While world leaders discuss the future of the planet, one local business owner is doing his part in "going green."
Representatives from 193 nations have gathered in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Conference. It's the largest summit ever held on climate change. The Highlands in Louisville is a long way from Copenhagen. But the owner of an eco-friendly lawn and garden store believes each of us can do our part to protect the environment.
Larry Horton has owned Horton's Hardware in the Douglass Loop for 15 years. He recently opened Naturally Horton's just down the street. He says, "You can use eco-friendly cleaners in your home, eco-friendly fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides in your yard."
"We looked at it," Horton says, "and decided it was the right time and right place to try to bring this community an eco-friendly home and garden shop. I think we can make you green from the front gutter to the back alley, the lawn, the house, and everything you need."
On one side of the store eco-friendly products for the garden, natural fertilizers, insecticides, and fungicides. On the other side are products for the home, all-natural cleaners with no man-made chemicals, energy-saving light bulbs, and garbage bags made from corn starch. Horton says of those bags, "It decomposes in ten days. Once it hits the weather, it's gone in ten days."
Horton says the green movements of the 70's and 80's fizzled, but he believes this time it's for real, and he's hoping enough customers who believe in going green will visit his store. One of those customers, Noel Rueff, says, "It is past time for individuals and households to take charge and live more greenly and act more greenly and this is the kind of place to help you do that."
Horton says many of the products he sells are made locally, and that come spring he plans to sell Kentucky native plants and locally-grown fresh produce: "One of the plans here is to be a resource center so if they want to bring kids in, we can talk to them about how to make their home greener and bring their parents back and show them how it works."
