We know our planet is hot - how hot is still a question of some debate - although it seems we get closer each day to a consensus that something (or a whole lot of something’s) must be done to reverse the effects of global warming.

Chances are if you’re reading this column, you are one of those people who is either looking for more information on Living Green or you are a Green Person already.

The good news: There is no shortage of ways Joe Consumer can make changes in Living Green on the way to Being Green.

If you are just starting, here are some powerful adjustments almost anyone can make:

1. Use compact fluorescent lightbulbs (or, CFLs). The EPA says “If every American household changed five regular light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs, it would be like taking 8 million cars off the road.” Look for the Energy Star logo; any average hardware store carries them.

2. Cut down on VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) by using gas grills over charcoal grilling. Gas BBQs produce about half as much CO2 as charcoal grills, and about 1/3 as much as electric grills.

3. This summer collect rainwater run-off with a simple rain barrel solution. Rainwater is chlorine free, can be used on plants and helps reduce polluted rain run-off in streams and rivers.

4. Plant a tree. Trees act like natural air filters. They absorb the carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air. The average person is responsible for emitting 94 pounds of CO2 every day. It takes at least four trees to offset the CO2 you personally generate in a month. Visit American Forests (americanforests.org) or The Conservation Fund (conservationfund.org), a non profit group in Arlington, VA for more. Both groups will plant a tree for you.

(And, for $57 the Conservation Fund will plant 11 trees for you - enough to neutralize 14 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere!)

The other half of the model Green Person requires a bigger commitment to Living Green/Being Green. Because they are “macro” choices they will have much bigger impacts on the cleaning up the environment, saving energy and remaining carbon neutral.

Big commitments might look like this:

1. Drive a fuel-efficient hybrid car
2. Build an energy efficient, sustainably built green home
3. Donate a percentage of your earnings to an environmentally responsible non-profit.

Living Green starts with a state of mind. The choices can be absurdly confusing, often eccentric and tend to the altruistic. The important thing is to put it in perspective.

At the same time, Living Green is NOT meant to be polarizing, it is NOT a superficial label and it is NOT an excuse to point fingers at people.

Green IS an excuse to take some new steps towards cleaning up the environment.

About the Author

Matt Cohen is one of a new breed of environmental builders who heads Gaudet Log Homes, a green build log home company.

Imagine a healthy, green backyard garden: perfect for lounging, great for ball games and barbecues, a real asset to your home. But did you know that your bakyard garden, and how you take care of it, can also help the environment?

Healthy grass provides feeding ground for birds, who find it a rich source of insects, worms, and other food. Thick grass prevents soil erosion, filters contaminants from rainwater, and absorbs many types of airborne pollutants, like dust and soot. Grass is also highly efficient at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen, a process that helps clean the air.

Caring for your bakyard garden properly can both enhance its appearance and contribute to its environmental benefits.

Your backyard garden can be tough but you don’t have to be an expert to grow a healthy backyard garden. Just keep in mind that the secret is to work with nature. This means creating conditions for grass to thrive and resist damage from weeds, disease, and insect pests.

It means setting realistic goals for your backyard garden, whether you or a professional garden or lawn care service will be doing the work. And if you choose to use pesticides, it means using them with care so as to get the most benefit and reduce any risks.

Let’s talk a little about organic gardening. We will discuss the term “Organic” in a gardening context, it might be a useful start to define exactly what that means, so here it is, “Organic gardening is the way of growing vegetables and fruits with the use of things only found in nature”. Really simple isn’t it, but most certainly not commonplace any more in today’s world I suggest.

Having led up to all of that, a good question might arise as to exactly why you would want to indulge in organic gardening as such! Well, as the title of this articles suggests, here are six good reasons why you should do so, in my opinion at any rate.

1. You can easily make compost from garden and kitchen waste, alhough this is a bit more time consuming than buying prepared chemical pesticides and fertilizers. However it certainly helps to put garbage to good use, and so helps the environment.

2. Organic farming does not use chemicals that may have an adverse affect on your health, which is especially important when growing vegetables. The chemical companies do tell us that the chemicals we use are safe, provided that they are used according to direction. Research has shown however that even tiny amounts of poisons absorbed through the skin can cause such things as cancer, especially in children. Quite a sobering thought is it not!

On average, a child ingests four to five times more cancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult, which could lead to various diseases later on in the child’s life. Remember, pesticides contain toxins that have only one purpose, which is to kill living things!

With organic gardening, these incidents are lessened.

3. Less harm is caused to the environment, because poisons are not washed into our waterways to give but one example, causing death to the native fish and polluting their habitat in most cases.

4. Organic farming practices also help prevent the loss of topsoil through erosion. The Soil Conservation Service says that an estimated 30 - 32 billion tons of soil is eroded from United States farmlands every year, and that’s only one country.

4. Cost savings, because you do not need to buy costly chemical fertilizers and pesticides with organic gardening. Many organic recipes for the control of pest and disease come straight from the kitchen cupboard, and sometimes other plants can even be grown as companions to the main crop. One example of this is the marigold, which helps to repel aphids from vegetables.

Mixing 1 tablespoon of liquid dishwashing soap, and 1 cup of cooking oil, can make a cheap garden pest spray for example. Put 3 tablespoons of this mixture in 1 quart of water and spray on to your plants. You will find this to be very effective!

5. A simple mulch of pine needles will help to suppress the growth of weeds, as well as keeping the moisture in. Another simple and much safer solution!

6. Organic gardening practices are much more likely to help keep the environment safe for future generations, and all of us who are responsible ciitizens, should always bear this in mind

The whole subject which is part of an on going worldwide debate, is far too complex to cover in such a short article, but I do hope that at least I have left you with some food for thought.

Imagine the overall benefits to be had in our environment, by many people undertaking even some small changes.

Caring for your bakyard garden in an environmentally sensible way can have a bigger impact than you might think. Your backyard garden is only a small piece of land, but all the bakyard gardens across the country cover a lot of ground.

That means you and your backyard garden care activities, along with everyone else’s, can make a difference to the environment. And that’s why taking care of the environment begins in our own backyards.

About the Author

James Paul is an avid gardener and specialized in an eco friendly approach to gardening and lawn maintenance for the homeowner. Visit his blog to ask questions and learn more here backyard garden

There are more reasons to-day than ever before why the owner of a small place should have his, or her, own vegetable garden. The days of home weaving, home cheese-making, home meat-packing, are gone. With a thousand and one other things that used to be made or done at home, they have left the fireside and followed the factory chimney. These things could be turned over to machinery. The growing of vegetables cannot be so disposed of. Garden tools have been improved, but they are still the same old one-man affairs–doing one thing, one row at a time. Labor is still the big factor–and that, taken in combination with the cost of transporting and handling such perishable stuff as garden produce, explains why _the home gardener can grow his own vegetables at less expense than he can buy them_. That is a good fact to remember.

But after all, I doubt if most of us will look at the matter only after consulting the columns of the household ledger. The big thing, the salient feature of home gardening is not that we may get our vegetables ten per cent. cheaper, but that we can have them one hundred per cent. better. Even the long-keeping sorts, like squash, potatoes and onions, are very perceptibly more delicious right from the home garden, fresh from the vines or the ground; but when it comes to peas, and corn, and lettuce,–well, there is absolutely nothing to compare with the home garden ones, gathered fresh, in the early slanting sunlight, still gemmed with dew, still crisp and tender and juicy, ready to carry every atom of savory quality, without loss, to the dining table. Stale, flat and unprofitable indeed, after these have once been tasted, seem the limp, travel-weary, dusty things that are jounced around to us in the butcher’s cart and the grocery wagon. It is not in price alone that home gardening pays. There is another point: the market gardener has to grow the things that give the biggest yield. He has to sacrifice quality to quantity. You do not. One cannot buy Golden Bantam corn, or Mignonette lettuce, or Gradus peas in most markets. They are top quality, but they do not fill the market crate enough times to the row to pay the commercial grower. If you cannot afford to keep a professional gardener there is only one way to have the best vegetables–grow your own!

And this brings us to the third, and what may be the most important reason why you should garden. It is the cheapest, healthiest, keenest pleasure there is. Give me a sunny garden patch in the golden springtime, when the trees are picking out their new gowns, in all the various self-colored delicate grays and greens–strange how beautiful they are, in the same old unchanging styles, isn’t it?–give me seeds to watch as they find the light, plants to tend as they take hold in the fine, loose, rich soil, and you may have the other sports. And when you have grown tired of their monotony, come back in summer to even the smallest garden, and you will find in it, every day, a new problem to be solved, a new campaign to be carried out, a new victory to win.

Better food, better health, better living–all these the home garden offers you in abundance. And the price is only the price of every worth-while thing–honest, cheerful patient work.

But enough for now of the dream garden. Put down your book. Put on your old togs, light your pipe–some kind-hearted humanitarian should devise for women such a kindly and comforting vice as smoking–and let’s go outdoors and look the place over, and pick out the best spot for that garden-patch of yours.

About the Author

To find more information about Gardening go to Gardening Tips

Americans are becoming increasingly aware of the environment’s importance to health and quality of life for today and future generations. Issues such as global warming and rising energy costs are rarely escaping the headlines. The need for energy sustainability has becoming paramount especially in light of the emergence of China and India as great industrial powers and global competitors for dwindling resources. The media continually looks to the automobile as one of the leading culprits of energy waste, and certainly hybrid technology is proving that we can make great improvement, but what about “gas guzzling homes”?

There is a new movement in government and amongst eco-willing developers called “Sustainable Design” which is creating more resource efficient models of building construction along with healthier living environments by combining the latest energy saving technologies in sort of a “hybrid” home. New home builders who employ such design techniques are finding a very positive response from consumers who would like the option of a more eco-friendly home, if only given the choice.

Hybrid Features of Sustainable Design

Energy Star? Compliance: The home must be able to use 30% less energy than the former government standard, which is called “The 1993 National Model Energy Code”. To achieve this reduction in energy use, a builder may employ the following:

a) Energy Star appliances which use 10-50% less energy as determined by the federal government.

b) Low-E spectrally selective windows which filter out heat emission without reduction of sun light.

c) Improved insulation to improve heated and cooled air retention. Sometimes this is combined with cellulose attic insulation using eco-friendly materials such as specially treated recycled newspaper.

d) Tightly sealed ducting which prevents heated or cooled air from escaping and being wasted.

e) Energy efficient heating and air conditioning systems which use the greatest amounts of energy in the home.

NOTE: Be sure that the new home was independently verified for its energy use, comes with an Energy Star certificate and has the Energy Star emblem placed near the home’s voltage box.

Solar Power: Homes equipped with photovoltaic cells can convert the sun’s energy to heat water and generate electricity. When many homes are unoccupied during the hottest hours of the day, homeowners can actually reverse the electric meter and sell excess power back to the utility. A home that has the capacity to sell as much energy as it uses is called a Zero Energy Home.

Water-Efficient Landscaping: Drought tolerant native plants and multi-programmable irrigation clocks using a minimal amount of water are of increasing importance in the warmer climate zones of the United States.

Water-Efficient Faucets: Water saving fixtures can still provide a desirable water pressure while saving about half the water that would otherwise be wasted down the drain.

Tankless Water Heating: Why continually heat 50 gallons of water? With an on-demand water heating system, you only heat the water as needed.

Recycled Carpet: You could never tell the difference, yet a 2,000-square-foot home which uses carpet from recycled plastics prevents approximately 10,000 two-liter bottles from going to the landfill!

Low VOC Non-Toxic Paint: Volatile Organic Compounds evaporate from paint into the air and are harmful for the health of the occupants as well as to the environment. Ask your builder if they use Low VOC paint.

Central Vacuum: These systems eliminate the re-circulation of dirty air reducing allergens and dust mites from inside the living area. Because the electric motors are larger and concealed in the garage or basement, they are quieter, more powerful, and can draw more cubic feet of air per minute from deep within carpet, baseboards, blinds and fabrics.

Eco-friendly developers such as Pardee Homes in southern California (http://www.pardeehomes.com) are making sizable gains in sustainable design and contributing to America’s need for energy and green house gas reduction. For example, for every 2,200 new Energy Star homes built by a willing developer, roughly 10 million pounds of greenhouse gases are prevented from entering into the atmosphere. As more builders across the entire nation become Energy Star partners, the energy savings becomes tremendous. Home buyers are also saving money over the long run in lower energy costs and potentially higher home resale value and gaining a healthier more comfortable living environment.

For a complete list of Federal Energy Star partners visit energystar.gov under “Builders, Raters, Sponsors, and Lenders of New Homes.”

About the Author

Rick David writes for http://www.consumer-guides.info and other online publications of consumer interest and endorses Pardee Homes: an EnergyStar partner and eco-friendly builder of new homes in Southern California, and the Las Vegas Valley of Southern Nevada. (http://www.pardeehomes.com)

By definition, to sustain means to give support or relief. So it’s no surprise that sustainable businesses support or improve the current and future quality of people’s lives. Many architects, builders, interior designers, and others are frequently asked to use natural products that protect and improve the environment. And in many industries, special designations exist for recognizing these certified companies.

Cleveland is one of the few cities in Ohio that is taking strong strides to make a difference in the U.S. Delicious Living Magazine voted Cleveland as one of the top five most impressive cities in the U.S. for this reason. Yet, according to the recent Ohio Health and Wellness Report produced by The Marketing Insider, Ohio still has some catching up to do. Mindset is where it needs to be in regard to an overall understanding of sustainability, yet this is not translating enough into action for both businesses and consumers.

Although sustainable businesses represent only a small percentage of the business community, it is a fast-growing part of the marketplace. It is expanding at a healthy pace and is projected to reach $1 trillion annually by 2020. Over 27 large U.S. corporations, including Nike, Estee Lauder, 3M, and Hewlett-Packard, accounting for over one billion dollars of the annual U.S. market for paper, pulp, and packaging, have made a commitment to stop selling products or using packaging made from old-growth trees, and to influence their suppliers to do the same.

The sustainable economy is one of the five main LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) markets. It includes:

1. Alternative transportation 2. Green building and goods 3. Renewable energy 4. Resource-efficient products 5. Socially responsible investing 6. Environmental management

LOHAS is a $230 billion (and growing) U.S. marketplace for goods and services that appeal to consumers who value health, the environment, social justice, personal development and sustainable living. Of this $230 billion, $76.5 billion is comprised of sustainable economy.

Understanding overall sustainability is one thing, but doing something to be a part of it is yet another. It’s important that you use this information to empower you toward action-to effect change. The Sustainable Style Foundation of Seattle, Washington, puts it succinctly, “look fabulous, live well and do good.” Many of us recycle, something that may seem commonplace, yet is one step toward helping to protect the environment.

From a business standpoint, business owners can use this information to become sustainable and provide a better place for people to work and live. Companies can be sustainable even through their internal marketing and communications efforts. By using electronic formats to deliver collateral material and presentations to their internal and external audiences, they can minimize waste. In addition, professionally printed materials can be created on recycled paper with natural inks. Many companies that use catalogs to sell their products use print-on-demand to print only necessary pages, and use a searchable online catalog as their main catalog. Other companies, such as Interface Flooring Systems, offer users the opportunity to order samples directly from their website and return them in a prepaid package when they’re finished.

Sustainability extends much further than the physical environment. It encompasses the social sphere as well. Many companies choose to be sustainable by effecting social change. Sometimes it’s as simple as getting many groups to work together toward a common goal or effort that will impact the community. It allows everyone to make a difference.

Ben and Jerry’s is a well-known company that promotes a variety of causes, including rainforest protection, world peace, and community economic development. The company established a foundation that donates a percentage of its profits to charities all over the world. In addition, ingredients for its ice cream are purchased from companies that employ homeless people, recovering alcoholics, and drug addicts, as well as from developing countries.

By making a commitment to honest and accessible public relations, a company can be sustainable. Many manufacturers have established toll-free numbers to sell merchandise and respond to customer inquiries. When staffed by courteous and knowledgeable associates, these companies are able to fulfill their commitment to being accessible with the right information that will help the consumer successfully use or safely dispose of a product. A company new to an area, or one that has developed an innovative solution to help solve an environmental problem, should consider an open-house policy to build support and trust in the company. Consumers and communities need to be given a reason to feel proud about companies. The founder of Body Shop International did just that when she opened their new Canadian headquarters in 1993. She generated favorable press by explaining to invited guests that the building was the most environmentally sound in Toronto. This naturally boosted sales and created customer loyalty.

Sustainability will only be achieved by a cohesive effort among individuals, companies and communities. Through this cohesive effort, companies of all sizes can truly practice sustainable business and instill trust and loyalty in both its employees and the consumers it serves.

About the Author

Colette Chandler can help your business market to the emerging green consumer. Learn more about her October seminar at http://www.howconsumertrendsdriveprofits.com

Seattle Times - thrill of a good tractor-pull show, who could see beauty in a shiny row of green I have problems talking with people. For some reason, it really clicked with her. It I wasn’t done living yet _ I figured I could go on for quite a while,” he says

In any discussion of energy, the subject of carbon fuels comes quickly to the forefront. Are they good or bad for us? Do they cause global warming? Before entering the debate, just what are carbon fuels?

What are Carbon Fuels?

Carbon fuels form one of the great debates in society these days. They are the building blocks of nearly every economy in the world. This also makes them a great point of tension given the fact that some countries have more than others. Throw in issues of pollution, greenhouse gases and global warming and you have a lively, important debate on energy. So, just what are carbon fuels, and how do we use them in every day life?

The question of what are carbon fuels can start with a definition. Carbon fuels are any hydrocarbons that are formed from decaying plants and animals. They include such fuels as coal, natural gas and oil. Carbon fuels are also known as mineral fuels because of the way they are created.

The creation of carbon fuels from the decay of animals and plants was first hypothesized in 1757 by Mikhail Lomonosov and was quickly proven to be fact. The buried, compressed deposits of organic decayed matter are subjected to heat and pressure for millions of years. This process turns the material from raw organic matter into the forms of crude oil, natural gas and coal that we use today.

Despite being demonized today, one must remember that carbon fuels arguably are the reason you are sitting in that warm room surfing the Internet and have a car in the garage. These fuels formed the building blocks of the industrial revolution. Without them, we would still arguably be riding horses and living at a much lower standard of quality. In fact, if carbon fuels were eliminated completely today, civilization would cease to exist as we know it. Your lights would go out. There would be no phone service. Your car would be useless. Medical care would be devastated as hospitals would have no electricity. The world would become isolated since transport from country to country would be greatly reduced. In short, it would be like stepping back in time 100 years.

What are carbon fuels? They are the building blocks of our modern way of life. The question facing us is not whether we should demonize carbon fuels. Instead, it is how we should moderate our use of them given the obvious downsides that come with massive energy production in the form of greenhouse gases, pollutants and so on.

About the Author

Rick Chapo is with Solar Companies - a directory of solar energy companies.