California's Green

California is faced with the significant challenge of diverting or safely managing more than 31 million reusable and waste tires generated eachyear. Huell introduces us to individuals, companies and agencies that arehard at work coming up with solutions to this daunting problem.

Huell shows us the massive equipment used to crush old cars. It's an important step in recycling the 450,000 vehicles taken off the road In Southern California

Gardening methods reach far beyond your property line. Huell visits Master Gardener, Yvonne Savio, who runs the Common Ground Garden Program at the University of California Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County. While touring her personal garden with Huell, Yvonne shares her specialty of turning household items into new "garden tools." Everything from old rubber bands to milk cartons have a place in this "green" garden, and Huell learns all sorts of ways to help us all become better--and greener--gardeners.

Huell learns about plant waste and how it is turned into useful products like compost, mulches and wood chips.

Natural building encompasses a wide range of building materials and methods that are also becoming options for all types of construction worldwide. Huell learns firsthand about one of these materials—straw bale—and how straw bale homes are making a comeback as people become more aware of their durability and efficient use of energy.

Huell finds a family in the Los Angeles area with a yard unlike any other. Devoted to California native plants, this family has truly created a wildlife habitat in the midst of urban sprawl.

Huell's off to Claremont, to visit a herbarium. Curious to find out exactly what a herbarium is? Then join Huell as he tours one of the finest in the United States which is part of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden is devoted to the collection, cultivation, study and display of native California plants. Huell strolls the grounds and learns that the mission of the garden is to make significant contributions to the appreciation, enjoyment, conservation, understanding and thoughtful utilization of our natural heritage.

Amazon Environmental Inc. to see how they recycle and reuse paint and their relationship with Dunn-Edwards Paints. Also a visit to the Vernon plant for Los Angeles Fiber Inc. to see how they recycle carpet and other fibers.

Huell visits the “green house” of Susan and Saul Frommer who make use of many product for energy and resource conservation.

Huell’s off to Hermosillo, Mexico to see firsthand one of California’s most innovative and successful recycling erfforts. What do you do with your old eyeglasses? Well, members of the Lions Club have an answer because for years they’ve been collecting and taking glasses to people around the world who need them. Huell goes along with a group of volunteers and doctors from all over California as they bring the gift of sight to the grateful citizens of this Mexican town. Huell guarantees that after you see this program you’ll never throw away another pair of old glasses.

The Solar Living Institute in Hopland is a non-profit educational organization that promotes sustainable living through inspirational environmental education. Huell attends their annual SolFest where he discovers exciting products, workshops and entertainment all celebrating renewable energy technologies and healthy lifestyle practices.

A visit to the Methane Digester at the Straus Dairy.

Join popular PBS host Huell Howser as he spends the day in Carpenteria with the Overgaag family and gets a first hand look at this innovative growing technique, at the home of the largest North American Hydroponic lettuce grower. We’ll also learn about Hollandia’s unique “Absolutely fresh because its still alive” packaging.

We all know what dry cleaning is, but have you heard of wet cleaning? If you haven’t, you will begin to hear the term more and more as California embraces the process that is the answer to the hazardous chemicals used in dry cleaning. To help jump-start professional wet cleaning in the Los Angeles region, the South Coast Air Quality Management District funded The Garment Care Project of the Pollution Prevention Education & Research Center (PPERC) at Occidental College. This project provided wet clean equipment and technical training grants to 22 cleaners interested in switching from dry cleaning to professional wet cleaning. So to learn more about it, Huell is joined by PPERC’s director and the proud owner of Nature’s Best Cleaners and follows the steps involved in this non-toxic, energy efficient and, of course, environmentally friendly process.

Joel Wolf is an innovator. He has created a conversion system that allows his car to run on discarded cooking oil from local restaurants near his home in Ojai. Huell visits with Joel and learns, step by step, about this process.

Huell tags along with ease e-waste, a company devoted to recycling computers and other items considered electronic waste. As the rate of obsolesce of electronic equipment increases, so does the need for environmentally-friendly disposal.

Huell’s off to Irvine for the Children's Water Education Festival sponsored by the Orange County Water District. The festival offers more than 60 interactive and fun-filled activities for elementary school students. Along with the kids, Huell learns about the environment and the important role we play in preserving one of our most precious natural resources – drinking water.

Huell tours the Fenwood Ranch in Shasta County, an inspiring conservation success story of The Shasta Land Trust.

Huell's off to Sacramento to the California Fuel Cell Partnership headquarters. This organization is a unique collaborative of auto manufacturers, energy companies, fuel cell technology companies, and government agencies working toward a sustainable energy future, increasing energy efficiency and reducing or eliminating air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Huell finds out firsthand why the California Chaparral is a valuable resource and a place to enjoy the wilderness.

Huell's visits Cal Poly to see their student-run, certified organic farm which consists of approximately 11 acres of land.

Huell visits the ReUse People, an organization dedicated to salvaging building materials for reuse. Working with a network of contractors, they have "deconstructed" and salvaged hundreds of buildings while diverting more than two hundred thousand tons of usable building materials from landfills.

Huell visits Echo Park Lake to see how the city of Los Angeles is trying innovative, “green” techniques to clean up the water.

Some people talk about the environment. Others actually do something proactive about it. Like the group of 26 Santa Barbara artists who founded the Outdoor Airing Club more than 20 years ago. The O.A.K. Group, as it is known, is made up of artists who paint magnificent, unspoiled open spaces threatened by development. They then sell these art pieces at a special auction with 50 percent of the profits going to organizations in Santa Barbara County working to preserve our precious and unfortunately disappearing open, natural, landscape. Huell spends a day with some O.A.K. Group members as they painted in three different spectacular locales, and then attends the auction several months later. The resulting episode of California's Green is not only beautiful, bit inspirational as it shows how important a small but dedicated group of people who really care can be.

In the new episode Huell visits a new solar community and checks out the new “solar tiles”.

Huell visits the Nethercut Museum in Sylmar to see the very first electric cars which were manufactured in the early 20th century.

The Western Bluebird once flew across most of California and beyond, but now they are in dire need of our help. Huell joins up with Bob Franz and the Southern California Bluebird Club, who have been working with many other groups across our state to help bluebirds make a recovery. They suffer as much from habitat loss as they do from the introduction of non-native species. Huell takes a springtime tour of some of the nest-boxes filled with hatchlings as he learns about what has been and can be done to help these blue feathered friends that are part of California's Green!

A visit to The Inland Orange Conservancy in Redlands to learn about how a small grass roots organization is trying to connect local citrus farmers with people in the community who don’t want to see the last remnants of the citrus industry get bulldozed in the name of “progress”. The Conservancy helps farmers sell their crops directly to consumers and also provides literally tons of fruit to low income families for free. In one year alone they donated 49 tons of fruit that would have normally been left to rot because it was not “perfect”.

In this green adventure, Huell travels to the small northern California town of Arcata to visit two businesses that use recycled material to create beautiful and functional art. First it’s off to Whit McLeod Furniture to see how a group of craftsman are turning old wine barrels into fine furniture. Using the Craftsman style of furniture design, this small company is making a product that is both beautiful and eco friendly. Next it’s off to Fire and Light where a team of twenty artists’, turn old broken bottles into beautiful giftware and dinnerware that is now shipped to specialty stores and galleries throughout the country.

In this special California's Green, Huell makes two stops to see what Californian's can do to help make a difference. First, Huell goes to Manhattan Beach to see what they are doing now that they have officially banned plastic bags. He gets the scoop from city officials, business leaders, environmental groups as well as people on the street. Then he visits the factory of The Inconvenient Bag, which is a company that makes reusable bags - 100% California style, from the textiles grown in California to the final assembly in Garden Grove.

Huell gets a private bus tour of a wind farm in Southern California’s Coachella Valley. The “windmill tour” shows us the history, technology, and economic benefits of wind as a natural power source.

Join Huell as he learns what a real foodbank is all about. He starts out with Pasadena resident, Tony Collier, who founded the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank in 1973 and ran it out of a two-car garage. The Foodbank is now in a 96,000 square foot facility that serves over 1 million meals a year to needy families, children and individuals free of charge. Huell learns that foodbanking is not all cans and dry goods. He spends the day following a head of cabbage from the fields to the families and learns about the “green” side of the Foodbank.

Huell visits the family run Gills Onions, which is not only the largest onion processing plant in California but its also the greenest. Each day they convert over 150 tons of onion peel and juice waste to power fuel cells on site that provide enough power to run the lights and refrigeration.

Huell heads south to the small town of Heber to visit Ormat Technologies geothermal plant. From the earliest native peoples to the mud loving "spa' enthusiasts, this area has a rich history in harnessing the "heat" bubbling up from the ground. We'll get an education in how Ormat is harnessing this energy and using it to power our lives.

Huell goes on a "green" adventure to find out how all those old refrigerators that get thrown away each day are recycled. We'll follow an old fridge from a home all the way through the entire process.

Huell looks at how the ocean could prove to be a very promising resource in the future of energy production and along the way he learns about the long history that this green technology has in the Golden State.