From cleaning supplies to new homes, you’ll find an overwhelming number of environmentally focused labels, seals and emblems on bottles, boxes and product websites, and even in home brochures and listings. But sorting through them, especially if you’re new to buying green, can be confusing. By understanding just a little bit about the more frequently seen seals and certifications, you can have confidence you are spending your money correctly. “Products or homes may have all sorts of claims about them, but how can a consumer trust those claims?” said Adam West, who works for Southface, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that promotes sustainable homes, communities and workplaces. “These verify a product meets its claims.” Here’s a look at 10 of the more common seals and certifications you’ll see on shelves and during your home search. [Read this article]
Buy Wisely By Learning Eco-Labels
Date: 10/12/2011 | Source: Utility Products Magazine 
How To Fall In Love With Where You Live
Date: 10/12/2011 | Source: Mother Nature Network
The most popular cities in the world have one thing in common: fantastic public spaces. Encourage your city or town to build a beautiful, new park, square, or plaza. The city where you really want to live – that ideal place you wish your own town would become – is not some plan shining on an urban designer’s computer screen. It actually exists, and you’ve been there. Vacation is a week or two every year when we live the way we really want. Freed from the everyday worries about work, budgets, and mowing the lawn, we do just as we please. Some folks go to the mountains, some to the beach, but a lot of us head straight for a city, where we walk around all day with pleasurable stops at cafes, museums, parks, squares, gardens, waterfronts and more. We walk more, eat more, talk more, and laugh more than we ever would at home. Just as important, we are spending our time hanging out in public spaces – commons – which are wonderful urban spots shared by everyone. [Read this article]
Should We Be Pushing For Quality Over Quantity On Paper Recycling?
Date: 10/12/2011 | Source: GreenBiz.com
The good news is that paper recovery rates continue to increase year after year in North America and Europe. A lot of the increase in paper recovery can be attributed to the increase in easy residential and commercial recycling through single stream recovery systems, as 87 percent of Americans now have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs. Yet the quality of recovered fiber is never included in the equation. Recovered paper can provide quality and reliable sources of fiber, but there are other competing factors in play that need to be considered for achieving levels of quality and reliability required for certain paper types. Recovered paper as a fiber source provides many environmental benefits, most significantly the efficient use of a resource (trees) through the recycling and reuse of its fiber. But is our fixation on the Recovery Rate number, often achieved via single stream and mixed stream recovery systems, creating a negative trade-off and diminishing environmental returns by reducing the consistency of quality recovered fiber? [Read this article]
RESNET And Lennar Enter Into Agreement To Label Energy Efficiency Of Homes
Date: 10/10/2011 | Source: PR Newswire
The Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) and Lennar, one of the nation’s leading builders of quality homes, announced that they have entered into an agreement to include RESNET’s Home Energy Ratings System (HERS) Index as part of Lennar’s Everything’s Included program. The HERS Index, a nationally recognized standard for measuring home energy performance, operates much like the MPG rating for automobiles. Recognized by the federal government and private industry, the HERS Index has been used to monitor and calculate energy efficiency for more than 1 million homes across the country. Under the HERS program, Lennar will include a label that indicates the energy efficiency of the home in comparison to a typical existing home, as determined by the U.S. Department of Energy. Lennar also will provide an estimate of how much money homebuyers can save on annual utility bills. “We are thrilled to be working with Lennar, already the nation’s leading builder of solar homes, and its continued leadership in advancing the energy efficiency objectives of the nation,” said Steve Baden, Executive Director of RESNET. [Read this article]
EPA Programs Offer Communities Smart-Growth Solutions
Date: 10/05/2011 | Source: Builder
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has seen a “huge increase in demand” from communities across the country that want to better align themselves with smart-growth principles. To better meet that demand, the EPA has launched two new programs – Smart Growth Implementation Assistance (SGIA) and Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities. Under SGIA, the EPA will work with four or five communities for a year to 18 months, to develop new smart-growth solutions to challenges those communities are facing. Under the Building Blocks program, the EPA will work through contractors and cooperative agreements with nonprofit organizations to help communities implement proven smart-growth solutions to challenges they’re facing, which might include anything from the need for more varied housing options to stormwater management through green streets. [Read this article]
How Investing In Water Infrastructure Could Grow Green Jobs
Date: 10/05/2011 | Source: GreenBiz.com
The push for green jobs has always focused on its dual benefits: Helping the environment while also digging the country out of its economic rut. That argument got a fresh spin with a new report that says a major infusion of cash could create jobs and shore up our crumbling water infrastructure. It’s going take north of $188 billion to properly manage stormwater in the U.S. and preserve water quality, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That scale of investment may potentially create nearly 1.9 million jobs over the next five years, which could mean that 1 in 7 unemployed residents could go back to work. Specifically, the report focuses on the sustainable aspects of water management as key areas for investment, which may include green roofs, urban tree planting, rain gardens, constructed wetlands, rainwater harvesting, greenways, permeable pavements and bioswales. [Read this article]
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