We had the season’s first real snowstorm this weekend, and we weren’t really prepared for it. I didn’t even know where our shovel was! We also didn’t have any salt for the front steps, so I took this opportunity to find out if we could get something that had less of an impact on the environment.
From what I can tell, there’s no truly environmentally friendly way to melt snow and ice. The two main materials people use—rock salt and calcium chloride—are both bad; it’s really just a choice of which is better. Along with many others, the City of Cambridge recommends using calcium chloride rather than rock salt or sand. (Ironically, the city also provides rock salt free of charge.) Many de-icers are a combination of multiple ingredients,… [view entry]
New Scientist has an interesting article on the “Five eco-crimes we commit everyday.” Most are not very surprising, but the details are interesting, such as the fact that the western world wastes one third of its food!
Egregious as this waste is, the means used to produce and procure much of our food is more important. To this end, Slash Food has a brief post highlighting some better seafood choices including local award-winning business Aqua Australis.
Also released this past week, a study of food sustainability revealing that, surprise of surprises, the devil is in the details and “food miles” are an over-simplification.
One of the first home improvements Rachel and I made when we purchased our condo here in Cambridge this spring was a solar hot water installation on our rooftop.
The system we had put in uses vacuum tubes, a newer, more efficient type of solar collector than the black box flat panels of old. As a writer covering energy and the environment in Cambridge and China, I’d spent the past three years tracing this new and exotic technology back to the factories and cities in China where they are surprisingly commonplace.
I first read about the tubes three years ago in a story in the Boston Globe. A family in Newbury, MA was using a massive installation to provide hot water and heat for their giant barn of a house. … [view entry]
The counter culture revolution germinated the civil rights and the peace movements, but also inspired the first Whole Earth Catalog (1968) that offered ways to live an environmentally conscious life. In its latest publication, the Whole Green Catalog, provides a wide range of products and living green tips for the eco-conscious or curious. The Whole Green Catalog is chock full of the usual green resources on housing, transportation, cleaning products, and healthy eating but also delves into greening your art and the latest in eco-technology. The catalog is published by Rodale, an eco-publishers that believes in “healthy living on a healthy planet”.
This is an excellent resource to have at home for easy reference, but I also recommend checking out some online resources… [view entry]
Yesterday’s New York Times carried an article about appliance maker Whirlpool, who was the recipient of a $20 million grant from the Federal Government to fund product development in the rapidly developing field of smart appliances.
These devices, once connected to a Smart Grid-enabled electricity supply, will be able to receive information from the grid and cycle down their power demands during times of peak energy use (and higher costs per kWh). At the moment, they are anticipating savings of $40 per year for a standard size dryer.
As always, your mileage may vary.
Next in the Smart Grid appliance pipeline, General Electric Co. will soon roll out its first commercial smart appliance, a hybrid electric heat pump water heater. The company said the pump will save consumers $250 a… [view entry]
A recent issue of The Energy Report, featured a story about a new Michigan factory to supply batteries for the Chevy Volt and other vehicles in GM’s fleet. The Energy Report covers Energy and Environmental policy in the United States and globally on CleanSkies.com, a relatively new webcast.
While the article touts the benefits of getting higher mileage and lower CO2 emitting vehicles, we must keep in mind a few costs before running out to buy a new electric car (be it from GM, Daimler-Chrysler, or Tesla Motors). These costs include environmental, financial, and and the opportunity costs for using your money for other purposes.
Electric cars do have an impact on the environment, related to the extraction, manufacture, use, and disposal of the materials in their batteries; as… [view entry]
Here’s an interesting graphic showing the amount of energy consumed by some common appliances when not in use, although the distinction between “passive” and “active” loads also seems unnecessary and distracting. Also, this phenomenon is typically called phantom load not “vampire load,” as the artist has dubbed it, after a less common term for wall-warts. Perhaps this even inspired google’s little contribution towards energy frugality last Halloween: The Haunted House? In any event, be sure to multiply the listed costs of these little suckers by a factor of 2 or 3 to to more accurately reflect bills in Cambridge.
Also while surfing this weekend I came across another infographic from progressive magazine GOOD. This one’s a sort of decision tree,… [view entry]
Energy Efficiency is cool!
Just check out the latest YouTube videos calling for the greening of our lifestyle and reducing energy loss in our homes. Obama Girl made her fame with her audacious “Crush on Obama” video. In her most recent release “Save Your Energy”, Amber Lee Ettinger, dumps Russel Simmons from America’s Greenest Campus for her new energy efficient beau.
In another green video, a group of students also showcase their love for sustainable solutions with their Double Panes video for an environmental films project out of Stanford University: www.grassfedfilms.org. Check out how they promote Efficiency First with their play on Paper Planes by MIA:
We all shop and live in a capitalistic society. That being said, more so than ever consumers are given the option to buy “green”, but what does that really mean? Cage free eggs do not necessarily mean chickens roam wild on hundreds of acres, but instead have an inch or so more room to move in their pen. And “organic”? How are we really sure what we buy is truly organic? Is a USDA “organic” label enough? For the conscientious consumer, all of these questions plague our minds but there is hope in the form of Good Guide: http://www.goodguide.com/. This ever-updated database is a wealth of information for people looking to make the greenest bang for their buck. The ratings are based on health, environmental and social performance http://www.goodguide.com/about/ratings.
Take a look for yourself… [view entry]
Did you know that many of the cleaning products we purchase to use in our home can be harmful to our health?
Each time you spray a counter down, clean a window, or wash a load of laundry, harmful chemicals are potentially being left behind – finding their way into our lungs and onto our clothing and skin. Learn how to own non-toxic cleaning products and make a safer home for your family and pets.
Here are a few simple non-toxic cleaning recipes from eartheasy.com:
All-Purpose Cleaner:
Mix 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup baking soda (or 2 teaspoons borax) into 1/2 gallon (2 liters) water. Store and keep. Use for removal of water deposit stains on shower stall panels, bathroom chrome fixtures, windows, bathroom mirrors, etc.
Another alternative is microfiber… [view entry]
