ecoliving GREENSTYLE

Recycling Paint From Old To New

2011-02-01T20:18:00.000-08:00

When you think of using recycled paint, you get the picture of the last time you mixed paint together and got a really muddy gray. Recycled paint? you say. No way.

Recycled paint is now on the radar and shows just how times have changed. So, take a deep breath and remain open minded as you will soon see that the muddy gray you remember is no longer the only outcome, not at all.

The reason recycled paint has come to the front is because more than 74 million gallons of paint are sold in California alone, each year. That is a lot of paint, but the problem comes in because not all of it is used.

Paint is considered a hazardous waste and the leftover paint from your project either sits in your garage or you bring it to the HHW facilities (household hazardous waste) set up by your local government.

Because this collection program only receives a small amount of the leftover paint, it becomes very expensive to run. So a program that has proven to be successful in Oregon is being adopted for California.

Paint Care will take “architectural paint” which is defined as interior and exterior architectural coatings sold in 5 gallon containers or less for commercial and residential use. It does not include aerosols or paint purchased for industrial or equipment manufacturer use. http://www.usgbc-ncc.org/

Starting in July, the number of collection sites will increase with a goal in mind that you, the consumer can bring back your leftover paint to the store where you bought it.

That means no more stored leftover paint in your garage and gives the retailer a chance to become good product stewards by closing the loop.

Purchasing recycled paint

As manufacturers of recycled paint, Amazon and Visions Paint Recycling carefully inspect and sort the leftover paint that they receive before processing it. They are able to create a pretty stunning result of beautiful recycled paints available for purchase.

It’s a far cry from our failed efforts of muddled gray. It’s really quite remarkable and about 25 percent less expensive, too! Click here to see color charts.

Oh, and the leftover paint that they can’t recycle into new paint is put towards making a cement additive. The additive is used in place of shale, clay, limestone and other materials that would have otherwise been mined.

Empty Light Filled Rooms

2011-01-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

We hear a lot about energy use and how we can become more energy efficient, but really, how conscious are we when we use energy? Going into a room, we turn on the lights. Going out, unfortunately, is all to often a different story.

I know because I seem to find empty light-filled rooms all the time, whether I’m visiting others or at home.

Want to bake, we turn on the oven, first thing, and pre-heat for as long as it takes us to read the recipe and mix all the ingredients. Never mind that the oven was preheated long ago. Why we may even accept a phone call in the middle of our work while the oven just keeps pumping out heat. The cake isn’t the only thing rising.

David B. Goldstein has written an easy read of a book, “Invisible Energy Strategies to Rescue the Economy and Save the Planet”. This book will bowl you over with amazing factoids, as well as, well-thought out conclusions from studies that have been done.

David Goldstein is the Energy Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a MacArthur “genius award” Fellow and has worked closely with California Energy Commission. California, by the way, is leading in the United States for its energy efficiency standards.

For instance, it might surprise you to learn that “investments in energy efficiency typically earn several times more than any other kind of investment”.

Goldstein also points out that “conservation alone...(like me turning off the lights as I walk down the hall)...without energy efficiency has a limited capacity to make a noticeable difference.

Now, don’t get him wrong. Energy conservation is still very important, and so is buying those energy-saving devices, but, we need much more.

Mr. Goldstein suggests that we need policies of continual support from legislaturers to promote research and development of energy efficiency innovations and technology.

He also states that “Energy efficiency is one of the strongest tools we have at our disposal to recover from the recession”, he posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2010.
There are many interesting things that Mr. Goldstein brings up. Here are a few that particularly grabbed my attention.

The book discusses several ways that energy efficiency goals can promote economic growth, employment and competitiveness.

For example, take markets competing to produce energy efficient products. Awhile back, the gaunlet was thrown down demanding more energy efficiency in refrigerators. Refrigerators were were growing larger and larger and were enormous energy hogs.

The result was that refrigerators have improved their efficiency at a rate of 4 to 5 percent annually. Over the last 30 years, that rate of improvement translates to an energy savings of 70 percent.

So, energy efficiency products do not translate to higher costs or less performance. Refrigerators are a shining example of how painless and rewarding energy efficiency has been for consumers.

Television manufacturers have found that reduction in energy use does not cost consumers more money, nor does it cut back on the performance of televisions. The LED flat screen televisions are a good example of that.

To see how energy efficiency promotes economic growth requires a short glance back in time. I grew up in a time when the next generation was able to climb on the shoulders of those that came before.

We were able to boost ourselves up to a more economical prosperous level. That the next generation would succeed further than the last was a mantra everyone knew.

As of the 1970s, that mantra has been pushed aside and over the decades since, we have come woefully short of a prosperous generation. In fact, our median household income has only increased 15 percent since the 1970s. Most of that increase was in 2007 and attributed to the households having two breadwinners.

Goldstein states that the prosperity growth trend abruptly stopped with the energy crises in 1973. A similar stage was set in 1979 when energy prices spiked and caused serious economic problems. Again, in 2008, we see another energy crises at the bottom of an economic turndown.

How we had addressed these crises caused household incomes to stall, unemployment to increase and the gross domestic product to suffer. In simple terms, the 1980s had 10 percent unemployment, more than we see now in this economic turndown, with interest rates as high as 18 percent.

Mr. Goldstein goes on to show how energy efficiency policies could be put to work quickly and effectively to prevent similar and perhaps larger economic blow outs, foster greater economic growth and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This book is a must read. One more point that should wake up some curiosity at least.

The mantra for real estate of location, location, location has a slightly different meaning when Mr. Goldstein equates it with the mortgage crises.

From studies, it seems the highest rates of default in the mortgage crises were located in the “remote fringes of major metropolitan areas where the need to drive and the associated costs of transportation are the greatest”.

Places that have the higher location efficiency, that is, how much is saved in transportation costs, had the lowest number of defaults.

Mr. Goldstein proposes a pretty easy solution for this, but I’ll let you read the book to find out.

On the other hand, if you just want to know more about energy efficiency in your kitchen, click here.

Create Eco Friendly Eco Living Holiday Delight

2010-12-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

Creating eco-friendly eco-living holiday delight is an opportunity to have a wonderful and memorable holidays that lives well beyond the season.

Designing our holidays to be eco-friendly is not a restrictive guideline, but rather, gives us a chance to open up our creativity channel and let the ideas flow.

Eco-thinking our holiday regime offers us an opportunity to share a deeper level of appreciation for our friends, family and other living things.

So, how do we create eco-friendly, eco-living holiday delight? By understanding what questions to ask and learning what to look for in making choices.

Instead of ringing in the environmental disaster we now create throughout our holiday season, we need to rethink how to create delight.

Your Decorating Fashion: Things to consider before buy

Here are some questions I always encourage people to think about before they buy anything. Decorating for an eco friendly holidays is a good place to start.

Where 'stuff' comes from? How is it made? Where does it go when we’re done with it?

Do we cut down mountains, forests or dig deep into the earth for the resource? Do we make a lot of pollution manufacturing the product? Does it go to landfill and take thousands of years to decompose, if at all? Does it pollute our air and waterways?

Just as businesses have life cycles, materials and products have life cycles. For instance, in business, there’s the introduction stage, the growth stage, the maturity stage and the decline stage.

For materials and products, the introduction stage would be getting the raw materials or natural resources. The growth stage would be the manufacturing or processing of these materials. The growth stage could be the distribution. The maturity stage could be the use and repair of these materials. And, finally, the disposal would be the decline stage.

We can ask these questions of our retailer or supplier. They often know or they often offer to find out and are willing to get back to you as part of their customer service.

If we just ask those questions and evaluate what we are buying, we can make an enormous impact on the environment, on our wallet, on the amount of stuff in our garages.

Cradle to Cradle

Cradle to Cradle, often referred to as C2C, promotes designing things in such a way that we don’t have to manage waste. Before Cradle to Cradle, we manufactured materials on a one-way path: from producer to consumer to landfill.

Currently, our systems intervene in this process but what we end up doing is making less bad materials and slowing down the process of these things going into landfill.

Cradle to Cradle is a design manifesto to create materials that actually become nutrients themselves to the earth, and therefore, there is not waste.

Materials would cycle through either a biological metabolism or a technical metabolism.

The biological cycle would support the earth, i.e., growth, decay and rebirth. There would be no waste. Waste would equal food or nourishment for the earth.

The technical cycle is a closed-loop system where the high-tech ingredients would continuously circulate, i.e., production, recovery, reuse.

This idea totally changes how we look at things.

William McDonough says, and I’m quoting, “Instead of asking, “How do I meet today’s environmental standards, designers are asking “How might I create more habitat, more health, more clean water, more prosperity, more delight?”

For Eco Friendly Holiday Decorating Tips, check out my BlogTalkRadio interview. You will enjoy listening to it because we had a great time doing it!

Going Green For Schools

2010-12-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

Going green for schools has just become easier. A green school kit is the first of its kind. It is a comprehensive guide that works to improve the health, productivity, efficiency and fiscal status of schools.

This green school kit comes from the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) and has put forward the notion that healthy, high-performing schools mean healthy, high-performing kids. While this may be a no brainer to you and me, some have yet to receive the memo.

I remember seeing a documentary about the state of schools where it compared schools to prisons. One image stands out above the others.

Buckets were strategically placed on the floor to catch the rain leaking through the roofs of the school and into the classrooms. Prisons were state of the art and narry a bucket in sight. Seems like we may be in desparate need for such things as the 50 for 50 Green School Caucus Initiative.

This school is catching rain but in a way that is instructive and sustainable. Watch this video now.

Schools are beginning to realize that greening their school can save them enough money to hire more teachers. The school kit provides a menu of options, as well as, advancing green school agendas.

In addition to boosting the district’s bottom line, green schools have also been able to show higher test scores and cheer up the staff.

See some green schools in action.

8 Ways To Celebrate Green Lifestyles

2010-11-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

I just read a wonderful article in one of my favorite industry trade rags. Where I get emotional, they stay calm and perfectly articulate my feelings that are bubbling under the lid I’m desparately trying to keep on and level.

Adding a bit of humor allows the smile to break through which turns into a pretty good gaffaw and before you know it, I’m on the floor rolling. And, of course, I have to share. For instance, take a look at this.

“It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment; it’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.” None other than Dan Quayle.

Okay, maybe you’re not rolling. I guess you had to be there, but I do know you’re shaking your head in disbelief. My belief is that we will have a lot of those moments to come in the next couple of years.

The article goes on to give some really encouraging statistics of just how much earth we truly are saving. For those bent on wholesale destruction, a look at these tidbits and one can see that this ship is waaaaaay too big to turn around now.

Some day, we will be thanked for that.

Now, on to share these encouraging bits of news with you. Below are excerpts taken from Keri Luly’s article for Interiors Sources. You can read the full article by following this Wonderfully Positively Green link.
PROTECTING THE WORLD'S SECOND LARGEST RAINFOREST

• The Congo Basin Forest Partnership—made up of heads of state, conservation organizations, local citizens, and donor organizations— recently celebrated 10 years of hard work against difficult obstacles, such as war and illegal poaching. The Basin's 3.7 million square kilometers contains 400 mammal species and more than 10,000 plant species (one-third of which are found nowhere else). Additionally, the forest stores an estimated 46 billion metric tons of carbon. The Partnership's accomplishments include:

o 34 protected areas; 61 community-based natural resource management areas; and 34 extractive resource areas zoned for conservation management, covering 126 million acres (more than one-third of the Basin forests).

o More than 11.5 million acres of forest certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

o More than 5,000 local people trained in conservation, land use planning and related conservation capacities.

o An overall rate of deforestation estimated to be a relatively low 0.17 percent (one-third of Brazil's rate and one-tenth of Indonesia's).

o Improving survival rates of some endangered species, in spite of illegal poaching. E.g., the population of mountain gorillas is up 17 percent over a census taken 20 years ago.

In addition, as of September 2010, there are 134.34 million hectares of FSC-certified forests in the world, and in May 2010, Canada's Boreal Forest pledged to certify 72 million hectares (75 percent of Canada's forestland).

REBUILDING OF OCEAN FISH POPULATIONS

When fully implemented, the two principles of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act are successful in restoring the fish stocks that Americans depend on for food and economic well-being. The principles seem basic—don't overfish and rebuild populations that are depleted—but there are constant efforts to weaken them. Successes include several popular, but vanishing fish3.

• Recovered: the Atlantic Scallop, the Mid-Atlantic Bluefish, and the Pacific Lingcod.

• Recovering: the Mid-Atlantic Summer Flounder (expected to recover fully before 2013) and the Gulf Red Snapper.

Work underway could triple the economic value of many U.S. fisheries by adding 500,000 jobs and generating $31 billion in sales.

REWARDING ENVIRONMENTAL HEROES

In April of this year, the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest prize for grassroots environmentalists, honored six new recipients. The $150,000 prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment—often at great personal risk. In many places, such activism can result in imprisonment and even death. The prize was launched 20 years ago on philanthropist Richard Goldman's 70th birthday, and each year, six new recipients are announced (representing the six inhabited continental regions of the world).

The recognition has led to other successes for the recipients. E.g., one later became the first environmentalist to win a Nobel Peace Prize and another, a former rubber tapper, became his country's Minister of the Environment. Reading their stories, and those of their predecessors, will give you renewed hope in humankind.

PARTNERING TO PROTECT ESTUARIES

Estuaries are areas where freshwater from rivers mixes with saltwater from oceans, and they are among the most biologically productive places on Earth. They provide fish and wildlife habitat and sustain billions of dollars' worth of commercial fisheries, recreational fisheries, and tourism. Estuaries are threatened largely because they are considered desirable places to live.

The National Estuaries Partnership6 has created 28 long-term partnerships of government, businesses, local citizens, and academia, using consensus building and educational outreach to build solutions. These groups have protected and restored more than 1 million acres of habitat (approximately the size of the state of Rhode Island) since 2000.

GREENING OUR LIFESTYLES

The most plentiful, positive green news must surely be in our built environment. A brownfield site in a poor Boston neighborhood is being redeveloped as a LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) pilot project; while on the opposite coast, a car-oriented San Francisco commercial site is using LEED-ND to transform into a mixed-use, pedestrian focused infill.

Looking indoors, consider the abundance of lower VOC products in the market. It is now, finally, possible to go to home improvement stores in small towns and find low VOC paints, adhesives, and other materials. And consider lighting. LED light bulbs (if Energy Star qualified) use 75 percent less energy and last 35-50 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Pretty amazing, but the side effect could be the elimination of a small source of green humor: How many life-cycle assessors does it take to change a light bulb? Two—one to change it and one to change it back after more data comes in.

Speaking of consumer goods, even small town grocery stores are featuring organic food. Excessive, non-recyclable packaging is still a big problem with our food supply, but I'm happy to report that some French champagne makers have redesigned their bottles to make them lighter, reducing the CO2 from transporting them by 200,000 metric tons per year.

Thank you, Keri. I always learn something new from your articles.

Want to know how your personal point of view can become an oasis of unique style and comfort? Click Here.

Green Wisers Read The Label

2010-10-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

How do you know what you are buying? We look to labels to help us out. With companies pushing back on what the label can contain, it becomes difficult to really know the content or the processes that were used to manufacture a product.

Reading the labels on food packages has become a common and important practice for us.   It is the result of efforts from many experts who know the importance of good nutrition.

‘You are what you eat’ may have been a slogan scoffed at by some as something belonging to those hippies. Even then, as those words reverberated and bounced around in our brains, it was hard to deny.

While much is still left out of food labels, we are becoming wiser and continue to demand more transparency.

The same is true with products we purchase for our homes and work places. Being green isn’t just a trend, it is a way of life whose effort is to get us closer to a healthy and abundant lifestyle.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to breathe in tons of toxins and then have to spend tons of money on health care to fix the problems that arise, assuming those problems can even be identified.

Best choice? Learn to read the labels. Just like what has been done for our food knowledge in helping us to make better choices for fuel for our bodies, we can do the same for our homes.   So what we breathe in, rub against, put on and kick up won’t make us sick.

Here are reasons why labels are important to consider for your home.

People spend a large amount of time in their homes, and the air they breathe is 2 to 5 times worse and more pollutant than the air outdoors. Hard to believe, but true.

The primary source of the pollutants comes from furnishings, building materials and cleaning processes and products we use every day.

These products release potentially harmful toxins and particulates that you breathe in and have been linked to a number of health problems like asthma, heart disease, learning disabilities, reproductive disorders and some types of cancer. Yikes!

Take a look at kitchens, for example. Cabinets and countertops (yes, even stone) can contain adhesives, finishes and sealants that release or offgas chemicals into the air, for a long time, that you and your family breathe in.

Because flooring is in every room, the amount of chemicals and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that are released in the home can potentially be very high. This is one area you really want to consider products that are low in the chemicals emission.

Paint is another product that covers lots of surfaces in the home. Paint is a bit quirkie. Even when it says low VOC or no VOC, applied paint to your walls can still offgas for years to come. It is in the make up of the paint itself, its ingredients that do the releasing of chemicals.

In looking for labels you can trust to be reliable, look for those that are supported by research, testing, analysis, and professional evidence. It is important to look for third-party certification whose interests is in health and who is independent from the product, manufacturer and industry.

Because these are times of mass misinformation distribution, greenwashing has also raised its ugly head by misleading consumers regarding the environmental standards or practices of a company and product.

So, an important piece to evaluating a certification is to make sure the certification body stands behind its claims and evaluations.

At Eco Living Design, we do the heavy lifting for you! We work to improve the indoor air quality in your home and work place. Sustainable solutions can absolutely be integrated with your aesthetics to make beautiful spaces to be, that are healthy, more comfortable, add greater value and last longer.

Being green may be easier than you think!

See Your Kitchen Countertop Everywhere You Go?

2010-10-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

Do you get tired of seeing the same material used for kitchen countertops everywhere you go? Oh, it may be a different color or have a larger vein running through or even be the most unique of its type. It's still the same material.

Granite Quarry

Countertops used to be lengthy discussions with my clients when I am designing a kitchen. Most often, their first choice is for what they have seen everywhere, granite. I am sure this initial reaction is partly the result of a “social proof” characteristic that we humans have and why we follow trends such as this one.

Countertops are trendsetters. Why, even the type of kitchen countertop used in a home is becomes a selling feature and part of its description when selling a home. Imagine, a countertop determining a house sale. Does that strike you as odd?

After all, when you buy a house, is the countertop the indicator of how well, let’s say, the house is insulated, or what the R-value of the windows are, or how well it is built, for that matter.

I don't know about you, but I want to know a bit more about a house that I'm going to invest in and live in for some time than what kind of countertop it has.

These days, as the green revolution begins to take hold, I see more hesitation in my clients when we begin discussing countertops. This is a good thing.

To me, it means they are becoming aware of the many choices out there and more aware of environmental damage some choices may or may not cause.

Here are a few tips that might be helpful next time you’re looking for a countertop, or any surface covering for that matter.

Since granite is a trendsetter for many, let’s start there.

Granite and other natural stone is a quarried material. That means mountains are taken apart to get the stone. It is not renewable, and it is a finite resource. A lot of energy is used to transport it unless you find some that is quarried locally.

The mining of natural stone impacts the land and water quality. These stones are durable but do require sealant against staining.

Terrazzo is an aggregate of glass, stone chips, mirror, etc. Introduced by the Italians, it is a mix of leftovers, and makes beautiful surfaces, countertops and flooring alike. There are various amounts of recycled content in terrazzo but it can take lots of energy to transport it, so look for locally manufactured products. Terrazzo resists stains is durable and easy to clean.

Butcher block (wood) does not take much to process, but it’s important to look for FSC certification (Forest Stewardship Council) along with a Chain of Custody certification to make sure it has been managed correctly. Wood, managed correctly, is a renewable resource.

Sometimes butcher block is pieces of wood laminated together. Make sure there aren’t any added formaldehydes in the glue. For sealers and cleaners, look for products that are benign or are low in VOCs. Butcher block can be recycled.

Paper Composites are also a good choice. There are many brands available. This product is made from paper that is held together with a resin binder. It has a high content of recycled paper, is easy to clean, very durable (after all, skate board ramps were intially made from the stuff) and, it is renewable.

If you just have to have that granite, look for a salvaged piece and use it as a highlight or focal point in the room.

Want to find out more about how to green your home and lifestyle? Sign up now for DIY Greenstyle Tips.

Have questions or don’t know where to begin? Contact Me at EcoLivingDesign. Look forward to hearing from you!

Trees Are In The Neighborhood, Breathe Easy

2010-09-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

Trees not only look beautiful and inviting to any neighborhood, but they add so much value on so many levels, sustainable designers use the phrase coined by William McDonough design "Like A Tree” as a guideline when approaching their projects.

With trees in the neighborhood, you can breathe easy. Tree-lined streets are a visual testiment to the value they provide to a community, and that is just the beginning of the benefits trees provide to us.

We all agree that trees are beautiful to look at and provide tranquility. A view of trees from the hospital window helps us recover quicker from surgery. On hot days, we run for the wonderful shade and cover a tree provides.

Trees also improve the air around us, help conserve water, provide wildlife habitat. Because trees sequester, or breathe in so much of the carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen, loosing thousands of acres a year is actually contributing to global warming.

It is estimated that 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions worldwide is a result of deforestation. Global Change states “About one half of the forests that once covered the Earth are gone. Each year, another 16 million hectares disappear.”

The benefit of a tree’s work can be seen much closer to home. Let’s take a look trees, rain and runoff.

With the natural water cycle, rain, ice or snow falls, fills streams, rivers and lakes and then eventually flows back to the oceans. Here, evaporation occurs and water vapor rises into the clouds. Then the whole cycle repeats.

In an undisturbed environment, about 50% of that rainwater gets soaked into the ground. About 40% gets soaked up the plants, and the remaining 10% becomes stormwater runoff.

When we disturb the natural flow of the water cycle and watershedding process, by adding roads, houses, parking lots, sidewalks and driveways, the water doesn’t get soaked into the soil.

Instead, it is forced to evaporate or run off into our storm drains gathering chemicals, gasoline, salts and litter. This runoff is polluting to the waterways, our wetlands, our drinking water and is damaging to ecosystems.

The more these watersheds are disturbed, the more runoff there is. This means that less water gets to penetrate and soak into the soil.

In large cities and in commercial areas, the majority of water turns into runoff. Less than 1/3 of the water gets soaked into the ground after development compared to before development.

Treating this runoff in water treatments plants becomes expensive. Planting trees, however, can protect the water and help the ground soak of the water better.

Here’s the cool part. With the Arbor Day Foundation Tree Benefit Calculator designed by Davey Tree Expert Company and Casey Trees, this tool can give you a good estimation of the value and benefit you will receive or are receiving from planting a tree.

I ran the numbers for a coastal redwood sapling I picked up at the State Fair. Every year, I make sure to get one and after it spends 1-1/2 years planted in a pot on my porch, I transfer this graceful and fast growing tree to the great outdoors, behind my house, of course.

As I look over the back yard, I can see it growing rapidly although it still is a bit skinny.

With the Tree Benefit Calculator, I was able to see that this free sapling with its 1-inch diameter of a trunk has increased my property value by more than one hundred dollars.

This little coastal redwood will also intercept over 72 gallons of stormwater this year! It will conserve 4 kilowatts of electricity in energy use. Plus, my little darling of a tree is absorbing pollutants!

This skinny rascal sequestered or locked up in its roots, trunk, stems and leaves, almost 2 pounds of carbon dioxide and avoided almost 4 pounds of carbon dioxide.

While this redwood isn’t giving me much shade, at this point, I get a lot of satisfaction noticing its growth spurts. I feel the tranquility coming over me and I breathe deeply.

To find out how to capture the water in your yard and divert it to better uses, sign up for DIY Greenstyle Tips and slow down the runoff.

Green Interior Design And The Carbon Footprint

2010-09-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

As a green interior designer, considering the carbon footprint and health is part of the balance sheet when new projects arrive at my desk waiting to become beautiful spaces.

Concentrating on sustainable performance of the ingredients and the components that go into the interior spaces of an environment, you can gather knowledge along the way and begin developing a sustainable eco living lifestyle.

There are many reasons to learn more about turning your lifestyle into a sustainable, eco-living lifestyle. Making good decisions that impact the health, cost, efficiency and beauty of your work, home and play are just some of the reasons.

While there are many places to begin, a good place to start is to understand that there are life cycles that belong to products and materials. The beginning of these lifecycles are way before the product and material land on the retailer’s shelf ready for you to purchase.

Getting familiar with the life cycle of a product will help you make better choices and what better way to learn than from a master. Watch this video to learn more.

Green Interior Design What It Does

2010-07-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

Telling people that I do green interior design I often get a blank stare. More explanation is always required. Here's where I use my 30 second commercial.

Interior Design is easily understood, so I have to assume it is the 'green' that throws them off. It is the green part of what I do that addresses the indoor air quality referred to in the article below.

June 2010

The Missing Piece

Designs that sustain the Earth’s natural resources are no doubt significant, but there is one critical factor tied to green design that the A&D community simply can’t lose sight of: human health.

By Rachel R. Belew

It’s no secret that designing and constructing high-performing, energy-efficient, sustainable buildings and interior spaces is more important today than ever before. Green buildings lead to reduced environmental impact; healthy returns on investment for architects, designers, builders, owners, and product manufacturers; as well as substantial cost savings for end-users.

But in our haste to protect the planet, conserve natural resources, and promote clean outdoor air, one critical piece of the green building puzzle—and, arguably, the most important—is often overlooked: indoor air quality.

“The greatest irony of sustainable design and construction is that, often, the built environments we’re creating don’t sustain human health,” says Henning Bloech, executive director of the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI). “While sustaining Earth’s natural resources is critical, we can’t lose sight of the underlying goal: keeping people healthy.”

WHAT IS INDOOR AIR QUALITY?

Indoor air quality (IAQ) refers to the quality of air inside built environments as it relates to human health: The better the IAQ, the healthier the air that people breathe. Unfortunately, statistics consistently show that indoor air is two to five times more polluted than the air outside. Even worse, the air in newly constructed and/or renovated interior spaces can be up to 1,000 times more polluted than outdoor air. Why? Because many of the synthetic products and materials we use to design and build these spaces emit a cocktail of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other pollutants into the air—things like potential carcinogens, reproductive toxins, odorants, and other irritants, notes Bloech.

Not surprisingly, research has linked poor IAQ to a number of health risks, including asthma and other respiratory ailments; headaches; eyes, nose, and throat irritation; and even cancer. This, in turn, leads to decreased productivity, lower academic performance, and increased absenteeism.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

As architects and designers, you help shape and lead the green building and design industry. The built environments you help create and furnish today—whether they’re homes, schools, hospitals, community centers, or retail spaces—will have enormous health impacts on the people who occupy them tomorrow.

Paradoxically, some of the world’s “greenest” buildings—those that meet strict environmental criteria for energy efficiency, site selection, water conservation, and material selection—fail to account for the quality of indoor air.

“Sure, it’s a great thing when we create interior environments made from renewable resources,” says Bloech. “But, if the adhesives used to hold those renewable resources in place release toxic chemicals into the air, then the building we once thought was sustainable is actually doing more harm to its occupants than good—and that goes against everything green building and design stands for.”

To complicate matters, at the core of green building and design is energy efficiency: saving energy equals saving money equals saving the planet. Yet, the more airtight our built environments are, the more polluted the air inside them becomes (the chemicals that emit from indoor sources get trapped inside). “We may be harming our health without even realizing it,” adds Bloech.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW MAY HURT US

Four decades ago, you—the world’s leading architects, designers, builders, and manufacturers—helped make it possible to reduce human exposure to lead and asbestos in our built environments … even though these building materials were as commonplace (and as accepted) as hardwood flooring or carpeting. You acknowledged the harmful effects that these materials have on human health, and you acted. As a result, today, the levels of lead in children’s blood across every population are markedly lower.

More recently, you also helped cut back on industry use of formaldehyde, a chemical that emits from common building materials (like engineered wood products or insulation) and is known to cause cancer. Thanks to your actions, today, fewer people are exposed to this hazardous chemical.

But science has shown that more than 12,000 other chemicals emit from the products we use or encounter every day. Many of them are known carcinogens, irritants, or developmental and reproductive toxins. Others we know very little or nothing about. Experts warn that exposing ourselves to these unknown chemicals is like gambling with our health.

“Until we learn more about these compounds and their potential impact on human health, it would be prudent to limit our exposure to them as much as possible,” says Marilyn Black, founder of the GEI. “New chemicals are introduced into our environment every day. Do we really want to let ourselves and our children become research guinea pigs?”

HOW YOU CAN HELP TODAY

By doing your part to raise awareness about poor IAQ and its health impacts, you can help gain the political, economic, and social momentum needed to make doing your jobs easier and more cost-effective. You can help ensure strong returns on investment, healthy profits, and increased consumer demand. And you can help transform neighborhoods, communities, cities, nations, and human lives.

“Economic growth, political viability, and social progress all share a common thread: human health,” adds Black. “Once we recognize that human health is the cornerstone of green building and design, we can effect real, positive change on the world.”

The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) is an industry-independent, not-for-profit organization that oversees the GREENGUARD Certification programs. As an ANSI-Accredited Standards Developer, GEI establishes acceptable product standards for building materials, interior furnishings, cleaners, electronics, and children’s products. Learn more at www.greenguard.org.

Want to learn more about improving indoor air quality in your home or office? Click here to find out how and raise your I.Q. consumer buying level.

Energy Saving Tips That Will Put Money In Your Pocket

2010-06-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

The most effective and efficient way to save energy for your home is also the most effective way to reduce your energy costs and put money in your pocket. Making the house as efficient as possible is the most effective way to cut energy costs.

Because homes account for more than 20% of all the energy consumption in the United States, saving energy becomes a priority. Here are some energy saving tips that will put you on track to saving energy and money.

How do you do that? If you’re building a new home, start by looking at the size of the home because the simple truth is the larger the home, the more energy it uses.

What if you’re not building a new home and you want to cut your energy consumption and therefore, your energy costs. Here are a few strategies you may want to consider in your next remodeling project.

A good place to start is to look at insulating your home properly because heating and cooling rooms in your home consume 44% of all the energy used in the home. By insulating existing walls of your home, you can reduce that high energy use.

What does insulation do?

Insulation slows the heat flow into and out of your house. It reduces the heat loss and stops air from infiltrating. Insulating your existing walls can reduce your energy bill from 10 to 30%. The U.S. Department of Energy provides a formula you can use to find out just how cost effective insulating your home can be.

There are many types of insulation to choose from because different insulation materials not only slow the heat loss at different rates but they also do different things. It can be a bit confusing. Here’s something to remember. The higher the “R” value of an insulation material, the better it is at slowing the heat loss.

How do you know what “R” value you need? First, take into consideration the type of climate you live in. Green builders almost always insulate well beyond what is minimum requirement particularly if building a Passivhaus where energy savings start by using an “R” value of 60 is used everywhere, including under the slab.

Other Things to Consider

There are many factors that determine which insulation material to use. Cost is always a consideration along with ease of application, moisture resistance, meeting project requirements and environmental impact of the product.

In considering the environmental impact of a product, we want to look at the manufacturing process, how the product is disposed, what it is made of and if it has any effect on indoor air quality.

No matter what the determining factor may be in choosing which insulation to use, bad and sloppy installation will cause problems and can reduce its effectiveness significantly.

Now that you have captured an impressive 10%-30% energy savings on your energy bill, it’s time to turn up the volume on that warm and cozy and add some fun and excitement.

Carve out your own personal space in rooms that are jaw-dropping, vivacious, serene and beautiful expressions of YOU. Our tips and tools can show you how. Click here to discover how a few simple changes can inspire your life.

Bicycles And Future Cities

2010-06-02T14:34:00.000-07:00

When you imagine a future city, do you think of a historic machine like the bicycle? Perhaps not, but others have. In fact, Bicycle City, the first of its kind in North America is in the planning stages and to be located in South Carolina.

Imagine that! A city without roads! Without roads for cars, that is. Bicycles are shaping the way we transport ourselves into the future of cities without cars. Of course, the 140 acres of Bicycle City will have green homes to go along with it.

It is no surprise that Germany has already built a bicycle city where over 5,000 residents currently live mostly without cars and that is a tram’s ride away from the town, Freiburg. The cars that are used are parked on the outskirts of town which are, you guessed it, biked to.

The inspiration for such a project comes from none other than golf. Communities are built up around the golf so why no around cleaner air, less noise, less pollution, doubling up on activities like getting exercise while going to shop?

None other than the bicycle fits that bill.

Of course, tons of questions start to pop into mind. One of the first questions that I had was how would you get food into the city. For the South Carolina site, rail and water will be the transportation modes used to haul all the goods that we use and rely on for daily life.

As I rushed to tell my friend about this concept, more questions came up. What if you have a family to transport around, or what if the weather doesn’t cooperate with your plans?

Being a problem solver, my friend and I came up with lots of ideas to answer these questions. After some thoughtful discussions, we realized that these concerns were opportunities for fun and creativity and maybe even a spark for that entrepreneurial spirit.

Now, what about all that pedaling? That may sound like torture to some and exhilarating to others. At some point or another, we have all wished to get to that easy-breezy status. It’s just the in between parts that seem bring our good intentions to a crashing halt.

The key is to start. After a couple of weeks, your aerobic capacity will build, and you’ll be able to do things you never thought you could. Soon, says expert bike riders, you won’t look back.

Nobody really knows when the bicycle was invented. One school of thought embraces the 1860s as the first bicycle invention by a guy named Ernest Michaux. Others refer to Baron Karl Drais von Sauerbroon as being the first to design a bike-like machine around 1818.

Regardless of the exact date, bicycles and the various models have always been a fascination and a fashion statement, from nostalgic to a throw down that has no chance of getting stolen.

To take a look at the history of bicycle models, click here. Which one do you like best? Leave your comment.

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Energy Efficient Homes From The Ground Up To Get To Zero

2010-05-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

Building a home From The Ground Up is a term associated with a Passivhause or Passive House type of construction whose certification standard is actually measured on the building's performance. The goal is to get as close to zero energy use as possible.

From the ground up, a Passivhaus is evaluated totally on its performance that must meet air tight standards for energy efficiency. Of course, you can add other sustainable components to the mix to arrive at a home that I would love to live in. I bet you would, too!

But what all of this means is that, you can build a home in such a way that you don’t need a HVAC system or not much of one. Add a few solar panels, and you have a net zero energy use. Not bad for making sure all the holes are filled.

To achieve this high performance in a house is remarkable and fascinating. Particularly when you consider that the typical new construction standard of today means you may be shoveling snow out of your attic. Not much of a standard there.

In a television reality show, I saw a couple having to do just that. Can you imagine? A new home and you are shoveling snow out of your attic? Hard to believe, isn’t it.

Passivhaus has been around for a couple of decades and is about 20,000 buildings strong in Europe. This building standard is catching on in the United States, and California stepped into the fold.

Here’s a cool video to watch on Passive House design model making:

This building standard is referred often called ‘from the ground up’ because every nook and cranny is considered so that there is no where for air or moisture, for that matter, to get in. Passivhaus has a rigid standard that the home must meet to be certified.

In the past, the square footage and size of a home was very relevant to meeting the air tightness performance test. Today, however, buildings such as schools, multifamily housing and university buildings being built to Passivhaus standards.

Passivhaus concentrates on total energy use including heating water and lighting. The true Passivhaus certification standard seems to be tough to meet for the United States even though the standard has been used in Austria and other places in Europe for over 20 years.

Because the United States has not, until recently, focused enough attention on carbon footprint and energy use, we seem to be behind the curve in developing the materials needed for this type of construction.

I am captivated by this construction standard, as I hope this article will inspire you to be. Many others have been hooked by Passihaus and manufacturers are beginning to notice. So, while the high performance products (windows, in particular) are beginning to hit the market, there are other concerns.

Other concerns like climate differences and retrofitting existing houses make it difficult for places like the United States and Canada to meet the certification standards of Passivhaus.

Those concerns are a good thing because it is becoming a conversation that will, I’m sure, develop into an even better solution. How can we meet zero energy use standards without spending a lot of money, accommodate varying climates and be able to retrofit houses that don’t all face the sun. Any ideas?

Interested in seeing what constructgion From The Ground Up looks like? Click here to watch some videos. At Eco Living Design, we pride ourselves on helping you raise your consumer I.Q. so you can arrive at your most brilliant solutions without pollution.

Photo Information: The Stanton House in Urbana, Illinois, built in 2008, has 2,200 ft2 of floor space (as calculated in PHPP), R-64 walls, R-87 roof, R-51 sub-slab insulation, and triple-glazed windows rated at U-0.17 (0.96 W/m2K) as shown on http://www.buildinggreen.com/

Chemicals And Consumers Recycling Earth Day Memories

2010-04-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

An Earth Day documentary caused me to recycle my earth day memories 40 years ago, which turned out to be about chemicals and consumers.

We have forgotten some of what it was like back then. For those who weren’t around or who weren’t aware, here’s a picture to imagine.

Get a hose about fire hose size and turn it on. It takes a couple of people to hold the hose and direct it so maybe a few colleagues can help. This hose is for a mega size job because the spray produces opaque clouds about 4’ to 6’ high.

You are on a mission to get every nook and crannie, so make rather large circles with the hose and get this opaque cloud of chemicals everywhere. I’m not sure what exactly was the target. Perhaps it was some pesky invisible flying thingies.

But wait, there’s more. You’re out doing your job just about the time a bunch of school kids are eating lunch. It’s a nice day, so they’re outside eating on picnic tables. You’re out there, too, with your huge hose swinging it around trying to get every little creature that may ever be a bother.

Even though it’s pesky creatures that you’re after, the kids are there. That doesn’t stop you, oh no. The chemical companies that have created this toxic brew probably haven’t tested in on humans, but no worry. No one seems to have fallen over dead from a spray yet.

So spray on. Spray over and around the kids.

As you move to the swimming pool, do the same thing. Oh, there are people swimming in that pool. No worries. No one seems to have fallen over dead from a spray yet. So spray right on and over them because it’s those pesky little rascals you’re after.

Finally, when the bald eagle was down to its last dying breath, someone decided to do something about it.

Unless you are able to remember back to those scenes, Earth Day may have seemed like some cause that some weird radical decided to put together to start a revolution or something like that.

Or, maybe we were so wrapped up in getting and having ‘stuff’ and it being as convenient as it could possibly be that we didn’t even notice. Why I had conveniently forgotten some of those things myself. Maybe that’s a good thing.

I do remember having to step into a foot bath on our way out to the pool. Whatever was in that footbath it was strong enough to kill something by merely stepping into it and stepping out as you walked toward the pool. Transdermal wasn’t as common a word as it is now.

Earth Day really is about how we share the earth we live on and in celebration, here are some facts I’ve turned up from The Green Guide, The Footprint Network, The Mayo Clinic and the Earth Day site.

If everyone lived like us Americans, we would need 5, count them, five planets to accommodate us.

It takes 1,799 gallons of water to bring 1 pound of beef to our table where it takes 468 gallons for 1 pound of chicken.

It takes 2,900 gallons to produce 1 pair of blue jeans.

2.5% of the earth’s water is fresh water, and with most of that frozen. So, we’re left with 1% to divvy up between agriculture, industry, energy generation and drinking water. Guess which takes the most.

The average American uses about 100 gallons a day, more than 15 times the water used in developing countries.

Consuming 8 cups of water a day, generally replaces the water that you have lost via sweating, breathing and other through regular (hopefully) body functions.

The Institute of Medicine advises that men drink about 13 cups of water a day and women should drink about 9 cups of water a day.

Plastic bottles labeled #4, #2 and #5 are found to not transmit harmful chemicals into your food and drink.

Here’s a great video that talks about bottled water, another curious phenomena. This video will shine a light and provide an insight that isn’t usually discussed explaining some reasons for the addiction to drinking water from plastic bottles.

Not everything you put in your recycle can to be picked up by the city is recycled.

Plastic can be made from some plants like potatoes, corn and sugar cane through a process that creates PLA (polylactic acid) polymers.

Thirst is not a measure of how much water to drink. When you are thirsty, you are already somewhere around 2-3% dehydrated. Drinking water should be done throughout the day whether or not you’re thirsty.

Earth Day will soon be 40 years old, While it’s fun to celebrate Earth Day, shouldn’t Earth Day everyday?

So, did you ever wonder why it takes so much water to make a pair of jeans? Click here to find out why. Want to increase your consumer I.Q. and learn how to arrive at your most brilliant solution without pollution.

Drinking Water Aging Delivery Systems

2010-04-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

Drinking water delivery systems have been quietly aging and go totally unnoticed until one bursts. Then we take note of the water gushing geysers into the air as we pass by, and even then we don’t give it much thought.

Some of these drinking water, or tap water, delivery systems are as old as the light bulb! Hard to imagine. But that’s nothing. There are some drinking or tap water delivery systems as old as the Civil War! Now, that’s somethin’.

Today, the water and sewer pipes are so old and have ignored by all of us for so long, they are rupturing, causing damage to property and compromising our drinking water.

We’re used to paying pretty small price to get water to our homes. We certainly expect water to come out of the tap when we turn it on.

We also want our water to be clean and be able to provide safe drinking water.

Here’s something I often think about as I watch people tending to their lawns. Does drinking water come to mind as a weed, who dares to poke its head between the blades, gets annihilated with one quick spritz from the hose in one hand and the container in the other?

But I digress.

Because drinking water sustains us and it seems the time has come that we are going to have to pay attention to the way it is delivered to us.

At Eco Living Greenstyle, we have been following a series of Toxic Waters by New York Times. You can read more about the age of our delivery systems for drinking and tap water and what it is going to cost to upgrade from 1861 to 2010.

Stopping weeds from invading our lawns isn't the only way we pollute our drinking water. Textiles that we use in our home and fabric we drape our bodies in carry a hefty price tag on our drinking water. Click here to find out more about which fabrics are better for our health.

Eco Friendly Shopping The True Color Of Bamboo Fabric

2010-03-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

Being eco friendly is the trend and when we do our eco friendly shopping, bamboo fabric seems like a good place to start, or is it? Is shopping for bamboo fabric truly eco friendly?

We must look beyond the eco friendly trend to tell the true color of bamboo fabric.

Why bamboo? Well, perhaps, we are aware of cotton’s nasty growing process, not to mention the yuk that is put into the production process. If you’re not aware about cotton, you can check out the Fiber Series to learn more.

And, we surely are aware of the concerns about hemp even if they are ill conceived.

Bamboo’s growing process, on the other hand, is about as sustainable as you can get.

Bamboo, being one of the fastest growing grasses there is. It needs no help in that department. While it’s growing at a couple of feet a day, it absorbs 5 times the greenhouse gasses as a stand of timber and releases 35% more oxygen into the air.

Of course, bamboo needs to pesticides or fertilizers or water, for that matter. In fact, bamboo’s root system holds water in and acts like a shield against soil erosion. This works really great on the banks of rivers by holding back the soil and preventing soil from silting up and polluting the water.

Bamboo has some wonderful qualities as a fabric, too, that is, once it becomes a fabric. Getting it to that state of existence is a whole other story, but we go forward.

A purchase is made, we’re excited about our new buy, and our conscious is clear. We’ve just saved a whale or something like that.

What we have missed is the typical ways of manufacturing bamboo fabric. These chemical manufacturing processes cause considerable ecological damage. Turning the stock of bamboo into a fabric is where water is polluted, air is fouled and our health is compromised.

It’s here that our desire to be part of the eco friendly trend is strong. Whether or not we have a conviction about the necessity for a better life on a surviving planet, we flock to being a greenie and look for the eco friendly tag.

This is why we need to look closer.

Most commonly, a chemical method is used to manufacture bamboo fabric. It’s done by taking the cellulose fiber of bamboo and turning it into a rayon-like fabric. Because of its similarities to how rayon is manufactured from wood, bamboo manufactured this way is called bamboo rayon.

The hydrolysis alkalization process involves cooking the bamboo in strong chemical solvents (sodium hydroxide NaOH, aka caustic soda or lye) and carbon disulfide. Then bleaching the bamboo is often included to get a whiter fabric and thus adds more chemicals to the process.

Similarly, low levels of sodium hydroxide can cause irritation to the skin and to the eyes. The NaOH is a strong alkaline base. You’ll find this ingredient in Drano.

I’m going to go out on the limb here, but I’m going to say that wrapping up in residues of Drano isn’t something we stand in line for, is it?

Recently, the FTC go in on the act and said that if a fabric looks like rayon, acts like rayon and is processed like rayon, then it is rayon. Calling it bamboo is misleading says the FTC, and it has been issuing warnings to about 78 retailers to stop labeling products as being bamboo.

Don’t get discouraged and take an even closer look.

Because the qualities of bamboo fabric are so appealing, some manufacturers have taken up the gauntlet to find another way to turn this tall, woody stock into a silk-like fabric that is easier to care for and easier on the pocketbook, too.

This video will show you what to look for and what questions to ask.

Now, give yourself a hand for greening your lifestyle. This time when you shop, the bells and whistles you will be looking for will be about health, clean air and clean water. Now, that’s something to wrapped up in.

A Look Beyond The Price Tag For Fabrics For Your Home

2010-03-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

Take a look beyond the price tag that you spend for the fabrics for your home and you'll see some surprising things. It might even make you mad. Rather than getting mad, get informed and have the information you need when choosing fabrics for your home.

Taking a look beyond the price tag of the very popular polymer, polyester, that's in all our lives, may prod you into making some lifestyle changes that will protect your health, the health of your family and that of the planet.

Polyester is very cheap to produce but not cheap for your health or the health of the planet.   There are many types of polyester. The one used to make polyeser textiles, and oddly enough used to make plastic bottles too, is PET or polyethylene terephthalate.

The production of PET requires lots and lots of oil, along with a heavy metal, antimony. Antimony is an abundant metal found in the earth’s crust. Antimony trioxide is used a lot for its flame retardant properties. It’s also used as a catalyst in the production process of PET.

Antimony is toxic and has carcinogenic risks associated with it. Even at low levels, as found in drinking water, antimony is suspected of causing endocrine disruption. Not too long ago, it’s been established that PET leaches from plastic bottles, too. Drink anyone?

When it is used in the polyester production, antimony does get becomes locked to the polymer and in this locked state, doesn’t present a problem to living things, like ourselves.

The problem comes in the dying process. The high temperatures required for the dying process allow antimony to be released and leaches into the wastewater.

Cleaning up the wastewater takes another technology which isn’t always affordable or just plain ignored. Even if clean up is done, the remainder is a toxic sludge which now has to be dealt with. The sludge gets incinerated, creating plumes of toxic air or put into landfill.

It never seems to end.

There are a few points to clear up. Most of the many million barrels of oil used to create polyester is used for the textile, not for making the plastic bottles.

Also, polyester is sometimes thought of being ‘green’ because it can be recycled…but can it?

Polyester production is very energy intensive thus producing greenhouse gases. Recycling polyester requires more energy and adds to the emission of more greenhouse gases.

The toxins in the polyester production process don’t just disappear after a product is made.   When polyester is recycled, antimony trioxide is released into the air, adding to the greenhouse gases.

Polyester can only be recycled only so many times before it looses its value, and although it postpones an early end in the landfill, it eventually ends up there. While this is helpful, for sure, we really want a better way with a cradle to cradle goal for products.

With only 30% of plastic bottles being recycled of more than 40 billion produced each year, the other 70% goes directly into landfill. There are difficulties within recycling process of PET, as well.

There are alternatives, believe it or not, and it’s a good thing, too. After all, no one wants these toxins in their environment or drinking water. We certainly don’t want to sit on toxic fabrics or have them on our backs either.

There are companies that will take back your worn polyester clothing to recycle and churn into new products, and there are newer products that begin by being eco friendly in their production. They have the added advantage of being able to be recycled indefinitely. Very cool.

Learn more about greening your home, particularly where you lay your head down to rest. In the meantime, when you launder polyester, switch from hot water to cold and line dry.

P.S. Here are just a few names you may recognize, but did you know they were PET products? Now you do.   Dacron, Tergal, Trevira, Mylar

Blue Planet Run: The Race to Provide Safe Drinking Water to the World

Earth Friendly Cleaners That Multitask

2010-02-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

by Donnalynn Polito

It’s hard to accept, I know, but earth friendly cleaners can multitask better than us mere mortals. In fact, we may well be impairing our brain by multitasking. Eventually, our multitasking efforts slow us down and getting us a big fat zero in performance tests.

Earth friendly cleaners, on the other hand, are great multitaskers. They clean, smell good, are non-toxic, biodegrade easily, and require no gloves or head gear whether they’re used as stand alone products or blended. With just a few basic ingredients, you can create your own earth friendly cleaners.

Just think what you can save if you try your hand at this. You don’t have to hop into your car, producing carbon dioxide, to run down to the store, taking precious minutes away from your day. Darn, you forgot your sunglasses!

At the store, you check out the labels which you really don’t know what you’re looking at, chose one that’s in a plastic bottle, a bottle which is hard to create and even harder to recycle and then, dash home.

Once home, you read the instructions and put on the gloves. It may be time for the gasmasks.Because we clean our floors with one kind of cleaner, our countertops with another and our upholstery and covers with yet another, we don’t even realize the toxic soup we have created.

Maybe this is just habit, or maybe you haven’t tried other options because you don’t know where to start.

It may seem that making your home green is an overwhelming, expensive redo. That doesn’t have to be.

Because we can start with some easy and very effective that works toward detoxing our homes, we can also work toward creating our much desired eco living green lifestyles. Limiting our exposure to toxic chemicals can start with our household cleaning products.

Don’t dismay. You have more choices than you think. You can choose green cleaners that work with enzymes, and you can also try cleaning solutions that are much closer at hand.

Have goo on your upholstery from all those meals on the sofa while watching the Olympics? What about crumbs and sticky on your bedding from wonderful breakfasts in bed? No worries.

10 Ways to Look Under the Covers is a free PDF that’s chock full of information and it’s just a click away. You don’t even have to get into your car!

Did I mention lemon juice, borax, cola that has gone flat, salt, club soda? Or what about almond oil, baby oil, beaten egg whites, crushed walnuts, cream of tartar, toothpaste, flour?

I know, you’re still a bit skeptical. It’s hard to imagine these items working as well as the traditional methods we all know and have grown up with.

Traditional dry cleaning products may work, but they also may contain perchloroethylene, naphthalene, ethanol, ammonia and detergents. Overexposure to these chemicals can lead to brain and central nervous system damage, behavior problems, asthma, cancer and more.

In 10 Ways to Look Under the Covers, you’ll learn that while some cleaners have switched to a so-called ‘green’ cleaning process. Here is what you need to watch out for: avoid hydrocarbon, greenearth and solvair CO2 cleaning methods. Although they are better than using perc, they still contain toxic solvents. Get your copy now!

Save Water With Natural Fiber Fabrics For Home Furnishings

2010-02-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

Saving water by choosing natural fiber fabrics may not be at the top of your list when fabric shopping for your home furnishings, but it can be. Natural fibers like hemp require virtually no water and produce beautiful fabrics.

Hemp is one of those natural fibers that can be made into beautiful home furnishings and beautiful clothing, as well. Hemp is strong and soft. With clothing, the more you wash hemp, the softer it becomes.

Of course, you couldn’t stick your sofa in the washer, but you can find easy tips to cleaning natural fiber fabrics by signing up for our DIY Newsletter.

Hemp is often blended with other fibers for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is that hemp helps keep items from stretching and losing shape.

It absorbs moisture and has moisture transfer properties that make it an ideal fabric for hot weather climates. Hemp is also UV, mold and rot resistant.

With all these wonderful qualities, hemp becomes an even better choice for our home furnishing fabric when we look at its growing requirements.

Hemp requires very little to grow. Hemp is a ‘bast’ fiber which means it comes from the bark of the plant. Bast fibers are very hardy. It requires little to no pesticides and no herbicides.

Cotton, on the other hand, requires tons of pesticides and chemicals to protect itself from pests throughout its production process. Cotton also uses an enormous amount of water to grow.

Check our my video “Eco Living Textiles” to learn more about cotton.

Hemp starts from seed and produces a dense crop with a canopy that keeps moisture in and weeds out. It provides fertile ground for a diverse population of animals, insects and other micro-organisms.

Hemp’s root system is deep preventing soil erosion. The skin of the hemp plant is insect resistant. Hemp is often used as a rotational crop.

Hemp has been grown for over 12,000 years. It’s used in textiles, wood fibers, for paper, biodegradable plastics, construction, fuel and health food products.

Hemp can produce 4 times per acre what an average forest can yield. Using hemp in place of some wood products can help save forests, wildlife habitats and increase carbon sequestration.

Because of the long fibers in hemp, its paper products can be recycled several times over and more than wood based paper. Hemp is the fastest growing biomass known.

As a health food, hemp oil is the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids and essential amino acids.

Hemp often gets confused with marijuana and is not allowed to be grown in the United States. Other countries, however, are moving forward and have successfully introduced hemp farming, creating a multi-billion dollar industry.

Just to keep things clear, hemp comes from the same species as marijuana, but hemp contains virtually no THC, the stuff that makes poco loco in marijuana. Hemp cannot be used as a drug.

Need some questions answered about choosing the right fabric for your next home improvement project? Creating your eco living lifestyle is easier than you think.

Why That Cheap Fabric Ain't So Cheap

2010-01-27T12:37:00.001-08:00

by Donnalynn Polito

Looking for a cheap fabric that will bring the final touches to your living room? What about a cheap fabric for that dress you’ve been dying to make? Maybe you’re just looking for a particular fabric that’s beautiful and that you know you can find for a cheaper price than what your designer is trying to sell it to you for.

We devour bargains of all sorts, and looking for a cheap fabric isn’t any different. In fact, we devour cheap fabrics because of their pricing and are often willing to sacrifice some quality to save some money. When it wears out, guess what, we can go out and get another one!

It’s no surprise that the demand for cheap fabric is huge. This demand, of course, fuels an abundant supply of cheap fabric. Sort of a whatever-Lola wants-Lola-gets routine (an old but memorable song).

The demand for cotton falls into one of the biggest demand and supply categories. Cotton has many desirable characteristics. Among many of its characteristics, it is versatile, stable, naturally comfortable and cheap.

We’re not dummies. We all recognize that cheap comes with a hidden cost, but do we really, really know just how steep that cost is? Really?

You can guess at some of it. For one, just like we devour bargains, boll weevils devour cotton crops. So, yes pesticides will be among the first costs we have to factor in.

Are you ready to factor in another 149 chemicals? A lack of information has a huge cost. This video will bring you and Lola up to date. Take a look.

Want to get some great tips on how you can have that beautiful look at a good price and that keeps you and your family in that marvelous eco living lifestyle you have become accustomed to?

Global Warming Effects On The Wallet

2010-01-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

by Donnalynn Polito
photo by Olaf Otto Becker

One of the most expensive effects of global warming can be the rising of sea levels as we work to defend ourselves against the rising sea.

According to glaciologists, there is growing evidence that the melting of glaciers is speeding up. With 90% of glaciers retreating and thinning, the world’s ice is melting at an alarming rate. Some glaciers are gone completely.

As glaciers melt, river flow increases, but that’s only a temporary situation. When the glaciers are gone altogether, there will be no flow into the rivers. We will then have to rely totally on rain to sustain the rivers, an iffy possibility at best.

In Greenland, the ice is melting at a rate of 250 billion tons a year and Antarctica isn’t far behind. This melting ice along with warmer ocean waters from climate change is making sea levels rise.

A photographer who has spent many years in Greenland taking beautiful photos of the landscape took a photo of a glacier in 1999 for his book, Under the Nordic Light. When he returned 3 years later, the glacier was gone.

More recent photographs by Olaf Otto Becker show the changing landscapes of Greenland.

The pockmarked snow in Becker’s photos are dark from an airstream of dust as far away as China. As the dust and ice mix, they gradually become tracks, holes, then rivers, lakes and deep glacial holes that can go hundreds of feet down called moulins.

Becker's trips to Greenland and the startling photographic history he has compiled had recently been brought to the attention of the Copenhagen summit.

Olaf Otto Becker has three books published that describe his journeys into the far reaching lands of Greenland and show a dazzling but disturbing photographic history of glaciers melting.

The names of these books are “Under The Nordic Light”, “Broken Light”, and “Above Zero”, Becker’s most recent. A convenient Amazon link to your left is where you can easily preview and purchase any of these books.

Share your experience on our newly added Guest Book. We’d love to hear from you!

Water Pollution Of A River And The Clean Up 33 Years Later

2009-12-28T16:52:00.001-08:00

by Donnalynn Polito

In checking out the news today, I saw that the Ottawa River in Ohio is finally being cleaned up of its pollution. What, I wondered, was in the Ottawa River that made its waters polluted and why now to clean it up. A further read into the article produced some toxic chemical names that we all have heard of before.

Polychlorinated biphenyls or PCPs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, called PAHs; and heavy metals.

What struck me was that PCPs were outlawed in 1976. Isn’t the year 2009? You mean to tell me it has taken 33 years before this chemical is getting cleaned up from a river in Ohio?

In Toledo, Ohio, the Ottawa River will have 260,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment removed in an effort to reduce the impacts on human health and the environment.

And where does all the 260,000 cubic yards of contamination go? To the landfill where, I suspect, it can seep for another 30-some years. Well, funny you should mention it.

The article goes on to state that about 5% of the contaminated sediment is too dangerous to put into landfill, so it will go to specialized licensed landfills.

While the city and its representatives are really happy about this step forward, it took the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s lawsuit against the City of Toledo and 13 businesses before any action was taken.

So what are these chemicals and how do they get into the water?

Let’s start with polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. PCBs were widely used in many industrial applications. They were used as coolants, as the oil in transformers, as plasticizers in paint and cement, in flame retardants, lubricating oils, sealants such as caulking in schools and commercial buildings, adhesives in floor finishes, on and on.   It seems like PCBs were used everywhere.

PCBs are fairly inert chemically and are very stable compounds. They do not degrade very easily. Their toxicity, however, was recognized as early as 1937. It took until the 1970s for PCBs to be outlawed.

Because they were used in so many applications and because they do not degrade very easily, PCBs still remain in the environment and are a concern to everyone.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs are one of the most widespread organic pollutants. PAHs are found in fossil fuels and tar deposits. They are also produced as byproducts to burning fuel as hydrocarbon emissions.

Because of their molecular structure, different types of combustion produce different types of pollutants or mixtures of PAHs.   PAHs are produced by the incomplete combustion of carbon contained in fuels like wood, coal, diesel, fat, tobacco or incense. So, coal burning would produce a different type of PAH from a motor fuel combustion.

Heavy metals are anybody’s guess and the term is often called meaningless or misleading since a large variation of heavy metals exist in the environment and some are actually required for human health.   As trace elements, humans need heavy metals for our metabolic systems.

Our concern is with the heavy metals that don’t have any benefit to the environment. In fact, over time, the accumulation of these heavy metals become toxic and can cause considerable damage to living organisms.

The pollution from heavy metals can come from many sources. A common source is the smelting of copper, the preparation of nuclear fuels, electroplating, and the mining and refining of metals.

Heavy metals accumulate over time, lay dormant and do not decay. This makes clean up particularly difficult and worrisome.

Lakes Don’t Do Much Better and Are In Poor Health

In our natural and man-made lakes, we have similar issues. Mercury in game fish is still an issue as well as PCBs which are also found in lakes.

Nitrogen and phosphorous are found at high levels in many lakes. Excess amounts of these elements produce algae blooms, weed growth, reduce water clarity and make other lake problems.

As survey work continues to be done, we can evaluate the progress we are making in cleaning up our waters and restoring the quality of our lakes and waters.

Cleaning products are a source of significant amounts of phosphorous in our water. Alternative cleaners are safe and effective. Why use less phosphorus-containing compound cleaning systems when you don’t need it at all?

Find out why wowgreen cleaning products are like no other cleaning product. They are safe for you, your family, your pets and the water!

Safe Drinking Water Facts Reveal Contamination

2009-12-22T15:48:00.000-08:00

by Donnalynn Polito

“A glass of safe drinking water, please” in response to the waiter, hardly! Do you mutter to yourself on a hot, dry day, ‘ah, at last, a glass of safe drinking water to quench my thirst’. I doubt it.

Or, as a visiting guest at someone’s home, when they offer you a glass of water, do you think, ‘hmmm, is this drinking water safe for me to drink?’

Knowing that our water systems are regulated, we gulp down what comes before us with hardly a thought about its performance in and to our bodies. We believe our drinking water to be safe drinking water.

On closer look, recent research has revealed our safe drinking water is contaminated. In fact, after millions of tests by water utilities, 315 pollutants have been identified to be in our tap water.

Recent studies have shown that an estimated 64 million Americans are exposed to and drink contaminated tap water. To find out more about what’s in your drinking water, sign up for our DYI Greenstyle Tips.

“Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates.” That Tap Water is Legal but May Be Unhealthy by Charles Duhigg, New York Times, published December 16, 2009.

EcolivingGreenstyle has been following Charles Duhigg’s series on Toxic Waters. You can watch his video on Tainted Tap Water here.

Federal regulations are outdated and do not keep up with the thousands of chemicals added each year to our world and ultimately to our water supply.

Perhaps some hesitation now comes over you before you gulp down that glass of water whether it comes from the tap or from bottled water.

Purifying your water at home is a start. Seeing that some of these pollutants don’t reach the water is another step that you can take. Non toxic household cleaning products is an easy place to start.

Enzyme Green Cleaning Products

2009-12-15T11:15:00.000-08:00

by Donnalynn Polito

Enzymes have changed cleaning products both in how they work in our homes and how they work in the environment. Enzymes have made our cleaning products green.

Using enzymes in our cleaning products bring a lot of benefit because they eliminate the need for chemicals to do the job. Enzymes are non-toxic to us and the world around us and have the potential of reducing tons of carbon dioxide that’s pouring into our atmosphere.

So what are these enzymes that do so much of the heavy lifting to green our world?

Often I hear people ask if enzymes and green cleaning products do the cleaning job that we’re accustomed to and looking for. The answer is a resounding Yes!

In this article, I am going to give a simplified explanation of enzymes, what they are, how they work and their role in greening our household cleaning products.

Why Think Enzymes For Green Cleaning?

Enzymes were brought on board for household cleaning products because they break down the large stuff, like soil and stains, which are insoluble and turn them into smaller water soluble pieces of soil and stains. This breakdown allows the actual mechanics of the cleaning action to then wisk away the dirt.

Also, enzymes don’t stop working. In other words, they continue to work, stain after stain. Because they continue working, a small amount of enzymes can do the job of a much large amount of chemicals.

Enzymes don’t require a high temperature to begin their action, like lots detergents do. Recently, chemical detergents have been reformulated to work in cold water, but they still contain other toxins that we need to watch out for.

There are about four enzymes used in household cleaning products and each enzymes works on a specific task. Some household cleaning products only contain one or two enzymes. Others have figured out a way to combine more enzymes that produces a product completely non-toxic. A product you could eat, not that you’d want to.

And, of course, enzymes are fully biodegradable, which we all love and are grateful for.

Enzymes Speed It Up And Break It Down

Enzymes are proteins that speed up biological reactions and break down molecules to smaller, molecules that are easier to handle within a system. Just like our digestive systems, enzymes are responsible for breaking down the foods we eat which then get wisked away into our bloodstream.

Enzymes are found in all living organisms and are responsible for many of the biological reactions that happen within these organisms. Enzymes are made up of amino acids which are necessary for all metabolic processes or chemical reactions.

Because enzymes speed up chemical reactions, they are called biological catalysts. In order to manufacture products that contain the enzymes, a fermentation process is used. This fermentation process multiplies and harvests these biological catalysts which can then be used in a variety of industrial products, including our household cleaning products.

With cleaning products, enzymes break down the larger components or molecules into smaller ones which then get wisked away by the mechanical washing action.

The really cool thing about enzymes is that they speed up the metabolic process but do not get used up in the process. So, they go from stain to stain doing their work.

Enzymes used in household cleaning products include the following. Proteases work on soils and stains that contain proteins. An example would be grass and blood. The proteases enzymes work to breakdown long-chain proteins into smaller-chain proteins which are then washed away.

Stains from sauces, ice cream and gravies are broken down by the Amylases enzyme that removes starch-based soils. Again these enzymes breakdown larger molecules into smaller ones to be wisked away in the cleaning process.

The Lipases enzyme removes oil and grease, while the Cellulases enzyme provides general cleaning benefits like whitening and softening the fabric.

Putting Enzymes To Work For Us

Because the work of enzymes can be done in lower water temperatures than traditional chemicals, less water and energy is used in the cleaning process. Using less energy always cascades to less environmental pollution.

Enzymes are very cost effective. Enzymes can be used over and over, so more work can be done using less product.

Enzymes have a high efficiency rate because they replace the larger amounts of chemicals required in traditional cleaning products for the same amount of clean.

Enzymes are beneficial to the surfaces they are cleaning. They aren’t as abrasive so they don’t destroy the fabric.

Enzymes are fully biodegradable and save large amounts of raw materials. Enzymes also save energy and water because shorter washing cycles are required.

Enzymes work faster because they cause natural reactions to occur faster.

We can see why enzymes increase the performance of our household clean products and why it’s not only beneficial to the planet and frees our world of toxins, enzyme based products make our workload easier and saves us time, something we all are in need of.

Elbow Grease And Toxins

2009-11-11T11:31:00.000-08:00

What's In Your Household Cleaning Product

by Donnalynn Polito

In looking at what pollutes our water, what comes to mind are the cleaning products that we use in our home. We are so used to disinfecting every surface and trying to make everything mirror bright and squeaky clean that we miss what happens next.

What happens to our water and the life it sustains after we wash all these cleaning agents down the drain?
It’s not only our water that’s getting “treated”. We also miss what these cleaning agents may be doing to us in our closed-in home environments.

So, let’s take a look at what goes into a cleaning product and do we need to use the chemicals we’ve been slathering all over our homes and then pouring down the drain.

One of the most common ingredients used is ethylene-based glycol. Ethylene-based glycol is a water soluble solvent. The EPA has classified ethylene-based glycol as a hazardous air pollutant.

Another concern comes from the terpenes. Terpenes have great solvent properties and they smell nice. They are also used widely throughout the home as cleaning products and air fresheners.

Terpenes aren’t good for the environment because they rapidly react with the ozone. What they produce are particles with properties that are like smog called hydroxyl radicals and nitrate radicals. They also release formaldehyde, which is can irritate our respiratory system and is also classified as a carcinogen.

Our exposure to these various chemicals, vapors and particles by themselves are below levels established to be of any danger to us. The problem comes in when these pollutants are added to already existing outgassing from materials in the home.

In other words, things like our furniture, kitchen cabinets, floor coverings, plywood and wood products also release formaldehyde. In combination, these levels could very well be toxic.

As a green designer, I have often heard about indoor air quality being 2.5 times more toxic than outdoor air quality.
In one study of household cleaning products and air fresheners, done by the University of California Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, they found that using air fresheners and an ionizer (producing ozone as a by-product) could lead to formaldehyde exposures greater than the California guideline.

The formaldehyde exposure can then be increased even more from the outgassing of other typical household items like furniture, wood products along with other products, as explained earlier.

What happens with chemicals is that they are tested individually for safety, but they are not tested in conjunction with other chemicals. And how could they be, after all, there’s something like 5,000 plus new chemicals being made a year.

I have only mentioned a few of the complications that using standard cleaning products can produce. The Cancer Prevention Coalition has an extensive list of hazardous ingredients and chemicals found in household products.

Here's a solution that avoids those toxins and can make a difference to you, your family and to the little duckies in the water. Check it out. These products are effective and harmless and provide a cleaning solution that is safe and natural.

The garden is a place where we tend to really pile it on. According to the Cancer Prevention Coalition, we spend billions of dollars a year in pesticides!

By the way, ecolivingGreenstyle has been doing a series on Xeriscaping (landscape, garden and water conservation). If you would like to learn about Xeriscaping, get resources and tips about making green living easy, sign up for DYI Greenstyle Tips in the sign-up box right over there on the left.

I also invite you to leave a comment. It would be great to hear from you, so don’t be shy. You can also join as a Friend. How about doing both!

Saving The Planet Gone Retro

2009-11-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

By Donnalynn Polito

Saving the planet is a pretty good idea from my perspective.

Did you just say, “duh”? Hold on and give me a minute. Let me tell you what I’m thinking.

Saving the planet for some folks isn’t on their radar screen and to them, saving the planet is not a pressing issue. Why? I can only guess because they think global warming means their heating bills will be lower.

After reading an article in one of my favorite zines, Organic Gardening, I’ve taken to reconsider my point of view. Did you say, “duh” again except is sounded more like, “whaaaa”?

Don’t get excited. I haven’t been swayed by the lower the heating bill argument. I did feel compelled to share the article with you, though.

As Marie Rodale’s article, “The Only Book You’ll Ever Really Need” points out, it’s not the planet that needs saving, rather…(more)

Conserve Water And Attract Wildlife

2009-10-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

By Donnalynn Polito

Conserve water and draw in the wildlife. Can’t go wrong with that. Be conscious of water use and conserve water so you can be water wise. Did you know that 50% of the water used in landscapes can be saved by going to water wise or xeriscape gardening?

Need a new project? Take a look at your garden and see where you can make changes to save water, grow hardy, beautiful plants that take less water, no fertilizer and much less time. How fun is that!
Want more great tips on xeriscape? Check this video out.

So, I know what you’re thinking. This is all about the dried out west and how unconscious they are about their water use. Well, here’s a video about a xeriscape garden in Springfield, Missouri.

Tour of Xeriscape Garden in Springfield, Mo.

Live in a more rugged area and want more trees, take a look at this video. Don’t forget that groundcover works wonders over grass. What about a yard that goes downhill, or different kinds of irrigation systems, this video will give you some ideas.

Buffalo grass instead of fescue or bluegrass and only a quarter of the water, too. Don’t you just love all this info! Have fun.

Xeriscaping

We're going to be covering a whole lot more ways to start ecoliving Greenstyle, and if you'd like to be in on our learning tours, sign up for our newsletter. Simply write in your first name and email address, and you'll start receiving our newsletters, FREE!

Don't forget to leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you.

A Look Into The Effects Of Water And Air Pollution On Earth Beautiful

2009-10-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

By Donnalynn Polito

The connection between air and water pollution may not seem evident on the surface, but look at little closer. As we work to clean up the air, our water has become damaged.

“Toxic Waters: From Air to Water” is a video that highlights just one example of our pollution problem not going away. The toxins produced from industrial plants is a big concern for people who live nearby.

Take youngsters like Taylor and Gabe, who live upstream from an old zinc smelting plant. Their love the water inspired Taylor and Gabe to do some research. Watch their video to see what they discovered.

Because most forms of pollution don’t respect national borders, worldwide efforts need to be made. Don’t get discouraged. There are many things we can do to clean up our water and many ways to prevent pollution in the first place.

Yep, you got it. You can start at home.

Signs Of Water Scarcity With Big Blue Melting

2009-10-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

By Donnalynn Polito

Water may seem everywhere and may seem abundant enough. After all, when we turn on our faucets, we expect and get clean, drinkable water, each and every time.

So wrapping our heads around our biggest green challenge is a challenge all by itself. Clean, accessible water is the biggest green challenge we face.

Here’s another head warp. 2.8 billion people live in places with some degree of water scarcity. And, it’s predicted that 75% of the world’s population will be living in a water scarcity situation by the year 2025.

High on a steep hill, from my office, I can see a large blue swath of the majestic Pacific Ocean. A walk along the beach reveals dolphins jumping and pelicans diving. A surge of anchovies must have moved in.

“Water water everywhere, have you brought your boat?” was a billboard sign I saw many years ago, when I was in New York and very young, I might add. I always thought it funny and sorta nonsensical, but it has stuck with me for years. Good copy.

I found out later that the verse that stuck with me for years is actually part of an rhythm describing how ancient mariners were driven by the storms to eventually end up home again. I've included that verse here, but you can click on the link to read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

Back in my office, high on a steep hill, this house may soon become shoreline property. Read more about how Big Blue is the next big green issue.