The right to dry movement

Between the economic meltdown and the push for green buildings, saving energy, water and money in your home is more popular than ever. Fortunately, greening your home doesn’t have to be time consuming or expensive. We caught up with Eric Corey Freed, principal of Organic Architect, and author of the new book, Green$ense for the Home. Here’s his list of nine simple things anyone—renters and homeowners alike—can do in their homes today.

1. Change your light bulbs already! How many environmentalists does it take to change a light bulb? There are several answers to this joke (none of them that funny), but the real answer is: “all of them.” In your home, lighting accounts for nearly 30% of all electricity use. By using compact fluorescent bulbs, you can cut lighting costs by 30 to 60 %, while improving the quality of the light and reducing environmental impact at the same time.

2. Convince your toilet to use less water.  More than a quarter of all of the water used inside the home is flushed down the toilet, which is, literally, a waste. The toilet is the single largest user of clean drinking water inside the home, and it is also the easiest place to conserve water. Before you run out and replace your existing toilets, there are simple and effective things you can do to trick your old toilet to use less water, from flush adapters to flusher adjustments and tank tricks. And when the time comes to replace your working toilets, make sure you buy a low-flow or dual-flush model.

3. Use less water in the shower. Showers add up to nearly 20% of all indoor water usage and are the largest users of hot water. By simply installing a low-flow showerhead, you can save up to 4,000 gallons of water annually, and for every gallon of hot water you save, that’s gas or electricity you don’t need to use to heat it. If your average shower is 10 minutes long, upgrading your old showerheads to a low-flow model will save 25 to 55 gallons of water for every shower you take, and potentially shave 30 percent off utility bills!

4. Keep vampires at bay. In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics—cable boxes, DVD players, video games, stereos—is consumed while the products are turned off. That’s money that could stay in your pocket. If something is plugged into the wall—a TV, a cellphone charger, an appliance- even if it’s not on, it draws electricity. We call this demand of energy “phantom loads” or, more appropriately, “vampire loads,” since they suck energy. While the amount of power used is relatively small, they can add up to more than 10 percent of your electricity bill.

There are several simple ways to slay vampire loads: Unplug any appliance with a standby light. Get a power strip for appliances, and flip the switch off when not needed. Or, consider Smart Strips, which sense when power is being drawn and shut off automatically—as simple to install as a regular strip, and you don’t need to worry about vampire loads ever again.

5. Install a programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat operates only during the times you set. For example, a programmable thermostat could lower the heat at 10 p.m. every night, when you’re bundled under the covers in bed. It could also be programmed to return the room to a more comfortable temperature 30 minutes before you wake up. Once set correctly, a programmable thermostat can cut your heating and cooling bills by 20% to 30% annually.

6. Put a coat on your hot water heater. If your home is like most, hot water is produced in a hot water heater. This large tank usually sits in a garage, closet, or basement and slowly heats up a vat of water, and keeps it hot all day and night. Nearly 20% of all of the energy used in the home goes just to the water heater, making it the second-largest energy user in homes after heating and cooling. Insulating a water heater tank reduces the heat losses by 25% to 45%. This translates into as much as a 9% savings in total energy usage.  If everyone in the U.S. insulated their hot water heaters, nearly 11 billion kilowatt-hours of that energy would be saved—enough to power 11.9 million homes in a year.

7. Weatherise windows. The largest source of energy loss in your home is your windows. If you add up the area of all of the cracks and leaks around the windows of your home, it would total about the size of an entire window. Installing new windows can solve much of this problem, but that can be a big job. Simply weatherising—sealing the cracks and leaks around your windows and exterior doors—can have an immediate impact on your energy savings and can be completed in an afternoon.

Purchase only caulk with low or zero Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).  Six to eight tubes at a total cost of no more than €70 should be enough to seal a 3,000-square-foot house with 15 to 20 windows.

8. Install a solar powered clothes dryer: a clothesline. Today, 80% of households have a washer and dryer, but this convenience comes at a price. Electric clothes dryers eat up 10% of a home’s energy. Each load of laundry gives off around 5.6lbs of carbon dioxide per load. That adds up to more than 2,000lbs of CO2 a year just from drying clothes. A solar-powered clothes dryer is a smart and highly energy efficient way to dry your clothes. Also known as a “clothesline,” this idea has been around for centuries and provides an affordable, easy alternative to the high cost of clothes-drying convenience.

9. Compost and recycle.  Landfills pollute our water, take up enormous amounts of space, and (surprise) no one wants to live near them. Most people don’t realize the biggest problem with landfills is the emissions they generate, namely methane and carbon dioxide gas, which contribute to global warming. By composting and recycling, we can reduce the trash in landfills and do long-lasting good for our environment.

Recycling and composting require nothing except the desire to do it. Contact your local rubbish pickup or recycling company and request a free bin (you may also be able to get a free compost bin).

Each of these steps will pay for themselves in less than a year. Plus you’ll rest easy knowing you are doing your part for our environment.

via: www.Good.is

Precycling is trying to reduce waste by “pre-thinking” our purchases. While recycling is, of course, a positive thing, it still requires energy to transport the materials, melt them down and then re-manufacture items. Precycling tries to avoid the amount of stuff that gets chucked into landfills AND the recycling bin to begin with.

Here are some tips:

Buy in bulk, avoid individually wrapped items.
Buy items that come in recyclable packaging instead of non-recyclable.
Avoid junk mail.
Use a computer instead of reading “real” magazines and newspapers.
Bring your own utensils with you instead of using plastic ones.
Use cloth handkerchiefs and napkins.
And lets not forget to continue to reduce and reuse as much as you can.

Making plarn, or plastic yarn, couldn’t be simpler. it’s perfect for kids, and would be great for school projects to use up plastic bags.

(I’ve written more about it here, and what you can make from it.)

The only tool you need is a scissors, plus of course a pile of plastic bags. And it takes just a few minutes.

All you need is a scissors. Simply fold the bags and cut into strips. And that’s it!

Here is a 2-minute simple YouTube tutorial that shows you how

Once you’ve made a sufficient length of plarn, you can knit, crochet or braid it to make everything from rugs and bags and even waterproof sandals.

The only limit is your imagination.  But you’ll also find lots of ideas out there on the web.

(c) MaryMulvihill.net 2009

There is no better place to help students go green than at school. By letting students know what is going on in their local environment helps give them real reasons to adapt their lifestyle.  Below are some simple steps to going green at school which can be implemented by the school, students or parents.

 Computer conscious

Computers are being used more and more in classrooms.  So how can you increase your childs IT skills while being environmentally aware.

• Switch off. Computers left on overnight or over lunch waste energy. Label computers to remind people to switch off. If they can’t switch off the machine, switch off the monitor. Computer monitors use 60% of the energy needed for the whole computer
• Choose computers, printers, fax machines, and photocopiers that have an energy-saving “sleep” mode that kicks in automatically after a period of inactivity.
• Invest in LCD computer monitors another great way of energy efficiency.
• Recycle old or outdated electronics. To find out more about your local electronic recycler check out the GreenMe recycling directory

Nature trail

Instilling a sense of connectivity to nature and the environment whether it’s a forest, field, or city park is essential to learning about the environment.  When teaching your students about global issues such as climate change and endangered species, look to local issues such as animals in your county which are in decline, recycling  or air pollution. Making it personal and connecting it to your community makes it real and more urgent.

Clean green

A lot of cleaning products used in schools are known to cause human health or other environmental problems. As a result, the way schools clean and maintain their buildings can have a significant impact on the health of the students and the quality of the education they receive.

• Look for the “Eco” logo on cleaning products our why not revert back to the old fashioned way of using baking soda, or vinegar.

Greener Fuel

Encourage your school to change to the more environmentally friendly renewable energy providers such as Airtricity.  Not only will the school save at least 10% on each bill but you are also dong your bit for the environment
See the light

• Switch all lights to CFLs, which are up to four times more efficient than standard incandescent bulbs.  Try ordering in bulk for your school and negotiating a competitive price which is easily achieved in the current climate
• Install Lighting controls, so lights only come on when needed. Or just mark switches clearly so that people only light the area that they need.

Zero waste class by class

A recycling programme throughout the school is great to see, but If your school is finding it difficult to implement recycling at-large, start a class by class policy of “zero-waste.”
• Set up recycling bins and audit how much rubbish is created in a day. Sorting rubbish will help kids understand how much waste they are creating in a day and where it’s all coming from.
• Challenge kids to pack zero-waste lunches by using reusable bottles, containers, and bags, rather than disposable ones.
• Competing with another classroom to see who can reduce their waste output the most is a great way to create healthy competition and less waste.

Why not turn the food waste into compost for the school garden.  Check out GreenMe’s  easy to use composting tips  

Think before you print

• Encourage everyone to print less by sticking a sign above the printer and photocopier, such as ‘Think before you print to save energy and paper’.
• Make printing double-sided  standard.
• Use recycled paper.
• Set up a refill system for ink cartridges.

Walk to School or Car pool

Encourage parents and students to walk to school, not only is it healthy and sociable it is also good for the environment.  If the students live too far away from school to walk encourage parents to car pool and share lifts with other students who live in their direction

Melt down

Save energy by turning down your thermostat. Turn radiators off in areas that are used less often, such as corridors, hallways and storage areas. Old buildings are often draughty and poorly insulated, block up those draughts to stop heat escaping.

If you have some helpful tips on greening your school why not send them into GreenMe, we would love to hear from you.

Related Links

10 ways to be a green student

Calling all young green inventors

Bunged up head colds, snotty nosed children, sneezing season …. this time of year sees a serious rise in the amount of tissues we use. Unfortunately, more often than not these tissues end up in landfill!

So how do we avoid it.  Well the absolute best solution is to invest in some old fashioned hankies!!

Cath Kidston do a a really pretty range of hankies for the girls which you can buy on line or get in their new Dublinstore.  Marks and Spencers also carry a great variety if you want to go a little bit more low key!

Failing that, try to only buy recycled tissues.  Don’t worry, you’re nose will not know the difference!  Advances in technology have thankfully seen us move from the tracing paper days to the soft as a baby’s bum embossed numbers!

According to the green pressure group WWF, too much virgin fibre from the world’s forests is being used in tissue, when recycled fibre would be just as good.

The charity ranked the five lavatory tissue manufacturers which make up 75% of the European market according to their environmental credentials. Companies were rated on recycled content, wood sourcing practices, pollution control and transparency. SCA Tissue, the maker of Naturelle and Velvet, was ranked top, scoring 69 per cent. Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Andrex and Kleenex, scored 40 per cent and Procter & Gamble, maker of Bounty and Charmin, scored 34 per cent. Georgia Pacific, which makes Lotus and Nouvelle in the UK, came last, with just 26 per cent.

And now on to what to do after you blow!! Well if you’re lucky enough to have a wormery, the worms will love the extra protein that comes with them – the recycling companies won’t. So composting is definitely to road to go.

And if you’re reaching for the tissues now, check out our recent post on how to avoid colds and flus the green way! Oh, and gesundheit!