jchait's blog

Choose A Green Community

jchait — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:00:37 -0400

Part of living green is based on green building material choices for your home. Another green consideration is house size (the smaller the better). It’s also important to think about the goods you bring into your home. Working on all of the above help you to achieve green living. However, another green living choice is your community.

Community matters, or it should. I think people sometimes forget that where they live is just as important as the building materials around them. You can have a green home, far from green spaces, but that seems somehow redundant - don’t you think?

If you’re moving or building and want to go green, and build a love of nature and the earth in your kids, then look for the following in a community…

Plenty of green spaces within walking distance.
Neighborhood recycling options - not all communities have them.
Bike paths or walking trials withing close range.
A safe park or community garden.
Low levels of traffic near your house.
On a bus or subway route.
Small homes are the norm - none of this beat the neighbors stuff to tempt you into buying more than you need.

You can be eco-friendly without any of the above, but consider that kids who grow up in neighborhoods full of McMansions, concrete, and cars won’t have as much of an opportunity to fall in love with nature, as kids in a greener setting might. You can’t save the earth if you don’t appreciate it.

If you need more help, take a look at Green Eco Communities or the 2008 US City Sustainability Rankings. Where I live came in number 1 - can you guess where?

The Urban Kitchen Compost Bin

jchait — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:34:35 -0400

[Stainless Steel Kitchen Compost Crock from Real Goods]

Just because you don’t live on a farm, or even somewhere with a small yard, doesn’t mean you can’t compost. No matter your size of home or land, you can compost easily with a basic kitchen compost bin - even if you live in an apartment in the city. Your local parks or community gardens, or your own potted plants can use the compost. Bonus; in recent years, kitchen compost bins have even gone down in price.

Composting basics:

Composting is simply allowing organic matter to decay and return to the soil, rather than tossing it in the garbage.
Composting can reduce household waste (i.e. what ends up in your trash can) but plenty - up to 30% or more.
If you have a yard or even potted plants, compost is the perfect natural soil additive. Composting (adding compost to) your plants will reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers and can even be used as mulch.

Items to compost:

Produce -veggies and fruit scraps or produce that’s gone bad
Coffee grounds
Eggshells
Fireplace ashes
Yard clippings, and cut grass
Bread, pasta, old beans

To learn more about what can and cannot be composted, visit Compost Info Guide or Composting at the EPA.

Now about kitchen compost bins…

The Stainless Steel Kitchen Compost Crock above is one small solution to composting. The one-gallon interior will hold a week’s worth of scraps. Also, there’s a six-month activated-carbon-filter lid to trap odors and circulate air (for rot prevention).

Other ideas:

NatureMill Automatic Indoor Composter also from Real Goods: This kitchen bin can handle even meat, fish and dairy. “The NatureMill automatic composter achieves true “hot composting” temperatures for odor-, bug- and worm-free composting of up to 120 lbs. of food waste per month.” You can even use this outside. One batch of compost made in this bin will feed 10-40 square feet of lawn or garden.

Bamboo Compost Pail

Compost Pail

Green Stoneware Compost Crock

Reduce the Junk Mail Coming to Your House

jchait — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:55:11 -0400

Junk mail is a big bad; not eco-friendly at all. About 4 million tons of junk mail arrives at U.S. homes each year. Some of us recycle, but not all of us. Also, not all areas even have proper paper recycling. What to do?

Stop junk mail: This is obviously your number one option. Unless you find junk mail an exciting read (I sure hope not) then why not cancel it?Over 100 million trees are used up to create junk mail, and you really don’t want to be a part of that.

How to stop junk mail:

Contact companies personally who send you junk mail, and tell them to take you off their list. If they don’t listen, I’d start sending it back.

Join Green Dimes. Not only will they stop junk mail cold, but they’ll plant 5 trees in your name when you sign on as a premium member.

Try the Stop the Junk Mail Kit.

If you’d like to put the junk mail you already have to work, save it up for holiday wrap.

Junk mail is annoying and an eco-baddie, but that doesn’t mean you have to take it.

Make Your House A Reusable House

jchait — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:35:21 -0400

You can apply green building features to your house. You can invest in eco-friendly furniture. You can even landscape with the environment in mind. However, one of the best ways to go green at home, is to make your house as reusable as possible.

First of all make sure that you’re only bringing goods into your house that you really need. Purchased goods take energy to manufacture, and most come with too much packaging. When you do purchase goods, make sure that they’re both recyclable, and if possible reusable. Look for items that can perform more than one duty. For example, no one needs a food processor, a blender, and a food grinder. One of the above will do the work of all three.

Items that can make your home reusable:

Cloth napkins over paper napkins.
Cleaning rags (made from old ripped clothes, or old towels) over paper towels.
A spray bottle filled with homemade cleaner instead of brand new plastic bottles of cleaners.
A hand soap pump filled with homemade hand soap or bulk hand soap from the co-op.
Refillable shampoo and conditioner bottles.
A juice pitcher - make concentrate juice instead of buying large bottles. Or you could make homemade juice.
Drink water from the tap, not bottled.
Bulk foods instead of packaged. Use reusable bags or containers to store bulk food in.
And more - what can you think of?

Every time you don’t purchase something brand new, you save energy and transport gas. When it comes to paper products, you save even more (think trees). This week try to limit the amount of brand new goods you buy, and see how it goes. You’ll be making the world a little greener.

Green Roof Homes for Pets

jchait — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:16:33 -0400

When you’re greening your own home and lifestyle, don’t forget about your furry friends. While green pet homes are lacking, there’s one company you can turn to for all your sustainable pet home needs…

Sustainable Pet Design an amazing company creating beautiful green-minded homes for your best friend - at least, your best friend with a tail. “Greenrrroof” pet homes smell great, attract wonderful wildlife (think birds and butterflies), and even naturally repel fleas. Green roofs are becoming more in style among human habitats, but to put a green roof on a pet home is brilliant. Take a look:

Each “Greenrrroof” pet home is custom sized to your dog. If you live in California, you can have a nicely planted pet home shipped to you. For folks living outside of California, you can’t get a planted one shipped, but the company will send you a pet home, and plant recommendations for your region.

Each home is green to the max. The company used untreated recycled red cedar wood, zero-VOC paint, and beeswax waterproofing.

Look at these other cool green homes for pets:

Not only does the company make homes for furry pals, but feathered friends as well!

Check out this cool bluebird house:

There’s plenty more to see at Sustainable Pet Design. Now, who said your dog can’t live the green life?

Grow Some Fresh Air at Home

jchait — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:00:17 -0400

Anyone can buy an air purifier for their home. However, air purifiers are loud, can be expensive, and let’s face it, aren’t all that attractive. Add that to the fact that it takes plenty of energy to manufacture and ship these air purifiers, and it makes it seem like a less green, and more obnoxious choice.

A better choice: Grow your own fresh air with a lovely collection of indoor plants. Plants naturally clean your air of toxins and chemicals, reduce stress, and improve your overall well-being; not to mention they look great and can add cheer to any room.

Some natural air cleaning plant options include:

Gerbera Daisy

Bamboo - read Bringing Up Bamboo at Savvy Gardening

Christmas Cactus - these are not just for Christmas time. A Christmas Cactus can last 30 years or longer.

This amazing chart from Good Magazine will tell you about common household pollution problems and the plants that help solve them. At your local library look for How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Office the best book I’ve read on toxin reducing plants; covering plants that work well in small and large spaces, and plants that do well with low light, meaning, you can have air cleaning plants in your bathroom or office space (even with no windows).

Now, head to your local nursery, pick up some organic plants, and grow some fresh air.

Quick Tip: Arrange Your Furniture to Save Energy

jchait — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:45:57 -0400

You might not think that how you arrange your furniture matters, but furniture arranging is actually a smart green action step.

If you arrange your furniture around the TV, most likely, the TV will be turned on. Instead arrange your furniture in such a way that motivates family gathering and conversation. Place furniture around a table with board games underneath. If you’ve got a reading or work space, arrange a couple of chairs around one nice light source, instead of having two lamps per room. Create a play space or art station for your kids in the brightest room of the house, and use dimmer, less energy draining lights in their actual bedrooms.

Each small step you take at home can help to save energy, create family time, and foster happiness - all you have to do is take the time to think it out, before you arrange your house.

Recycling Hazardous Household Waste

jchait — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:45:54 -0400

It’s easy to recycle cardboard, paper, and plastic, but what about recycling hazardous household waste? It’s a little tougher. However, you can’t just toss icky stuff in the trash, or down the sink. Hazardous waste is called hazardous for a reason; toss it out and it’ll pollute groundwater, soil, and streams.

Hazards you might have around the house include things like:

Paint and paint thinner
Varnish or wood stains
Motor oil, antifreeze, and other automobile fluids
Toxic cleaners
Weed or bug killer
Some adhesives, caulking, and other household fix-it supplies
Batteries
Some arts and craft materials

Some items like paints or art supplies can be donated rather than tossed. Get the full scoop on paint recycling here. Other items are more tricky. Follow these steps:

Use up what you can. What you can’t use, should be donated when possible, and if you can’t give it away (think old batteries) move on to step two.
Call your local community disposal or recycling company and ask. Most of the time, these folks will know where to send you and your toxic recyclables.
Look up hazardous waste drop-off sites in your community. To locate these drop-off sites, a quick trip to your online city or county website will do the trick. Look under headings like waste disposal or recycling until you find what you need.
Visit Earth 911. If you’re at a dead end, Earth 911 can usually help. Earth 911 has a super fast recycling search guide; all you do is enter your zip code and the item you’re looking to recycle.

You may also be interested in learning about Aerosol Product Recycling.

Planting Trees for Your Home and the Planet

jchait — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:31:08 -0400

I always hear green skeptics say things like - “You tree huggers, always talking about planting trees!” Which of course is far from true, there are plenty of green actions you can take that have nothing to do with tree planting.

That said, tree planting (not to focus on green stereotypes) is one great way to green your house, and the environment, all at the same time. Here are some benefits of planting more trees near your home…

It’s easy: Of all the green action steps you can take, tree planting has got to be one of the easiest. Anyone can plant a tree. To learn specifics visit Arbor Day (if you join you even get 10 Free Trees) or How to Plant A Tree.

Trees save energy: Using smart landscaping, the average home can save $150+ a year on energy costs. Trees add as sun and wind blockers, create natural awnings, and more. Trees also help reduce water needs on plants planted nearby. To learn about earth-friendly, energy saving landscaping read: Using Environmental Landscaping at Your House.

Trees create, restore, and promote habitats: Birds, animals, insects, and people all need trees to enjoy. As habitats are destroyed, as we fill in land with concrete, we’re making the world a less nice place to be. Planting trees helps to restore balance.

Trees promote human health and well-being: Trees are relaxing. I always feel better in say, Oregon than the middle of Albuquerque, where large trees are rare. Trees reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, and a newer study shows that neighborhoods with plenty of trees have reduced instances of youth asthma.

Trees protect land: Besides cleaning the air, which is great for animals and people, trees stop massive erosion and create natural shade for other shrubs and plants. In fact less mulching is needed for plants who live under trees.

Sustainable Furniture Shops

jchait — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:30:00 -0400

The other day we were talking about sustainable furniture, and I promised to show some cool pieces. If you missed the other posts, read: Sustainable Furniture Guidelines and Re-purpose the Furniture You Own.

Green furniture shops to adore:

Modern Bamboo Spring Chair from Design Public: (Comes in Cherry and Ebony as well).

Donato 6 drawer dresser in bamboo from the always lovely Fernwalla:

Smile by David Trubridge from Greenergrassdesign:

Other sustainable shops:

William Garvey Ltd - Teak Baths, Sinks, & More
Gorgeous Spun Bamboo Stools
The pli line from Bang Design
Gaiam
Ecotots - sustainable design for the littles
Branch
Vivavi

For even more great eco furniture store visit Co-op America.