Sustainability

By Liina Flynn, Echo

Every time you flush the toilet, do you think about what happens to your bodily waste once it leaves the bowl? Ecological engineer Dr Keith Bolton does. With his driving philosophy ‘there’s no such thing as waste’, he has devoted his career to developing natural ways of treating sewage and using effluent for the benefit of communities.

Rather than creating environmental problems by pumping effluent into rivers and oceans, Dr Bolton believes wastewater should be utilised as a resource. The projects he has been involved with have taken him from growing the first fields of industrial hemp on the North Coast through to creating sustainable solutions to sewage problems in remote Aboriginal communities.

Through his company Ecotechnology Australia, Dr Bolton and his Lismore-based Ecoteam have pioneered the design of constructed wetland ecosystems to treat sewage. If we think of wetlands as being the kidneys of the land, then the process of constructing a wetland is like performing a kidney transplant.

“In nature, wetlands are the mechanisms that purify the water as it travels from land into water courses,” Dr Bolton said. “They essentially serve the same function that our kidneys do in our bodies by purifying the water cycle.”

Hemp Technology, has announced the launch of Breathe™, an innovative new natural fibre insulation. The sustainably sourced product, which will play a key role in the nation's drive to zero carbon construction, was officially launched at Ecobuild, the world's largest sustainable construction event, at Earls Court, London on the the 2nd March 2010.

By David Ing, Construction News

Hemp Technology, has announced the launch of Breathe™, an innovative new natural fibre insulation. The sustainably sourced product, which will play a key role in the nation's drive to zero carbon construction, was officially launched at Ecobuild, the world's largest sustainable construction event, at Earls Court, London, on the 2nd March 2010.

Produced from UK grown hemp and flax, Breathe™ offers a renewable and low-carbon means of insulating lofts, walls and floors. An eco-friendly challenge to the dominance of mineral wools, it holds superb performance qualities.

With a thermal conductivity of 0.039 W/mK, Breathe™ performs better than many fibre products. This boosts thermal comfort by reducing overheating in summer and damping internal temperature fluctuations. A high resistance to settlement ensures its good qualities last as long as the building to which it is applied.

Naturally Advanced Technologies Agrees with the National Research Council of Canada to Collaborate on Research for the Production of Cellulosic Ethanol from Sustainable Feedstock

This Research is Intended to Develop New Enzyme Technology for Cellulosic Ethanol Manufacturing

By Michael Bachara, Hemp News Staff

Naturally Advanced Technologies Inc. (NAT) amended its agreement with the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada to include collaboration on cellulose technology research for the production of cellulosic ethanol from sustainable feedstock, such as corn stalks and straws, the unexploited byproduct in agri-food production. In my opinion, this is a huge step toward sustainability and mankind's ultimate survival.

Research Timeline

* The NAT - NRC collaboration began in 2004 and was extended in 2007 for the design and construction of advanced enzyme technology for the extraction and cleaning of industrial hemp fiber for the textile sector, as spearheaded by Dr. Wing Sung. (See Video Below)

* As this research is in the final stages, the two parties have agreed to divert existing funding commitments to pursue additional opportunities for the advanced enzyme technology, namely in cellulosic ethanol.

The Ford Focus is spearheading a comprehensive European Recycling Campaign, the car manufacturer has said.

The campaign has created over 300 separate car parts formed with recycling materials and diverts around 20,000 tonnes away from landfill each year.

Ford recycled materials include recycled plastics that make up 25% of heater and air conditioned housing, 50% of battery trays and recycled materials that make up 100% of fabric seat options.

Sources for this recycled material are everyday items as diverse as plastic bottles, CDs, computers and even denim jeans.

The noise insulation in all Ford vehicles is made from jeans and reclaimed car seat upholstery.

Ford is undergoing developments to create more alternative bio-based materials in order to decrease dependence on oil based products.

Ford researchers are currently developing new materials that include more natural ingredients such as soy flour, hemp and cellulose.


Source: http://www.insideireland.ie/index.cfm/section/news/ext/fordrecycle001/ca...

The Fuel Film Sets The Green Standard To New Levels - The Choice Is Ours

By Michael Bachara, Hemp News staff

FUEL, is a comprehensive and refreshing look at energy solutions in America, compiled by biodiesel advocate and filmmaker Josh Tickell. The film has taken over twelve years to assemble, won the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and is an ever evolving project. It is a historic time line of where we have been, identifies our present predicament and a searches for a solution to our dependence on foreign oil and food supply. The film evokes emotions that compel viewers to participate in local community projects in the aid of our planet.

By E. Huff, Natural News, Staff Writer

As the price for crude oil continues to rise over time, the cost of producing petroleum-based plastic products continues to rise with it. Alternatives such as bio-plastics, which currently cost more to produce than existing plastics, may someday become more cost effective than petroleum-based plastics.

Frederic Scheer, owner of a company called Cereplast that makes sustainable bio-plastic material from vegetable and grain starches, believes that petroleum prices will eventually exceed the costs of producing his own product. By 2013, he believes that industry giants like DuPont and BASF will pursue his technology as a replacement for their soon-to-be outdated petroleum plastics.

Scheer's company has developed a method of converting starch from corn, wheat, tapioca, and potatoes into biodegradable plastic resins. Because they effectively biodegrade in a mere 90 days, they are an excellent alternative to traditional plastic cups, containers and packaging materials.

Cereplast also produces a hybrid resin composed of 50 percent renewable bio-plastic which cuts waste and conserves energy. This blend is useful in things like cars and children's toys. By cutting the amount of polypropylene plastic used in products, the kind most typically used in consumer products, Scheer hopes his company will help to reduce the negative environmental impact caused by plastic products.

By Electric UK, Editor

The UK’s Building Research Establishment Centre for Innovative Construction Materials at the University of Bath had just inaugurated a £740,000 venture, financed by construction businesses and the UK government, to develop and study the use of hemp as alternative building construction material. The new study was based from the findings of a French archaeologist who discovered a sixth-century-old stone bridge that had used hemp as mortar.

Cultivated for thousands of years, the durable fibre is mostly used to make ropes and textiles. Currently, hemp is processed for use in constructions.

Hemp is classified as the world’s second fastest growing agricultural produce after bamboo. Hemp requires no pesticide to grow and it matures in just four months. Farmers can then plant other crops on the remaining two-thirds of the year and can take advantage of the nutrients left behind in the soil earlier used from hemp. Mixed with a lime binder, industrial hemp can also be used to make house bricks.

Larry Thomas, Furniture Today

HICKORY, N.C. — Veteran furniture executive Ken Fonville has launched a company based here that produces made-to-order, environmentally friendly leather and fabric upholstery.

The new company, EcoSelect Furniture, is selling its products exclusively online and will ship custom orders in four to six weeks, Fonville said.

"We can provide eco-friendly living room sofas and leather living room chairs at no premium cost to the consumer who wants to live good, while living well," said Fonville. "There is a need for a dedicated and committed furniture supplier to this consumer."

The EcoSelect line currently includes 12 seating groups, which are available in six leather colors and six correlating hemp fabric colors.

The company gets its leather from an ISO 14001 certified supplier who uses, among other things, recycled leather tanning materials. The fabric created from hemp uses significantly less herbicides, pesticides and water than cotton, Fonville said, while the factory uses recycled steel for springs, soy-based foam cushioning and certified lumber for frames.

Information is available on the company's Web site at www.EcoSelectfurniture.com

Fonville has more than 30 years experience in the furniture industry, most recently as vice president of merchandising at Fairmont Designs. He also was president of Pennsylvania House from 1996 to 2002.

By David Ing for Hemp News

An ambitious sustainable social housing scheme, designed to meet Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes through the use of renewable materials, has achieved planning approval. The development is being delivered by Crossover C-Zero LLP in partnership with Flagship Housing, one of the largest providers of social housing in East Anglia and will be built using Tradical® Hemcrete® thermal walling system from Lime Technology.

Based at Denmark Lane, Diss, the scheme will see the construction of 114 housing units and will be the first major affordable homes project proposed to seek Level 4 rating of the Code for Sustainable Homes. To aid its completion, the development has managed to obtain £3 million in funding from the Housing and Communities Agency (HCA) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), who earlier this year offered financial aid for the delivery of social housing schemes that used renewable materials.

White Design’s BaleHaus explores the use of prefabricated straw panels for mass housing

By Michael Stacey, BD

The BaleHaus was designed by architect Craig White of White Design as part of a multi-disciplinary research project by Katharine Beadle at the University of Bath’s BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials.

The aim of this project is to demonstrate that straw is an appropriate form of insulation and structure for current mass housing. This probably explains why the house has been designed to meet Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 and not Code Level 6 or “zero carbon”. Code level 4 represents a 44% reduction of energy used and CO2 emissions when compared to current building regulations.

The BaleHaus is constructed from ModCell panels which are prefabricated from locally sourced materials; the panels have a timber frame and are filled with straw. This is then covered with a lime render. The timber frame takes the vertical loads and the rendered straw infill takes in-plane or racking loads. This structural principle was tested at the University of Bath.

Exterior of the BaleHaus prototype which has been built on the campus of the University of Bath.

By Jon Land, 24dash

Work is due to start on an innovative green housing development in Swindon that is the brainchild of 'Grand Designs' presenter Kevin McCloud.

HabOakus, a partnership between Kevin McCloud's development company Hab Housing and Oakus Wiltshire, has been given approval to build 42 homes that will meet Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, but with the potential for upgrading to zero carbon status.

The scheme, called the Triangle, is due to be built from Tradical Hemcrete, the innovative hemp and lime thermal walling system developed by Lime Technology.

Tradical Hemcrete, is a mix of hemp and a lime binder, which together create a material that combines sustainability with performance. The product absorbs CO2 in its manufacture (hemp, in common with all similar plants, captures carbon dioxide during its rapid growth and releases oxygen back out to the atmosphere) so has negative embodied CO2. For a typical wall section, Hemcrete will have 130kg CO2/m² less than traditional brick and block.

Designed by Glenn Howells Architects, The Triangle will be built on the site of a former caravan park and plant nursery, just off Swindon’s Northern Road.

Due to start on site in January 2010, with completion scheduled by December 2010, HabOakus hopes to ensure the sustainable development acts as a springboard to introduce green initiatives locally.

Airlines have high hopes for a new range of biofuels

By Dominic O’Connell, Times UK

At Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport last Monday a gaggle of aviation executives, politicians and journalists trooped aboard a KLM jumbo jet for a flight to nowhere.

The trip was uneventful — the plane and its 40 occupants circled above Holland for a couple of hours before landing where it took off. However, in a small way, it was historic. It was the first flight by a biofuel-powered airliner to carry passengers.

In fact, the plane was only partly powered by biofuel. One of its four engines ran on a 50:50 blend of biofuel and normal aviation fuel. The biofuel was made from camelina, an inedible green shrub.

Despite the limited experiments to date — Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand and a clutch of other carriers have run test flights without passengers — airline executives are thrilled with biofuels.

Their industry is a target for politicians and environmentalists in the crusade against carbon dioxide emissions and the prospect of a fuel that will allow the industry to grow while reducing its emissions is enticing. “In the decades ahead, the airline industry will be largely dependent on the availability of alternative fuels in its drive to lower emissions,” said Jan Ernst de Groot, KLM’s managing director.

By John Boyle, Citizen Times
Photo by John Fletcher, Citizen Times

Leave it to Asheville to be the first place in the country to build not just one, but two houses largely out of hemp.

Well-established as a green building center, Asheville has two homes under construction - one in West Asheville, another off Town Mountain Road - that use hemp as a building material. The builders and Greg Flavall, the co-founder of Hemp Technologies, the Asheville company supplying the building material, maintain that they're the first permitted hemp homes in the country.

"This area is known to walk the talk of being green," Flavall said, adding that the Asheville area has by far the largest percentage of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, builders of anywhere in the country. Hemp is derived from the same plant that marijuana comes from. Although it contains very little of the active ingredient that gets people high and is completely impractical to smoke, it's still illegal to grow it domestically.

But builders can import industrial hemp products like Tradical Hemcrete, the material Hemp Technologies sells. When mixed with water and lime, it makes remarkably strong, resilient walls. Some builders generically refer to the walls as hempcrete.

By Eco Composites, Writer

A visit to the Innovation Park at BRE in Watford has been arranged as part of the Natural Fibres 09 conference, which takes place at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in London from December 14-16.

The park showcases modern methods of construction and features over 200 different emerging technologies in a number of demonstration properties, including the Renewable Hemp House.

Speaking at the 60th annual congress of CELC – the European Confederation of Flax and Hemp – which took place in Strasbourg, France, from November 4-7, Claude Eichwald of French organisation Construire de Chanvre, said that the use of hemp in concrete was growing, with between 2-4,000 houses now constructed completely from hemp concrete, and many more employing it with mixtures of other building materials. The CELC conference also heard from Rémi Perrin of Strasbourg-based Soprema, which is now manufacturing flax roofing membranes, and Vincent de Sutter of Sutter Freres which has been making natural-fibre based door panels for almost 50 years.

In the latest copy of its journal, CELC outlines the components of a house entirely constructed from natural fibres, as show in the illustration above.

The unique energy efficient house made from hemp at the UK BRE Innovation Park meanwhile, showcases the future of low carbon and sustainable buildings.

Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance- Annual Convention Nov 16-18 2009, Victoria Inn - Winnipeg, Manitoba

Since 1998, Canada has grown industrial hemp for seed and for fibre. Canadian farmers and businesses are interested in the growing business of hemp as it realizes its potential to produce healthy food and environmentally-friendly products, including paper, textiles, biocomposites and sustainable building materials.

To tap into the plant's exciting potential for Canada, the industry recognized the need for a common national front. The CHTA/ACCC was formed in 2003: we are a non-profit national group of hemp processors, marketers, farmers and information specialists.

Topics for their convention include: Hemp Variety Development, Harvest Research, THC Testing, NAFGEN & Hemp, Fatty Acid & Amino Acid Analysis, Hemp as a Building Material, Fibre Handling, Animal Feed Trials and many others.

For a full list of events: http://www.hemptrade.ca/docs/2009_National_Hemp_Convention_Programme_Oct...

Source: http://www.hemptrade.ca/events.php?id=17

By Paul Louis, Natural News, Staff Writer

PSA, the French manufacturer for Peugeot and Citroen, has recently initiated its Green Materials Plan. This plan intends to increase car parts made from natural materials 600 percent by 2015. They are making a few parts now that are based on flax and hemp.

PSA's Green Materials Plan focuses on three areas: Biopolymers to replace plastics derived from oil; Natural fibers from flax and hemp mixed with other materials, such as wood chips; And recycled materials from shredded plastic bottles mixed with glass fibers.

The plastic interior door panels made by PSA are already 50 percent flax fibers pressed with wood chips. Other parts, including mirror and windshield wiper mountings, use hemp instead of glass fiber in their material mix.

Oil based plastics in cars make up to 20 percent of a car's weight on average. Of that 20 percent, only six percent is currently green or cellulose based. PSA's goal is to increase that six percent to 30 percent of the plastic used.

Hemp is legal in France, so further advances with hemp for car parts may unfold. Laurent Bechin, PSA's natural-fibers specialist, pointed out that the hemp used does not produce marijuana. "It would need about two tons of this material to produce one joint", he quipped.

Festival features organic food and wine, green vendors, award-winning speakers and an appearance by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

By Jessica A. Knoblauch

The 8th annual Green Festival, held this year in San Francisco on November 13th, 14th and 15th, turned out an impressive 125 speakers and 350 exhibitors that highlighted eco-friendly ideas and products meant to create safe, healthy communities and strong local environments.

One of the more unique aspects of the festival was the HIA Hemp Pavilion, which featured member companies showcasing the many uses of industrial hemp in the market place, from hemp clothing and personal body care to hemp foods, oil and paper. The pavilion also hosted a hemp fashion show produced by one of the industry’s premiere designers and manufacturers, Summer Star Haeske from Envirotextiles.

On Saturday, San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom even made an appearance to the event. On the main stage, Gavin gave a speech highlighting San Francisco’s efforts to go green, which includes having the most aggressive local climate action plan in the U.S. He also voiced his support for green jobs, plug-in electric hybrid cars and city-wide composting efforts.

“It’s incumbent upon us to make real some of the rhetoric…to take these ideas and manifest them. It’s no longer good enough to talk about the way the world should be. We have to demonstrate the capacity to make it so,” said Newsom.

Emma Pritchard, Daily Examiner

EVERY year Australian consumers use 6.9 billion plastic bags.

Of that 6.9 billion, 80 million end up as litter in our drains and waterways, setting state and local governments back $200 million a year in cleaning bills.

Seven years ago, Marea Buist from Yamba decided it was time to reduce plastic bag usage in her local area and make a positive difference to the environment.

Ms Buist is part of a group known as the Plastic Bag Free Committee, which also includes Jane Mitchell, Barbara Whale and Helen Tyas Tunggal. Together these passionate women are working towards making Yamba a plastic bag-free town.

“I had an idea to use hemp bags instead of plastic ones,” Ms Buist said.

“Four or five years ago I took my idea to the Yamba Chamber of Commerce and while people were supportive of my idea, they didn't have time to do the groundwork.

“When Tania Williams became president of the Chamber of Commerce she thought this idea was fantastic and with her support we managed to make it public knowledge.”

Launched at the Yamba River Markets on Sunday, Ms Buist's hemp bags have proven a success with the Yamba community.

“The launch was very positive and we received good feedback,” she said.

“The bags were designed by students from St James here in Yamba and it's great to have locals, especially children, involved with their production.

By Daniel Flahiff, Inhabitat

Buildings account for thirty-eight percent of the CO2 emissions in the U.S., according to the U.S. Green Building Council, and demand for carbon neutral and/or zero footprint buildings is at an all-time high. Now there is a new building material that is not just carbon neutral, but is actually carbon negative. Developed by U.K.-based Lhoist Group, Tradical® Hemcrete® is a bio-composite, thermal walling material made from hemp, lime and water. What makes it carbon negative? There is more CO2 locked-up in the process of growing and harvesting of the hemp than is released in the production of the lime binder. Of course the equation is more complicated than that, but Hemcrete® is still an amazing new technology that could change the building industry.

Good looking, environmentally friendly and 100% recyclable, Hemcrete® is as versatile as it is sustainable. It can be used in a mind-boggling array of applications from roof insulation to wall construction to flooring. Hemcrete® is waterproof, fireproof, insulates well, does not rot [when used above ground] and is completely recyclable. In fact, the manufacturers say that demolished Hemcrete® walls can actually be used as fertilizer!

By Hip Hop Press

This August marks the 18th annual Seattle Hempfest, arguably the largest hemp festival in the world. This year's Hempfest theme: "A Hempen Future," will put a focus on the year 2020 and the possibility of the legalization of cannabis in all forms, radically impacting our future environment, economy, food and fuel resources. In honor of looking ahead to the future, the event's organizers have chosen progressive urban artist, Shyan Selah, to headline the opening night (7pm - August 15th) of this "protestival."

Seattle's Hempfest has grown over the years from a small group of activists fighting for the decriminalization of cannabis to hundreds of thousands attendees, volunteers and experts speaking on everything from civil rights to what the hemp plant can do for health, the economy, and the environment.

Hoping to educate the public about how hemp can benefit people beyond recreational use, organizer Vivian McPeak, has made an effort to include everyone from former Seattle Police Chief, Norm Stamper, to travel expert Rick Steves as speakers in years past. In continuing his efforts to include diverse messengers from varied backgrounds in Hempfest, this year he's chosen international artist and activist, Shyan Selah, to headline the opening night.

McPeak first encountered Selah during last year's Hempfest, where Selah was invited to open for the 2008 headliners, Bone Thugs in Harmony (Mo Thugs).

The Renewable House, a new demonstration house that has been designed to illustrate that low cost and low carbon are compatible, has been officially opened.

Press Release

The Renewable House, a new demonstration house that has been designed to illustrate that low cost and low carbon are compatible, has been officially opened.

Built at the BRE Innovation Park and officially opened at Insite 2009, the Renewable House is a demonstration of the commercial viability of building affordable homes from renewable materials.

The house has been designed to meet Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, with a build cost of £75,000, excluding groundworks and utilities.

Unlike many other houses that meet Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, the Renewable House features very few additional technologies. Instead the performance of the house has been made possible through the ingenious use of materials which have been used to create a thermally efficient and low carbon building envelope. By using limited technologies – which can have a short life span, therefore require on-going replacement, upgrading or maintenance – the house has also clearly demonstrated cost efficiencies.

By Press & Journal Staff

A SPECIAL energy-efficient house made from hemp, designed by Archial Architects, has been unveiled at the BRE Innovation Park, which showcases the future of low-carbon and sustainable buildings.

The three-bedroom Renewable House, which costs £75,000 to build, not including ground works or utilities, uses renewable materials to deliver a well designed, yet low-cost, affordable home.

The external walls are constructed from a revolutionary sustainable material called Hemcrete – provided by manufacturer Lime Technology – made from hemp plants grown and harvested in the UK and lime-based binder.

Hemp is one of the fastest growing biomasses and is often used in paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, health food and fuel.

It is estimated that The Renewable House’s carbon footprint will be about 20 tonnes lower than a traditional brick-and-block house. The hemp absorbs about five tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during its rapid growth period, which then becomes locked into the fabric of the building, making the thermal Hemp-Line walling solution “carbon negative”.

The Renewable House meets level 4 of the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) – a national standard which measures the sustainability of homes against a set of design categories such as energy consumption and building materials. The Government’s target was for all homes from 2016 to be built against code level 3 standards.

By Barney DuBois, BiobasedNews.com

We're talking trillions of dollars. The world's apparel industry is one of the three necessities of life, remember? And we humans spend more for clothing than we do for anything else but the other two - which are food and shelter.

It wasn't long ago that we depended on large department stores plus neighborhood boutiques and shops - augmented by an occasional catalog order or lay-away purchase - to keep ourselves snappily attired for anything. This was interrupted by Wal-Mart, Target and the hundreds of specialty retailers whose brands we have memorized and forgotten. And now, the Internet is taking us to yet another level of confusion - and making lots of business for FedEx and UPS!

The term "green clothing" emerged somewhere during this massive retailing shift of the past decade, and the term's definition is yet being decided in the open market. Vogue magazine's latest issue underscores the importance of this debate, featuring the hottest new "green" styles (including an eco-bikini) worn by actress Cameron Diaz. The fashion mag's cover is even printed in green ink! But inside its pages are also the kinds of things you would expect - including a bachelorette party dress that requires $11,495 of your "green" and is about as recyclable as a can of motor oil.

Experimental homes made out of hemp are to be built under new government plans.

By Ben Leach, Telegraph.co.uk

A prototype three-bedroom house, funded by the taxpayer, will go on show today. The home is part of a government drive to build more housing with a smaller carbon footprint.

The "renewable house" features walls made from Hemcrete - a mix of hamp and lime - and was built thanks to a £200,000 grant from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

The National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFCC), which built the home, said building it used half the energy that building a traditional brick home would use.

It claims energy bills for the home owners would be as low as £150 a year, and predicts building on thousands of houses could begin soon.

Dr John Williams, head of materials at the NNFCC, told The Guardian: "The forecasts are that we could roll this out very quickly if someone places an order for 25,000 homes.

"Increasing numbers of farmers are growing hemp because it fits in with their current growing cycles between April and September and it is a good break crop for wheat.

"If just 1 per cent of the UK's agricultural land was used to grow hemp, it would be enough to build 180,000 homes per year."

The hemp house provides a cheaper alternative to traditional brick and mortar housing, with a build cost of £75,000 excluding groundworks.

By Ms Sylence Dogood, Hemp News Staff

Members of Oregon NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and THCF (The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation) worked together recently, contributing to Oregon’s community outreach program Adopt-a-Highway.

Taking on the 2.5 mile stretch of Oregon Highway 26 in Gresham, from the intersection at Burnside and Powell to Stone Road, the group of volunteers cleaned up litter of all kinds, and bagged it for proper disposal.

Groups who participate in the Adopt-a-Highway cleanup program are recognized by their name displayed on signage marking their designated stretch of road. Oregon NORML now graces two signs on Highway 26, and believes this is just another step in achieving a closer connection to their community.

“Participation in the Adopt-a-Highway program gives us a great feeling of accomplishment,” said one of the Oregon NORML community outreach team members. “We hope that this inspires others in our area to continue good work in their own neighborhoods by not only cleaning up streets, but changing attitudes and defeating stereotypes. We do this because we care about our state.”