EPA: Greenhouse Gases Threaten Public Health and the Environment

People are environmentalists for many different reasons – many of which stem from a desire to preserve the amazing natural beauty in the world, but more so I am realizing (and hoping) people are caring about the environment because they also see the great risk to us – as humans- if we don’t care about it. This is survival we are talking about! And this newsfeed from the EPA I just read is just one more reality check that we are contributing to a changing earth and really need to wake up and do something about it. According to the EPA: “Science overwhelmingly shows greenhouse gas concentrations at unprecedented levels due to human activity”.

Here is the full article:

WASHINGTON – After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA also finds that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat.

GHGs are the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans.

“These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Business leaders, security experts, government officials, concerned citizens and the United States Supreme Court have called for enduring, pragmatic solutions to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution that is causing climate change. This continues our work towards clean energy reform that will cut GHGs and reduce the dependence on foreign oil that threatens our national security and our economy.”

EPA’s final findings respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that GHGs fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants. The findings do not in and of themselves impose any emission reduction requirements but rather allow EPA to finalize the GHG standards proposed earlier this year for new light-duty vehicles as part of the joint rulemaking with the Department of Transportation.

On-road vehicles contribute more than 23 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions. EPA’s proposed GHG standards for light-duty vehicles, a subset of on-road vehicles, would reduce GHG emissions by nearly 950 million metric tons and conserve 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of model year 2012-2016 vehicles.

EPA’s endangerment finding covers emissions of six key greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride – that have been the subject of scrutiny and intense analysis for decades by scientists in the United States and around the world.

Scientific consensus shows that as a result of human activities, GHG concentrations in the atmosphere are at record high levels and data shows that the Earth has been warming over the past 100 years, with the steepest increase in warming in recent decades. The evidence of human-induced climate change goes beyond observed increases in average surface temperatures; it includes melting ice in the Arctic, melting glaciers around the world, increasing ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, acidification of the oceans due to excess carbon dioxide, changing precipitation patterns, and changing patterns of ecosystems and wildlife.

President Obama and Administrator Jackson have publicly stated that they support a legislative solution to the problem of climate change and Congress’ efforts to pass comprehensive climate legislation.  However, climate change is threatening public health and welfare, and it is critical that EPA fulfill its obligation to respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined that greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants.

EPA issued the proposed findings in April 2009 and held a 60-day public comment period. The agency received more than 380,000 comments, which were carefully reviewed and considered during the development of the final findings.

Information on EPA’s findings:  http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment.html

View the news conference live on EPA’s home page: http://www.epa.gov

Live (and Give) Green This Holiday!

It’s estimated that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, Americans generate one million tons of waste a week. Holiday gift giving and decorating doesn’t have to sacrifice the environment – with some creative green thinking and action, you can have a festive holiday that is good for the planet, and maybe even your pocketbook! Here are Green Living Consulting’s tips for a Green Holiday:

Keep up the 3 R’s Through the Holidays

More than 8,000 tons of wrapping paper are used for presents – the equivalent of 50,000 trees. Try these eco-practices to reduce waste:

• Wrap gifts with paper that is made from recycled content or recyclable. I often use the off-white paper included in shipments and decorate using colored ribbon or stamps. Comic strips from the newspaper also make great wrapping paper.
• Buy gifts with minimal packaging and wrap in a reusable bag.
• Recycle wrapping and tissue paper, bags, and boxes after the gift unveiling is over.
• Send e-cards instead of buying and mailing holiday cards or buy cards made from recycled paper. Around 744 million holiday cards are sent each holiday season. If all these were made from recycled paper, it would help to save the equivalent of 248,000 trees!

Green Decorating

Greener Tree Options

• The majority of Christmas trees are dumped in landfills every year, yet there are many uses for discarded trees. Old Christmas trees can be ground up and used for mulch. Some can be replanted and used for increased stabilization near waterways, preventing beach erosion, or fishing reefs. You can also plant your tree in your winter garden as decoration or as a bird feeder.
• You can buy plastic trees that you can reuse every year, but these trees often end up discarded after about 6 years, ending up in landfills. They also contain polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which produces cancer-causing dioxins during its manufacture and incineration.
• The ideal choice for a truly green tree is to buy a potted Christmas tree, available at farmer’s markets, garden centers, and some tree farms. After you’ve enjoyed it, you can celebrate the New Year by planting it outdoors or donate it to your local parks department. Visit earth911.org to find out where to recycle your tree!

Energy Efficient Holiday Lights

Indoor LED (light emitting diode) holiday lights run on about 1/10th of the energy of conventional lights. Since they produce no heat, they don’t present a fire risk, making them green and safe!

• Decorating your home with LED lights could reduce holiday lighting energy use by up to 95%. A typical 50-bulb incandescent strand of lights uses 250 watts and an equivalent 70-bulb LED strand uses only three watts. For a house that operates holiday lights for six hours a day through the month of December, with an energy price of 8.27 cents per kilowatt hour, six strands of incandescent holiday lights would cost over $23 to power versus a mere 28 cents for LEDs. By replacing the incandescent strands with LEDs, it would save you $22.79 in energy costs for the month.
• For outdoor decorating, you can buy Solar LED lights that charge by daylight and automatically turn on from dusk until dawn.

Don’t forget to always turn your lights off before going to bed at night!

Eco-friendly Ornament Options

• Buy Fair Trade Federation-certified ornaments that are lead-free and made from materials such as silk, wood, or gourds.
• Make your own ornaments out of gingerbread cookies, prior year’s Christmas cards, origami patterns, ribbons, and the old-time favorites like popcorn-and-cranberry garland.

Electronics and Batteries

If you receive electronic goods this season, don’t throw your old ones away. Dispose of them properly by:

• Returning old cell phones to your cell phone provide (many take them back and donate them to community organizations, battered women’s shelters, etc)
• Sell them at YouRenew.com and make money if they are still working or mail it to them anyway and they will recycle or dispose of properly.
• If you are buying toys or electrical goods that need batteries, buy rechargeable ones, then add a battery charger to your shopping list. Make sure to recycle those old batteries instead of tossing them in the trash (libraries often take old batteries or go to earth911.org for disposal locations near you!).

Shopping and Gift-Buying

Around 125,000 tons of plastic packaging are thrown away over the holiday season.

• Take your own reusable shopping bags when you do your shopping.

Get Green Gifts for Your Family and Friends

• www.greenshops.com
• www.treehugger.com/giftguide
• www.greenamericatoday.org/guides/holidaygifts/index.cfm
• www.greengiftguide.com
• www.inhabitat.com/2009/11/27/announcing-the-2009-inhabitat-green-gift-guide/
• www.goinggreendc.net

for some gifts that give back…

• Alternative Gifts International – support global humanitarian causes that will gladly accept a holiday donation in the name of a loved one. www.altgifts.org
• Tom’s Shoes – for every pair purchased Tom gives a pair of shoes to a child in need. www.tomsshoes.com
• Better World Books – Collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. www.betterworld.com

Post-Holiday Clean-Out

New sweaters, scarves, jeans – all the items on your fashion wishlist were delivered by Santa and now you need room in your closet. If you do a clean-out, be sure to donate your old clothes to someone in need through your local church, Goodwill, or shelter. You might even check with a second-hand shop to see if they’ll consign or buy you used clothing. It would be new to someone else and give you a little extra $green$ in your pocket for your good green acts!

Don’t forget to make your New Year’s resolution to live greener in 2010!

be well. live green.

Increasing number of shoppers showing willingness to spend more on green products

For those of us whose lifestyle and livelihood are focused on educating others about healthy, sustainable choices, it’s a always a feel-good moment to read that consumers are increasingly putting a high value on green products, and willing to spend a little extra $green$ to have them. I’ve been intrigued by the various studies and consumer polls that are showing a preference for green products despite the struggling economy. This may be a testament to the “less is more” philosophy but also “quality over quantity,” with a growing number of Americans committed to purchasing practices that are both socially and environmentally responsible, and also simply better for them.

A study by Miller Zell, Inc. reported that the “majority of shoppers polled indicated they would be most likely to pay a 10¢ premium for household products.”  Interestingly, the study also showed that low-income shoppers were more willing to pay a 10¢ premium compared to middle and upper income groups.

Writer Basil Katz’s recent article, “Shoppers going green despite struggling economy” in Reuters said that “despite the worst U.S. recession in decades, sales of organic and sustainable products have continued to grow, with shoppers willing to spend a few more dollars in a bid to become more green.”

The article also reported that U.S. supermarket sales of environmentally sustainable or “ethical” products — from energy-efficient light bulbs to organic produce — will rise about 8.7 percent in 2009 to nearly $38 billion, according to a recent study by Packaged Facts, a market research provider.

Other excerpts from the article state that “President Barack Obama’s commitment to tackle climate change, a string of scandals over tainted food and effective marketing of sustainable products have helped convince more Americans, whose environmental credentials lag behind Europeans, to buy green.”  And, that sales of goods specifically labeled organic rose 17 percent to $24.6 billion in 2008, according to the Organic Trade Association.

The Miller Zell study reported that women are more eco-conscious, closely followed by Gen Y. One of the frustrations with both of these groups, however, is the level of communication offered in-store about green products.This is something that I hear often from my household clients, especially when I educate them on pros and cons of certain green products.

For example, many people are willing to spend a little more money upfront on compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) to save energy and money long-term, but many people are not aware that you should not throw CFLs in the trash (See Earth911.org for recycling centers), and that there are safety precautions if one should break in your home (See EPA guidance).

With an increasing number of consumers purchasing green products, companies producing them have a responsibility to be transparent about what makes their products green. Consumers also have some due diligence of their own to do in making sure they are not victim to green-washing.

Here are some resources that can help consumers determine what companies and their products have been vetted by a third party and are legitimately green:

Green America – offers a directory of green businesses that have been Green America approved

Green Seal – provides science-based environmental certification standards for products and services

Responsible Purchasing Network – an international network of buyers dedicated to socially responsible and environmentally sustainable purchasing

Green Guide – National Geographic’s buying guide for green products

With the holiday season in full force, there are many ways to be an environmentally responsible shopper and gift giver. Our West Coast sister company, Greenshops.com, has many green products to offer this holiday, and eco-labels to explain exactly what makes their products green. Enter Code GLC2009 for a 10% discount on your first purchase.

be well. live green.

DC Residents Get Ready to Skip the Bag and Save the River!

It’s official! Beginning January 1, 2010, Washington D.C.’s businesses that sell food or alcohol must charge 5 cents for each disposable paper or plastic carryout bag.

According to DC’s Department of the Environment (DDOE), the business keeps 1 cent, or 2 cents if it offers a rebate when you bring your own bag, and the remaining 3 or 4 cents go to the new Anacostia River Protection Fund. DDOE will administer this fund. The money will be used it to provide reusable bags, educate the public about litter, and clean up the river.

The District has also partnered with CVS/pharmacy to produce and hand out 112,000 reusable bags primarily to District residents, with many going to seniors and low-income communities. Some of the bags have been distributed at recent kick-off events, but it was not clear exactly where and when new distributions will be made other than announcing they will take place in 2010.

What does this mean for green in DC?

This tax sends a pretty clear message that DC is getting serious about it’s Green Agenda. If you don’t already know, DDOE offers a number of FREE eco-support services:

• Free ENERGY STAR appliances (must meet household size and income requirements)
• Free weatherizing help (must meet household size and income requirements)
• Free home energy audit (All residents can apply for homes under 4,000 square feet)

Guess what DC? It looks like it’s time to finally get our green on and be a model green capitol (or at least aspire to be)!

be well. live green.

GLC Green Tips: How to Reduce Junk Mail

Did you know that approximately 4 million tons of junk mail are sent every year? The U.S. spends 340 million dollars to dispose of that junk mail, often with it going straight from the mailbox to the trash. That’s a true waste on a lot of different levels.

Here are some simple steps you can take to reduce junk mail:

1) Catalogs - call number on catalog and ask to remove your name. This can be time consuming, especially when you account for holding times and navigating the automated voice messaging systems of most businesses today. But it’s a start and if you don’t have that many then an easy fix.

2) For first class mail - cross out your name and address, circle and write Refuse, Return to Sender.

3) Credit offers – call 1-888-5 OPTOUT  (1-888-567-8688) or go to https://www.optoutprescreen.com

4) Coupons – Val-Pak or Velassis, call and ask to be taken off list. There is usually a number on the packet (you may have to hunt a bit).

5) Hire someone to do the dirty work for you! There are various organizations/companies that you can pay to remove you from lists and help you manage unwanted mail. One we recommend is Precycle. Formerly Green Dimes, Planet Green and Tonic.com partnered to form Precycle (better than recycle because you stop it before it hits the bin). There is a one-time fee of $36 + shipping and handling. You receive a kit for stopping unwanted mail. They plant 5 trees. Sign up at http://precycle.tonic.com.  You might also check out DMA Choice – an organization that will also help you manage which marketing lists you want to be on versus those you don’t. It also helps you with email subscriptions.  Call  888-567-8688 or visit www.dmachoice.org

Check out Green Living Consulting’s West Coast Partners on Bakersfield news giving Junk Mail tips!!

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/mornings/64015477.html?video=YHI&t=a

Plastic vs. Paper: Which is the Eco-Friendly Choice?

The Plastic vs. Paper has been an on-going debate in the environmental world, and one that Everyday Health recently decided to talk to us about. Find out which one we said is the more eco-friendly choice in Diana Rodriguez’s article:

Paper vs. Plastic: Making an Environmentally Friendly Choice

One of our favorite analyses of this issue was done by the Washington Post. Click on image below to link to the original source so you can actually read the report – you might be surprised by what you find out! I also find this to be one of those  debates where you really have to get to the bottom of both sides of the issue, and even consider something you didn’t think of before to make the choice that is best for the environment.

~ be well. live green.

Adrienne

Achieving Nirvana through Vegetarian Indian Food and Green Operations

Nirvana Indian restaurant, one of Green Living Consulting’s newest clients, recently achieved a SILVER certification for its green operations. As a lunch and dinner service in the heart of DC’s downtown area, Nirvana’s vegetarian-only menu is the perfect option for lowering your carbon footprint (see below for how going veggie one day a week can reduce your environmental impact). Combining a wide range of Indian flavors that change daily, the Shah family owners present their take on the eight-fold path to Nirvana through their delicious food.

Nirvana will be participating in the Washington DC Green Festival, October 10-11, as one of the select food vendors at the event.

Stay tuned for more information about Nirvana and their green efforts!

Now, here are some stats I recently read in article posted by a Huffington Post writer on the Startling Effects of Going Vegetarian for One Day:

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

● 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;

● 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;

● 70 million gallons of gas — enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;

● 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;

● 33 tons of antibiotics.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:

● Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;

● 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;

● 4.5 million tons of animal excrement;

● Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

be well. live green.

A Greener Ripe featured in Business Week

photos by Brad Trent

Business Week’s new feature “When Going Green Isn’t About Marketing“, by Amy Barrett, gets at the heart of what Green Living Consulting preaches daily – it’s possible to green your business in a way that saves money and reduces your impact on the environment. Our client Ripe has demonstrated how you weather a tough economy in both a fiscally and environmentally responsible way by greening up your operations.

Ripe, a DC-based web and graphic design studio, has been in the creative world for many years and continues to be a leader in innovative design practices, increasingly incorporating sustainable design into their products and services. But that’s not all. They have embraced sustainability as not just something they should consider when designing, but in every aspect of their business – from how they get to work (see Maryam’s bicycle below right), to how they light, cool, and heat their office, and even what they use to clean it.

Ripe also looks for opportunities to giveback, for example by donating laptops to the One Laptop per Child Foundation, whose mission is to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. Tomas, owner of Ripe, even subsidizes alternative transportation for his employees – something not unusual for DC given the number of federal employees that receive transit benefits, but for this 5-person design firm, that’s a major commitment.

The studio’s design also incorporates sustainable materials: bamboo floors, low-VOC paints, and recently added Sansevieria plants, which are a big favorite of ours for cleaning the air naturally indoors. This plant is great because it is low-light tolerant, requires little water, and absorbs many of the toxins in the air that we don’t even know are there (See NASA study excerpts on how house plants absorb potentially harmful gases indoors).

Ripe was also the first design firm in Washington DC to adopt the Design Accord – a global coalition of designers, educators, and corporate leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact. Adopters of the Designers Accord commit to five guidelines that provide collective and individual ways to take action.

Ripe also recently received its Green Living Consulting certification, in which they rated SILVER in our Scorecard Assessment for their green actions across our 8 pillars of sustainability. We can’t wait to help them reach GOLD and keeping climbing the green ratings from there.

be well. live green.

Green Living Consulting client Taylor Gourmet featured in Dwell

If you are not a design enthusiast, you may not be a subscriber of Dwell – the at home in the modern world magazine. But if you are a green enthusiast that also enjoys modern, sustainable design then Dwell will have plenty of reading and viewing pleasure for you. The current issue – September – features one of Green Living Consulting’s clients: Taylor Gourmet, a Philadelphia hoagie deli and Italian market in Washington D.C. Owners David Mazza and Casey Patten are featured because they live above the deli, having converted a former beauty parlor on H Street NE into a mixed-use live/work space that embodies urban, and green living (click here for the online feature).

GLC couldn’t be happier to see them featured (pages 92- 99) for multiple reasons:

a) We love when our clients get good press for their business successes, which often include their green initiatives, or are at least due in part to their efforts to lessen their impact on the environment while also delivering top-notch products and services.

b) Casey and Dave chose the H Street NE district to build their home and Italian deli. The H street NE corridor – which starts roughly at the boundary of North Capitol (near D.C.’s Union Station) and extends to 15th street NE – used to be a thriving commercial district prior to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, which sparked riots that caused destruction from which the corridor has not since recovered.  A transition is underway, however. New restaurants and bars have invigorated parts of the H Street corridor, often referred to by DC residents as the Atlas District (the streets from about 11th – 14th NE) because of the historic Atlas theater, a former movie theater that now houses a Performing Arts Center. The Rock-n-Roll hotel also reels in young, hipsters who want to spend their evenings in a grungy bar listening to bands that they didn’t have to spend a paycheck on to hear.With a trolley car scheduled to be installed and other redevelopment efforts planned by D.C.’s Office of Planning, whispers of this corridor becoming a once-again thriving district are not unrealistic, and probably not too far off.

c) H Street is near and dear to our heart. Green Living Consulting not only has shared office space along the corridor, we are also part of a major initiative with DC Greenworks and H Street Main Street organization to Grow H Street NE Green – starting with educating the local business community on the benefits of greening their operations and taking advantage of government grant programs to add green roofs. Our hope is that if other businesses along the corridor witness the benefits that implementing green practices has both for their pocketbooks and reputation as well as the environment, as Taylor has demonstrated, then they will be motivated to make even small changes that collectively will serve to have a big impact.

d) We would be lying if we weren’t also thrilled at getting a name mention on page 98 of the feature article, given our love for Dwell and almost all things both modern and green!

be well. live green.

Green Living Consulting speaks with Athletic Business magazine

Green Living Consulting was recently interviewed by Athletic Business magazine regarding the green movement in health clubs. As Andrew Cohen, author of the article “Eco Logical”, points out that health clubs, and many business in general, started focusing on green practices and the marketing of their green efforts a few years ago. “Then came the global economic meltdown, and going green immediately took a backseat to staying in the black.” The article mentions our work with two of DC’s health clubs – VIDA Fitness at the Verizon Center and CycleLife USA in Georgetown.

One thing we’d like to emphasize that was not clear in the article is that we do support LEED (which is a little misleading from the author’s statement that green consultants sometimes dismiss LEED because of its cost). Where we see a bridge in our services and rating system with what LEED provides is the tranistion from construction and design to the everyday operations. We look at some of the interior design and infrastructure to assess at what point a committment was made to integrate “green” – whether in building design, furniture, wall and flooring selection, etc, to practices and products used to support the services once open for business. For example, in a health club, we like to see a committment to good air quality considering that people are coming to a club to get in shape and improve health. If a club member is inhaling VOCs (volatile organic compounds often found in paints, carpeting and other synthetic materials) while exercising, they could be increasing their risk of cancer or other illnesses as those toxins are exposed to their body. There are a number of ways to improve air quality post-construction and design, including ensuring adequate ventilation, adding air purifying plants, and using non-toxic cleaning products on all surfaces and machines.

There’s much more to the green side than good air quality, and so we target a number of areas that create a overall sustainable operation. For health clubs, integrating green practices is a way to cut operating costs as well as create a healthy environment good for people and the planet.

be well. live green.