Welcome to your new Green Life in 2010

I found a really great article in last year's National Geographic Green Guide describing the day in the life of someone that pulls in all the pieces of a newly-converted environmentally conscious person. (Italicized and bracketed comments are mine). Here's the highlights:

7:00am:  Read the morning paper online.  Reading a year's worth of newspapers on your computer saves 520 pounds of paper, or about three trees per year.  (And, no stepping outside in your bathrobe frightening the neighbors)

7:15am:  Shower with a low-flow showerhead.  Because low-flow showerheads reduce water consumption, they can save up to 10% on water-heating costs.  (Alert:  money saver!)

8:25am:  Pack your lunch in reusable containers.  Containers and packaging make up one-third of municipal solid waste, more than any other category.  (Again, a money saver.  No purchasing baggies or expensive, often-unhealthy, restaurant food for lunch.)

8:45am:  Brew a cup of eco-friendly coffee at home and pour into a reusable mug.  Because conventional coffee is grown on clear-cut land and requires loads of chemical fertilizers, each household that switches to organic, shade-grown coffee helps protect more than 9,000 square feet of rain forest.  Plus, Americans toss out 16 billion disposable paper cups per year.  (Eco-friendly coffee is often a better quality brew as well.  If you're a coffeehouse addict, purchase their coffee and brew it at home.)

8:50am:  Power down before you leave the house.  TVs, stereos, chargers, and most appliances with clocks drain energy when they're plugged in - even if they're not on.  Its called "standby power" and it accounts for 5% of residential energy, costing US consumers over $4 billion per year.  Plug them into power strips that you can switch off easily. 

9:00am:  Carpool to work.  According to the California Air Resources Board, approximately 50% of air pollution comes from automobiles.  (Depending on where you work, this can either be really smart or rather difficult.  Weigh your options and make changes elsewhere if carpooling is not viable.)

9:30am:  At work, fire up your laptop.  Laptops require much less energy than desktops.  (When your firm makes a change in their technology, suggest laptops all around.  Don't forget to donate your used computers to a non-profit or to a school.)

11:00am:  Print on both sides of the page, single-space your files and decrease the size of margins.  Americans use 5.4 million tons of office paper every year.  You use four times less paper when you print single-spaced and on both sides.  Save even more by shrinking the margins to .75 inches from the standard inch.  (Again, your mileage may vary on this one, depending on layout requirements and readability.  But, at the very least keep a basket near the copy machine for accidents and overruns to be used as scratch paper.)

3:30pm:  Schedule a conference call with a client instead of a face-to-face meeting.  Conference calls cost a fraction of site-to-site travel and save a significant amount of energy.  Replacing one cross-country trip with a conference call saves 0.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide and enough energy to power 7,000 hours of videoconferences.  (With programs like Skype and the availability of webconferencing, you can still experience face-to-face.  Invest in a really good quality web-cam and highest speed connection to make it work at highest efficiency.  If your best client is on the fence, spring for a webcam for them, too.  Low cost gift for them and it shows your commitment to reducing your carbon footprint.)

5:55pm:  Plug your computer into a power strip and switch it off at the end of the day.  Over the course of one year, you'll save 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and reduce standby power loss.  (And the boss will love you for working to reduce their energy bill.)

6:00pm:  Text your partner to say you're on your way home.  Text messages sent from a cell phone use 30 times less energy than sending an email from a desktop computer.  (Before you start the car, though...  Don't text and drive!)

6:15pm:  Bundle your evening errands to save gas and reduce pollution.  Starting a car with a warm engine emits one-fifth the pollution created by starting a cold engine.  (And you can get to your dinner and movie quicker by effectively planning your time.)

6:20pm:  At the gas station, tighten your gas cap.  In the US, 147 million gallons of gas evaporate every year from cars with gas caps that are damaged, loose or missing.  Make sure your gas cap is tight by turning it until it clicks three times.  (My dad told me that I had to tighten the cap or the car would explode.  In retrospect, I think he was trying to scare me into doing it.  But, since he isn't an 'environmentalist', I'd say it was probably a cost-saving measure.  What doesn't evaporate, stays in the tank to work for you.)

6:25pm:  At the ATM, say no to a receipt.  It takes two billion feet of paper to create receipts for the eight billion ATM transactions that occur each year in America - most of which end up as litter.  (Really...   are you going to write it down when you get home anyway?)

6:30pm:  Take canvas bags to the supermarket.  In the US, we use 11 million plastic shopping bags every hour.  The trick to using your own bags is to put them back in the car as soon as you've unpacked your groceries - they won't do any good if you leave them at home.  (Target offers a $0.5 discount if you bag your items in a recycled bag.  Hey, 5 cents is 5 cents....  good for them.)

7:15pm:  Before you head to dinner and a movie, print the tickets from your desktop.  Movie tickets printed at home are easier to recycle than the paperboard used to print tickets at the theater.  (And breeze by the line!  That's my favorite part!)

8:00pm:  Eat dinner at a restaurant that serves locally grown, organic food.  Check gengreenlife.com for a list of eateries and food stores that sell environmentally friendly vittles in your zip code.  Or, if you eat at home, choose the right burner and don't preheat the oven until you're ready to cook.  If the circumference of the burner is larger than the size of your pan, you're leaking unused heat into the air.  The longer an oven is turned on but not used, the more energy it wastes.  There's no need to preheat if you're cooking foods for longer than 20 minutes.  (Ahh, our grandmas would be so proud of our frugal methods!  She don't care what we call it...  green, sustainable, eco-friendly.  She calls it frugal.  And she's right.)

-Kate Hanley, National Geographic Green Guide

One other great idea I found was to create a "Going Green" kit and give as gifts to clients, customers, friends, and family:

• Reusable tote bag
• Stainless steel water bottle
• Travel coffee mug
• BYO-lunch supplies - an insulated carrier, untensils, and aluminum foil (instead of plastic wrap)
• Compact fluorescent light bulb

Brainstorm for other items to include in your Kits and share the sustainability!

Have a great week!

Greening in the New Year

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

In only a few days, we will ring in 2010.  Many of us will marvel at what we accomplished, but most of us will fret over that which was left on the table.  We will labor over the goals which were set and just narrowly missed, or those that seemed so lofty even eleven months ago that we knew there would be miles to go as the year closed.
 
For those of us that greeted 2009 with the desire to make significant progress towards a more sustainable future, we are now faced with an equally daunting task in 2010.  How do we save the planet this decade?
 
Ouch.  That's a big pie right there.  Pollution.  Carbon emissions.  Energy.  Waste.  Those are big.  Naysayers would pipe up to say that we can't make a big enough impact to cause significant change.
 
Hmmph.  Them thar's challenge words....
 
Let's play a numbers game here.  So, according to Google's data, there were 304,059,724 people in the US in July of 2008.  For ease of crunching, let's assume we're at around 305,000,000 right now. 

• If half of us gave up disposable cups:  Average cup weighs 5g each.  152,500,000 people not using 5g of waste a day.  762,500 kilograms out of the landfill each day.  278,312,500 kg out of the landfill a year.

Hmmmph.  No impact, eh?

• According to the 2007 census, there are 111,162,259 households.  Again, let's round to 112,000,000 for ease of math.  If each household goes to the grocery store once a week and bags their groceries in 6 plastic bags what could we save?  52 weeks x 6 bags = 312 bags per household a year.  In the US alone, we're using around 34,944,000,000 bags a year.  *cringe*  So, if we all brought our six reusable bags to the store each week, we'd divert literally TONS of trash from the landfills.

Seeing a trend here?

Do ONE thing in 2010.  You don't have to change everything about your lifestyle, nor give up some of the luxuries of life.  But you can do just one thing.  Choose one thing and stick to it throughout the year.  Here is a list of suggestions:

• Bring reusable bags to the grocery store every time you shop.
• Say no to bottled water completely.  Carry your reusable bottle and fill up at water fountains.  (Umm, this one saves you money!  Hello!)
• Avoid seafood that is over farmed or unsustainable.
• Use a coffee mug from home every day at work.
• Never put paper in the trash.  Recycle it (or hold onto it until you can get it into a recycle bin).

Make this your New Year's resolution and then make it a habit in your household.  Share the habit with friends and family and impress it upon your children.  Change the next generation and ensure these habits are carried into the future.

That's impact right there, boys and girls.   As was said so beautifully, be the change you wish to see.  Don't wait for someone else to do it first.  And certainly don't use that sad old excuse that one person can't make a difference.  You know it ain't true.  If the numbers don't convince you, let the stories of Ghandi and Dr. King remind you.

Have a wonderful New Year and go out there and make a difference!

Merry Christmas from GBD

Decking the Halls - The Sustainable Way

Here we are again, preparing for the holiday season.  I'm always chuffed to watch the news and read magazines that provide their top ten list of ways to 'go green' at the holidays.  The lists are diverse and thought-provoking.  Some suggestions are costly, some are free.  I'm a big fan of the free options (because there is NO excuse not to implement them), and I love having philosophical debates over the others.  (Are they really green?  What is the synergy with other environmental issues?  What will Grandma think if we do it?)

Also, the economy is in a relatively bad way right now.  (If I could figure out a way, I'd send the economy a Get Well Card.  Maybe with a little kitten 'hanging in there'.)  So, my thoughts this year are of the various shades of green - the green of our planet and the green of those ever-disappearing dollars in my wallet.  Very often, sustainability is good for your budget.  Let's focus on those right now.

Here is a list of some of the things that may work for you this year:

• Virtual Holiday Cards:  I know Miss Manners and Emily Post's descendents are currently engaged in symposiums on the etiquette of virtual holiday cards but I still fully support the sustainability of the option.  One:  I don't spend half a dollar per card to mail them.  Two:  I don't purchase another completely disposable product.  Three:  I save a little piece of my sanity by not stressing over gathering snail mail addresses for every last cousin, colleague, and classmate. 
• Reused Fake Christmas Trees:  OK, stay with me on this one.  I've had the same fake tree for over ten years now.  It was given to me by someone that decided they no longer wanted to 'deal with the trappings of Christmas'.  Instead of driving to a lot of tree lots and spending $50 each year, I go to my garage and pull out my old box and reuse my fake tree.  I save money.  That's green.  I don't drive my car around to numerous tree lots.  That's totally green. Fake trees need no water.  That's super green.
• Just Saying NO to malls:  It's been said over and over and I will say it as well:  WHEN did Christmas become a battle of how much money we can spend on people?  Who purchases a Mercedes for their wife on Christmas morning?  Scale back, people.  Just scale back.  Set a limit and stick to it.  Don't let the ads get to you.  Those marketing people are super clever.  Be wary.
• Walking through the neighborhood to look at lights:  For those of us that live in Florida, there is no reason to get in your car and drive through your own neighborhood to look at holiday lights.  Put on your walking shoes and enjoy a leisurely walk with your family.  Maybe stop and speak with your neighbor.  Crazy?  No, really.  Before parents drove their kids around on Halloween, there was this remarkable trend of walking through your neighborhood.  Save the gas, spend some time with your family, meet your neighbors and go for a walk.
• LED really is a good option:  Yes, they cost more.  But, aren't you the one standing next to me in the aisle at Walgreens buying new lights each year?  Let's buy a higher quality of lights this year and NOT go back each year because the junky lights we bought last year seemed to short out in the box between January and November.  How about this year I meet you in the Walgreens aisle on the day after Christmas, pick them up at 50% off and set a sustainable trend for next year? 
• Reusable bags instead of wrapping paper:  My mother introduced me to the concept of grabbing up all the gift bags after the unwrapping occurs and saving them until the next year.  Buy the pretty ones once and be that 'frugal' person that collects them and stores them until next year.  We have one bag that has been gifted to every person in our family.  It's a topic of conversation and a standing joke.  And a GREAT example of reuse. 
• No disposables:  Isn't this the time of year to pull out the pretty dishes?  If you don't have enough, tell your in-laws they can't come.  (OK, so that's not REALLY an option.  But doesn't it always sound appealing?)  If you absolutely must buy disposables, please buy the ones that are compostable.  Maybe borrow from your neighbor?  We always have one neighbor that goes away for the holiday.  We borrow their pretty dishes and watch their house while they're away.  Win-win. 
• Holiday lights need to be on a timer:  Raise your hand if you sometimes forget to turn off your lights?  Me, too.  Buy a timer.  Preferably on sale the day after Christmas.
• Web cam instead of travel:  This is a tough one, but in today's economy, more people are sacrificing the flights out of town and staying home.  That does not mean you can't have a meaningful, quality conversation with your Grandma in Pennsylvania.  All she needs is someone to show her how to log onto Skype and smile at the little red light on the camera.  When was the last time you sat down for an hour and just talked to your dad in Wisconsin?  A web cam encourages that.  (I know this for a fact.  It's how I met my husband.)  :-)
• Embrace a true, old fashioned Holiday:  Turn off the lights and all the electronic devices.  Sit by a crackling fire (lit by gathered branches from your back garden ), light a candle, and illuminate your tree.  Tell stories.  Sing a song.  Talk to each other.  Enjoy the energy savings, but more importantly, enjoy the time you spend with your family and the memories you'll recall for years.  Recently, my three children, my husband and I organized a campfire in the yard.  $1 on marshmallows.  $0 on gathered firewood.  $0 on blankets from the closet.  Two hours of singing and storytelling:  Priceless.  They're still retelling the stories from that night.

Environmental stewardship builds so much more than energy savings.  It can save money.  It creates memories.  It builds relationships.  It shifts paradigms.  It relives the past. 

Sustainability is about people, planet, and profit.  I encourage you to enjoy a beautifully sustainable holiday season.

EPA and Greenhouse Gases

First:  Did you know that there's a climate summit thing going on?  http://en.cop15.dk/

Second:  Did you know that the EPA has officially stated that Greenhouse Gases Threaten Public Health and the Environment?  See below...

EPA: Greenhouse Gases Threaten Public Health and the Environment / Science overwhelmingly shows greenhouse gas concentrations at unprecedented levels due to human activity


Release date: 12/07/2009

Contact Information: Cathy Milbourn, Milbourn.cathy@epa.gov, 202-564-7849, 202-564-4355; En español: Lina Younes, younes.lina@epa.gov, 202-564-9924, 202-564-4355

EPA: Greenhouse Gases Threaten Public Health and the Environment

Science overwhelmingly shows greenhouse gas concentrations at unprecedented levels due to human activity

WASHINGTON – After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA also finds that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat.
GHGs are the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans.
“These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Business leaders, security experts, government officials, concerned citizens and the United States Supreme Court have called for enduring, pragmatic solutions to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution that is causing climate change. This continues our work towards clean energy reform that will cut GHGs and reduce the dependence on foreign oil that threatens our national security and our economy.”
EPA’s final findings respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that GHGs fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants. The findings do not in and of themselves impose any emission reduction requirements but rather allow EPA to finalize the GHG standards proposed earlier this year for new light-duty vehicles as part of the joint rulemaking with the Department of Transportation.
On-road vehicles contribute more than 23 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions. EPA’s proposed GHG standards for light-duty vehicles, a subset of on-road vehicles, would reduce GHG emissions by nearly 950 million metric tons and conserve 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of model year 2012-2016 vehicles.
EPA’s endangerment finding covers emissions of six key greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride – that have been the subject of scrutiny and intense analysis for decades by scientists in the United States and around the world.
Scientific consensus shows that as a result of human activities, GHG concentrations in the atmosphere are at record high levels and data shows that the Earth has been warming over the past 100 years, with the steepest increase in warming in recent decades. The evidence of human-induced climate change goes beyond observed increases in average surface temperatures; it includes melting ice in the Arctic, melting glaciers around the world, increasing ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, acidification of the oceans due to excess carbon dioxide, changing precipitation patterns, and changing patterns of ecosystems and wildlife.
President Obama and Administrator Jackson have publicly stated that they support a legislative solution to the problem of climate change and Congress’ efforts to pass comprehensive climate legislation. However, climate change is threatening public health and welfare, and it is critical that EPA fulfill its obligation to respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined that greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants.

EPA issued the proposed findings in April 2009 and held a 60-day public comment period. The agency received more than 380,000 comments, which were carefully reviewed and considered during the development of the final findings.

Information on EPA’s findings: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment.html

So, there you go.  I don't like to make environmental responsibility a political thing.  There's enough of a mess out there for it NOT to be a political issue.  As my kids say, "Climate change, blah blah blah...  Pollution's still bad, right?"

Yeah, it's still bad.  So, whatever we can do to decrease our impact on the environment is a good thing.  You can't look out at all the cars on the road and say that's healthy.  Bulldozing trees isn't really a good thing.  More green space is good.  Smart building design and construction is good.  If the EPA studies state that we should be gentler on the planet, I'm a fan of that.

So, read up on it and know what's going on.  Knowledge is always a good thing!

Cha cha cha changes...

As you've probably already noticed, the blog has experienced some significant changes.  First of all, I am no longer with Breaking Ground Contracting Company.  I am now part of an exciting venture called Greener By Design Consulting, LLC, which will assist firms with reaching a deeper shade of green through their marketing, public relations, branding, strategy and business development.  Feel free to contact me for more details...

In the meantime, this blog, Greener By Day, will focus on finding that deeper shade of green for you on a daily basis.  I will still keep an ear to the ground for initiatives and activities around our global community and get that information right to you.

If you find it before I do, shoot it over to me.  Let's make this sustainable conversation interactive, innovative, meaningful and relevant!

Ellen
ellen@greenerbydesignconsulting.com

GreenBuild Tuesday Update...

Quick caveat: The Starbucks in the West Building had no line this morning. Things have changed since this afternoon. I'd like to think it's due to my post alerting our thousands of green building readers to its location. So, there's a line now. I've forewarned you.

The Corporate Sustainability session this morning was great! I will go to any session that has Harvey Bernstein from McGraw Hill Construction speaking. He always rolls out great statistics. This morning he shared with us the 2009 Greening of Corporate America SmartMarket Report and compared the numbers to the 2006 report of the same name. Very exciting stuff...

61% of polled big corporations have staff dedicated to sustainability issues.

In 2006, only 16% of companies considered themselves to be on the cutting edge of corporate sustainability, incorporating green issues into their procurement and annual reports. In 2009, this number had increased to 30%. More importantly, innovative firms that incorporate sustainability into the fiber of their companies increased from 2% to 7% this year. Remember, these are big corporations... Fortune 500s. The firms that can enact positive change on a global level when they make a move.

This year, 50% of polled companies offer green products and cite that resource-saving features of those products.

Energy savings and customer needs are the primary drivers to these initiatives.

In 2006, 31% of CEOs believed that sustainability would provide market differentiation. This year, that number is up to 61%.

Food for thought. It's encouraging to see larger organizations making sweeping change but remember that small business has the power in numbers to enact similar change. When I compared the sustainability initiatives of companies like Siemens, Owens Corning, and CB Richard Ellis with the initiatives of Breaking Ground, I was satisfied to see that our small business is, and had many years ago, incorporated similar initiatives and measurables. Many of our initiatives are loftier and and far more audacious.

My point is that big companies SHOULD be making sweeping change. They have the resources and people to make it happen. What can small business do today to affect change? Think about what Breaking Ground has done.... What can YOU do?

Challenge your people. Challenge yourself.