Green Home
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This past Monday (January 14th), Chlorox released its ‘Green Works’ line of green cleaning products. I’ve been pretty impressed with the new green products that seem to be appearing everywhere these days, and this is yet another example of green going mainstream.
I guess the major question is whether or not these products are truly green (apart from the colour and the name) – are they produced sustainably, for example? Really, the same question applies to the Methods and Shaklees of the world as well. I have no idea myself.
Whatever the case may be, I’m at least glad to see big businesses moving towards providing a lot more eco-friendly products! I guess we can thank Al and Oprah, among others, for really helping to get the ball rolling!
Anyway, here is some more info about the Green Works line:
Green Works are as effective as conventional cleaners but made from plant-based ingredients. Derived from coconuts and lemon oil, Green Works are a practical way for consumers to live a greener lifestyle without compromising performance. The products are biodegradable, non-allergenic, packaged in bottles that can be recycled and not tested on animals.
The Green Works product line includes products for use in the home, including the kitchen and bathroom that range in price from $2.99 to $3.39:
Green Works Natural All-Purpose Cleaner works on grease, grime, dirt, soils and messes, and is safe on multiple surfaces throughout the kitchen and bathroom including counters, appliances, stainless steel, sealed granite, chrome, cooktop hoods, sinks and toilets.
Green Works Natural Glass & Surface Cleaner cuts through filmy residue, and is safe on multiple surfaces throughout the kitchen and bathroom including glass, mirrors, appliances and stainless steel.
Green Works Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner removes rust, mineral deposits, and hard water, and is safe for plumbing and septic systems.
Green Works Natural Dilutable Cleaner works on grease, grime, and dirt, and is safe on multiple surfaces throughout the kitchen and bathroom including non-wood floors, counters, sinks, stoves, garbage cans and toilets.
Green Works Natural Bathroom Cleaner works on tough stains like soap scum, hard water, and rust, and is safe on multiple bathroom surfaces, including counters, sinks, tubs, tiles, and shower doors.
Just so you know, Steve and I will be testing Green Works out at some point, and we’ll be sure to write about it on the blog!
Technorati Tags: green cleaning, method, shaklee, green works, chlorox
Written by Bentley on January 17th, 2008 with 17 comments.
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This past Saturday, after snagging our new rain barrels, Steve and I decided to head to Home Depot.
I’m definitely glad we went – aside from getting some needed items, it was also really interesting to see some of the green changes under way at HD.
You may recall my first post about Home Depot’s ‘Eco Options’. Again, this is a magazine that informs customers about the various eco-products available in the store, as well as offering quite a lot of interesting green living info in general.
When I first heard about it (last December) and had a look at the HomeDepot.ca site, I was pretty impressed with the online version of the “Fall” edition but still wondered how much of an effort they were making.
I had not seen any of the magazines in the store before, and was a little disappointed that the Eco Options section of the website was completely buried with no mention on the home page.
Well things have certainly changed. Not only are the magazines readily visible (and available) in multiple locations within the store, but Eco Options information is now also prominently displayed on the main Home Depot homepage. Add to this the fact they really seem to have expanded their selection of eco-friendly products and I have to admit I’m pretty impressed!
Speaking of cool eco products – I was blown away by the fact that they now offer multiple rechargeable lawn mowers along with a variety of quality push mowers! I can remember being frustrated two years ago (when I bought my current pollution machine from them) with their very limited selection of green mowers (they had some plug-in mowers and some sad push mowers).
This week (until April 29) they are actually offering anyone who brings in an old gas mower up to $100 credit towards the purchase of one of the new eco-friendly models. I’m thinking very seriously about taking advantage of this offer. From what I understand, gas mowers are unblievable bad when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. Although only 2 years old, I would love to get rid of mine!
Eco Options has also launched in the US, according to a story in GreenBiz News (link to follow). When I wrote my post in December I couldn’t even find mention of the program anywhere on the U.S site!
According to the article, Eco Options has been in Canada since 2004!! That’s a pretty major indication of the level of effort they put into the program prior to this past fall (I had no clue it even existed).
Here is an interesting blurb:
Home Depot has labeled more than 2,500 Eco Options products already, including all-natural insect repellents, compact fluorescent lightbulbs, cellulose insulation, front-load washing machines, and certified sustainable forestry products. By 2009, Home Depot expects the Eco Options label to grow to 6,000 products.
Full article: Home Depot Announces Eco-Labeling Program
I am certainly interested to see how our Canadian Eco Options program develops over the next few years. So far so good, but of course there will always be room for improvement.
Technorati Tags: home depot, eco options, eco friendly, green products, green living, environmentally friendly, eco products, rechargeable lawn mowers
Written by Bentley on April 24th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Green Home and News.
I very recently came across some cool eco-friendly products available at Home Hardware stores (Canada). It was actually my wife who told me about them after hearing an ad on the radio. (she definitely earned herself some eco brownie points with that one!)
Natura’s tea tree oil all-purpose cleaner has actually been a favourite of ours for some time now, but the timing of their two newest products couldn’t have been much better!
One of our lingering bad habits is the frequent use of paper towels. At one point I thought I had a solution in making rags out of old T-shirts, but sadly my skimpy rags just didn’t cut it in the end. Needless to say, when I learned about the Natura “Wonder Cloth” and it’s “8 layers of soft, supple, super absorbent cleaning power”, I was pretty excited!
The wonder cloth is apparently made from 100% natural wood fibres (a little odd, but interesting nevertheless), and resists bacterial growth, thus making it (hopefully) an ideal multi-use cloth. It feels pretty stiff straight out of the package, but I’m hopeful it will mellow out a little with some use!
The other new product is the Natura static-free, re-usable dryer sheets. It’s funny, I’ve recently been looking at our big ol’ box of Bounce sheets wondering if there was some better alternative out there – I’m certainly glad to know there is!
Each box contains 2 re-usable sheets and claims they are good for more than 500 loads. I’m not sure if that is 500 each or combined, but either way this is not only more eco-friendly but also quite a bit cheaper. The box cost $12.95, so even if it was only good for 500 loads total, thats 5X more than the 100-sheets of Bounce (which probably cost $4 or $5).
Also, one other thing worthy of mention – it looks as though some money is donated to the Tree Canada Foundation for any Natura products (or at least the Wonder Cloth) purchased.
So, if you happen to live in Canada be sure to check out Natura products the next time you are at your local Home Hardware. Unfortunately I don’t think they are available anywhere else, but I imagine there must be similar products out there.
Technorati Tags: natura, tea tree oil, re-usable dryer sheets, paper towels, green products, home hardware, green cleaning, eco-friendly
Written by Bentley on April 2nd, 2007 with 10 comments.
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A recent question from one of our readers re: ‘green driveways’ inspired me to do some research on the topic. From what I can tell there are two main approaches:
1) creating a driveway that is literally ‘green’ with vegetation, and 2) using some form of porous concrete or asphalt.
Both of these options have the advantage (over traditional driveway paving) of allowing rain water to drain into the ground, thus helping to remove pollutants and lessening the burden on storm sewers and local water bodies. The vegetative option has the added advantage of eliminating (or at least greatly reducing) the ‘heat island’ effect associated with paved areas, not to mention offering a certain natural aesthetic appeal.
Let’s look at the vegetative options first. Of course the easiest approach would be to simply rip out your driveway then plant grass – the downside of this approach however, is that over time the earth will get compacted and ruts will form. In order to maintain good drainage some sort of structural lattice is required – typically made of concrete/stone or high density plastic.
One example of the plastic lattice approach is Grasspave2, one of a number of innovative products offered by Invisible Structures Inc. Here is a blurb from the Grasspave2 page:
Grasspave2 is a structure which provides incredible load bearing strength while protecting vegetation root systems from deadly compaction. High void spaces within the entire cross-section enable excellent root development, and storage capacity for rainfall from storm events. Stormwater is slowed in movement through and across Grasspave2 surfaces, which deposits suspended sediment and increases time to discharge. Suspended pollutants and moderate amounts of engine oils are consumed by active soil bacteria, which are aided by the system’s excellent oxygen exchange capacity.
Be sure to check out the Invisible Structures website – they have a variety of intriguing drainage solutions.
If you are looking for some excellent ‘how to’ info on building your own green driveway I highly recommend checking out this HGTV article: A driveway that looks like a lawn. It takes you step by step through the process of installing your own turf driveway using a plastic lattice.
Ok, moving on the the topic of ‘porous pavement’…
There seems to be quite a lot of good info on this topic. Here is an exerpt from and interesting webpage about porous pavement:
What is porous pavement:
Porous pavement is a permeable pavement surface with a stone reservoir underneath. The reservoir temporarily stores surface runoff before infiltrating it into the subsoil. Runoff is thereby infiltrated directly into the soil and receives some water quality treatment. Porous pavement often appears the same as traditional asphalt or concrete but is manufactured without “fine” materials, and instead incorporates void spaces that allow for infiltration.
Why consider porous pavement:
Traditional stormwater management practices significantly reduce groundwater recharge has led to a number of environmental concerns in recent years. As infiltration decreases, base flows in streams are decreased and previously flowing, small streams now often dry up between rains. Homeowners and public water suppliers often rely on wells that tap groundwater. Without recharge, the threat exists that these drinking water supplies could dry up rapidly
If you are interested in learning more about this topic I highly recommend you check out the EPA’s Porous Pavement Factsheet
I also highly recommend this excellent article all about the advances in the porous pavement field (actually provides a lot of great info about alternative pavement options in general)
Technorati Tags: porous pavement, green driveways, grasspave2, drainage, rainwater, stormwater
Written by Bentley on March 22nd, 2007 with 6 comments.
Read more articles on Green Construction and Green Home and Water Conservation.
I read an article in the latest issue of Natural Home magazine last night and it got me thinking yet again about what my ideal green dream home/property might be like.
This is something I think about a lot, and in fact something that’s been on my mind for years – long before my (fairly) recent adoption of a more serious environmental stance.
Don’t get me wrong, even just being able to purchase our first home a couple years ago was a monumental occasion. At the time we didn’t think we had a hope of being approved (I was still in school full-time), but wanted to test out the system so to speak, just to see how far off the mark we were. Well much to our surprise (and delight) we were approved for a reasonable amount and the rest is of course history.
Anyway, as lucky and content as I feel owning my own home & my little chunk of land, my mind still wanders to thoughts of my ideal home and property.
While many of the details and possibilities change from one thought to the next, there are definitely certain details that remain constant.
Ideally, I would love to have a 5-20 acre secluded property in the country (yet not in the middle of ‘nowhere’). I envision having my own outdoor pond stocked with fish, a massive organic garden, a giant underground rainwater tank (would capture all run-off from buildings), a decent sized house (but nothing too crazy), plus a workshop building where I could mess around with vermicomposting and other ‘dirty’ experiments (aquaponics etc).
I would LOVE to have some sort of solar greenhouse incorporated into the house itself if at all possible. Take a photo tour of the Rocky Mountain Institute if you want to learn about the sort of design that totally gets me excited. I love to grow things and am a serious nature fanatic and thus really want to surround myself with as much as I can within the boundaries of a habitable dwelling.
You may recall that I was quite inspired by the ‘Wilson Solar Home‘ and the Enertia home solar heating/cooling design as well. If I was starting from scratch there would be so many more possibilities than if working with an established structure.
Ok, really starting to day dream here! I definitely don’t want to get too carried away today, although I must admit it’s actually been quite fun thinking about all of this.
Originally my intention with this post was to tell you about the article I read last night (mentioned at the beginning)! Luckily you can access it online : Build a Better Straw Bale: Simply Perfect
If you are interested in green design/construction or are simply a green home dreamer like myself I definitely recommend checking it out!
Here’s a blurb to tantalize your taste buds:
Although it took Michele and Dale Doucette five years to plan their straw bale house and two years to build it, they agree it was worth the wait. Their home reflects the life they live: simple in design and elegant in detail.
Set on 22 acres in Wilmington, Vermont, the 3,200-square-foot house fits right into the landscape. Local stones set in the stucco perimeter around the base connect the house to the earth. Locally sourced timber and straw bales make up the frame and the walls. The indigo metal roof mirrors the surrounding mountain peaks at dusk
I should also mention that there is a decent photo gallery with images from the house as well.
Technorati Tags: green building, green homes, green construction, LEED, sustainable living, off the grid, solar power, solar panels
Written by Bentley on January 23rd, 2007 with 4 comments.
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I meant to write this post yesterday, but it almost seems more appropriate to do so today given the fact that my first two issues of Natural Home Magazine arrived.
That being said, I should warn you that this is not going to be much of a post at all – just wanted to point you in the direction of some interesting and useful resources.
I’m continuing to (slowly) make my way through my copy of Worldchanging (at this rate I should have a review for you by May) and frequently learn about great eco-resources I hadn’t previously heard about.
One such resource, listed at the end of the ‘Green Remodeling’ chapter (surprise!), is a series of PDFs put together by Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development, called the “Green Home Remodelling Guides“.
Here’s what Worldchanging has to say:
These online PDF guides are the best, currently available, free resource on sustainably remodeling your home – period. Covering painting, roofing, landscaping, plus salvage and reuse and working with a contractor, these guides are simply indispensable…
I’ll admit to not having spent too much time with them yet myself – but I have to say they definitely look great!
If you are thinking about doing some remodeling around your home be sure to check them out.
By the way, I’ve added the link to these guides in the ‘Excellent Free Resources’ section of our EcoSherpa Squidoo lens, in case you need to track down the link at some later time. I think the Squidoo lens is going to be very useful as a place to go & easily find some of the cool stuff we mention in our posts here on the blog.
Technorati Tags: green design, remodeling, natural home, green building, green construction, green living, sustainable living
Written by Bentley on January 18th, 2007 with 1 comment.
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