Did you ever wonder how much your recycling efforts have on the environment? Check it out here! Every bit helps…
Check out Recycling Energy Saver here and let us know how you’re doing!
Did you ever wonder how much your recycling efforts have on the environment? Check it out here! Every bit helps…
Check out Recycling Energy Saver here and let us know how you’re doing!
Posted in Green Gadgets, Healthy Communities, Recycle
Tagged energy, environment, Recycle
My guilt on fake vs real tree has been answered! Real Christmas trees more sustainable than fakes http://ow.ly/g2oRl#healthyhomeschicago
Steve Mitchell among the cultured Christmas trees at the UBC Farm in Vancouver, B.C., December 7, 2012. Mitchell says the most sustainable Christmas tree is the wild tree cut from underneath power lines and road right of ways – with a permit. The carbon footprint of artificial trees takes about 20 years to payback.
Photograph by: Arlen Redekop , Vancouver Sun
An artificial Christmas tree would have to be used for 20 years before its carbon footprint matches that of a farmed tree, according to a forestry professor at the University of B.C.
Steve Mitchell said most artificial trees are kept only six years before fashions change and owners throw them out. Most end their life in a landfill.
“Artificial trees need to be kept for 20 years for the carbon emissions to be equivalent to using natural trees,” Mitchell said, referring to a life cycle study done in 2009 by Ellipsos, a Montreal-based sustainable consulting company.
People can choose a wild tree and either a farmed cut tree or a farmed living tree. Of all the options, the most sustainable is a wild tree, he said.
Posted in healthy homes
Tagged Carbon Footprint, Community, ecological footprint, green, green homes, healthy homes, healthy homes chicago, Home, Recycle, Resources, sustainable
See on Scoop.it – Green Real Estate
I first talked about reclaimed wood, briefly, in my piece 10 Eco-friendly ways to Renovate your Home…. Now, on the heels of Hurricane Sandy many of us are looking to rebuild or renovate our homes after suffering severe damage and devastation.
See on homes.yahoo.com
Posted in healthy homes
Tagged Affordable Housing, Build, Carbon Footprint, design, green, green homes, healthy design and build, healthy homes, healthy homes chicago, Home, Innovation, reclaimed wood, Recycle, Resources, Smart Building, Smart Buildings, sustainable, sustainable architecture, sustainable design, Technology
The concept of sustainable building incorporates and integrates a variety of strategies during the design, construction and operation of building projects. The use of green building materials and products represents one important strategy in the design of a building.
Green building materials offer specific benefits to the building owner and building occupants:
Building and construction activities worldwide consume 3 billion tons of raw materials each year or 40 percent of total global use (Roodman and Lenssen, 1995). Using green building materials and products promotes conservation of dwindling nonrenewable resources internationally. In addition, integrating green building materials into building projects can help reduce the environmental impacts associated with the extraction, transport, processing, fabrication, installation, reuse, recycling, and disposal of these building industry source materials.
Green building materials are composed of renewable, rather than nonrenewable resources. Green materials are environmentally responsible because impacts are considered over the life of the product (Spiegel and Meadows, 1999). Depending upon project-specific goals, an assessment of green materials may involve an evaluation of one or more of the criteria listed below.
This information was based on Lynn Froeschle’s article, “Environmental Assessment and Specification of Green Building Materials” (Adobe PDF, 1.4 MB), in the October 1999 issue of The Construction Specifier, a publication for members of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). Selection criteria similar to what is presented below was also used for the East End Project as identified in the Review of Construction Projects Using Sustainable Materials.
Overall material/product selection criteria:
Resource Efficiency can be accomplished by utilizing materials that meet the following criteria:
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is enhanced by utilizing materials that meet the following criteria:
Energy Efficiency can be maximized by utilizing materials and systems that meet the following criteria:
Water Conservation can be obtained by utilizing materials and systems that meet the following criteria:
Affordability can be considered when building product life-cycle costs are comparable to conventional materials or as a whole, are within a project-defined percentage of the overall budget. (See Environmental and Economic Assessment Tools for links to resources.)
Product selection can begin after the establishment of project-specific environmental goals. The environmental assessment process for building products involves three basic steps. (Froeschle, 1999)
1. Research. This step involves gathering all technical information to be evaluated, including manufacturers’ information such as Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) test data, product warranties, source material characteristics, recycled content data, environmental statements, and durability information. In addition, this step may involve researching other environmental issues, building codes, government regulations, building industry articles, model green building product specifications, and other sources of product data. Research helps identify the full range of the project’s building material options.
2. Evaluation. This step involves confirmation of the technical information, as well as filling in information gaps. For example, the evaluator may request product certifications from manufacturers to help sort out possible exaggerated environmental product claims. Evaluation and assessment is relatively simple when comparing similar types of building materials using the environmental criteria. For example, a recycled content assessment between various manufacturers of medium density fiberboard is a relatively straightforward “apples to apples” comparison. However, the evaluation process is more complex when comparing different products with the same function. Then it may become necessary to process both descriptive and quantitative forms of data.
A life cycle assessment (LCA) is an evaluation of the relative “greenness” of building materials and products. LCA addresses the impacts of a product through all of its life stages. Although rather simple in principle, this approach has been difficult and expensive in actual practice (although that appears to be changing).
One tool that uses the LCA methodology is BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability) software. It allows users to balance the environmental and economic performance of building products. The software was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Building and Fire Research Laboratory and can be downloaded free on their Web site.
3. Selection. This step often involves the use of an evaluation matrix for scoring the project-specific environmental criteria. The total score of each product evaluation will indicate the product with the highest environmental attributes. Individual criteria included in the rating system can be weighted to accommodate project-specific goals and objectives.
Source: Green Building Materials: Sustainable Building.
References
Posted in healthy homes
Tagged air quality, Build, building, design, enegy, energy, Grants, green, green homes, healthy, healthy homes, healthy homes chicago, Home, homes, IAQ, materials, Recycle, Resources, Schools, sustainable, VOC, water
I will once again be leading up the St Josaphat’s Elementary School Green Recycle Christmas TREECYCLING efforts. We are offering pick-up services for a $10 donation in the Lincoln Park and Lakeview and surrounding neighborhoods and will bring your Christmas trees to the Chicago Park District for you!
If you would like to set up a time for us to come between January 1-15 please let me know!
Here is a list of recycling sites if you are venturing out on your own!
Ready to take down your Christmas tree? The Chicago Park District is accepting trees at the following locations. Also, there will be some wood mulch available at the sites. If you have additional questions, you can call the Department of Environment at 312-744-7606. The Park District will be accepting trees through January 17.
Chicago Christmas Tree Recycling Sites:
Bessemer Park: 8930 S. Muskegon Ave.
Clark Park: 3400 N. Rockwell Ave.
Forestry Site: 900 E. 103rd St.
Garfield Park: 100 N. Central Park Ave.
Grant Park: 900 S. Columbus Dr.
Humboldt Park Boathouse: 1369 N. Sacramento Blvd.
Jackson Park: 6300 S. Cornell Ave.
Kennedy Park: 11320 S. Western Ave.
Kelvyn Park: 4438 W. Wrightwood Ave.
Lake Meadows Park: 3117 S. Rhodes Ave.
Lincoln Park: Cannon Dr. at Fullerton Ave., parking lot east of Cannon Dr.
Margate Park: 4921 N. Marine Dr.
Marquette Park: 6700 S. Kedzie Ave.
McKinley Park: 2210 W. Pershing Rd.
Mt. Greenwood Park: 3721 W. 111th St.
North Park Village: 5801 N. Pulaski Rd.
Norwood Park: 5801 N. Natoma Ave.
Portage Park: 4100 N. Long Ave.
Riis Park: 6100 W. Fullerton Ave.
Rowan Park: 11546 S. Avenue L
Sheridan Park: 910 S. Aberdeen St.
Warren Park: 6601 N. Western Ave.
Wentworth Park: 5625 S. Mobile Ave.
Where to Recycle Your Christmas Tree in Chicago – Chicago Christmas Tree Recycling
Posted in healthy homes
Tagged Chicago, chicago green schools, Christmas, Community, green, Green Elementary, green homes, Green Thumb, healthy homes, healthy homes chicago, Home, Recycle, Resources, Schools, tree
What is the Chicago Climate Action Plan?From the start, the charge and scope of the Chicago Climate Task Force was broad and ambitious. Dozens of experts and a nationally recognized research advisor committee took part in discussions. Leading scientists were consulted to describe various scenarios for Chicago’s climate future and how these would impact life in the city
Posted in healthy homes
Tagged Community, ecological footprint, energy, green, green homes, healthy homes, healthy homes chicago, Home, Recycle, Schools
Grants available for funding Green Projects – recycling money and deadlines. Starting accepting grants 10-3-2011 and Deadline is Dec 8, 2011
Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity – Recycling.
I LOVE case studies and success stories of how a group of teachers, parents and/or community leaders not only get it but GOT it done!
Check out how this Arrowhead High School Green Group structured their successful group almost completely ONLINE (how green) and made it work. Way to GO Arrowhead.
Although we still meet as a class at least once a week, all of the materials students need are online: we discuss and edit papers online, we talk about problems and solutions online, we read articles online, we take notes online, we watch videos online and we hold discussions online.
Within this form, students demonstrated learning and growth when they were able to:
• Set and have a goal they can reach (that makes sense to them)
• Be internally motivated
• Be positively challenged
• Be useful in the learning process
• Be given a chance to practice what they’ve learned
• Produce quality work they’re proud of
• See the outcomes of their learning
• Do something
• Complete enjoyable assignments
• Take charge of their learning
• Become competent in the subject
• Be partners with the teachers in their own learning
• Evaluate their own learning and• GO GREEN!
Recycling is one of the easiest and most traditional ways to have a positive impact on your environment and community. The simple act of tossing a can into a recycling bin rather than a trashcan not only diverts needless trash from entering landfills, but also decreases the need to extract and process virgin materials from the earth. In this way, recycling saves natural resources and energy, thus helping the economy by reducing production and energy expenses.
Here is a great step by step path to going Green by starting with a recycling program at your school. Why reinvent the wheel? Use this great step by step guide to getting your program started and share with me your successes and failures!
I am about to start one at my daughters’ school here in Chicago and really want to expand the idea just beyond a recycling program.
Why are we recycling? What are the implications for our planet and how will our efforts measurably impact our school, our community and the world?
If kids can undertand in some way (depending on their grade level) WHY they are doing something then I think it will go a long way towards their involvement with and their more complete understanding of why we should recycle (and re-use and reduce) our waste.
Posted in healthy homes, Healthy Homes
Tagged Chicago, chicago green schools, Community, global green schools, green, Green Elementary, green homes, green housing, green it, green school, green school recycling, healthy homes, healthy homes chicago, Home, how to be green at school, Recycle, School - High, Schools, sustainable design, united states green schools, what is a green school