Community-Minded Enterprises, a Spokane nonprofit, along with other organizations, businesses, and government agencies, is staging a month-long series of events designed to build awareness of green issues.

The about 75-event schedule, dubbed Sustainable September, includes activities such as a green and solar home and landscaping tour, environmental film showing and discussion, tree plantings with the Lands Council, a tour of community gardens, workshops, a street fair, and a number of family-friendly and youth-focused gatherings.

One of the events will be A Feast With Friends, a reception featuring locally grown food paired with Washington wines. It will be held Wednesday, Sept. 9, at The Sapphire Room, 1003 E. Trent, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $50. The event host, Futurewise, is a public interest group that seeks to promote healthy communities and to protect farmland. For more information, contact Kitty Klitzke at 838-1965 or visit www.futurewise.org/spokane.

On Saturday, Sept. 12, Community Building LLC will present its third annual street fair on Main Avenue between Browne and Division streets from 3 to 8 p.m., and that section of Main will be closed to vehicular traffic. A separate event for teens, sponsored by Community-Minded Enterprises and called Sustainable Uprising, will be held there from 7 to 11 p.m. It will include music, a fashion show, films, discussions, and hands-on activities centered on social and environmental issues. Fresh Abundance! Inc., a Spokane organic and whole foods grocery store, will provide refreshments.

The Sustainable September schedule includes children's activities at the KYRS: Thin Air Community Radio booth at the Spokane County Interstate Fair on Tuesday, Sept. 15, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and at the Avista Corp. booth at Valleyfest, at Mirabeau Park, on Saturday, Sept. 26, and Sunday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Also at the Avista booth, attendees can pick up free low-flow showerheads and energy-efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs at Valleyfest.

The self-guided green and solar home tour is set for Sunday, Sept. 20. Nine Spokane-area homes will be featured. They will include a solar-heated home, a straw bale home, two Built Green homes, a hand-hewn log home, and a xeriscape landscaping project, which features low-water, low-maintenance plants. Participants who visit each site and get their booklet stamped will receive discounts on food and beverages at Isabella's Restaurant, 21 W. Main, and will be able to visit with tour home architects, designers, and contractors. Tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/73240. The cost is $10 per person, $25 per carload, and $8 for participants biking the tour. Kids' tickets are free.

A number of workshops will be held throughout the month, including The Bottom Line of Going Green: How Local Businesses Are Saving Money and the Planet, on Wednesday, Sept. 16, at the Spokane Club, 1200 W. Riverside, from 7:45 to 9 a.m. "This should be great," says Sustainable September organizer Angie Dierdorff. She adds that the presentation will feature "a very diverse group, including a fairly conservative business owner who is finding it profitable to operate in a sustainable way."

Washington State University Spokane will host a live webcast lecture by energy expert Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute, on Thursday, Sept. 17, at 600 N. Riverpoint Blvd., from 7-8:30 p.m. Also, a Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs workshop themed Living Green, is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19, at Auntie's Bookstore, 402 W. Main, from 4 to 6 p.m., and one called Training for Eco-healthy Childcare will be held Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 1408 N. Washington, from 7 to 9 p.m. Avista and Greater Spokane Incorporated will present a workshop titled Stride Ahead: Energy Efficiency/Tax Incentives, on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 801 W. Riverside, from 8 to 9 a.m. The slate of events also will also include a Sept. 30 tour of the new commerce building at Spokane Falls Community College, which received gold-level certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) Rating Systems. The tour begins at 11:30 a.m., and a panel discussion will follow.

For more information on these and other events, visit www.community-minded.org or call Dierdorff at 209-2632.

Avista is the "sustaining underwriter" for Sustainable September, and other major sponsors include Itron Inc., The Inlander, KHQ-TV, and Fire Lab Studio. Other sponsors include Spokane Transit, Spokane Bioneers, the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild, One World Design, the Main Market Co-op, Spokane Riverkeeper, and the Washington state Department of Ecology. Event partners include the Community Building Foundation, Greater Spokane Incorporated, Friends of the Falls, and the Lands Council.