The recently passed Energy Bill states that by 2014 the use of incandescent light bulbs will be banned for traditional use. I guess we should be asking how a legislator defines the word “traditional”. You never know what a legislator can figure out to do with a light bulb. Anyways, here’s the good news – by simply removing incandescent light bulbs from widespread use consumers will save approximately $40 billion, eliminate the need for 14 coal fire power plants, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 Million TONS! Thanks to Simon over at the greenblog for the good news of the day!

Image credit: Cabezadeturco. Image licensed under a
Creative-Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

There has been a lot of talk lately about ‘greenwashing’ or the current trend in advertising to make something appear ‘green’ or eco-friendly that in reality – isn’t. Enter the green police.

An article by Tom Wright in the WSJ today, tells of an ad by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council depicting a man running through a natural rain forest interspersed with shots of palm-oil plantations and wildlife with a voice-over that says “Malaysia palm oil. Its trees give life and help our planet breathe.”

The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority didn’t buy it and determined that a product that is derived from plants that are often planted in illegally cleared natural rain forests or in plantations that destroy the natural habitat of species like the Sumatran elephant, isn’t really green. The U.K. authority ruled that -

“The ad was likely to mislead viewers as to the environmental benefits of oil-palm plantations, compared with native rain forest,”

Officials in Norway made a similar ruling on automakers labeling their vehicles as ‘green’ and banned all car ads from alluding that their vehicles are “green”, “clean”, or “environmentally friendly”. The officials expressed the opinion that all car production leads to more, not fewer carbon emissions.

Even the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the body that oversees advertising claims, began hearings this month to establish guidelines for appropriate green marketing in an effort to update its 10 year old advertising guidelines for eco-friendly marketing.

Even though much of the damage is done before the green police show up and false advertisers get nothing more than a good hand-slapping, it is progress and possibly the best we can ask for right now. What do you think? Is there a better way to regulate false green claims?

The Smoglympics

According to an article in the washingtonpost.com, recent measurements show that on some days the amount of smoke and dust particles in the Beijing air exceeds, by 3 to 12 times, the maximum deemed safe by the World Health Orgnization. David Martin, a respiratory expert who is helping train U.S. marathoners said, “The magnitude of the pollution in Beijing is not something we know how to deal with. It’s a foreign environment. It’s like feeding an athlete poison.” Typically athletes arrive at least 10 days prior to the event to allow them to acclimate but this year many of the 10,000 Olympians scheduled to descend on Beijing will show up just 72 hours prior to their event.

How bad is it?

“Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, a Boulder, Colo., bicyclist who competed in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and is a contender for a spot on this year’s U.S. mountain biking team, said that when he arrived in the Chinese capital, the sky was a crystal-clear blue and he thought that concerns about pollution had been overblown. But on the day he was to race, he said, the smog was so thick “you could barely see a few city blocks” from his hotel window.

About 20 minutes into the race, Horgan-Kobelski started having trouble breathing.

“I struggled with it for a while,” he said in a phone interview. “You’re breathing as hard as you can but you feel like your muscles don’t want to work. You’re filling your lungs but you don’t know what’s going in there.”

About halfway through the roughly 30-mile race, Horgan-Kobelski said, “my body sort of shut down.” He pulled over and vomited.

It wasn’t until he got to the athletes’ lounge that he learned that he wasn’t unique. Only eight of 47 contestants in the men’s race finished; the others, including the Chinese riders, also suffered from breathing problems and dropped out.”

According to the article, Beijing officials are not oblivious to the problem and have spent upwards of $16.4 billion moving the heaviest polluters out of the city, planting trees, rerouting traffic and inducing rain. The Chinese government is even considering closing factories and banning cars during the Olympics, an option that local business aren’t real keen to warning of devastating economic consequences. The photo above was posted by rytc on flickr with the description “The smog was unbelieveable in Beijing. The grey here is not rain or cloud, but thick smelly smog. The stadium however, was pretty cool”

Check out a report launched a few months ago by Friends of the Earth International with 9 testimonies from community members around the globe who have dramatic first-hand experience of the devastating impacts of climate change.

Apparently the new owners of treehugger.com were feeling some internal rumblings to turn the mammoth building into something a little more treehugger-ish. According to another article by our friend Lloyd over at treehugger, the Discovery HQ in Silver Spring, MD just achieved LEED platinum certification. The building “is one of only nine LEED platinum existing buildings in the USA, and got it for new lighting, HVAC controls that minimize off-peak use, a “top to bottom effort to become carbon neutral through the use of carbon offsets and wind power renewable energy certificates, and a robust employee engagement program to challenge and motivate employees to become involved in recycling and reduction programs.” Discovery now saves over 24,000 gallons of water annually and reduces carbon emissions by more than 260 tons each year.

I recently read an article over on planetgreen called “Fix Your House to Go Green, Not to Make Money” by Lloyd Alter. In the first post of what looks to be a blog series, Lloyd recommends buying a programmable thermostat to regulate the temperature in your home. Not a bad idea - but nothing revolutionary. Don’t get me wrong, if you don’t have one I’d have to agree with Lloyd – go get one – however the U.S. home building industry is so chock full of amazing innovations and products that it is a shame to be talking about a thermostat. Besides, done right, greening your home doesn’t have to be something you do just because you have a eco-friendly conscious - it should decrease your energy cost and at selling time green renovations retain their value better. If you really want to up the value of your home, consider some of my favorite, and easy to implement eco-friendly options.

Marmoleum
Think earth-friendly linoleum. The entire lifecycle, from production to disposal, is eco-friendly. Marmoleum is made from renewable raw materials: linseed oil, rosin, wood flour, cork flour, limestone, and Jute. Marmoleum is easy to install and you can make custom designs. Check out these pages to learn more.

http://www.themarmoleumstore.com/Default.aspx?MenuId=867

http://www.themarmoleumstore.com/default.aspx?menuid=29

Bamboo
The guys over at Smith & Fong have become quite the experts of using bamboo in just about anything – flooring, paneling, cupboards, and plywood. With all the talk about bamboo, see our earlier post about bamboo in clothing, Smith & Fong grow their bamboo in managed forests and harvesting is done by hand minimizing the impact on the local environment.

Another company, Totally Bamboo, recently unveiled solid bamboo countertop sheets that are 16% harder than maple and laminated with a completely non-toxic, food grade adhesive.

Just want to do a paint or plaster job?
Check out American Clay – manufactured in the U.S. from natural clays, recycled and reclaimed aggregates, and eligible for LEED credits for you LEED Builders!

Paint
American Pride paints exceed the most stringent environmental and performance testing standards including those by Green Seal and Master Painters Institute. Apparently the pain was originally designed by polymer scientists at the University of Southern Mississippi for the Department of Defense with the objective of eliminating the off-gassing and odors of traditional latex wall paints. Most paints contain VOCs (Volatile Organic Compound) that is essentially any compound of carbon that catalysts photochemical reactions in the environment.

Insulation
Last one – Insulation made of recycle denim. Yeah, and it works just as well if not better than the itchy pink stuff. Definitely not a product we could pass up here since it was one of the Top 100 Products of 2006 by Architectural Products. Check out http://bondedlogic.com/ and Idaho Blue Insulation.

Are you lucky enough to live in or around beautiful Boise, Idaho? Want to talk to some experts on eco-friendly home renovations? Check out http://www.greenrem.com/ and http://www.sustainabuilt.com
Want to get some more renovation ideas and cool ways to make your home more eco-friendly? www.greenfoundations.com 

Looking for a new, eco-friendly home? Check out http://www.onpointadvantage.com/

January 10, at the New Delhi Auto Expo, Tata Motors (US $7.2 billion) unveiled the most talked about car at the U.S. Auto Show, that wasn’t even on display – the Tata Nano. The dirt cheap Nano ($2,500) boasts 30 horsepower, 4-speed manual transmission, and no power steering. The barebones dashboard hosts only a fuel gauge, speedometer, and an oil light.

Tata claims that the Nano, or the “people’s car”, meets safety and environmental standards (Euro IV emissions compliance) and cruises around getting 54 miles per gallon. (The Prius is listed as 48 city and 45 hwy) According to Tata’s own website, U.S. based Time magazine cited the Nano as one of the top 12 automobiles that “have been able to fundamentally change the way we live and dream” alongside the Volkswagen Beetle, the Mini, and the Ford Model T. Wow. Can anyone say “hype”?
Sanjay Khanna, over at Worldchanging.com wrote an interesting article wherein he writes that “Journalist Hamish McRae of The Independent argued in an op-ed piece that [the Tata Nano] is a “great step forward for the burgeoning Indian middle class, bringing safe, affordable personal transport to families.” And: “…while more cars on the planet will mean more fuel consumed, this small, efficient vehicle represents a more sustainable environmental path than that chosen by the other great, growing economic power, China.

A more sustainable environmental path than…China? From a serious environmentalist’s perspective, that’s like saying “a more sustainable directional path than the Titanic, but I digress.”

I think it’s great - making mobility more available, and at 54 mpg some would probably even call it eco-friendly. But is it innovative? The guys over at Reware are innovative - the Nano is a barebones, glued together car for cheap. Now lets take a look at Chery, China’s leading automaker, is doing to be innovative and eco-friendly. According to the guys at www.autobloggreen.com , Assistant General Manager of Chery, Liu Zhijia made the statement;

“New energy is a driving force for the sustainable development of auto industry, by 2010 more than fifty percent of the vehicles produced by Chery will be equipped with hybrid systems, and half of those vehicles will be powered by new energy”

Both companies have plans to enter the U.S. – how will they fare? Beats me. Hard to say if consumers will want a glued together car (Nano) or a hybrid car from China - consumers seem a little fatigued with the quality shortfalls coming from China. Either way look for a Chery hybrid or Nano at a dealership near you in the not so distant future. Or convert your car into lean, mean vegetable oil burning machine at www.greasecar.com or read it here on ehow

This is probably one of my favorite topics. Gadgets. On the heels of the Consumer Electronics Show and MacWorld, the Greener Gadgets Conference announced a partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association today. On February 1, this year individuals from some of the largest consumer electronics companies, innovative small companies, and green thinktanks will come together in New York City to discuss the greening of the consumer electronics industry. There has already been some amazing innovations in the last few years, some of my favorite we have talked about on this blog, that it is exciting to see what will come out of the pipeline. Also joining the mix is a non-profit group called the Computer Savings Computing Initiative. The organization hopes to effectuate a 50% reduction in computer power consumption by 2010.

Check out their site www.greenergadgets.com

Greener Gadgets hopes that the alliance will help raise the visibility of website myGreenElectronics.org. The site helps users identify eco-friendly tech products such as cameras, camcorders and etc and then re-directs them to the products website. Read the full article.

Enrico Borgarello is head of Research and Development at Italcementi, has developed a cement that can ‘eat’ pollution. The way it works is a substance called TX Active is added to the cement so that “When light sines on TX, the material becomes active and neutralizes surrounding pollutants.” After 10 years and $10 million dollars spent developing the product, Italcementi test results indicate that TX can reduce local air pollutants from 20% to 70%, depending on sunlight levels and wind. Borgarello estimates that if you could cover 15% of a concrete jungle like Milan and you would cut pollution in half. The company is eyeing developing countries like India and China where annual cement demand in China is expected to rise above 1 billion tons this year. The first building to use the cement was the 2003 Dives in Misericordia church in Rome by architect Richard Meier.

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