Many of us are welcoming spring today, so I thought it would be nice to go over some nature loving, tree hugging, eco-friendly ideas that will carry the entire family through the better part of spring and into summer.
1. Quit looking at nature through your frosty windows. It’s warming up, so get out there and enjoy nature in real time, in real life, in full blown color.
2. Throw open your windows wide and let in the fresh air. Natural ventilation is actually a really effective green home goal to aim for. Proper cross ventilation naturally helps to remove any indoor …read more

This week our green audit is cleaning supplies. We’ve already discussed the dangers of traditional, commercial cleaning supplies, so now we’re moving on to solutions. I will be going over some options available for purchase this week, but first we’re going to look at homemade cleaners.
Benefits of homemade cleaners:

Less packaging waste. You’re not buying new bottles over and over.
Less expensive. I actually started making homemade products before I was really all the way green – why? To save money.
Less harmful (often not harmful at all) to humans, animals, and the earth.
Less noxious home smell. Homemade natural cleaners always smell better …read more

I’m not sure what’s more scary – all the toxic chemicals in home cleaning supplies, or the fact that someone in 1971 thought this would be a kid friendly commercial. Cedar, who thinks Buffy the Vampire Slayer rules, who is scared of almost nothing, looked utterly terrified when I showed this to him.
Seriously folks, there’s a reason you shouldn’t take hallucinogens and then make commercials.

We’re looking at home cleaning supplies this week. Actually this is such an in-depth topic that we could blog on nothing but toxic cleaning supplies all year, and never once run out of things to say.
That said, this week we’ll look at some major points related to the dangers of cleaning supplies, some earth and people friendly alternatives, and lots of links to extra info. There’s a lot to digest. Too much. For example, two years ago the University of California at Berkeley conducted research surrounding just one small area of cleaning supplies – the exposure to indoor airborne chemicals …read more

Many of the things that are talked about in connection with greening your home can also apply to greening your church — recycling, using green cleaners, practicing green lawn care, eliminating disposable products when possible and making sure the building is energy efficient. Of course, churches are composed of groups of people who may not all agree on every issue, but the first step in greening a church is calling attention to the matter.
Resources for greening your church:
•Get LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. Your church can decide how green it wants to become and pursue the chosen …read more

This week’s green audit is going to be kid specific; although adults are certainly welcome to participate. We’re going to be looking at schools, or rather the greening of schools.
What we’ll be looking at this week will include:

How schools can protect resources such as paper, water, and electricity.
What’s scary and not so green about the school cafeteria.
Schools supplies and how they affect sustainability.
The school grounds; including cleaning and maintenance.
School-based traffic and transportation.

We’ll also take a look at some very green schools, and a few other random issues that affect school greenness. I’ll offer some easy checklist formats this week, so …read more

This week we’re talking about bathtub and shower audits. Yesterday we discussed some basic all around tips for greening your tub or shower – today we’ll talk water habits.
The habit discussion isn’t that long. You can sum it up in about three words…
Use less water.
Not enough? Ok, more tips…
First off there’s the whole, which saves more water argument, showers or baths. According to the Environment Agency, “A 5-minute shower uses about a third of the water of a bath. But remember that power showers can use more water than a bath in less than 5 minutes.” It’s really variable. …read more

This week, our green audit is the tub and shower. To make sure your bathtub and shower are doing all they can to save energy and water do the following:
Check for water leaks: You can do this by checking your water meter say, at 8am. Wait two or three hours but run no water during that time. Re-check your meter and if it’s changed, there’s a leak.
Insulate your hot water pipes: This can give you hotter water even if you preset your heat lower.
Insulate your water heater tank: You’ll re-coop the cost of doing this in about a year; after …read more

We could do an entire bathroom audit this week, but that would be a lot of work. Let’s look at the different parts of the bathroom over the next few weeks. This week, we’ll start with the bathtub and shower.
Now when we do a green bathtub / shower audit, we’ll need to look at some different items. Following are the things we’ll be concentrating on.

The actual tub or shower.
The products you have sitting on your tub – shampoo, soap, sponges, etc.
Water use.
Cleaning the tub.

These are the types of issues you need to consider if you want to complete a true …read more

This week our audit was trash. How much we have, what we can’t recycle, and more. Here’s what you need to get up to speed:
Weekly Green Audit Challenge: Trash!
Daily Green Audit Tip: Trash Control
Daily Green Audit Tip: Trash Control & What Can’t be Recycled
Update: Aerosol Product Recycling
Now, let’s add the audit all up and see where we stand. The key point is that this audit should have made you aware of what you’re throwing out vs. what you’re actually recycling.
If you noticed that there was an excess of paper, cardboard, cans, and plastics in your trash the fix is easy …read more