If this year's Street of Dreams makes you ‘green' with envy, never fear; Metro can help you bring the (green) dream home!
Metro and the Oregon Homebuilders Association's (HBA) ongoing partnership has made this year's Street of Dreams greener than ever. By implementing low-impact development practices each home complies with LEED and Earth Advantage's gold standard for residential construction. Contributing to their sustainable efforts, some of the model homes feature gardens of native plants, porous driveways that filter runoff and pollutants and one of the houses is coated with a brand new color of Metro's own recycled MetroPaint.
Native plants are an easy way to make your yard more sustainable because they attract beneficial bugs and birds, require fewer fertilizers and pesticides, need less water and, just like the Pacific Northwest, they are beautiful. Metro's natural gardening experts will be on hand to answer your questions from 3 to 6 p.m. on Aug. 4, 5, and 6 and on Aug. 8, Metro's natural gardening expert, Nicole West, will showcase touchable examples of native plants from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
When you bring home some natural gardening tips, think about bringing back a can of MetroPaint as well. Since 1992, Metro has collected and recycled more than 1 million gallons of latex paint, keeping reusable materials out of the landfill. Most of the paint that Metro recycles is then combined with similar colors and turned into batches of Metro's Green Seal certified MetroPaint. Refinement, a new limited-edition color featured on Hearth and Home's Street of Dreams display house and desert (khaki) and fawn (light brown), featured on the NW Street of Dreams event trailer, are now available at the MetroPaint Swan Island Store, Miller Paint Stores and other select retailers.
Since 2006, Metro and the HBA have partnered to encourage builders and developers to voluntarily integrate low-impact development practices into their projects. Their efforts have combined to help inform over 800 developers, design professionals, builders and local government staffs about low-impact development practices. In recognition of their efforts, the National Home Builders Association awarded Metro and the HBA with their Best Partnership of the Year award in 2008.
The Northwest Natural Street of Dreams runs from July 31 to Aug. 29.