Eco Friendly Shopping Tips

October 14th, 2009

There are many promotions and companies claiming green credentials but often a lot of messages are confused and finding a supplier of eco friendly products can always be challenging, especially if you are new to the green movement yourself.

But being green is about more than buying products from biodegradable materials or from companies that boast green credentials. Being environmentally and shopping environmentally is about looking at the impact we have in the things we buy and where we buy from.

Here are a few tips when looking to buy eco friendly products:

Always choose a supplier local to you. You may get a price a lot less on the internet but if the product has to be shipped from overseas think of the environmental damage you are doing in the process. Choose a retailer that they themselves buy locally and you can be sure of reducing the carbion footprint of any item you purchase.

Choose a retailer and product that is associated with recognised green associations. Its easy to boast green credentials but most eco-friendly retailers and suppliers will work hand-in-hand with green movements and charities so look for their logos, for instance, if you are buying a washing machine look for the energy star logo.

Make sure you recycle and packaging or boxes that your eco friendly product arrives in. Often, even eco-friendly products arrive with far too much packaging so make sure you have somewhere to recycle it.

Make sure you know what you want before you order. It may be handy to order several items so you can choose what you like before sending the rest back but all that unnecessary traveling adds to the carbon footprint so make sure you order the correct size to start with.

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Eco-Friendly Travel Tips

October 11th, 2009
Reducing, reusing, and recycling can be a part of an everyday lifestyle because there are numerous things that can be done to make a home eco-friendly. It’s just as easy to go green during business trips, family vacations and holiday travel and here are a couple of ways to do it.

Going Green before the Trip

•Turn the water heater to the lowest setting.

•Turn off the air conditioner/heat or adjust the thermostat for plants.

•Unplug appliances like the TV, toaster, microwave and DVD player. According to the Green Hotel Association, they can leak as much as 40 watts/hour even when they are off.

•Stop any newspaper service.

•Avoid buying travel size products says Meaghan O’Neill, editor of Treehugger and PanetGreen.com, in an article for ABC news titled “Green Ideas: Tips for Eco-Friendly Travel.” Instead purchase reusable plastic containers to fill with products from home.

Making the Trip Eco-Friendly

•Take the train or the bus on short distances instead of flying. Airplanes use a great deal of fuel taking off and landing.

Go Green at the Hotel

•Stay at eco-friendly hotels. The Green Hotel Association has a listing of hotels in many states that are taking steps to green up their practices. Also, when considering a hotel, inquire as to what they are doing to help the environment. Many hotels have a linen program and use flow restricting shower heads, but this shouldn’t be the only way they are reaching out. Try to stay at hotels that are going above and beyond the minimum to run a “greener” establishment.

•When using the linen program during a hotel stay, it can be difficult to keep track of who used what towel. The Green Hotel Association suggests packing safety pins with small beads on them. Each family member should have a different color to pin to the towels they are using during the trip.

•Be sure to turn off the air/heat and lights and close the curtains when no one is going to be in the hotel room.

Be a Green Tourist

•Walk, take public transportation, or share a taxi instead of renting a car.

•The Green Hotel Association also recommends eating cuisine local to the region. For example eat seafood on the coasts, steak in the Midwest, etc.

An Environmentally Friendly Travel Experience

Living a greener lifestyle includes eco-friendly travel. With “going green” turning into the new black more and more companies are thinking about how their actions affect the environment. Traveling consumers need to heavily patronize those businesses that are actively becoming more eco-friendly as well as request greener practices from businesses that are not.

Get more travel related tips on camping, hiking, backpacking, air, train, cruise travel on Trip Planner

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Promotion of Green Building Construction Technique

October 7th, 2009
Construction of Green Building is a technology to use all resources efficiently for the creation of human habitats which improve human health, build a better environment, increase working efficiency of human beings and minimize the cost of buildings. Green buildings are also known as sustainable buildings, which are designed, built, renovated, operated and used in an ecological and resource-efficient manner.

In fact, Green buildings are designed to meet certain objectives such as protecting occupant health; improving employee productivity; using energy, water, and other resources more efficiently; and reducing the overall impact to the environment. These buildings with good overall environmental quality can reduce the rate of respiratory diseases, allergy, asthma, sick building symptoms, and enhance worker performance. The green building construction technique include following elements:-

Elements of Green Building Construction Technique

1. Proper Ventilation

Green Buildings provide adequate ventilation to all habitable rooms including bath rooms, kitchens with high-efficiency in-duct filtration system to allow proper drainage of air-conditioning coils to control humidity including heating and cooling systems which ensure indoor air quality.

2. Prevention of indoor microbial contamination

Under this technology, construction and finishing materials are selected with zero or low emissions to improve indoor air quality. Many building materials and cleaning / maintenance products emit toxic gases, such as volatile organic compounds (VOC) and formaldehyde gases which result in a detrimental impact on occupants’ health and productivity. Such products are not to be used in building construction and their finishing.

3. Utilization of recycled material for minimizing the cost of building

Demolition and reconstruction of old buildings is a continuous phenomenon. Population and demand for buildings are increasing day by day whereas our resources are depleting in the same proportion. Building construction activities consume one-sixth of the world’s fresh water withdrawals, one-fourth of its wood harvest, and two-fifths of its material and energy flow. About 22 percent waste material (bricks, concrete, wood, steel, metals, steel pipes, plastic pipes, electric wires, sanitary material etc.) of demolished buildings can be reused or recycled thus prolonging our supply of natural resources and minimizing construction cost. In green buildings, about 25 % recycled material is used.

4. Installation of glass panels

Instead of wood window glass panels are installed in green buildings to allow flow of natural light inside the building during day time.

5. Installation of Rainwater Harvesting System

The green buildings are well equipped with rainwater harvesting system to preserve depleting water resource.

6. Maximizing the use of renewable natural resources

In order to maximize the use of renewable natural resources in green buildings, the energy efficient equipments such as Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) and Solar Water Heating Systems etc. based on non conventional energy resources are installed.

7. Minimizing The Use of depleting resources

Since, forest cover is depleting day by day in the world, therefore, use of fresh wood is minimized in green buildings. Wherever, use of wood is considered necessary, in such buildings, the wood of fast growing trees is only used so that utilization of such material may not effect the ecological balance of the earth.

8. Minimizing energy use in green buildings

The green buildings are fixed with energy censors to minimize the use of power within the building. When there is no person within a room, the lights would automatically go off.

9. Water conservation and efficiency measures in green buildings

In green buildings, water is used in most efficient way. The gray water from bath rooms is again recycled to flush toilets.

10. Proper disposal of garbage

The garbage of green buildings is properly handled, placed and disposed off as per Building Bye Laws of respective Civic Bodies by segregating it into biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes.

11. Maintenance of greenery

In green buildings, the open areas are well landscaped with maintenance of maximum greenery for building healthy environment.

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An Eco Friendly Home is a Commitment

October 3rd, 2009

Making the decision to turn your home eco friendly is a very admirable one which is ultimately going to give you the power to save a great deal of money on a regular basis.  The biggest problem with this decision, however, is the fact that until it becomes habit, you need to make a commitment to always perform environmentally friendly practices at all points during your day.  An eco friendly home is not something which is going to happen naturally because of the way that our culture is structured.  You need to make conscious decisions on a regular basis which relate to nearly every single aspect of your home.

The biggest place where you can make an impact on the environment is when you work on reducing the amount of trash which you produce.  Recycling alone is going to be a major influence on an eco friendly home, as the more that you can reduce, reuse, and recycle, the less trash you will produce.  When making your home eco friendly, you need to consider the different areas where you might be able to cut back on the amount of trash you make.  Buying reusable products is only going to be one area where you can make an immediate difference.

You will also need to make a commitment toward the appliances which you use.  The first thing you can do to make your home eco friendly is always shut off the appliances which you are not using.  This drain on electricity is one which will not only cost you money, but it will be contributing to the consumption of resources unnecessarily.  An eco friendly home will always work on cutting back on the amount of resources which it uses, namely by always shutting off unneeded appliances.

The appliances which you include in your home itself will also play a major role.  The better that you are able to purchase energy efficient appliances, the more you can make your home eco friendly.  A true eco friendly home will not only take advantage of energy efficient light bulbs and rechargeable batteries, but it will include energy efficient appliances with the home which are going to have a major impact on all of the resources being consumed.  Once you have made a direct decision to include these appliances in the home, the more quickly you will start to find your carbon footprint reducing.

As you start to grow more comfortable with environmentally friendly practices, the easier they will become habit to you.  Soon, you will not think twice about all of the actions which make your home eco friendly.  It will start to feel strange where you are in a situation which goes against these habits which you have built.  Ultimately, an eco friendly home is going to be a major lifestyle change for the better.  You will simply need to stick with that decision until you actually start to see it changing your life.  From here, you can take full advantage of everything an eco friendly lifestyle provides.

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Trends in Green Building and Sustainable Construction

September 30th, 2009
“Green Building” is a broad term used to describe the design and construction of sustainable and environmentally conscious buildings.

The driving force behind this is to lower our negative impact on the environment and, at the same time, make the buildings we live and work in safer and healthier for us.

According to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) statistics,`buildings are responsible for all of the following:

39% of US carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions

70% of US electricity consumption

15 trillion gallons of water consumption

Even though there is still some controversy over the effect of greenhouse gases on the environment, the last two statistics are very important for those of us living in urban areas experiencing continuous growth, especially the American Southwest. With our population expansion, aging water and electrical infrastructure, and shrinking landfills, designing and constructing green and sustainable buildings makes practical sense from a utilitarian perspective.

In fact, USGBC data shows that green buildings use 36% less energy, require fewer raw materials, and divert less waste to our landfills. Furthermore, the “increased” cost of green building is only one or two percent more expensive than a conventional building. This minute difference exemplifies the tangible and long-term benefits of sustainable design, primarily due to the fact that green buildings conserve water and electricity. Thus, while they are more expensive to build, green structures will save money by conserving more energy over time.

Another push towards the green build movement is by local governments. More and more municipalities are adopting the USGBC LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) guidelines for new and renovated buildings. In 2006, at the USGBC Greenbuild expo, the Mayor of Denver challenged other major cities to see who can have the most LEED® certified green buildings. They are accomplishing this by offering tax breaks to private corporations and mandating sustainable construction for city-financed projects.

This has led to a dramatic increase in the number of sustainable projects built by LEED® Certified general contractors. However, this growth has not come without challenges. Currently, the following issues are restricting the number of green projects being built:

Increased demand for green products has lead to long lead times

New and unspecified materials are labeled “green” products which are not necessarily certified Building officials are struggling with a steep learning curve on how to evaluate these new products and sustainable building techniques. Despite these difficulties, the USGBC, sustainability advocates, and green building construction management firms are meeting to overcome these challenges.

The LEED® process is constantly under review and continues to adopt the latest codes and products. This includes Standard 189, a new minimum standard for green building. The USGBC is currently developing LEED® 3.0 and working with national code writers to include new products and techniques.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has even rolled out a new initiative called “Sustainability 2030,” which at its roots, is looking to design all buildings by the year 2030 as carbon neutral. The USGBC has even initiated the Green Advantage Builders Certification for contractors to certify their knowledge in green building techniques.

So what does green building mean at the end of the day? It’s simple yet profound: Do the right thing for you, the environment, and the next generation. While most companies are concerned with their bottom line, they ought to embrace the idea that energy and water conservation, green building, and the use of “green materials” in construction stands to increase their savings over time while positioning them as a leader in environmental stewardship.

According to the USGBC, we spend 90% of our time indoors. Due to this fact, scientists have identified an increase in allergies, asthma, absenteeism from school, and even work. There have been numerous studies done on post occupancy productivity levels, which have increased within “green” built facilities. Not only does green adaptation result in less sick days taken, but also shows an increase in productivity, job satisfaction, and in the case of schools, better grades.

So, as we positively affect the environment around us with sustainable green construction, we eventually create better health for ourselves.

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