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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!