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1. Will Cali's Latest Wave Power Project Sink or Sail With Regulators?
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2. Daily Sprout
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3. Corn Ethanol Takes Another Hit With Pacific Ethanol Plant Suspensions
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4. Volt Battery Pack Too Bulky, Expensive to Compete With Hybrids, Says Study
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5. HOW GREEN IS OBAMA? What's in the Stimulus Plan for Greening the Economy? Who wins, who loses, who pays?
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6. Ventures West to Launch $158M Clean Energy Fund With BC Hydro Chairman
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7. Georgia: Strapped for Renewables — or a Solar Goldmine?
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8. Quick Energy Saving Tips for Empty Rooms
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9. Green Wizard Seeks $4.5M, Aims to Become Expedia of Green Building
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10. Boons for Clean Energy Tucked Throughout Obama Budget Plan
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11. Honda Hits the Gas on Cellulosic Ethanol R&D
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12. Geekout: Sun, Second Life & Green Data Centers
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13. Easy Ways to Save Some Green - Green Living Skills
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14. New Ways to Solve Indoor Air Pollution
Will Cali's Latest Wave Power Project Sink or Sail With Regulators?
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
Wave energy seems a natural fit for coastal, cleantech-loving San Francisco. But while the technology has a big fan in Mayor Gavin Newsom — who blogs today on CleanTechnica about the city’s latest scheme to tap ocean energy eight miles off the city’s west coast — the buck stops with higher-up regulators.
PG&E and Finavera Renewables know the regulatory snags all too well. The companies had a deal to develop what would have been the country's first commercial wave power project last year. But state commissioners decided the technology was too new and the prices too high for a viable project — and denied approval for the utility’s energy procurement contract.
The regulatory hurdle now faced by Newsom’s pet project may not be as tough to surpass — although there will be more to come if all goes well. In this phase, the city is dealing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which holds authority over marine power development, rather than utility commissioners put off by the idea of ratepayers being saddled with the expense of experimental technology. A year ago FERC gave the nod for Finavera to conduct studies for a 100 MW wave farm off the Northern California coast.
At this point, San Francisco is leaving door wide open for different companies and technologies. Newsom has at least seven companies on his radar — mentioned by name in today’s post:
There are over 50 different types of wave devices currently under development, ranging from "pitching" devices (Pelamis), "overtopping" devices (Wave Dragon), oscillating water columns (OceanLinx) and "heaving" devices (Aquabuoy). Some of these devices are based on "biomimicry" principles, which imitate natural designs and processes (bioWave, WaveRoller). Others can even provide both wave power and desalination (CETO). Wave technology is still new, but the possibilities of clean, green energy produced by the ocean is very real, if we invest in the technology. We will look at all of these and others technologies to find what will work best for us in San Francisco's waters.
Photo credit Flickr user Georgio
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Daily Sprout
Josie Garthwaite - Misc
Waiting…Still Waiting: The DOE has yet to disburse $25 billion under a four-year-old loan program for green cars. One complication: It can only award money to "financially viable" companies and projects, and two applicants (GM and Chrysler) must wait another month for feds to decide whether their restructuring plans will make them viable. — New York Times
Boston-Power Boosts Sonata Production: Lithium-ion battery maker Boston-Power plans to expand mass production of its Sonata rechargeable batteries through a partnership with China-based GP Batteries. — Press Release
Plugged In: The GSM Association’s recent pledge to have a universal cell phone charger within three years represents a big win for Green Plug, which envisions a day when all devices will be able to connect with the smart grid using their chip. — GreenBiz
Maybe Next Year: White House officials say Congress is unlikely to pass climate legislation by the end of 2009, a delay that could hurt efforts to reach a global treaty at the climate change conference in Copenhagen this December. — The Guardian
On the Hill: Republican lawmakers may stymie climate legislation by hammering away at the question of whether states will go along with decoupling. — Triple Pundit
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Corn Ethanol Takes Another Hit With Pacific Ethanol Plant Suspensions
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Our ethanol deathwatch map is getting pretty crowded. Sacramento, Calif.’s Pacific Ethanol said today it has temporarily suspended operations at two of its 60-million-gallon-per-year plants in Burley, Idaho, and Stockton, Calif., just a few weeks after the company suspended another facility in California, a 40-million gallon plant in Madera.
The company said it shut down the two bigger plants due to “extended unfavorable market conditions for producing ethanol.” Back in 2007, Pacific Ethanol suspended construction of a 60-million-gallon plant in Calipatria, Calif., also citing market conditions for the move. But the company plans to push on with production — it still has a 40-million-gallon-per-year facility in Boardman, Ore., and holds a stake in a 48-million-gallon-per-year plant in Windsor, Colo.
Last October, VeraSun Energy put the viability of a number of ethanol plants in question when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But there’s a chance that some of those plants could continue to operate, as oil refiner Valero Energy put in a bid earlier this month to buy four of VeraSun’s facilities, as well as one development site, for $280 million.
The waning fortunes of the corn-based ethanol industry comes as next-generation biofuel companies are making their way (albeit slowly) toward commercialization. Earlier this week, Mascoma announced that it has started operations at its pilot plant in Rome, N.Y., producing cellulosic ethanol from non-food biomass, including a diet of wood chips purchased from a local sawmill. Also this week, ZeaChem said engineering work has begun at its 1.5-million gallon per year demonstration plant in Boardman, Ore., and Honda Motor said it plans to build a large-scale plant to test the viability of its own cellulosic ethanol production technology.
Of course, cellulosic ethanol isn’t immune to the economic downturn. Earlier this month, Verenium and BP said their cellulosic ethanol venture won’t break ground on its first plant until 2010 because of a slower loan guarantee process and difficult capital markets. The companies were previously aiming for construction to start before the end of this year. And startup Coskata told us in December that its plans for a commercial plant could get pushed back to 2011, instead of late 2010, also due to the shaky economy.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Volt Battery Pack Too Bulky, Expensive to Compete With Hybrids, Says...
Josie Garthwaite - Automotive
When it comes to battery packs for plug-in hybrids, smaller is better, according to new research from Carnegie Mellon University. Led by engineering professor Jeremy Michalek, the study authors found that plug-ins with battery packs large enough for only about seven miles of all-electric range can simultaneously reduce petroleum consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and drivers’ expenses. By contrast, vehicles with battery packs hefty enough for at least 40 miles of electric travel — such as GM’s Chevy Volt — will cost too much to compete with regular hybrids on price, according to the study, which will appear in the journal Energy Policy. (Hat tip Bloomberg)
For plug-in car makers, the upside of the study is that vehicles with smaller battery packs — designed for urban driving and more frequent charging — may prove economically competitive with not only hybrids like the ToyotaPrius, but also conventional vehicles in a range of scenarios. Michalek explained yesterday in a release about the study:
If gas prices go up or battery prices come down, plug-in vehicles will be more competitive across the board, but the small battery packs remain best on cost, and new charging infrastructure could increase the number of drivers who can benefit.
While Michalek’s findings may be reassuring for a company like Better Place, which wants to provide the infrastructure for those frequent charges, they paint a gloomy picture for GM. Whatever the Chevy Volt can do for the automaker’s standing with federal purse-holders and its reputation as an innovator, GM faces significant hurdles to turn the car into a moneymaker if it wants to price it for the mass market.
In itself, that’s hardly a revelation. GM has said that it expects to lose money on the first generation of Volts. With advances in battery technology and increased production volume, the company hopes to turn a profit on the car by 2020.
Michalek said in yesterday’s release that batteries will have to become “very cheap” for plug-ins with larger battery packs to save drivers money. GM gets that. It has grand plans for battery R&D in partnership with the University of Michigan and maybe some help from the government. As Michigan’s Ann Arbor Business Review put it this morning, “This all portends well for the future, especially if you ignore GM’s growing cash crisis and the looming specter of bankruptcy.”
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
HOW GREEN IS OBAMA? What's in the Stimulus Plan for Greening the...
susan - Sustainable Ideas
After the banks, the mortgage lenders and the auto industry grab their share of the $845 billion stimulus package, you might be wondering what's left for saving our environment and making the world a safer, greener place for us all.
Good news: there's some green in the stimulus plan for greening today ($150 billion) – and even more ambitious plans for raising revenues to spend on greening down the road ($646 billion). Here's a rundown, so you can see through the political fog: Who wins, who loses – and the big question – who pays?
ENERGY: The Big Picture
THE BUCKS: $150 billion in the plan, plus $646 billion to be raised over 10 years – NOT a handout from the stimulus package
THE PLAN: Heard about the cap-and-trade plan? Here's what it means: Obama's energy plan hinges on a call for legislation to put a cap on carbon emissions and require companies to pay for permits to pollute (emit greenhouse gases) and trade those allowances. That money – a projected $646 billion over the next decade — would go toward finding clean energy technologies and another $65 billion a year to pay for middle-class tax credits. Those tax credits (Obama's "Make Pay Work" plan) would be worth as much as $800 a year to low-and-middle-income workers, according to the Washington Post.
ENERGY DEPARTMENT
THE BUCKS: $33.9 in 2009, down to 26.3 billion in 2010 (up from $24.1 billion in 2008)
THE PLAN: The increased spending – plus another $38.7 billion in the stimulus package — will cover new money for weatherization programs, modernization of the electric grid and renewable energy projects.
THE EPA (ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY)
THE BUCKS: $10 billion — a 34% budget increase.
THE PLAN: The increased spending goes to clean water projects, research, a Great Lakes restoration program as well as expanded efforts to improve regulation and enforcement of pollution standards. There's also an extra $19 million to establish a national carbon control plan. (More on the EPA from the New York Times.)
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT
THE BUCKS: $12 billion
THE PLAN: Raise $31 billion money over the next decade with fees on oil and gas companies (for example, for drilling on federal land) to be spent on conservation plans including park maintenance, endangered species protection.
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GREEN JOBS AND RENEWABLE ENERGY
THE BUCKS: Totals not tallied yet – but projections are to double the production of renewable energy in three years, via tax breaks and loan guarantees for the industry, according to CNN/Money.com, and thereby create more green jobs.
THE PLAN: Here's a sampling of some specific programs, from a summary on the House Appropriations Committee Web site:
Energy Efficiency Housing Retrofits: $2.5 billion for energy efficiency, including new insulation, windows, and furnaces.
Reliable, Efficient Electricity Grid: $11 billion
Renewable Energy Loan Guarantees: $8 billion for loans for renewable energy power generation and transmission projects.
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Research: $2 billion to universities, companies, and national laboratories.
Advanced Battery Loans and Grants: $2 billion for manufacturers of advanced vehicle batteries and battery systems
Home Weatherization: $6.2 billion to help low-income families reduce their energy costs.
Smart Appliances: $300 million to provide consumers with rebates for buying energy efficient Energy Star products to replace old appliances.
GSA Federal Fleet: $600 million to replace older vehicles
Electric Transportation: $200 million for a new grant program to encourage electric vehicle technologies.
Cleaning Fossil Energy: $2.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration technology demonstration projects to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from industrial facilities and fossil fuel power plants.
Alternative Buses and Trucks: $400 million to help state and local governments purchase efficient alternative fuel vehicles
Diesel Emissions Reduction: $300 million to state and local governments — includes technologies to retrofit emission exhaust systems on school buses, replace engines and vehicles, and establish anti-idling programs.
Photo credit: EarthFirst.com
Ventures West to Launch $158M Clean Energy Fund With BC Hydro Chairman
Jennifer Kho
Mossadiq Umedaly, chairman of Canadian utility BC Hydro, will join the Vancouver, Canada-based venture firm Ventures West to help the company raise and invest its first clean energy fund, we’ve learned. Ventures West Clean Energy Fund, as it’s currently being called, is expected to be worth somewhere around C$200 million ($157.6 million) and will launch in the second half of this year, Umedaly told us at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco on Wednesday. The partners, which include Sam Znaimer and David Berkowitz, are currently gauging interest from potential investors, which he said seems high so far.
Umedaly, who was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the event this week, will keep his position at BC Hydro and said he plans to remain fully committed to his duties there. Umedaly previously served as CEO of Xantrex Technology, which makes electrical inverters and chargers, and chief financial officer of fuel cell company Ballard Power Systems. He also helped to develop a medical university and teaching hospital in Pakistan as part of his work with Aga Khan Development Network, a nonprofit, and started his career at accounting firm Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).
Ventures West, which has invested in more than 150 companies in its more than 35-year history, has backed cleantech startups before. In fact, it made its first cleantech investment in Ballard, Umedaly’s former employer. Umedaly later led Xantrex’s acquisition of Statpower Technologies Corp., also when it was a Ventures West portfolio company. “We’re still on talking terms, so that tells you something,” he said, laughing.
Ventures West is also an investor in 6N Silicon Inc., which refines solar-grade silicon, and fuel cell makers Angstrom Power and Polyfuel.
The Clean Energy Fund will be focused strongly on energy efficiency and smart-grid technologies, including those associated with charging electric vehicles, and will look “opportunistically” at renewable energy opportunities, Umedaly said.
Umedaly thinks experience — including his own — will differentiate the Ventures West Clean Energy Fund from the pack. “Many cleantech funds have great financial engineers, but not many have experience creating a product and selling it in this industry, and getting to volume,” he said. “Money is one thing, but smart money capable of adding value is not that abundant.”
In spite of the recession, Umedaly said he’s “never seen a better time” to invest in cleantech. Public awareness of environmental and energy security issues, as well as the political will to support clean energy solutions, is at an all-time high, he said. “My feeling is when you have a confluence like this, you need to take action,” he said.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Georgia: Strapped for Renewables — or a Solar Goldmine?
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
Depending on who you ask, the state of Georgia either has an abundance of untapped solar energy — or a dearth of clean energy resources. That means proposed renewable energy standards could hand the state an economic boom or bust. As renewable portfolio standards, cap-and-trade legislation and transmission siting rules make the rounds on Capitol Hill in the coming months, we’re likely to hear similar debates among clean energy producers and advocates, state regulators, and Washington policymakers. The big question here is whether the national interest in creating a clean energy economy should trump states’ authority and short-term economic interest in preserving the energy status quo.
This week’s battle centers on Georgia’s renewable resources and the consequences of pending clean energy legislation involves a clean energy trade group and state regulator. The Solar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA, says Southeastern states — and Georgia in particular — have “vast potential for solar energy development,” while Georgia Public Service Commissioner Stan Wise argues that the state lacks the wind, solar and biomass resources to meet proposed portfolio standards without taking a serious economic hit. If approved, the rule now moving through the House would require utilities to get 6 percent of their energy from renewables by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025.
As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, Wise told members of a House energy subcommittee today that Georgia will have to spend billions of dollars to import clean energy from other states or buy credits to meet the portfolio standard.
The Journal-Constitution quotes Wise saying, “Ultimately it’s going to be a substantial wealth transfer from Southern states…and ultimately cost us jobs, growth and industry — and be a significant cost to the ratepayer,” potentially upping electricity rates by as much as 25 percent. He didn’t mention that the state spent $1.6 billion importing coal in 2005.
SEIA president and CEO Rhone Resch sees things differently. He issued a release today saying that while Georgia doesn’t have quite as much solar potential as the Southwest, the Southeastern states of Georgia and the Carolinas have 60 percent more solar resources than Germany, the world’s largest solar market.
"Those who claim the U.S. does not have enough sun to power our nation are simply wrong. In Georgia, 23.6 percent of electricity could come from rooftop solar alone,” he said, citing data from the Energy Information Administration, the Department of Energy and the firm Navigant Consulting. More than that, said Resch, the region has a burgeoning solar manufacturing and installation industry that stands to benefit from the proposed standards.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Quick Energy Saving Tips for Empty Rooms
jchait - Home & Garden
We all know that we should turn off the lights when we leave a room. However, there’s more you could be doing in order to save energy on empty rooms.
Close off the vents in unused or less used rooms of your house.
Make sure the doors aren’t leaking cool air into your home via a large bottom opening. If you can feel cold air coming into your home from an empty room, place a towel or a made to order door draft stopper like the one below.
In unused rooms with fireplaces make sure you close the damper.
In empty or less used rooms close the drapes or blinds so that less cool air comes inside, which can result in air leaking under the door and into your used rooms.
Unplug items in underused rooms - i.e. lamps and TVs.
Green Wizard Seeks $4.5M, Aims to Become Expedia of Green Building
Jennifer Kho - Startups
Green building is growing, but researching and evaluating the numerous green-building products available — and calculating which ones can help buildings rack up the most points toward earning coveted LEED certification — can cost the construction industry hundreds of hours per project, says Green Wizard CEO Adam Bernholz. “This is a pain,” he said, adding that contractors view the challenge of doing such research as “the No. 1 problem in green building today.”
Green Wizard, one of several companies that were looking for funding at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco this week, hopes to help solve the problem with a cost-comparison platform that it claims will better enable architects, engineers and contractors to figure out the cheapest way to get the certification they want. Green Wizard plans to help contractors maximize every dollar they spend. “We empower our users to build greener structures for less money in less time,” Bernholz said.
The Charleston, S.C.-based startup, which has raised $250,000 million and is now seeking $4.5 million, is developing an online marketplace that it describes as “akin to Expedia meets Lending Tree” for green materials.
At a presentation this week, Bernholz said the company would offer its service for free to its users, and plans to make money by charging suppliers a 2 percent commission on the sales they make through the Green Wizard site. Clearly, getting a wide range of suppliers to ante up to participate in the site — without passing higher prices on to Green Wizard’s users — will be key to the company’s success. Users might not believe they are getting the best deals and the best advice if Green Wizard only suggests solutions offered by their customers and if only a few suppliers participate.
There’s some evidence that the construction industry is already interested, however. The company has a pipeline of projects with purchasing budgets totaling approximately $150 million that plan to use its software, Bernholz said. Green Wizard forecasts that it will see revenue of $11.8 million in 2011, when it expects it will need to raise a second round of about $2 million, and reach sales of $69.2 million — with an operating profit of $36.6 million — in 2013. That may sound like rapid growth for a tiny startup, but it represents just a tiny sliver of the overall green building market.
McGraw-Hill Construction in October released a report predicting that the green building market would grow from $36-49 billion this year to $96-140 billion in 2013, and Green Wizard says that the commercial buildings it’s targeting are expected to make up 25 percent of the 2013 total. So the business it’s counting on winning represents 0.1-0.15 percent of the predicted $24-35 billion commercial green-building market that year. Green Wizard is also one of our Green:Net 10 companies — check them out on March 24.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Boons for Clean Energy Tucked Throughout Obama Budget Plan
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
Given the tone of his speech before Congress earlier this week and his support of clean energy infrastructure as a tool for economic recovery, it’s no surprise that the outline of President Obama’s 2010 budget proposal, released today, includes increased funding for the Department of Energy’s renewable energy initiatives. But beyond the $26.3 billion proposed for the DOE, agencies ranging from the Department of Agriculture to the National Science Foundation will see their coffers for renewable energy and other clean technology efforts bolstered if Obama’s wish list makes it through Congress.
Earlier this month, we asked “If green jobs are so hot, where are they?” and found that many of the openings are in science and engineering jobs with early-stage firms in obscure cleantech sectors (e.g. fuel additives and air filtration). Those looking to break into such fields may have new resources in 2010, thanks to new fellowships, grants, education programs (not to mention funding for high-risk research into radically new technologies) included in Obama’s outline. The document released today represents a very broad sketch (it describes “increases” and “expansions” rather than hard dollar figures), but it offers a general sense of the administration’s priorities for 2010. Here are some of the highlights:
Department of Energy: $26.3 billion
- Increases funding for improving our understanding of climate science and continues the United States’ commitment to international energy and science projects.
- Expands graduate fellowship programs that will train students in critical energy-related fields.
- Includes investments in R&D and demonstration of smart grid technologies.
- Supports carbon capture and storage projects (is in addition to the $3.4 billion allotted for low-carbon power plant demos in the stimulus)
NASA: $18.7 billion
- Funds development of new space-based research sensors for a global climate research and monitoring system.
National Science Foundation: $7.0 billion
- Establishes a climate change education program to help develop the next generation of environmentally-engaged scientists and engineers.
- Increases support for high-risk research proposals that could fundamentally alter understanding of nature, revolutionize fields of science, and lead to radically new technologies.
Department of Transportation: $72.5 billion
- Proposes five-year $5 billion high-speed rail State grant program.
Department of Agriculture: $26 billion
- Includes $250 million in loans and grants to increase the national supply of home-grown renewable fuels.
Department of the Interior: $12 billion
- Includes more than $50 million in increases to conduct the environmental evaluations and technical studies needed to spur development of renewable energy projects, assess available alternative resources, and mitigate the impacts of development and Federal lands and waters.
Department of Housing and Urban Development: $47.5 billion
- Creates a new Energy Innovation Fund to support an energy-efficient housing market — including retrofits of older, inefficient homes — and catalyzes private-sector lending in the residential sector.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Honda Hits the Gas on Cellulosic Ethanol R&D
Josie Garthwaite - Automotive
Honda Motor Co. has been toiling away at ethanol research since before hybrids moved in from the fringe of autoshows and well before deriving the stuff from corn ignited a heated debate over food vs. fuel. Today the company said it will build a large-scale plant to test the viability of its cellulosic ethanol production technology in “practical applications” — something it’s had in the works for more than two years.
In September of 2006, the automaker touted a major breakthrough in its ethanol production and said it aimed to build a pilot biorefinery in 2008, at the earliest. As MSNBC reported at the time, Honda said it had developed (in partnership with Japan’s RITE, a public-private research institution) “a way to use discarded plant material to make abundant quantities of the fuel.” Honda said it plans to start building the project announced today (possibly the one envisioned back in 2006) in April and begin operations by November of this year.
This comes less than three weeks after some of Japan’s biggest firms, among them Nippon Oil, Toyota and Mitsubishi, revealed plans for a research body to develop low-cost cellulosic biofuels. The group hopes to produce 1.6 million barrels of bioethanol per year by March 2014, and drive costs down to about $70 a barrel by 2015, Reuters reports.
Honda’s ethanol expansion doesn’t necessarily signal a major shift to ethanol or flex-fuel cars in the automaker’s lineup. Just a month before the big breakthrough announcement a few years ago, Honda’s U.S. sales chief spoke with the LA Times about plans for flex-fuel vehicles that can use 85 percent ethanol blends. "We're not against it," he said. "In the list of priorities right now, we haven't moved it up the list. It is less efficient from a fuel-economy standpoint."
What Honda’s continued work on ethanol does show is the ability of government to encourage a market for alternative fuels: Japan's government wants biofuels to replace 0.6 percent of the crude oil it uses for gasoline by next year, as Greentech Media noted recently.
It also the reflects appeal of flex-fuel vehicles as an alternative to electrification of automakers fleets. Developing a full line of electric cars and retooling factories to produce them represents a more technologically daunting and capital-intensive challenge than making cars that can handle ethanol fuel blends. Flex fuel vehicles are very similar to gasoline-powered models, with only a few engine and fuel system modifications.
General Motors and Ford both got into ethanol in 2006. GM backed Chicago-based Coskata (read details on the deal here), and Ford partnered with now-bankrupt corn ethanol maker Verasun to deploy infrastructure for flex-fuel vehicles.
Photo credit Honda Worldwide
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Geekout: Sun, Second Life & Green Data Centers
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Easy Ways to Save Some Green - Green Living Skills
jchait - Home & Garden
There are plenty of simple ways to go green at home. Many of these options can save you two kinds of green; eco-green and a little cash. Some ideas…
Love on some ladybugs: Ladybugs rock; and not just because they’re so darn adorable. Just one little ladybug in your garden will eat loads of pesky aphids; (about 5,000 per year). This greatly reduces the amount of pest-fighting chemicals you need in your garden.
Turn off the shower water while you shampoo: This one small step can save you up to 50 gallons of water per year.
Eat at least five organic meals a week: According to various sources, if all the people in North America ate organic all the time we could reduce our annual pesticide use by about 10 million+ pounds. Holy right!? Even if you’re not going totally organic, you can reduce quite a lot of pesticide use in the U.S. by eating organic most of the time. Learn to read labels so you can make smarter organic choices.
Sign up for daily green tips: Ideal bite offers easy daily tips that can help you keep it green.
Recycle and reuse: Learn to make your own paper, switch to cloth napkins, organize your recycling, or simply learn how to recycle in your own community. You don’t have to do it all, but you should be doing at least some recycling in your home and using some non-disposable items.
New Ways to Solve Indoor Air Pollution
jchait - Home & Garden
Indoor air pollution is fairly common. Here at Best Green Home Tips, we’ve looked at many ways to keep the air in your home clean and healthy. To catch up, read…
- Homemade Organic Fragrant Room Spray
- Are Shoes an Eco No No?
- The VOC-free Home - 11 Ways to Keep VOCs Out of Your Home
- Stop Air Pollution in Your Home
Today, some extra tips that can help keep your home green and your indoor air clean.
Be an Apple user: I’m actually a PC girl, but Apple computers are free of PBDE which makes them a green step above if you can go that route.
Use a cloth shower liner: Vinyl shower liners suck to keep clean and worse can release icky chemicals into your home air and in some people these chemicals can even cause allergic reactions.
Opt out of dry cleaning: Dry cleaning, in most cases, is super bad for your health and the earth’s well-being. If possible only buy fabrics and home items that you can clean yourself. If that’s impossible, go with a greener dry cleaning option. Also read, "Green" Dry Cleaners to Be Leery Of.
Don’t forget your pets: Most people don’t consider their pets when it comes to greening their home, but your dog’s bed may be releasing chemicals if you haven’t gone organic. That said, a good dog bed can do double duty for your air quality. Dog and cat beds capture a lot of dander and if you go organic (or buy beds made with natural materials) the bed won’t release chemicals found in conventional cotton.
Some healthy pet bed options:
Crypton Rotator Pet Bed - Hot Chocolate
Elizabeth Paige Smith Couchette
Crypton Doodle Dog Pet Bed - Kermit
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