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The Springs Preserve opens its first Winter Lights Festival Friday. It will continue through the end of the year.

The lights display in the 8-acre garden and throughout the Preserve is being created from half a million LED lights illuminated by solar power, offering an example of a sustainable holiday celebration.

Performances by Chaparral High School’s orchestra, Sign Language Performing Arts Team, Sign Design Theater and Cockroach Theater’s original puppet show “Dicken’s Done Over” are scheduled throughout the season at the courtyard plaza, garden amphitheater and tool shed theater.

Additionally, there will be live music on multiple stages by local entertainers include the Raj Rathor Quartet, Beth Mullaney and Killians Angels, and Boy Katindig.

Roving carolers and kiosks will offer sustainable holiday gifts.

The festival will be open from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday, and will be open daily from Dec. 24 through Dec. 30.

Admission to the gardens only is $4 for adults and $2 for children 5-17. Admission to the gardens and galleries is $9 for adults and $4.50 for children 5-17. Children 4 and younger are admitted free.

The Springs Preserve is located at 333 S. Valley View Blvd. For more information, visit www.springspreserve.org.

Holiday table exhibit extended to Dec. 9

Due to its overwhelming popularity, Toll Bros. and Just Because Gifts have extended their special holiday tablescape exhibit, A Perfect Setting, through Dec. 9

The exhibit features three distinctive table settings within the new homes at Fairway Hills in The Ridges village, located in Summerlin.

The tablescape creations are open for viewing from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except today. Admission is complimentary and the public is invited.

Standards set for sustainable carpets

Architects, designers and end users will now have one standard to identify carpets that have a reduced environmental impact. The first multi-attribute American National Standards Institute-approved standard — NSF 140-2007, sustainable carpet assessment standard for environmentally preferable building materials — was introduced at Greenbuild 2007 in Chicago recently.

The unified standard for sustainable carpet is voluntary, inclusive, based on life-cycle assessment principles, and offers three levels of achievement for attaining various levels of reduced environmental impact (silver, gold and platinum). By defining environmental, social and economic performance requirements, the standard provides benchmarks for continual improvement and innovation within the building industry.

The standard can be used to evaluate any carpet product, but it is primarily intended for evaluation of commercial carpet products by providing a product evaluation methodology that is complementary to emerging commercial green building standards.

“We expect this highly anticipated standard will be widely adopted and referenced across building design, construction and operation industries as the standard of choice for green carpet,” said Jane Wilson, NSF standards director. “It is already serving as a model for other industry groups to follow.”

The first carpet products certified to the approved NSF 140-2007 standard are expected to be available in the marketplace by the second quarter of 2008. Currently, 11 products are certified to the NSF 140 draft standard.

For more information on certification visit www.nsf.org/info/carpet or www.carpet-rug.org.