The Fresh Green Image Blog

We've Moved.......

2010-02-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

New posts to this blog are now being made at the Fresh Green Image website, at (surprise!)
http://www.freshgreenimage.com

Hoping you'll join us there!

Beware BPA Exposure, Says the FDA (At Last!)

2010-01-18T09:46:00.000-08:00

Why does this look to me like another (obvious) argument against letting an industry self-regulate and self-test?

Today, Lindsay Layton of the Washington Post revealed that after years of rumblings from the scientific, medical and public health communities, the FDA has finally expressed concerns that perhaps Bisphenol A - the chemical compound used to harden plastics in water bottles, can liners, food storage containers and a host of other products - might not be as safe as two studies funded by the chemical industry asserted it was.

In choosing these two studies for its decision to bless BPA as safe, Layton writes, the FDA "ignored more than 100 published studies by government scientists and university laboratories that raised health concerns about BPA. Recent data found health effects even at low doses of BPA -- lower than the levels considered safe by the FDA."

In response, a representative from the American Chemistry Council stood by the study results due to the convenience and usefulness of BPA: "Plastics made with BPA contribute safety and convenience to our daily lives because of their durability, clarity and shatter-resistance. Can liners and food-storage containers made with BPA are essential components to helping protect the safety of packaged foods. . . . ACC remains committed to consumer safety, and will continue to review new scientific studies concerning the safety of BPA."

While BPA is used in a wide variety of products, you do have alternatives if you choose to question the chemical industry's two self-serving studies, and prefer to follow the weight of scientific evidence and the FDA's belated advice to avoid exposure.

Here are just a few tips to help you and your family stay safe:

Shop naked - buying naked produce, that is, not wearing your birthday suit. For one thing, you'll be able to see all sides of your fruits or veggies; for another, you'll be keeping those Styrofoam trays and shrinkwrap plastic covers out of landfills....and avoiding the BPA in food wrap.
Store food in Pyrex, Corningware or other nonporous, chemically inert materials rather than plastic, especially if it is still warm.
When you buy reusable water bottles, choose stainless steel rather than plastic or aluminum.
If you microwave food, use wax paper to cover it rather than plastic wrap.Don't microwave food in plastic bags or cover hot foods with plastic wrap.
Before you buy pacifiers, teething rings, bottles, nipples or other baby gear, check to be sure it has "BPA-Free" on the label. Look for stainless steel sippy cups rather than plastic.

For a good guideline to the materials that do and do not contain BPA, check out this article from the Environmental Working Group.

Newsflashes from the Front Lines of Climate Change

2009-12-17T15:16:00.000-08:00

Since I began working with Green Irene, I've made it my business to reach out to an inclusive audience that crosses political and environmental lines.

And I've been pretty careful to focus on the many personal and economic benefits of going green, and stay away from issues that would raise conflict.

But just this once I'm going to break that rule...mainly because I've found a growing collection of dispatches that offer powerful stories, images, and testimonies from the people and nations that are witnessing the impact of global warming on their lives, economies and cultures.

They're from places like the Base Camp of Everest, where house flies are showing up at an altitude of 17,585 feet - and the permanent ice cover, that used to melt at about 12,300 feet, is now melting as high at 18,000 feet. The photograph at right shows what is left of the powerful Khumbu Icefall that stopped the first Everest expeditions as seemingly impassable (see the Icefall in 1998)

...Places like the Carteret Islands, where a high tide literally runs over the land, washing houses away, contaminating freshwater sources, and making gardens too salty to grow anything.

...Places like the Nile Delta, home to two-thirds of Egypt's population of 83 million and the source of 60% of Egypt's food. Most of the region is just one meter above sea level, and large portions actually below sea level. While the land may not sink beneath the waves until 2100, groundwater salinity is already rising, requiring farmers to load the soil with fertilizer to get any crops at all. In the next 20 years, the population is expected to explode to 110 million, while crop yields are expected to decline by 50% by 2040.

...Places like the U.S., where tropical diseases are expected to spread well beyond the warm regions of the nation. Dengue fever outbreaks, for example, have already been reported in Vermont, Minnesota and California, and may spread in a broad swathe up to New York and across the continent. .

I could go on...there's a large and growing number of dispatches in that collection. But whatever your political viewpoint, whichever pundits you follow, these are newsflashes from a planet in trouble.

Whether you accept the evidence of global warming or attribute it to some other cause, the fact remains that by going green - conserving energy and water, detoxing your home, reducing, reusing and recycling, and so forth - you are not only benefiting the planet, but also benefiting yourself, your health, and your budget.

If taking action offers clear benefits, while doing nothing brings increased personal, financial as well as planetary costs, why not choose enlightened self-interest, and act?

If Americans Are Savvy on Energy-Efficient Lighting Savings, Why Are They Slow to Cash In?

2009-12-17T13:56:00.000-08:00

If you've lingered over CFL displays at the hardware store or on Green Irene, then calcuiated the cost and walked on - you're not alone.

A new study by Osram Sylvania found that while awareness and adoption of energy efficient lighting is growing, Americans don't seem to be feeling any urgency about saving money and energy by switching.

Seems that while 74% of survey respondents have switched in 2009, almost 75% of the respondents were unaware that the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 calls for incandescent bulbs to be phased out, starting with 100-watt bulbs, as of January 2012.

So - why are consumers holding back?

Fear of Buyer's Remorse?

The survey results indicate that first reason is cost. While buyers are aware of the savings CFL and LED bulbs offer, they question their value versus their cost. While 91% of respondents consider energy consumption per bulb to be an important factor in their purchase decisions, only 66% of them expect to purchase a CFL or LED bulb in the future, and 52% pecent say that price is a major factor in their buying decisions.

This question is often raised in my Go-Green workshops. Usually my response is something like this:

Yes, you're paying a higher price for an energy-efficient bulb than you would for a standard incandescent. However, you'll quickly regain that expenditure in savings:

For every standard CFL, you're saving the cost of up to 10 incandescents
For every cold-cathode (dimmable) CFL, you're saving the cost of up to 25 incandescents
If you calculate the cost of the energy you're saving at 16 cents per KwH, that comes to roughly $735 per standard CFL or $1828 per cold-cathode CFL, over the life of the bulb

For a handy calculator of your actual savings with Green Irene's discounted bulbs, check out this guide from Green Irene.

Incandescent Loyalty

Despite the near-total awareness of CFL and LED energy savings, loyalty to incandescents remains strong: 13% of respondents plan to stock up on 100-watt bulbs before the phase-out, and 16% plan to switch to lower-wattage incandescents rather than moving to energy-efficient bulbs.

In my workshops, I hear some possible reasons for this loyalty...

Buzzing, flickering, delayed lighting - Energy Star standards require that new CFL bulbs must be free of these defects
Sickly greenish or harsh white hospital-like light - New CFLs offer a spectrum from soft-white incandescent-like light (2700K), to green-blue (4100K), to “daylight” or bright-white light (5100K)- so you do have options!
Not usable in all settings (e.g., 3-way or dimmable) - Green Irene and some other vendors sell hard-to-find specialty bulbs 3-way, dimmable, candelabra-bottom flame-tip dimmable, vanity globes, outdoor floodlights and bug lights
MERCURY! – Yes, a standard Energy-Star CFL contains 0.05 mg of mercury; a premium CFL contains 0.01 mg, while incandescents have none. But the real difference is in the coal-powered energy that it takes to burn them: The power to burn an incandescent bulb results in 10 mg. of mercury in the air versus 2.4 mg. of mercury emitted to light a CFL for an equal period of time.

Bottom Line - A Small Up-Front Investment, A Big, Long-Term Return

Yes, times are tough right now, and the prospect of swapping out all your bulbs for energy-efficient alternatives can be pretty overwhelming when you count all the bulbs in your house. However, nobody is saying that you need to trash the bulbs you're burning now (though that's all you can do with incandescents when they burn out -- unlike CFLs, they can't be recycled).

Incandescents are short-lived critters, liable to burn out at any moment. Start by buying a few energy-efficient bulbs for the lights you use most (i.e., the bulbs that are likely to burn out soonest). Once you've replaced those, look for the next, and so forth. Don't try to swap out all your bulbs at once.

And this holiday, look for lighting companies that have recycling programs for your outdoor light strings, along with discounts for buying LED equivalents. You'll save in the short run and the long run!

Simple Steps for an Eco-Friendly Holiday

2009-11-29T13:28:00.000-08:00

Ahh, the holidays...time for family gatherings, warm wishes and.thoughtful remembrances...

...frenzied shopping, gift-wrapping, card-sending, tree-trimming, over-spending....

...and tons upon tons of trash! Shopping bags, packaging, giftwrap, envelopes, catalogs, not to mention the forests' worth of Christmas trees on the curb by December 26.

The good news? With some simple, affordable alternatives and a little advance planning, you can reclaim the meaning of the season, cut back on the expense, the stress and the waste, and have a happy holiday that's easy on the planet.

Here are a few tips to get you started....

Plan Your Gift List

The holidays are a time for reconnecting and appreciating the people in your life...what can you give them that's more personal than the latest mass-produced tchotchke?

Time is a gift. For the elders on your gift list, consider giving a day's outing, a weekly visit, or a monthly dinner. For working parents, a weekend's babysitting could be a blessed breather. Use programs like Avery Design and Print Online to set up simple coupons to tuck in a card.
The value of a gift doesn't depend on brand names or store tags. If you have the skill, think of offering handmade items like homemade bread, herbal delights from your garden, or your own handcrafted accessories.

Sending Cards? Think "E"

Writing holiday cards is a time-honored tradition that's growing increasingly pricey as postal rates rise. Not only this - but what should be done with the cards after the holidays?

E-cards have come a long way. Artists like Jacquie Lawson and sites like KatiesCards.com offer stunning, dynamic designs for a subscription fee; and the Spirit Card Center, Hallmark.com and AmericanGreetings.com (among others) offer beautiful free designs.
Recycled - but recyclable? Holiday greeting cards, while they may be on recycled paper, are often not recyclable - particularly those that are deeply colored, embossed with metallic ink or glitter, or backed with metallic foil. On the other hand, companies like FlowerSeedPaper.com offer beautiful, gift-worthy holiday cards that can be planted in the spring as a lasting remembrance.

Shop Sustainably

Instead of spending travel time and gas on holiday shopping trips, and bringing home innumerable plastic and paper bags from the stores, try these strategies:

Save gas - use mass transit. Support your local MTA - you'll save gas and force yourself to consider your purchases (who wants to schlep a trunk's worth of bags on the light rail?).
BYOB - bring your own bag, You bring 'em to the grocery store - take them on your holiday shopping trips as well.
Research online, then call ahead and map your route.. As the holidays near, time pressures can send us zig-zagging madly across town in a search for the perfect gift. Instead of wasting gas and time on the road, call ahead to find out which store carries which product, and cluster your trips geographically.
Buy local. What do the stores in your own community offer? Are there local farms selling trees or wreaths? Local crafters selling their products at holiday festivals? Many schools, churches and civic groups have holiday fairs - consider supporting them with your purchases, rather than anonymous corporate stockholders.

Give Green

That doesn't necessarily mean giving cash (though it fits all sizes and matches all colors)but giving in a way that benefits both the recipient, and the planet and people.

Push the envelope. Gifts like concert tickets and gift certificates to reduce packaging waste and the need for wrapping material.
Give a green nudge. Consider giving products that will help your loved ones go green. Green Irene offers a wide variety of practical, eco-friendly giftables, as well as gift certificates for green home and office makeovers, and 5% of the profit from each purchase is donated to a related nonprofit.
Consider the source. If you're buying imported goods, look for certified Fair Trade products from companies like Ten Thousand Villages or other members of the Fair Trade Federation. You're helping the handcrafters and farmers who made or grew those products to support their families on a living wage.
Batteries not included? Parents will appreciate a complete set of hybrid rechargeable batteries, complete with charger - they can be loaded into toys right away, and last 3x longer than the average rechargeable.
For the person who has everything? Charitable donations in the recipients’ names make great gifts. Heifer International and Seva Foundation are just two of the organizations that offer this option.

Decorate Au Naturel

Many people have their own decorating traditions and boxes of heritage holiday ornaments, collected through the years - but if you don't, consider some zero-waste alternatives.........

Cut tree? Artificial? Or live? If you don't like sacrificing a living tree for the holiday, consider investing in a live, balled tree that can be replanted after the holiday. It will take some extra TLC - see Forestry.About.com for tips. Why not artificial? Manufactured trees are made from mainly non-renewable plastics, often containing PVC. They are non recyclable and non biodegradable.
String for the birds. Spend some time stringing cranberries and popcorn...then, once the tree comes down, set it up outside with your handiwork for the birds.
O the Holly and the Ivy... Look outside in your garden for decorating ideas: this is a good time to prune your evergreen trees and groundcovers. Spent seed-heads make interesting accents for tabletop decorations.
Recycle your lights...With energy-saving LEDs available this year, it's time to replace your gazillion miles of holiday lights...but how? HolidayLEDs will happily take and recycle your strings of lights and give you a coupon for 15% off the price of any product on their site.

Tame the Wrapping/Unwrapping Frenzy

We've all seen (and lived!) the cartoons where paper, ribbon, bows, tape and scissors are flying in all directions...and we've all seen the bags upon bags of giftwrap that get toted out to the garbage after the celebrations are over. This year, try some other tactics....

Fill up a basket. Gift baskets add a decorative touch and can be used again and again.
Try textiles. If you have handcrafter friends, consider wrapping their gifts in holiday-themed fabric and securing them with cloth ribbons.
Gifts within gifts. Antique shops often offer inexpensive decorative tins, hatboxes, and canisters that will be cherished and used long after your gift is extracted.
Reuse boxes and bags. If conventional wrapping is really necessary, buy with an eye to reuse: decorative boxes and durable print bags. To recycle these later, avoid deep colors and metallic papers.

Celebrate Sustainably
Even when your house is bulging with guests, you can stay green...

Loads of dirty dishes? Not! If you’re the host this year, consider renting reusable plates, cups, utensils, etc.In most cases, the company will take care of the cleanup for you. If worst comes to worst, remember - a well-loaded Energy Star dishwasher is far more efficient than a team of humans could ever be.
Compost scraps - Keep a bucket on hand to compost vegetable scraps, plate scrapings, and paper towels with food juices (no meat, dairy, or chemicals).

Above All - Enjoy!

Remember, the heart and soul of the holiday is about - well, heart and soul. Giving, sharing, and connecting with loved ones, Spirit...and the Earth. It doesn't take much effort to create a celebration that's light on your budget AND on the planet...just a little extra thought and planning. Have fun with it - and have a stress-free, green holiday!

Give Green this Year - and Double Your Impact!

2009-11-23T19:35:00.000-08:00

It's not often that I devote a blog post specifically to promoting the products in my online shop - but this post offers you more than the opportunity to get great green gifts for your family, friends, and pets (not to mention your home!)

Your gifts can help your loved ones save energy, conserve (and purify) their water, detox their homes, improve their indoor air quality, reduce waste, make their homes safer, and reduce their carbon footprint. Here's just a brief sampling of the gifts you can find....

· Standard & specialty CFLs	· Hybrid rechargeable batteries & charger
· Water heater blankets	· “Smart strips” to stop phantom energy loss
· Water conservation kits	· Stainless steel water bottles & sippy cups
· Air purifiers	· High-powered plant-based cleansers
· Waterless car cleaning kit	· Odor/worm-free indoor composters

And that's just the beginning..........

For every item you purchase between now and December 31, 5% of the profits will be donated to a related charity....

Purchases from this category…	Support this charity…
Energy Conservation	Maryland Fuel Fund (www.fuelfundmaryland.org)
Water Conservation/Water Purity	Water for People (www.waterforpeople.org)
Home Detox/Indoor Air Quality	Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org)
Waste Reduction/Reuse/Recycling	Grassroots Recycling Network (www.grrn.org)

Sure, the simple choices you make to go green have a tremendous impact in themselves. But why stop there?
Give a little extra for the Earth and the People this year -- without spending a penny!

And - thank you!

How You Can Give the Earth's Simplest Gift

2009-11-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving, the centerpiece of our table will be very simple: a goblet of clear water.

Why? Because here in a country where we can bring fresh water gushing from our spigots at a moment's whim, it's easy to forget what a rare and precious blessing that fresh water is.

Rare - the element that covers 70% of the Earth's surface? Indeed. Just take a look at the numbers, drawn from the University of Michigan, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Water.org.

While 70% of our planet’s surface is covered in water, 97.5% of that water is salty; only 2.5% is fresh. Nearly 70% of Earth’s fresh water is frozen in the polar icecaps and the Greenland glacier. Most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or in deep, inaccessible aquifers. Only 0.007% of all water on earth is fresh and available for human use.
Of the available water that is used globally, just 8% serves the basic daily needs of nearly 7 billion humans. Agriculture consumes 80%; industry consumes 12%, and much of that water is not reusable when it is returned to the global supply.
According to the U.N., a human being needs a minimum of 13.2 gallons per day for drinking, sanitation, bathing and cooking. However, many people in drought-stricken nations get only 4 to 5 gallons of water per day.
Almost 1 billion men, women and children lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.5 billion lack access to safe sanitation. Every year, 3.575 million people die from water-related illnesses - 84% of them children under 14 years of age.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S., 20 states are facing shortages...while the average American uses 80-100 gallons of purified water per person per day. Your 5-minute shower uses more water than the typical person living in a developing country slum uses in a whole day

Bottom line? Global freshwater demands are increasing while supply dwindles due to drought, pollution, and melting polar ice caps and glaciers. It’s up to us now to be aware of our water usage, and to conserve that dwindling supply where we can.

How can you do this? You can begin by discovering your daily water use with a household water audit.Then,once you’ve discovered where you’re using (or losing) the most water, you can begin making changes:

Repair leaks yourself, or call in a plumber
Install aerators in your kitchen and bathroom sinks to reduce the flow rate to 1.5 gallons per minute (gpm) or less
Install low-flow showerheads (2.0 gpm or less) to save water while you get a spa-quality shower
Replace your water-guzzling toilet with a Water Sense model (1.28 - 1.6 gallons per flush), or install a dual-flush converter, a Toilet Tank bag or flow diverter
Check the age and water usage of your dishwasher and washing machine. Ideally, a dishwasher should use less than 7 gallons per load (gpl); a washing machine should use less than 23 gpl

That's all very well, you may be saying - but how does this help the victims of the global water crisis? Well, there are several ways you can help directly.

Rather than giving a tschotchke to sit on a friend's table, consider giving a gift of water to a thirsty community in their name through Seva Foundation.
Or browse through this list of water charities, and give where you can.
Finally, browse through my website for products to reduce water use in your own home...5% of the profits from any water conservation products you order will be donated to WaterForPeople.org.

How Many Vampires Are You Feeding In Your Home?

2009-10-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

From Lestat to Angel, to the Twilight and Moonlight crews, it hasn't been hard to find vampires in pop culture - especially at this time of year. But while they may be fascinating on the tube or in print, slurping down lifeblood isn't exactly an endearing habit for a real-life connection.

Nevertheless, I'd make a bet that you have at least one vampire, and probably closer to a dozen, in your own home!

No, I'm not harboring Buffy fantasies...and the vampires I'm talking about aren't after your corpuscles. At this very moment they're plugged in and consuming your home's lifeblood - the electricity you pay for every month.

It's (appropriately) called "phantom energy loss" - just as silent and insidious as the legendary visitor who comes to sip while you sleep. And while you may not waste away as a result, your bank balance will show the drain.

So how do you recognize them? While hunting two-legged vampires at night is never a good idea, this is actually the best way to find your home's resident energy-suckers. Turn off your lamps, walk through your house, and count the little lights...

your cell phone and iPod chargers...
your computer and peripherals - modem, router, printer, backup drives, speakers, webcam, etc...
your microwave, programmable coffeepot, and answering machine...
your TV, Nintendo, PlayStation, WII...
the chargers for your electric toothbrush and shaver...

They're everywhere! In fact, these energy vampires are costing you 5% or more of your yearly electricity bill. And 40% of that energy is wasted - the vampires are still pulling watts when the items they power are turned off or disconnected from their chargers.

How many watts are they pulling? It's easy to find out by using a Kill-A-Watt diagnostic tool, which measures the energy that enters a gadget over an hour, day, month, and year, along with the dollars it costs you. You can even run comparisons of energy used when the item is turned "off" versus "on".

So you might discover, for example, that your computer uses 200 watts when it's running, and still slurps down 35 watts when it's powered down.

Fortunately, you don't need a stake or a silver bullet to slay your home's energy vampires...and it's really more a question of taming than slaying, anyway. You need to make sure the energy they consume is used only to power your electronics at the time they're needed.

So how do you stop the energy hemorrhage? Begin with the familiar surge protector, which allows you to completely stop the energy flowing to your electronics after you've turned them off.

But what do you do when you need to have your computer running all night for critical backups or downloads, without powering your printer, monitor, etc.? Simple: an energy-saving power strip lets you plug in your peripherals into a block of six outlets controlled by the master switch, while your server plugs into an adjoining outlet that does not cut off.

When you stop for the day, turn off your peripherals and flip the master switch. You'll cut off your phantom energy loss while your nighttime processes continue undisturbed.

Don't be a victim to the energy vampires you've brought into your home. You can give them the energy they need to do their job, and no more.

Are Your Promotional Products Part of the Problem – Or Part of the Solution?

2009-10-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

Whether you’re onsite at a sales call or staffing a booth at a conference or festival, you don’t leave home without promotional products to hand out. Pens, letter openers, hand sanitizer…whatever the occasion or season require.

Gifting is a powerful way to make a good impression. But as your clients grow more aware about green issues, what are your giveaways saying about you? Follow these tips to send an earth-friendly message that’s sure to boost your positive impact.

Are your gifts made of recycled, recyclable, or easily renewable materials?

Be warned – it’s a popular myth that any plastic item that sports the triangle of arrows can be recycled. In many cases, the exact opposite may be true. Items made of #3 plastic, a.k.a. polyvinyl chloride or PVC , for example, are highly toxic from manufacture to disposal and cannot be recycled. For a good guide to the different types of plastics, see http://www.greensage.com/ezine/08zines/05May08/ezine05-08GSGuidePlastic.html.

If you’re offering paper products, such as calendars, look for the highest possible percentage of post-consumer content, along with soy vegetable-based inks.

The best material of all? U.S.-grown bamboo – which grows back quickly, requires less shipping, can nearly replace any type of wood, and can be processed into fibers to make deluxe paper and textile products.

Can they be reused repeatedly?

If you’re giving items such as pens or containers of liquid or gel-based products, ask the vendor what happens after their contents have run out. Can your prospects run to Staples and buy refill cartridges for your promotional pens? Can they open up your purse-sized sanitizer bottle and refill it? Can your tin of breath mints become a handy paper-clip box? Or are you giving single-use products that go straight into the landfill once they’re emptied?

What about packaging?

Are your promotional products shrinkwrapped inside a nest of boxes, braced with molded Styrofoam and bubble-wrap? Or is the packaging integral to the product, as HP recently modeled by presenting its laptop computers in stylish messenger bags rather than boxes?

Bottom line: Be the change.

While sustainable products do sometimes cost more, this is changing as demand increases and supply grows to meet it. The more we all seek sustainable promotional items, the more suppliers will offer them, and our prospects will be inspired to follow our example. Never underestimate the power of a single decision.

Small Steps or Big Vision to Go Green? Both.

2009-10-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

Whether you're looking at going green as a way to reduce your ecological footprint, or simply as a means to reduce costs, the question is always - where to begin?

Do you start with a transformational vision that draws everybody together and affects every aspect of your routine, or do you start small, with one simple change at a time?

Quoth Walmart's senior vice president of sustainability, Matt Kistler - Both.

Quoted by Rebecca Cole in the GreenBiz blog today, the word from Walmart is to "just do it." Companies should “do the small things, look for the big ones, but just get started,” says Kistler.

It may be a bitter pill to agree with Walmart, but as a Green Irene eco-consultant, I must admit - they're spot-on. Green practices at The Biggest Box have evolved from a small experimental step with light bulbs to an overall sustainability index that nudges product suppliers like HP into line with earth-friendly practices.

Whether you're a homeowner or a business owner, it's wonderful and important to have an all-encompassing green vision - but don't hold off until you have the time or resources or buy-in to pursue it. Instead, choose an immediate, measurable goal and plan the simple, affordable steps to achieve it now. For example:

Cut your electricity consumption by 50% just by swapping your incandescent light bulbs for CFLs. Just changing 14 incandescent lightbulbs to CFLs can save you more than $100 per year in energy costs and nearly $1150 over the life of the bulbs, in addition to keeping more than six tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Just one CFL can yield $185 in lifetime savings.
Reduce your heating fuel consumption by 30% or more per year just by getting your HVAC unit tuned and ductwork cleaned. Adding to your water heater insulation can reduce standby heat losses by 25%–45%, saving you around 4%–9% in your yearly water heating costs and keeping roughly 1000 pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Save more than 40,000 gallons of water, $1150 in energy costs, and 1500 pounds of CO2 over the next five years by installing one spa-quality low-flow showerhead.

If you need a hand in identifying your most-needed changes, you can schedule a Green Home or Office Makeover. Your local Eco-consultant will walk through your property with you and help identify the simple, affordable changes that will make the greatest difference right now:

cutting your electricity, heating/cooling and water bills
cutting your medical costs by eliminating common indoor toxins
getting the greatest value out of the things you buy by reducing, reusing and recycling

When you're ready to take the next step, your Eco-consultant will refer you to local eco-professionals who can support you in green property improvements or a full-scale green transformation.

You can also get a good handle on the hidden ways in which your property may be losing energy (for example, through cracks in your foundation or thinly-insulated walls), by scheduling a home energy audit through your power company or through LEED-certified consultants. Investing in a comprehensive audit can yield a long list of simple, often do-it-yourself changes that can save you thousands of dollars.

Whether you reach for support or do it yourself, though, don't wait. Even the smallest changes can yield big results. Imagine what you can achieve when you do more!

How Can You Recognize a BPA-Free Bottle After the SIGG Scandal?

2009-09-04T10:52:00.001-07:00

They were supposed to be one of the greenest green companies...their signature bottles sold in organic groceries, yoga studios, health centers and more. But today there's a national uproar over the BPA found in the liners of SIGG baby bottles made before 2008.

Sigg Aluminum Baby Bottles Has Trace Amounts of BPA - ABC News
Shared via AddThis

If the first lesson of green marketing -- transparency -- needed to be demonstrated, there couldn't be a better case study.

While SIGG was aware of the BPA in the liners since 2006 - and was evidently developing a BPA-free liner - they continued to imply that their bottles were safe and eco-friendly (though they claim they never specifically said they were BPA-free).
Now, knowing of the contamination, they are giving consumers information to identify and return the pre-2008 bottles for exchange, though customers must pay shipping charges, and SIGG will not refund the purchase price. News stories emphasize - this is not a recall.

The key question of the story, however, is not just SIGG's downfall and questionable ethics, but also the impact on green companies producing similar products with similar claims of safety. Who can be trusted? What level of safety is necessary for consumers to feel comfortable?

The answer, again, lies in transparency: who is willing to provide complete documentation for their claims of safety, and whose claims stand up under questioning?

As an eco-consultant, mom, and health-minded consumer, I advise clients to follow three steps to know if the bottles they purchase are indeed safe for themselves and their children:

First of all, exercise a healthy curiosity and skepticism regarding unsupported claims.
It may be tempting to buy a beautiful lined bottle - but do your homework first. Read the product information, ask the tough questions
Find companies you can trust, who are dedicated to transparency and provide full documentation regarding their products.
Finally, to seek out companies that have found healthier alternative to using any liners at all in their bottles.

For example, like SIGG, Green Irene offers water bottles....but there's a difference. SIGG's bottles are aluminum, decreasing their weight but also involving the possibility of a chemical reaction with their contents - thus making liners necessary.

Green Irene, on the other hand, offers a selection of food-grade stainless steel bottles that are inert and completely non-reactive to the acid/alkaline level of the water you put in them. And for this reason, they do not need any liner of any kind.

Not only this - one of Green Irene's stainless steel bottles also features a carbon filter that can remove organic and inorganic impurities including harmful organisms, chemicals and heavy metals. (pesticides, detergents, aluminum, radon 222, mercury, etc.)

There's even a Safe Sippy Cup of stainless steel with a lid made of #5 plastic or polypropylene (the safest and most stable of all plastics). All plastics used have been independently tested free of BPA and phthalates.

There is no excuse for companies that misdirect their customers to believe that products are safe when they're not. Every consumer has the right to honest answers to their questions - and safe and healthy products for themselves and their children.

Let's face it: all companies that offer reusable water bottles will - and should - face increased scrutiny in the wake of the SIGG scandal. Only those companies that demonstrate transparent dedication to the consumers' best interest, and provide solid documentation for their claims, will rise to the top.

Slow Down Rising Energy Costs – Without Spending a Penny

2009-09-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

As summer's heat dwindles to nippy September nights, it looks like energy is going to remain expensive this winter. The good news? Heating and cooling accounts for up to 50% of the average home and office operating costs, so this is an area where you can save considerably with some simple, sensible adjustments.

It’s easiest to accomplish energy savings with a two-pronged approach: through conservation and efficiency. In other words, through personal and company choices, and changes in your HVAC system. Of these two, behavioral changes require the smallest investment – often hovering around zero – so let’s start there.

A good energy conservation plan often involves steps like these:

Switching off lights in unused or sunlit rooms - If your building has floor-to-ceiling windows, you may not need overhead lights during the day…and you certainly don’t need them when a room is empty. Turn off the lights you don’t need during the day, and ask your cleaning crew to turn off all the lights when they leave at night.

Kill the vampires - Roughly 40% of electricity expenditures are from "vampire" fixtures like computer peripherals, cell phone and iPod chargers, coffee makers, gaming systems, and other gadgets that continue to use power while turned off or in standby mode. "Smart strips" let you turn off the vampires while keeping power running to the items that must remain on, such as phones or backup servers.

Raising the blinds on sunny windows in the winter, lowering them in the summer – This gives your heating and air conditioning system a break by using solar light and heat, or shutting it out. You can nudge your thermostat down or up by a few degrees, and save a few more kilowatts.

Using the Energy Efficient settings on your major appliances (if possible). Many appliances manufactured within the last 10-20 years offer energy-saving settings that can save you kilowatts over the course of a year.

Make sure your heating and cooling is going to the rooms where you need it - and not where you don't - By some estimates, 10 to 30% of an HVAC system's energy is lost through leaky ductwork. Even more is lost through vents into closets, basements, garages, etc., and vents blocked by furniture in rooms where the heating or cooling is needed.

Of course, this is just a small sampling of the actions you can take to conserve energy, reduce your bills, and ease your impact on the planet. To discover more tips in a green home or office makeover, or for help with finding recycling resources, contact me at phila@freshgreenimage.com or visit me at http://www.freshgreenimage.com/green-irene.

How Big Is Your Footprint - In the Atmosphere?

2009-08-31T17:20:00.000-07:00

When you’re planning to green your home or business, one of the terms you’ll hear often is reducing your carbon footprint. What does this mean, and why is it important?

Your carbon footprint is one way of measuring your impact on the planet. It represents the total amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are emitted as a result of your lifestyle, business operations, and daily activities. It can include direct factors such as:

the kind of fuel you use to heat your home

the efficiency of your HVAC system

the kind of fuel your car uses, and its efficiency

the kind of lawnmower, leaf-blower, tiller, etc. you use – gas, electric, or battery-powered?

and so forth

But your carbon footprint isn’t limited to the gases that are emitted by the machines and appliances you personally operate. Like karma, it also reflects your global impact through things you pay for, but do not do directly. Just to give four examples:

How Is Your Electricity Generated? The vast majority –-98% percent -- of energy companies use a mix of nonrenewable power sources: coal, natural gas, petroleum, and nuclear energy, and large hydropower. A few other companies, such as CleanCurrents provide energy generated through renewable sources.

How Much Energy Do You Consume by Turning On the Faucet? Public water supply and treatment facilities use an average of 56 billion kilowatt hours of energy per year – enough to power 5 million homes for that same period. At that rate, running your faucet for just five minutes consumes enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 14 hours – and that’s not even including the energy it would take to heat that water.

What Happens to Your Trash after Pickup? On the average, each American generates roughly 4.72 pounds of trash per day, of which only about 1.5% is recycled. If the rest is hauled to a landfill, it adds to a toxic cocktail of greenhouse gases including methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, sulfur, mercury and occasionally even radioactive pollutants such as tritium.

How Far Has Your Food Traveled? In most American supermarkets, we expect to see fresh produce throughout the year, regardless of the season where we live. But what’s the cost of this year-round harvest? You guessed it – the emissions of countless ships, planes and trains as our fruits and veggies are transported to us from around the world. To give you an idea of the impact you can have: just by eating local food once a week, you’ll be saving 2.5 tons of CO2. And of course you won’t just be fighting global warming…you’ll be gaining the whole Farmer’s Market or co-op experience, going to “market day” with your neighbors and local farmers every week.

These are just a few of the many factors that combine to make up your carbon footprint. To discover your own environmental impact, check out the EPA’s carbon calculator.

Once you know the size of your carbon footprint, you'll probably want to take action to reduce it. And you may wonder - are carbon offsets a solution?

Carbon offsets enable you to pay for carbon-neutralizing projects - such as planting trees, for example - to balance out the carbon emissions released through your everyday activities at home, work, traveling, etc. While this might sound like the lazy person's way to a clear green conscience, that's not the idea.

Remember the old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?" That's the principle behind carbon offsets. They're designed to serve as the last step you take after you have eliminated as many sources of carbon emissions from your lifestyle as possible.

Once you've made as many changes as you can to reduce carbon emissions from your home and your workplace, once you've eliminated high-emission forms of travel such as flying and substituted greener solutions - then you can go ahead and use offsets to balance out the remainder.

To learn how you can reduce or eliminate sources of carbon emissions from your lifestyle, come and visit me at my eco-consulting site.

Greening in Grim Times

2009-08-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

With the economy in upheaval, Congress visioning and re-visioning industry bailouts and abandoning clean-energy tax credits, the health care debate tug-of-warring this way and that, and the environment under continuing assault, it's sometimes tempting to question - how much good can living green really do?

The luxuries of enviro-heedless daily American living surround us on all sides...high-tech petro-based cosmetics...sweatshop-manufactured designer clothing...toxin-emitting furniture, carpets, cabinets... mountaintops being exploded into rubble to keep our lights on and our computers running.

Even if you're committed to a green lifestyle, the relentless din of this consumerist world view can get wearing. In the midst of a hectic day, does it really matter that much to the planet if you drive to the 7-11 to pick up a pack of Clorox wipes instead of cycling to the health food store for white vinegar to use with your reusable cloth towels?

But there's a deeper question here - it's not a matter of harshly enforcing green discipline. Somewhere over the last sixty years or so, our culture has lost the skills...and joy...and value...of living simply, lightly, in balance with the natural world.

I took my 86-year-old father to Baltimore's Fair Trade coffeehouse and housewares shop, BlueHouse, awhile back. He browsed through the reclaimed-wood furniture, clay-based paints, flip-flop floor mats, recycled-metal utensils, and bamboo salad bowls with wonder.

As we sat with our cups of coffee, he told me, "This reminds me of what we used to do in the Depression, making everything count, not letting anything go to waste. Thing was, then we were all doing it in any way we could, to survive...here it's big business."

I thought of the way that experience shaped his adult life - planting a garden and putting up vegetables in the summer, repairing instead of buying new, sharing tools and odd jobs with neighbors, differentiating sharply between "want" and "need."

And I've come back to his comment again and again as the economic and environmental situations get increasingly dicey.

For decades now, most Americans have not felt a need to look at the world in that way, the way of "waste not, want not." Haven't felt a need to rely on practical ingenuity to make or fix or grow or share what we and our neighbors have or need.

Thanks to a global economy, we've had the products of the world at our fingertips. We've known we can find a dozen brands of whatever we need off the shelf at the grocery or housewares or convenience stores, or at the mall. And if it breaks, popular wisdom says, "Throw it out and get a new one!"

Yes, gurus of green living and simplicity remind us of age-old, earth-friendly ways to live...but let's face it, living green has been a choice, a counter-culture choice, always with the awareness that most of the population was doing it the easy, heedless way. Much as we may believe that the survival of the planet depends on our responsible choices, much as we buy with care and with an eye to the future, our immediate personal and family survival has not depended on our buying green.

More than that: we've had the option of buying wonderful, upscale, green alternative products. Not to denigrate these in any way! They set standards for environmentally responsible manufacturing at home and abroad, they reduce environmental exploitation, carbon and pollutant emissions, they support Fair Trade crafters in Third World cultures, they do (to borrow EBay's phrase) a world of good.

And - that said - how many of them are designed for a boutique economy of high incomes and higher expectations? I am writing with caution here - many of my clients are just such entrepreneurs, offering just such products, banking on the affluence of their clients to drive those products to success. Passionately promoting their healthiness and durability to convince upscale non-green prospects to buy not just a product but a principle.

But while this has contributed to a greater green awareness in upscale circles, it's also contributed to a popular impression that "green" means "trendy alternative" means "expensive" and "optional." Things you purchase to demonstrate your care for the planet and concern for your and your family's optimum health, not necessarily out of immediate need but as preventative medicine - "because you can." In a market of endless options, they have become yet another option, another niche.

How many people within this niche, however, are greening for the same reason that drove my father's generation - survival? Not just their personal physical survival, but for that of the planet and for the coming generations? And how many would feel impoverished if the endless product options now available suddenly...weren't?

What we're missing is the deeper cultural message - the message my father's generation lived, one of saving and sharing and pulling together. Looking past the "alternative" aspect of green products to the deeper principles behind them. Building community spirit to pull everyone through the tough times.

This is the underlying meaning of greening. We talk about the triple bottom line of green business, valuing People, Planet and Profit...we practice it as part of our business model. And I believe that as global fortunes shift, it's time to take it a step deeper. "Green" is not a niche of products or services, it's a way of seeing the world.

This ripples out especially to less-privileged individuals and families - those who are using toxic mainstream products because they are cheap and easily available, not knowing that simple, old-fashioned, non-upscale, non-boutique green options exist. If cultural greening is ever to be accomplished, these are the people to reach - the ones who will tip the balance not necessarily for the market but for the larger goal: the planet.

It's time to green our lives and expectations the old-fashioned way, by joyfully embracing earlier generations' values and life skills of simplicity, sharing and community. Reclaiming the values of ingenuity and creative survival, connection and cohesiveness.

As Sheryl Crow sang, "It's not having what you want, It's wanting what you've got. "

It's time to redefine "Because we can" from a statement of entitlement to a statement of empowerment...and discover a whole new level of meaning for greening.

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