I'm not seeing the R-values for the materials listed on GreenHomeGuide. Where?

...loose-fill cellulose insulation. Though you wrote, "Others, like blow-in fill, you can't install yourself," you absolutely can, and probably more easily in most situations than laying down batts. My housemate and I just did it for under $300, including the use of a blower (though admittedly the house is small, and the furnace and ducts take up a good part of the attic). We used Cocoon, which is made from 80% postconsumer paper fibers.

Planet-friendly insulation advice will likely be available soon through the weekly PBS show, "This Old House."  Oddly, I find that show very enjoyable, even though we do not own a home, and I can do nothing more ambitious, construction-wise, than change lightbulbs.  (CFLs, of course.)

The 2/5 issue of Newsweek has an article by Anne Underwood, titled "This Ecofriendly House," in which she announces that the next eight-part series of "TOH" will be about enlarging and re-designing a bungalow in Austin, consistently using environmentally friendly options.  The article does not specifically mention insulation, but there is this: the owners "are expanding the bungalow more than 50 percent ... yet the renovated house will actually cost less to heat and cool."

Underwood writes: "The National Association of Home Builders maintains a list of residential green building programs (nahbrc.org).  And thisoldhouse.com is posting a list of resources next week."

"We hope it will inspire people," says the show's host, the ever-bubbly Kevin O'Connor, who himself never fails to inspire, in every context.