Staying positive…good news on the environment
Boston is now added on the list of cities with green building requirements. Beginning in 2007, they will require all commercial buildings over 50,000 square foot to meet 26 out of 70 of the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. Several other cities are also greening up their building standards, including Santa Cruz and Livermore, CA, Washington D.C., and several others.
According to the power calculator at MGE’s website, I can save $14 dollars and 245 pounds of carbon dioxide yearly by washing my clothes in cold. And I only do one load of laundry per week! Washing your clothes in cold water is actually better for your clothes than warm or hot, and laundry detergents are available that are designed for cold-water washing. In fact, most enzymatic cleaners can probably handle washing in cold water. Since heating the water accounts for 90% of the energy use of washing clothes, the average household will save $61 and 1,281 pounds of carbon dioxide yearly.
Is washing in cold effective? Don’t tell your mom, but your whites don’t need to be washed in hot to get them clean. The only things that really needed to be washed in warm water are heavily soiled clothes, baby diapers and clothes stained with grease or oil. So, go do your laundry!
In November, BuildingGreen announced its top 10 picks for green building products. The products were chosen from their GreenSpec directory. BuildingGreen includes products in their directory based on multiple criteria; manufacturers do not pay to be included. The criteria for inclusion in the GreenSpec directory include: products made with salvaged, recycled or ag waste content, products that conserve resources, products that avoid toxic emissions, products that save energy or water and products that promote a safe and healthy environment.
One of the winners in the top 10 green products is a technology to salvage underwater timber. The purpose is to reclaim all the timber that was submerged in the creation of dams. Triton Logging, the creator of the technology, estimates that the total amount of submerged lumber could exceed 100 billion board feet. That’s enough to build approximately 330,000 small 3-bedroom ranch houses (1000 sq ft). The wood is certified as SmartWood Rediscovered by the Rainforest Alliance. How cool is that? Enough houses to populate a good-sized city without displacing a single bird’s nest.
If you’re anything like me, you’re down to the last one or two people on your Christmas list. You have no idea what to get them because they have everything. And the few things they might want cost more than you make in a year. So this year, I decided to make a donation in their name. I have it narrowed down to a few causes to choose from.
The first is holiday cards from NativeEnergy. These are carbon offset cards that come in 1 ton ($12) or 6 ton ($72) denominations. You can choose from helping to build new Native American wind turbines or a renewable methane generator on a family farm.
Another choice in the running is greendimes. For a dime a day, they will rid you of junk mail - all those annoying credit card offers, solicitations, catalogs, etc. Their theory is that its cheaper to pay them to get rid of your junk mail than doing all the legwork yourself. And, they plant a tree a month for you.
The third possible charity I’m considering is terrapass. A friend mentioned this to me as her preferred source for carbon offsets. Like NativeEnergy, they send a card and, depending on the type of offset purchased, they include a window decal or luggage tag. They also have a really good calculator to determine how much offset your vehicle requires. (Sustainable Travel International has information on the quality of Terrapass, NativeEnergy and many other carbon offset programs)
The final charity I’m considering is the World Wildlife Fund. They’re offering virtual ‘adoptions’ of 40 different animals. If you donate $50 or more, you get a little plush version of the animal you’ve adopted. If you donate online, regardless of the amount, you get screensavers, wallpaper and AIM icons for the recipient. If someone on your gift list has a favorite animal, this would be a great choice.
So, happy gift giving and congratulations on finishing your holiday shopping!
I had written this post a few days ago, but apparently, Mozilla is as much a fan of organic chocolate as I am, because it munched the post before I had the chance to get it out to you. And, amid the holiday fervor, I have finally found time to try a rewrite.
Once you’ve had organic chocolate, you will never want to eat another Hershey’s bar again. Organic chocolate is some of the most exquisite stuff out there, so if you’re looking for last minute holiday gifts, this is definitely the thing.
There are alot of organic chocolate makers out there, and our neighbors across the pond have published a definitive list. My favorite is Dagoba - soooo good! Other noteworthy chocolatiers include Green and Black’s and Equal Exchange.
What makes organic chocolate different? In a word, ingredients. Certified organic means that the
cacao, milk, and spices are organically grown and, thus, are non-gmo (genetically modified), pesiticide-free and farmed with sustainable agriculture practices. The milk is from dairy cows that are antibiotic and growth hormone free.
Many chocolatiers take it many steps further, with commitments to local farmers, worker cooperatives and fair trade practices. So, by indulging your chocolate obsession, you’ll be affecting much more than your waistline.
A common myth is that you can burn out the computer by turning it on and off, and it uses more energy to turn it on than to leave it on. Pardon me while I put on my mythbuster hat… Modern computers can handle 40,000 on/off cycles; your computer will be obsolete long before it will burn out. The power used to boot a computer is less than the amount used in leaving it on for 3 minutes, so that myth is out the window. (source: Ohio University)
One computer left on 24 hours a day uses between $65 and $115 annually and releases 850-1,150 pounds of CO2 into the air, at least at UMass Amherst. According to statistics from Ohio University, a computer left on around the clock releases 2,161 pounds of CO2 and costs $45 a year (apparently, power is cheaper in Ohio than in Mass.). Reducing computer on-time to 8 hours per day saves 67% over the year.
According to the National Energy Foundation, monitors can account for as much as a third of the electricity consumption in a modern office. The old CRT-style monitors use about twice the energy as the new flat-panel monitors, so use that as justification to buy the fancier monitor! CRTs also produce more heat than flat-panels, so it can help your air conditioning bill to own a flat panel and turn it off when not in use.
And by the way, screen savers don’t save any energy. It’s very unusual for an image to be burned into the tube, flat or CRT, anymore (the initial reason for screen savers), so turn your monitor off instead of letting that horrible Starfield Simulation come on.
I’ve been hearing more and more lately about carbon offsetting. Carbon offsetting involves donating an amount of money determined to be equal to the monetary impact of the carbon you use in your everyday life while you drive your car, have your packages shipped or fly to see grandma at the holidays. The money is then used to fund wind farms, energy efficiency projects and reforestation.
Ecobusinesslinks.com recently chose carbonfund.org as most affordable in their carbon offsetting price survey. Cool Driver offers offsets for your driving habits and type of car, and they even offer a free pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for signing up. Make mine Half Baked, thank you.
Most carbon offset purchasing sites have calculators of varying complexity to determine your carbon footprint. At some retailers, you can choose to offset the impact of your purchase with them. You can also offset someone else’s carbon footprint by purchasing carbon offset gift packs at Nigel’s Eco Store, Carbon Clear and CO2 Balance, to name just a few.
The activitists did it! Two years ago, ForestEthics started a campaign against Victoria’s Secret,
entitled Victoria’s Dirty Secret. The parent company of Victoria’s Secret, Limited Brands, had been using paper from endangered forests like the caribou habitat in the foothills of Alberta Canada to print 395 million catalogs annually. Catalogs without any recycled paper content. The activists of ForestEthics protested at Victoria’s Secret events and ran ads in the New York Times. This got them attention from other media sources, and Limited Brands took notice. They organized Days of Action, which included call-ins and letters of protest. Rev Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping joined in the campaign. After numerous grassroots protests and lots of publicity, Limited Brands reached an agreement with ForestEthics and signed a new paper contract. According to the ForestEthics press release: “The policy, unprecedented in its scope, includes several landmark environmental measures and ensures that the pulp for the company’s catalog paper will not come from Endangered Forests. A new paper contract was also signed in accordance with the new policy.” A victory from lingerie-clad ladies wielding chainsaws! It’s so awesome to see a grassroots protest succeed.
Recently, the EPA made it possible for people to spray pesticides over or near water without a Clean Water Act permit, with the intent of controlling the spread of West Nile virus through control of mosquito populations.
But, there are natural, less polluting alternatives if you have the responsibility for a pond or lake, or even just your backyard bird bath.
One option, only intended for ornamental ponds and animal water troughs, is mosquitofish. They can eat as many as 100 mosquito larvae per day. They shouldn’t be introduced into the ecosystem because introducing a foreign species can wildly upset the ecological balance.
There are various natural sprays that will repel mosquitoes. Some are concentrated garlic solutions, including Mosquito Fighter, Garlic Barrier and Mosquito Barrier. These can be used as water repellants by mixing them with soybean oil to coat standing water with a thin film of natural oil. Other sprays include organic natural mosquito repellant and Green Light lawn and garden spray, though they may not work as well in water and are not necessarily designed to be combined with soybean oil.
Another common natural treatment for water is mosquito dunks, each of which will treat 100 square feet of water and works because it contains a bacterium toxic to mosquitoes. They’re sustained release and non-toxic, designed for small bodies of water.
There are also mechanical control solutions, including a Solar Mosquito Guard, Guardian Mosquito Trap, and the Oak Stump Mosquito and Flying Insect Trap.
With all these natural options, why would anyone use chemical pesticides?
Free-range, organic, natural, grass fed… There are a lot of words on egg packages, and lots of conflicting reports on how accurate they are. If you’re not sure what brand to buy at the store, the American Humane Assocation has a Free Farmed certification, and a list of all the brands that are certified as Free Farmed. Another option is to buy your eggs from local factories, a list of which can be found, oddly enough, at a traction pad site.
How much does it help to eat free-range, organic eggs? According the USDA National Commission on Small Farms, “responsible management of the natural resources of soil, water, and wildlife on the 60 percent of all U.S. farms less than 180 acres in size, produces significant environmental benefits for society.” And, according to the Institute for Food and Development Policy, “in the United States, small farmers devote 17% of their area to woodlands, compared to only 5% on large farms. Small farms maintain nearly twice as much of their land in ’soil improving uses,’ including cover crops and green manures.” There is a lot of depressing information out there on the pollution that large factory farms cause, if you want to read about the pollution involved in traditional farming.
