MNN - Mother Nature Network

Top of the morning to ya! Whether you have Leprechaun blood in you or not, St. Patrick's Day is next Tuesday so you may be taking advantage of the weekend to celebrate. In between cleaning your pint glasses, baking Irish soda bread, and planning a pinch-proof ensemble to wear to work next week (check out Siel's recent post on some truly green fashions), take a few minutes to peruse this pot o' fresh green home links. 

 

MNN's own Melissa Hincha-Ownby checks in with the state of green building in Ireland. LEED-registered projects and a sustainable building show are two ways folks on the Emerald Isle are joining the green building movement. 

The New York Times dons a deerstalker cap and pipe to play home “Energy Detective.” The article is part of the excellent Green Inc. series.

The Guardian heads outside for some potting but without the terracotta. Writer Sally Cameron Griffiths shares how to make plant containers from old tin cans.

Inhabitat heads back to school with a story on an unused water tower in Denmark that's been transformed into a green apartment building for students. 

EcoHome magazine announces that new LA county neighborhoods built by Pardee Homes, a builder of new homes and planned communities in Southern California, are California Green Builder-compliant and exceed California's Title 24 energy requirements (the most stringent in the nation) by at least 15 percent. 

Dwell visits the super cool "Xeros" house in super hot Phoenix. The compact home was built from steel, glass, concrete, and wire mesh with several sustainable principles in mind. 

The Huffington Post Green gets inspired by Barcelona’s DIY-design crew and decides to make a “Bidon Lamp” out of a discarded plastic barrel and a CFL bulb.

Real Simple practices its ABCs with an A (aerosol cans) to Z (zippered plastic bags) guide on “How To Recycle Anything.”

GreenBiz excites this blogger with news that 20 of Method's cleaning products including dish soaps have earned Cradle to Cradle Silver certification. The rigorous C2C certification process takes into consideration "environmentally safe materials, design for reutilization (recycling, composting, etc.), use of renewable energy, water, and energy efficiency, and company social responsibility practices."

Notcot goes shopping at IKEA and gives a couple of items from the company's fabulous new solar lighting line a test-run. 

TreeHugger puts on a pair of good idea jeans with a story (and accompanying video) about NOyes, a Japanese sofa maker that transforms pairs of old blue jeans into stylish ottomans.

Jetson Green comes bearing good news:  The US demand for green building materials is expected to reach $80 billion by 2013.

Re-Nest reports from the Lone Star State to bring news of Austin’s newest, tallest, greenest high-rise building, The Austonian.