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’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’ve been auditing our bathtub and shower. So far, we’ve looked at basic adjustments you can make to your tub and shower, and your personal water habits in the bathroom. Today let’s look at what sort of products you’ve got sitting in your tub.
Here are some likely items:

Soap
Shampoo – conditioner
Loofah or sponge
Face cleaner
Bath toys
Bubble bath
Razor
Shaving cream (often in those pesky aerosol cans)
Shower caddy

Each of the items above represents an item I could write a lot about. Since this is a blog, not a book, we’ll look at some quick facts and solutions. Later on, at some point on …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

Green audits of your home can be intense and each section of your home needs to be examined carefully. With that said I think it’s best to go over a home in smaller chunks than rooms — so that’s what we’ll be doing.
If you’re going to start doing a green audit of your living space it’s a good idea to grab a notebook and jot ideas and issues down as you go. The kitchen food pantry, or your food cupboards are small areas (unless you’ve got one of those cool walk-ins) but the amount of problems a pantry can have …read more