Thursday, December 6, 2007

Freecycle

This site randomly popped up earlier today while I was searching for other things, but it looks like a really cool site. Join up with your local group and see what sort of treasures you can find, or if there are any people that can find treasures of their own with your old stuff.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Christmas tree; Real or Fake

Yahoo has a decent article up on the debate between real or fake Christmas trees. It just touches on the basics quickly but pretty clearly shows why a real tree will always be better in every way. I always liked them because they smell great and just say "Christmas" so much better than a plastic thing. I happen to be one of those strange people that likes the needles all over the place and the chore of watering it every day.

The good news is that it is also a really green thing to do. The plastics in the fakes are bad bad bad. The real trees eat up the CO2 happily, and if you are lucky enough to live in a place like North Carolina where there are literally hundreds of tree farms in the mountains, you can support a local farmer as well. Anna and I have been buying our tree from the same family for the last 3 years. They are "Mountain Advantage Tree Farm" and have sales locations in Holly Springs on the corner of Sunset Lake and Holly Springs Rd, as well as another on the corner of TenTen rd. and Holly Springs Rd. The one on Ten Ten is the best because they hand out hot apple cider while you wait for them to strap the tree to the roof of your car. I highly recommend them to anyone in the area.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Liquid Coal... BAD!!!

Possibly some may have heard of this stuff already, but there is a new technology out there called liquid coal, and it is really as bad as it sounds. The coal companies of course LOVE it and want to use it to replace gasoline. This would be bad. Check out the NRDC webpage for a pretty funny and sadly accurate little cartoon. This organization needs support so anything anyone can do will definitely help.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

quick update

After a very busy last couple weeks, I finally have some time to update folks on things. We are still working on completing the business plan, but some real progress has been made. We are down to a few more sections and maybe one or two more trips to the library, then the editing begins, hopefully soon to be followed by starting the process of opening. We will keep you updated as things progress further.

Aside from all that, I did find this useful review of non-toxic paints on the green guide. Worth a look through for sure, and hopefully Green Home Headquarters will soon be the place to go for them instead of the Internet and the limited color choices that it provides.

Friday, October 26, 2007

I Love These Windows

Perfect for the central North Carolina climate. I hope to hear a lot more about these in the coming months. Flip it one way in the summer and the other in the winter. So much easier than putting in storm windows or plastic up or any of the other things we do to help hold heat in during the winter.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Something to share

Since I brought everyone down earlier, now I give you this. Good stuff, and pertinent subject matter I might add.

How Depressing

I found this article today, easily one of the more depressing things I have read in a while. Sorry to be a downer, they really make it sound like there is no hope. We all just have to do what we can.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Conserve Water Now!

The drought situation is getting very desperate in the Southeast, as evidenced by this blog entry on treehugger.com. People in Atlanta have even resorted to painting their lawns (wonder what kinds of chemicals are in THAT?). I would urge everyone to please, please conserve the most water you can. I know your lawn doesn't look nice when it's brown, but what's more important: a pretty lawn or clean clothes and dishes, drinking water and being able to flush the toilet? The Raleigh/Durham area is just as likely to be in Atlanta's situation in the near future.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Before you stock up for Halloween

Before you head to the store and buy the huge bags of candy, think for a second about where that candy is coming from. A lot of good things are mentioned here. It's looking like the kids in our neighborhood will be getting organic chocolate this year. My guess is that they will think it is weird because the wrapper isn't Hershey's, but once they try it they will like it just the same.

Solar Decathlon

I just found out about this a couple hours ago, but definitely want to go. The solar decathlon is going on this week in Washington DC. Looks like a lot of really interesting new ideas and things to see. I really want to get up there, but I'm not sure if I will be able to, but if you are in the DC area I would definitely recommend you check it out. And if you do, give us a report on it!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Carbon Footpring Labeling

According to this, they are soon going to begin labeling food with a carbon footprint in the UK. This is pretty cool and I wish all products had to have it (not just food). I am talking toys, clothes, tools. Anything to get people to think about the hidden costs of the things they buy. I'm not holding my breathe for something like this to happen in the US, but I like it.. I shudder to think what some of the things would say.

An unrelated story, but I heard yesterday that one of the founders of my company is "so frugal" that he figured out that if he bought t-shirts and socks in bulk and just wore them once and threw them away, it would be cheaper than washing them over and over. My first question was, what detergent were you using??? I find it hard to believe that it is actually cheaper anyway, but what a monumental waste. To buy a cotton shirt, wear it once and throw it away... that honestly makes me sick.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

I found this article this morning. It is just unbelievable how bad pollution is in some places and how severely it affects people's health. This article goes into very specific detail on what heavy metals are being found there and how they are affecting the local population. I just hope something can be done to help them because as is typical, it always affects children the worst. But really for those out there that do not think that the environment isn't THE issue that we need to concern ourselves with, please read this excerpt;

" According to World Health Organization, a quarter of all diseases affecting the humankind are attributable to environmental risks, with children more vulnerable than adults. Among children under five, environmentally-related illnesses are responsible for more than 4.7 million deaths annually. Twenty-five percent of deaths in developing countries are related to environmental factors, compared with 17 percent of deaths in the developed world. "

This isn't just a problem in third world countries. That is one thing that people in the US need to remember, the stat is still 17 percent of all deaths are attributed to environmental factors. The children in this country may not be in quite the direct danger that the children in Nairobi are in, but the stats on childhood asthma (courtesy of the American lung association) in this country clearly display the very real danger people are in here. "Asthma is the most common chronic disorder in childhood, currently affecting an estimated 6.2 million children under 18 years; of which 4 million suffered from an asthma attack or episode in 2004." I currently work with what they call emergency inhalers for asthma patients. We are actually working on an all new product at this time. These are not new products by any stretch of the imagination, but the pharmaceutical companies believe that the market for emergency inhalers will possibly double by 2020, and probably exceed that. This is a problem that can be directly attributed air pollutants and allergens. If you have ever either had a child, or been around one that was struggling to breathe because of asthma, then you know how serious a problem this really is.

but if you still need more.. check some of these links
Childhood Asthma Still Increasing
ICES Asthma study
Rise in childhood asthma
The environment and asthma in U.S. inner cities.

Monday, October 8, 2007

A Few Things

Found this little editorial this morning, says some interesting things about government environmental policy and how private citizens tend to have a much larger impact than anything the government may be doing. I happen to agree with the assertion that the government does much more to enable polluters than it does to stop them.

There was also this article basically citing a poll that a majority of Americans would support higher taxes in order to help the environment. I would guess that this is the first time ever that people would say that. Whether in practice it is true or not is yet to be seen, but I think it does show that people are starting to really think about what they are spending their money on, and that is never a bad thing.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Ethanol Emissions... Worse Than Fossil Fuels

I heard this one traveling around the halls today, but also found the article to support the rumors. I am blown away by this. There have been many reasons to shy away from using corn ethanol as an alternative fuel (the fact that it takes more energy to create than you actually get out of it for one), but this one is a deal breaker. Most people are under the impression that Carbon is the sole cause of global warming, specifically CO2, but that is simply not the case. Many compounds have similar or in the case of Nitrous Oxide (N2O) far more severe effects. Lets just hope that the Senate gets this story and they stop mandating and subsidizing the use of corn ethanol. Something tells me they won't be getting this message, sadly.

Friday, September 21, 2007

World's best places to live

Found this today on yahoo. Not a big surprise that the Scandinavian countries lead the way in this. Just makes me want to take a trip there so much more. It is clear that environmental factors took the main spotlight in this, as they should. US came in 23rd, but there is absolutely no reason why that shouldn't be much much higher.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Another example of why I want to open our store

I was just surfing around a bit when I found this article from Japan. (Isn't the internet great by the way??) Well it tells a story that I have read seemingly over and over again of people wanting to build a more eco-friendly home. It gives a great example of what it really means to be green and also how much thought goes into every tiny detail, but it seems like almost always one member of the couple is an architect, in this case the woman of the house who not only designs the home but will also hand pick all the materials. This, to me, is the problem. I love that people want to build a more eco-friendly and also people friendly home, but it needs to be accessible to people that aren't architects. The fact is that it most definitely is available to anyone that wants to do it, but it takes a massive commitment from them personally to research every tiny aspect of the home. Asking the average homeowner to become an expert on all these things is really unrealistic. Imagine researching and becoming an expert on plumbing, greywater systems, heat and air exchangers, air current dynamics, building materials, heating and cooling systems, passive solar principles, insulation, etc. etc. etc. the list truly goes on forever. This is what it would take to fully understand and properly complete the modern green home. That is unacceptable to me. I have an interest in these things and am taking it upon myself to learn everything I can about them. The hope is that I will be able to pass that knowledge on to customers, and take a great deal of the tedious portion of the task away. Not nearly enough people will build green until it becomes as accessible as the fine McMansions that builders are seemingly building at the rate of thousands a day.

My other concern is that we are putting too much emphasis on building green homes. I definitely feel that we need to emphasize green building for as many new homes being built as we can, but the great paradox to building a new green home is that building new is inherently not green. The absolute most eco-friendly way to live is to find an existing structure that you can renovate and adapt to take advantage of green principles. This will be Green Home HQ's main focus. Make your current home green, have fun doing it yourself, spread the word and help your neighbors do the same and please don't ever tear down an existing structure (unless it is unsafe) to build new.

Monday, September 17, 2007

China Doing Something

In a clear move to try and deflect a lot of the negative press they have been getting, the Chinese government is "urging" that people in 108 cities refrain from driving their cars for a full week, with emphasis put on Sept. 22nd or "No Car Day" where they will open lanes of road for bikes or other alternate vehicles according to chinadaily.com. They say this will save 33 million litres of gas and cut emissions by 3000 tons on the "No Car Day." The goal, it says, is to increase the use of public transportation, which is already apparently at 50%. First off, I think this is a pretty cool Idea and really wish some cities locally would give something like this a shot. Secondly, I agree with the assertion that public transport is very important and really an absolute necessity for a city above a certain population to function. More money must be spent worldwide on creating a reliable, safe, cheap, clean and convenient public transportation systems in as many cities as we can. There really are a relatively small amount of cities that have public transportation that would be classified as good. But, how much capacity do these systems in China really have? This isn't a small population we are talking about here, and you can't just push people towards public transport if the system isn't actually in place in a useful form with enough copacity to handle that many people. I know nothing about China's public transportation systems, so I am just hypothesizing here, but when it comes down to it, I don't know how much a campaign like this is really going to accomplish. My guess is that they get some people to ride a bike, or ride the train for a week, and they will immediately go right back to what they had always been doing, but it gets people talking and thinking about emissions and energy use, so that's good. None of that really changes the fact that the whole thing just really stinks of a strategy to counteract all of the recent press, and calls into question their true commitment to these sorts of policies.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Sustainability on display at Auto Show

It would seem that automakers, especially European automakers, are making some efforts at their own green makeovers. I found this a few minutes ago courtesy of the NY Times. Key points in this one are that there are a lot of new hybrid options being discussed (at least for European consumers) some of the more interesting to me are the hybrid diesels. How nice would it be to have a hybrid car running on biodiesel. They do seem to be making huge strides in making diesel engines even cleaner and more efficient as well. Definitely a trend I am encouraged by. There is even a passing mention of a plug in hybrid. Very cool. I am a bit discouraged that there isn't a single mention of an electric car, but a plug in hybrid is a start at least in getting back to a full electric.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Celebrities and Eco Living

Yesterday Jake and I were talking about the public's perception of celebrities who take up the green living cause. They often come off fake, self-serving, and "eco-hypocritical." I, for one, think it's great that they are trying to use their positions of power to make a change, but I do think that if they really cared, they would try harder to live more like you and me (e.g. no more 10,000 square foot houses-- no matter how they're heating and cooling them!). Check out this article on treehugger.com for interesting insight: Celebrity Eco-Hypocritique

Friday, September 7, 2007

A Critical Situation

Sobering news today: 'Scientists Make Dire Forecast for Alaska'
Much of the global warming damage over the past 20 years has been done, and its full effects will be seen by 2050, after which the gases we recently emitted will finally soak into the ocean, melting Alaska's ice caps by about half. This means dire consequences for fishermen, polar bears, and ocean life in and around the Bering Sea.

It feels futile and fatalistic, but we should let this news inspire us to STOP GLOBAL WARMING in its tracks. Let's not allow it to cause any further damage to our children's and grandchildren's Earth.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Chinese Manufacturing

Like many of you probably have, I have been following the news about pollution and improper manufacturing standards in China pretty closely. The latest is a recall from Mattel, which includes recalls for Barbie sets among others. If you don't have the time to read it, basically, all that I got from it was that "it wasn't our fault" that you typically get from publicly traded corporations in this sort of situation. Mattel owns and runs several manufacturing plants in China, but they also contract out some manufacturing to some other companies -- Holder Plastic Company and Apex Manufacturing Company were mentioned in the article -- who not only do the manufacturing, but will also contract out a portion of their work to yet another company (the subcontractor). This is all pretty common out in the business world, but should it be? Of course the end line subcontractor takes the blame, as they were the ones that messed up. But I would argue that it is the job of the parent company to ensure that the contractors are doing things properly. In this case how could Mattel really conduct proper quality control over more than one degree of separation. Basically, Mattel is rightfully taking heat over this and losing money. The bad thing is that they are deflecting blame, when it is every bit as much a failure of their system as anyone else's. A company should be confident and 100% sure of what they are bringing forward to the retail environment and ultimately the end consumer. Mattel did not have that level of control obviously, and they are paying for it. The only way for them to take that control back would be to pull everything back in house (which is how things used to be done anyway), and then even start manufacturing domestically again. We all know they used to do everything in house and on US soil in the past, but now everything is contracted out and done internationally. Why waste all that energy to bring it all the way back here to sell, and why put the financial future of your company in the hands of a foreign contractor? I am hardly an isolationist, but I do have a problem with wasting energy on bringing a product across an ocean that could have just as easily been sourced and manufactured close-by. We all know WHY they want to manufacture in China, the labor is cheap... but there is also the little tidbit of information that they leave out about how they have little or no environmental limitations there. They can pollute all they want there and save the cost that they would have to take on if manufacturing in Europe or the US. We fought very hard for environmental legislation as well as fair labor laws in this country, only to have all the corporations just pick up and move somewhere else so they could continue using near slave labor and destroy the earth. The only solution I have found for myself is to stop buying products made in China, but do you realize how difficult that is? There is no simple solution really, but never underestimate the combined power of the American consumer. If we stop buying so many products made in China, it will most assuredly be felt and addressed.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Paper vs. Plastic: Nobody Wins

Once a week, I buy groceries. And once a week, I'm asked a question that makes me cringe: "Paper or plastic?"
The question seems meaningless enough to us; we make the decision in one second and throw away, reuse or recycle the bags when we unload our haul at home. But our decision's significance to the health of the Earth is more meaningful than most of us take the time to think about. Perhaps what we should be hearing hidden in that innocent question is, "Chop down a tree, or increase our dependence on fossil fuels?"
There are arguments for and against both choices. Unlike plastic, paper is compostable and biodegradable; however, much more energy is used to produce and recycle a paper bag than a plastic one. On the other hand, even though plastic bags are recyclable at the bins at your local grocery, the truth is that many of those plastic bags are NOT recyclable at all. Their fate? The local dump, where they never break down. When you really start to look at the seeming lack of advantages to either choice (for example, take a look at "Paper vs. Plastic- The Shopping Bag Debate" on Greenfeet.com), the answer for the bag boy becomes obvious: "Neither."
If every American family would simply invest in a few reusable shopping bags to take to the store with them, the reduction in plastic and paper bag waste would be enormous. There are a number of attractive and functional options out there today: organic and recycled cotton canvas, cotton mesh, and even insulated bags made from recycled soda bottles and bags. Some have cute designs and some are plain, but remember the basic, least expensive ones will do the job just fine. I just purchased five plain organic cotton canvas totes. By my calculations, I will probably be able to fit the equivalent of about 3 plastic bags into one of these bags. I spent $35 including shipping, a small investment for bags that will last us for years to come. I also just learned that my grocery has started refunding customers 5 cents per store plastic or paper bag that they don't use, so my investment will pay for itself in time.
Of course, this topic spawned discussion between Jake and me about how we plan to bag GHH customer purchases. First and foremost, we'll make be making cotton (and other materials) shopping bags available for purchase. Alternatively, we'll also be using paper bags that are approbated by the American Forest and Paper Association, and we'll of course encourage customers to return those bags to us for recycling and offer a partial refund of their purchase for every bag re-used or recycled.

Going green doesn't mean depriving yourself

I was thinking yesterday about the implications of a transition to a green lifestyle for the average person. The traditional first step in the 3 R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) is to only buy what you actually need-- not a bunch of junk to satisfy a momentary want or desire that later ends up in a landfill. For Americans especially, I think this is going to be a hard nut to crack. We Americans love our stuff, and we love showing it off. I would venture to say that we get more pleasure out of the actual buying of the stuff than the stuff itself. Many of us build larger houses than we need just so we can house our stuff. Anyway, you get my point.
The idea I'd like to posit is that I do believe it's possible to continue to get pleasure out of material objects--objects that may serve no purpose other than decorative-- and still be "green." The way to do that is to purchase items that were crafted with care and regard for where the materials came from, who made them, and what those objects' eventual future on the Earth will be. At Green Home Headquarters, I plan to make available objects that can fill that role. I hope to offer attractive and eco-friendly kitchen items, children's toys and games, decorative and soft furnishings for the home, and unique gifts. For example, take a look at this bowl made from discarded food wrappers (which are non-biodegradable). It was crafted by workers in Nepal via a non-profit humanitarian organization. When you shop at our store, you will feel confident that any item you choose will enhance the health of your home. Mentally, I think that has a huge impact on your health, as well. If you're buying a gift, it will be an object you feel good about buying and the recipient feels good about receiving.
Pretty soon, you'll start to think about each and every object you buy with a new perspective-- one that makes you feel good about the dollars you spend and the new item that will soon occupy precious space in your home. Now that is shopping at its best!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

SEE Expo

As promised I'll update you all a little on how things went at the SEE Expo out near Asheville this past weekend. We have had a few days to digest everything we saw and while it was a small show, there was plenty there to see. Most of what was there was more to do with energy efficiency and alternate energy sources (as expected) but there were plenty of good leads on products that would fit with Green Home Headquarters' vision. There was one true star there in my opinion, and that was the good people at Earthpaint (www.earthpaint.net). The products looked great, all raw materials were sourced within 800 miles, they are currently using wind energy offsets and they are a local (Asheville based) company. I hope to get some samples soon so I can try some things out and I will be sure to pass along anything that I observe. They will be coming to Raleigh in September for the southern ideal home show and I can't wait to go and see them again. If you have a chance please give their webpage a look and if you have any needs for paint in the next few months (at least until Green Home HQ opens!) I hope you'll at least give them a thought before you go and get the nasty toxic stuff at the local homecenter.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Back From Vacation


Sorry for the long gap in posts, but Anna and I were of to the mountains for the last week on vacation. I'll let you see just a small sample of some of the beautiful scenery. It was energizing, fun and tiring at the same time. We really managed to fit a lot into the week. There were two separate hikes to waterfalls, one very challenging hike to the top of Calloway's Peak at Grandfather Mountain, a trip to blowing rock, an 8 hour drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway (100 miles with stops at several overlooks, the town of Spruce Pine, Crabtree falls, an apple orchard at Alta Pass and a trip to the top of Mt. Mitchell), A visit to the SEEExpo for some time spent with the business (details on that to come) and bike riding at the Biltmore Estate. Like I said, a LOT of fun. I think we are all set to go to rededicate ourselves to getting the store moving forward and hopefully find time for some more trips like this in the future.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Thin Solar Cells

Found this article a while ago about thin film solar cells. Am I the only one that wants to coat everything I own in this stuff?? There is one application in particular that I think will catch on n a big way. Wrap your roof shingles in it and create an entire roof of solar cells. I've seen this talked about over and over again, but we finally might almost be there with it.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

More Links

Just found some more stuff. This one is about the incredible size of the phone bills that AT&T is sending out for the IPhones. Literally one of the biggest wastes of paper I have heard of in a while. Just sad... In the process of reading that though, I found some of the linked articles on how Apple is working on cleaning up their environmental image(one and two). We were planning on buying Apple's for our business anyway for a myriad of other reasons, but the new updates they are working on just make it that much better. I had heard about what they were trying to do, but the new Imacs are definitely a nice step in the right direction.

Anyway, if you are into the electronics and that sort of thing, I found a great site as well (www.ecogeek.org) for the environmentally conscious techno geeks among us. It is right up my alley, so I thought I would pass it along.

Today's Links

Anna passed these along to me the other day, some good info in there.

This one is about the junk is household cleaning chemicals, no news there, but good to see that it is on something as visible as AOL.

This one talks a little about some of the green cleaning product companies and how they are making things happen without harmful chemicals. Probably the most important bit in there is just how, as we all find out, there are many levels to green and some of these companies really don't live up to what my expectations for that would be. Is it really a green product when they still have the same chemicals in smaller amounts?

And finally, This article is pretty cool. It describes the top ten, or should I say, THEIR top ten new environmental technologies. There are some pretty neat things in there, most of them are really, to me at least, not what I would call advances. Like #8, you mean planting things can actually make the planet cleaner and nicer?? What a discovery. and #9 is. quite literally, just sweeping the bad stuff under the rug. I wonder why the energy companies like that idea so much? Could be that they wouldn't have to change anything and just keep collecting truckloads of cash. And #3 with Hydrogen energy cells. That one isn't new, but it is about 30 years away, just another one that the oil and energy companies LOVE to try and slip in as a "solution." Anyway, I make this article sound horrible don't I? It isn't all bad. I love the ideas they have about harnessing the power of the ocean. If we are able to convert just 1% of that energy to electricity, we would have enough to power everything human made on the planet and have plenty to spare. That is DEFINITELY an area to pursue and would probably be #1 on my list. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Raven Rock


















I thought it would be fun for our first ever post to our blog to just talk a little bit about our recent trip to Raven Rock State Park. It is one of those pretty small little parks that litter the landscape in North Carolina. This one is right along the Cape Fear river near Lillington, only a matter of about 30 or so miles down south on 55 and 401 from Cary. It was most definitely worth the trip. Plenty of trails, lots of nature. The park gets its name from the huge rock feature along the banks of the river, which is quite impressive. You really have to see it to appreciate the scale of it. There are quite a few steps to climb down though to get to that part. My legs are still sore from it, but definitely more than worth it. Even with it being well over 90, it was still bearable because of all the shade. It was definitely evident that the drought was being felt there as the river was clearly low and the creeks and streams were almost totally dry. It was sad because there were several places where the creek would have been BEAUTIFUL with water flowing. Maybe we will make it back sometime after a nice rain.
 
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