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TO DO: Go Green
Green can be confusing because it is used a catch all for a complicated set of concepts. In simple terms though, think of green as anything that conserves our natural resources while protecting our ecosystem. There are few if any perfectly green products, services or processes today. Everything that we use requires energy in some form, typically from a non-renewable source. This ranges from energy in manufacturing to energy expended in the maintenance or use of the object. Going green therefore means providing the product or service with as little harm to mother nature as is currently possible.
What makes greening your business so compelling and refreshing today is that it is far more than simply complying with current or future environmental laws or retrofitting a building to be more energy efficient. It is the process of working out how to do more with less. Yet it is even more than simple efficiency, turning people green, the employees, the suppliers, the investors and the customers is the real fun and where many of the intangible benefits of going green truly influence the growth of the business.
Going green is not a fad; it is a fundamental shift in the way business is being done. The market for green goods and services, while difficult to quantify in exact terms is large and obviously growing at a pace. No one knows the exact numbers because the market is based on a psychographic rather than a demographic. That is, it is behaviour based rather than socioeconomic that is based on measurable demographics like age, sex, education, income and politics.
Studies and statistics have been woefully inadequate when trying to get an understanding of this burgeoning market. It is elusive because it encompasses so many different behaviors; product buying habits, driving habits, child care, travel, food purchases and the way we live in our homes. This makes it difficult if not impossible to create a metric that could encompass all the different ways a person could go green. Greens are Republicans and Democrats, the rich and the poor, the young and the old and of every religious background. What holds this group together is that they care about positive social transformation and are eager to back it up with direct action.
Some useful green links to important resources:
Small Business Guide to Energy Efficiency
Contact the U.S. Senate Committee on Environmental & Public Works
The U.S. Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse
The U.S. Energy Information Administration
The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
The EPA - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Forestry, Reforestation and Forest management
Several recent studies showing that some tropical forests have bounced back on once-cleared land after farmers abandoned it to move to the cities. Biologists long believed that such “secondary forests” were nearly worthless because they regenerated slowly and offered little of the biodiversity of their old-growth predecessors.
But evidence from Costa Rica and Panama shows that tropical forests can recover up to 90 percent of their original biodiversity in as little as 20 years. What’s more, there may be many more of these fast-regrowing areas than previously assumed, according to another study by Alan Grainger, forest biologist at Leeds University, and protecting them could do as much to cut emissions as preserving old-growth jungle. According to McKinsey & Co, protecting and restoring forest is a much cheaper way to cut CO2 than, say, switching to renewable energy: $1 spent on forest measures buys as great a CO2 reduction as $6 invested in emerging technologies, such as solar power.
A lot of confusion exists when talking about carbon emissions offsetting for reforestation projects. According to the Edinburgh Center for Carbon Management the following aspects need to be considered when evaluating a forestry project:
• The incorporation of CO2 into plants during photosynthesis depends on: Atmospheric CO2 concentration, Light quality, Water balance, Temperature Nutrients and available Leaves size.
• Losses of CO2 from the plant to the environment is due to: Photo-respiration, Decomposition of roots, wood and leaves increasing the carbon soil reservoir.
The amount of carbon sequestered by the branches and trunk of a tree increases substantially over time as the greater the leaf area of the tree, the greater the photosynthetic capacity. Therefore planting-tree projects ( AFFORESTATION and REFORESTATION ) are a good option for carbon emissions sequestration in the middle and long term when the mature tree is able to produce consistently bigger leaves.
Tropical rainforests provide ever-green mature trees that are at their peak of carbon dioxide uptake and constantly absorb CO2 during winter, spring, summer and autumn. Conifer forests in the North and South Hemisphere face two main challenges when absorbing carbon emissions:
* Their leaves are more adapted to the winter season and therefore are small and have high resine content;
* Usually they lose or reduce production of leaves during autumn and winter and therefore there is a long period of reduced CO2 incorporation. For this reason, a third option of forestry projects in tropical rain-forests seems to be the best compromise in the short term. Deforestation constitutes the third largest polluter after fossil fuels ( coal and petroleum ).
According to the Coalition for Rainforest Nations: Forest-based mitigation of global warming can occur by three strategies:
• Conservation of existing forests - to avoid emissions associated with forest degradation or clearing.
• Sequestration by increasing forest carbon absorption capacity - occurring primarily by planting trees or facilitating the natural regeneration of forests, especially on marginal land and by making changes in forest management to increase biomass.
• Substitution of sustainably produced biological products - substituting wood products for materials requiring energy-intensive production, such as aluminum or concrete, and substituting woody biomass for fossil fuels as an energy source.
Properly designed and implemented, forest and land-use measures to mitigate climate change can result in other social and environmental benefits, e.g., protecting biodiversity and watersheds, promoting rural employment etc.
As an option to mitigate climate change and remove greenhouse gases, forestry activities receive a great deal of attention. Specifically in the voluntary carbon market, where the forest sector plays a significant role in not only reducing the impacts of climate change but also in achieving broad sustainable development benefits that go beyond emission abatement measures alone. In a recent study ‘The Forest Carbon Offsetting Report 2009’ conducted by EcoSecurities, ClimateBiz, Conservation International and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) which polled over 120 corporate organizations, showed that the general attitude towards forestry was very positive.
However, although reforestation projects were generally popular, what was not perceived so favorably was having to pay upfront for credits to be issued. For reforestation projects, where most of the costs are front loaded and revenues only accrue slowly as the trees grow, the long wait for carbon returns is often a deal-breaker without these upfront payments to secure land etc. Upfront payments for reforestation credits therefore facilitate more tree-planting, create more jobs and more associated sustainable development benefits.
What are carbon credits?
Each of our everyday actions consume energy and produce carbon dioxide emissions, which we measure in tons, e.g. taking flights, driving cars and the energy to run a household. Carbon offsetting is a way of compensating for the emissions produced with an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide being saved. These Projects will either prevent or have already prevented or removed an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide elsewhere in the World. As Co2 emissions are spread across the world, whether you make the reduction in Long Island or London, the positive effect on the environment, benefits us all.
Institutions and individuals purchase offsets for multiple reasons:
• To manage carbon liabilities
• To advance corporate sustainability goals while minimizing costs
• To support the development of a “green” brand
• To comply with existing market regulations or to anticipate future regulations
• To understand and gain expertise in emerging carbon markets
• Additionally, organizations can purchase offsets to support specific project types or in specific geographies.
High-quality carbon credits are those that are real, measurable, permanent, and additional.
• Real: – The project reductions must be proven to have genuinely taken place. Consequently, it’s important that emissions reductions are verified by an objective third party.
• Measurable: – Emissions should be quantified using recognized measurement tools or in accordance with robust methodologies.
• Permanent: – Reductions should be permanent and unlikely to be reversed.
• Additional: – The project activity should not be one which is mandated by any local or federal regulations. Moreover, revenue from the sale of credits should contribute significantly to ensuring that the project is viable.
Objective third party verification
Payback’s regulatory experts are committed to understanding and staying current on the evolving national and international voluntary and regulatory landscape for both renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions. We understand the importance and complex interplay between voluntary and compliance markets today. Our dedicated staff analyze and help shape the U.S. and international regulatory frameworks. As our clients and partners goals change and the regulatory environment evolves, we aim to provide our partners with strategic guidance to navigate these changes to meet our mutual business objectives. Whether they are achieving voluntary or pre-compliance emissions reductions or advancing internal sustainable development goals.
Both the US and UK Governments have made very positive steps regarding regulation of the carbon offset market. Payback supports the aims of any code that will increase customer confidence and ensure that those operating within the industry show integrity and transparency in how their projects are measured and conducted. This signals the beginning of the consultation process and we are pleased to continue to support that process.
We support industry regulation that allows room for smaller-scale projects as well as larger sized projects which meet the CDM criteria of providing societal benefits to local communities combined with true environmental benefits. We encourage everyone to reduce their emissions wherever possible, and offset what remains, enabling us all to do something practical today to reduce climate change. We support both the Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Climate Community and Biodiversity standard for our project verification.
Contact the U.S. Senate Committee on Environmental & Public Works
Contact DEFRA - U.K. Department for Environmental Food and Rural Affairs
This is not just about carbon dioxide. Nor is this just about global warming. When we talk about offsetting or equalizing carbon, we actually refer to six key pollutants:
carbon dioxide
methane
nitrous oxide
hydro fluorocarbons
per fluorocarbons
sulphur hexafluoride
Scientists talk about these gases in terms of tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq), so that we can compare like with like. So, together we are supporting the cleansing of all six main greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide. We work in collaboration or support projects that provide strong social and environmental benefits in both developing countries and closer to home, helping the global climate for all our well being. If you have any questions about our position, or any other matter please contact us.
Your choice of the best of green providers:
Whats your green website recommendations?
Green home
As they enter their fifth year of operation, one of the longer-lasting environmental stores and resource centers on the Internet. There offices are still technically in a garage in the Richmond District of San Francisco, though they have gotten upgraded somewhat. There does still remain some question as to whether it’s actually a garage or a tropical spaceship.
Green Products
At Green Products, LLC their mission is to revolutionize the current petroleum dependent building products industry by pioneering the development and distribution of biobased polymer innovations that are creating eco-friendly alternatives for the next generation products.
Green People
GreenPeople.org is an online directory of eco-friendly products,
services, organizations and events. (since 1998)
Their motto is: “Buy Green, Sell Green, Be Green”
Green Culture
The mission of GreenCulture is simple and straightforward: to promote environmental enlightenment and conservation through the sales and distribution of ecologically conscious products. To most environmentalists, the benefits of sustainability are obvious and well documented; but to the rest of society, its uses are unclear at best. The primary goal of Greenculture.com is to introduce the mainstream marketplace to a wide array of high quality goods made from recycled materials, ecologically harvested timber, and other earth friendly ingredients.
Grassroots
Grassroots offers environmentally-friendly products that allow people to make positive choices for themselves, their communities and the planet. Some people postpone making these choices because they feel it has to be all or nothing. But taking small steps to gradually replace conventional products with healthier alternatives can be just as effective for a sustainable future.
Great Green Goods
GreatGreenGoods is a shopping blog devoted to the green, eco-friendly, consumer.
All products presented are made from recycled materials.
Whats your green website recommendations?
Reduce your carbon footprint
If you don’t have to drive your car don’t do it! Walk or ride a bicycle. When it comes time to buy a car, consider a hybrid. You won’t need to buy as much gasoline at the pump nor spend as much money. If you can, take public transit. Use the down time to read, listen to your ipod or just relax.
Save energy and save money by changing your incandescent light bulbs to ultra-efficient light bulbs. Run your dishwasher, washing machine and dryer only when you have full loads. Run your washing machine on warm or cold but not on hot. By lowering your thermostat in the winter or raising it in the summer by only 2 degrees Fahrenheit each household can save 350 pounds of CO2 emissions a year.
Set your hot water heater no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure that your home has double-pane glass windows and you’ll save on energy costs in the wintertime. Make sure that the furnace, air conditioners and heat-pump filters are kept clean and replace filters regularly. When you upgrade your appliances, TVs, telephones or sound equipment make sure that they are efficient.
Always use the energy-savings settings on refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, clothes dryers and all other appliances. Take shorter showers. Try 6 minutes instead of 10 minutes. You will save a lot of WATER and energy . Install low-flow shower heads and if your State hasn’t legislated ultra-low-flow-toilets install them anyway. They save WATER.
Use a push lawn mower and a broom instead a gasoline mower or blower. You will get a work-out, reduce noise pollution and cut-down on your carbon foot-print. Plant trees! Not only do they absorb CO2 but they provide much needed shade in the summer to protect your home by keeping it cooler and trees provide habitat for urban critters.
Go solar, geothermal or wind! In many States you can sell excess power back into the local grid. Check your tire pressure monthly and change your air filter at least every 4 months. Carpool to work or events. Plan your errands so that you don’t use your car for several single-purpose trips.
As Green as it Gets. A new technology for building homes that heat and cool themselves - recently selected as one of the top inventions of the year by Modern Marvels
What’s the big deal about water?
There is no resource more precious than water. There is also no resource that is misused, abused, misallocated, and misunderstood the way water is. Safe drinking water, healthy and intact natural ecosystems, and a stable food supply are a few of the things at stake as our water supply is put under greater and greater stress.
The picture might look grim, but opportunities to be more efficient abound. Many people have had water-saving etiquette pumped into them at one point or another, so hopefully we can make a good case for conserving the stuff with practical, everyday water-saving strategies as well as some more high-tech approaches.
1. No drips
A dripping faucet can waste 20 gallons of water a day. A leaking toilet can use 90,000 gallons of water in a month. Get out the wrench and change the washers on your sinks and showers, or get new washerless faucets. Keeping your existing equipment well maintained is probably the easiest and cheapest way to start saving water.
2. Install new fixtures
New, low-volume or dual flush toilets, low-flow showerheads , water-efficient dishwashers and clothes washing machines can all save a great deal of water and money. Aerators on your faucets can significantly reduce water volume; water-saving showerheads can cut the volume of water used down to 1.2 gallons per minute or less, and some even have a pause button to let you stop the water while soaping up or shampooing. Our recent reprorts pointed out that spending about $30 on low-flow showerheads and faucets is estimated to save 45 gallons of that 260 gallons of water [used in a typical household per day], almost 18% of your usage. Splurging on a low-flow toilet could save another 50-80 gallons of water a day. Together, those changes nearly cut in half the household’s daily use, saving a considerable amount of water and passing that savings on to your water bill, as well as your water heating bill.
3. Cultivate good water habits
All the water that goes down the drain, clean or dirty, ends up mixing with raw sewage, getting contaminated, and meeting the same fate. Try to stay aware of this precious resource disappearing and turn off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving and always wash laundry and dishes with full loads. When washing dishes by hand, fill up the sink and turn off the water. Take shorter showers or, as the old joke goes, shower with a friend: To put things in perspective, take a quick look at your next water bill when it arrives. It probably will not be costing you too much, but the average household consumes multiple thousands of gallons each month. See if you can make this number go down. If you are the graphing type, go nuts.
4. Stay off the bottle
By many measures, bottled water is a scam. In most first-world countries, the tap water is provided by a government utility and is tested regularly. (You can look up your water in the National Tap Water Quality Database) Taste tests have shown that in many municipalities, tap water actually tastes better. Bottled water is not as well regulated and studies have shown that it is not even particularly pure. A four-year study of bottled water in the U.S. conducted by NRDC found that one fifth of the 103 water products tested contained synthetic organic chemicals such as the neurotoxin xylene and the possible carcinogen and neurotoxin styrene.
Much bottled water does not come from a Artesian springs and is just tap water anyhow. (Coca-Cola adds salt to its Dasani water to make it taste better, just like fast food.) Not only is it more expensive per gallon than gasoline, bottled water incurs a huge carbon footprint from its transportation, and the discarded bottles are a blight. It is no wonder that some people even think it is a sin. If you want to carry your water with you, get a bottle and fill it. If your water at home tastes funny, try an activated charcoal or ceramic filter.
5. Go beyond the lawn
Naturalize it using locally appropriate plants that are hardy and do not need a lot of water. If you have to water, do it during the coolest part of the day or at night to minimize evaporation. Xeriscaping is a method of landscaping that utilizes only native and low water plants. It is an especially appropriate approach for states like California and Arizona where people often plant lawns like they live in Florida despite living in the desert.
6. Harvest your rainwater
Put a rain barrel on your downspouts and use this water for irrigation. Rain cisterns come in all shapes and sizes ranging from larger underground systems to smaller, freestanding ones. Some even glow!
7. Harvest your greywater
Water that has been used at least once but is still clean enough for other jobs is called greywater. Water from sinks, showers, dishwashers, and clothes washers are the most common household examples. (Toilet water is often called blackwater and needs a different level of treatment before it can be reused.) Greywater can be recycled with practical plumbing systems, or with simple practices such as emptying the fish tank in the garden instead of the sink. The bottom line? One way or another, avoid putting water down the drain when you can use it for something else.
8. At the car wash
Car washes are often more efficient than home washing and treat their water rather than letting it straight into the sewer system. But check to make sure that they clean and recycle the water. Better yet, try the waterless car wash.
9. Keep your eyes open
Report broken pipes, open hydrants, and excessive waste. Do not be shy about pointing out leaks to your friends and family members, either. They might have tuned out the dripping sound a long time ago.
10. Do not spike the payback punch
Water sources have to be protected. In many closed loop systems like those in cities around the Great Lakes, waste water is returned to the Lake that fresh water comes out of. Do not pour chemicals down drains, or flush drugs down toilets; it could come back in diluted form in your water.
Tree Planting Tips. Experts from the Nebraska Forest Service talk about key points to remember when planting a new tree. Produced by Backyard Farmer.
Would you like to do more?
1. Ease up on the meat
To produce 1 kilogram of boneless beef, according to a definitive 2006 UNESCO study on the water footprint of nations, it takes 6.5 kilograms of grain, 36 kilograms of roughage (coarse grains and pasture), and 155 litres of drinking water (Now Magazine). In The Food Revolution, John Robbins calculates that a vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat eating diet requires 4,000 gallons per day. You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year.
2. Get serious about greywater recovery
Greywater recycling schemes range from large building systems to small home retrofits to simple low tech recycling practices. TreeHugger has written about the Toilet Lid Sink which very sensibly lets you rinse your hands with the water that is filling the tank. The Ban Beater lets you easily suck up bathwater and deliver it through a hose to your garden. As our Weird Eco Habits contest has elucidated, a woman in Hiroshima not only saves water, but gets her exercise while moving bathwater by bucket from the tub to the laundry. Three rinse cycles of clean water just seems such a waste.
3. Start with good green design
Building a house from scratch? Plumb it for greywater recovery with separate pipes from the toilets and the rest of the house. Design the roof for decent rainwater collection or incorporate green roofs, which mitigate and filter roof runoff. Put in big cisterns to hold water through the entire summer. Use permeable paving to let water soak through to the ground instead of washing away. If you or your architect is feeling like pushing the envelope, consider using a living machine to filter grey (or even black) water with natural plants and other organisms. And remember, if you live in the desert, think twice before planting grass etc.
4. Get involved
In the year 2008, the United Nations established that 2.64 billion people had inadequate access to sanitation. This value represented 44 percent of the global population, but in Africa and Asia approximately half of the population had no access whatsoever to sanitation. Just a Drop reports that: Every 10 seconds a child dies because of dirty water. 4 million children under five die terrible deaths each year due to water-born diseases. 1.1 billion children have no clean water close to their homes. Many children share the water they use to drink, cook and bathe with their livestock. Matt Damon set up H2OAfrica after he saw firsthand the effects of one of the largest public health issues of our time, the world water crisis which is at its worst in Africa and the United Church of Canada has started a campaign to control the spread of bottled water.
5. At home
See the Light. Efficient ‘fluorescent’ light bulbs use less than half the energy to produce the same amount of light than traditional ‘incandescent’ bulbs. The US Department of Energy has estimated that over 400 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year could be avoided by switching to efficient lighting in the US alone.
6. Low-Carbon Cuisine
Think about energy in the kitchen. Take care not to over-fill pans and kettles. Use the correct size of ring or burner for your pan. Keep refrigerators ice-free.
7. Recycle to Reduce
Recycling materials can help to reduce carbon emissions by avoiding the need to extract and refine new raw materials. Recycling organic materials such as paper and cardboard can avoid emissions of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) from landfill sites. The recycling of one kilo of aluminum can avoid the emission of up to 11 kilos of CO2.
8. Intelligent Insulating
Good thermal insulation and draught-proofing are some of the most cost-effective means of reducing energy costs and carbon emissions. Check out the quality of insulation in lofts and cavity walls. Check for gaps around doors and windows.
9. Less Hot Air
Most home energy is used for heating and cooling. Cost savings and CO2 reductions of over 10% can often be made simply by adjusting heating controls to reduce overheating and using natural ventilation more effectively.
10. Renewable Revolution
Renewable energy technologies can radically reduce the carbon emissions associated with the energy we use. Solar, geothermal and wind energy can be used both for heating water and generating electricity. Biomass heating systems are increasingly used in several European countries.
11. Practical Plug-ins
When purchasing a dishwasher, television, or other appliance, look for a model that’s highly efficient. If possible, choose an appliance that has an official label, such as The Energy Star in the US or A/A+ rated in Europe.
12. On the road
Miser motors. Fuel-efficient cars produce less CO2 per mile. The most efficient vehicles, such as compact hybrids, can produce under 110 g CO2 per km (0.4 pounds of CO2 per mile) whereas most large SUVs and high performance cars produce at least twice this figure.
13. Travel wise
Think carefully about your travel needs. Use public transportation whenever practical. Have you considered carpooling? Is that flight really necessary? Perhaps a conference call can save time, money and emissions.
14. Car care
Take care of your car to ensure its efficient running. In particular check tyre pressures and engine lubrication. Remove roof racks or boxes when not required, as these can reduce vehicle efficiency by over 10%.
15. At the store
Local logic. Buying local food can reduce the CO2 impact of “food miles.” For example according to a report commissioned by Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), food transportation within the U.K. accounts for over 8% of road vehicle emissions, and is a source of increasing air transport emissions.
16. Seasonal sense
Buying your local fresh fruit and vegetables “in season” can help to reduce the amount of produce grown in energy-intensive greenhouse conditions that are often necessary for “out of season” production.
17. Packaging principles
Look out for goods that are sold with less packaging. This means less energy was used to produce the package, less waste that goes to the landfill, and fewer trips to the curb to dispose of your rubbish.
18. Recycling reason
In many cases, products made from recycled materials require less energy to produce compared with those made from original materials. For example, it can take almost 75% less energy to make items from recycled steel than it does from new steel.
Teach A Man To Fish is an international development charity working in the field of agricultural education. Helping others to help themselves through offering them an education represents a powerful means of generating jobs, improving incomes, and expanding the opportunities available to young people in developing countries. To ensure the lasting impact of our work on reducing poverty we place an emphasis on sustainability. By supporting those pioneering innovative new approaches to making agricultural education more sustainable we multiply the effect every donation we receive has on tackling poverty. Watch this video and see how one of our partners is transforming the children of poor farmers into a generation of rural entrepreneurs.
Last thoughts: To do or not to do?
Around half of all carbon dioxide produced by humans since the industrial revolution has dissolved into the world’s oceans. Forests and other green terrestrial life absorb 1.7 gigatons of CO2 annually. The burning of fossil fuels is continuing to add at least 19.3 gigatons ( from 2008 emissions data ) of CO2 into the atmosphere despite the natural offset of both oceans and forests. Today we are using, on average, four times more energy than our forebears did 100 years ago. We are now burning the equivalent of 422 years worth of sunshine locked in 300 million years of forests in just one year!
I think you’ll find this an argument that you CANNOT poke a hole in. Please, please try. I’ve spent literally hundreds of hours discussing, researching, and refining my arguments to ensure that you cannot poke a hole in it. Once you’re convinced, do everything you can to spread the message. If you dare.
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