zero-energy home,” says Middlebrooks. “Zero-energy homes are not some sort of futuristic spaceship. They are things that can be built right now.”

So come on out to see the Green Model Home at the Earth Day Festival. There will be workshops at the home throughout the day and plenty of opportunities to get a hands-on look at the latest and greatest energy-efficient products and improvements for your home.