Ten Tips For a Green Home
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany 
on 03. 1.06
The National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C., released a great 10-tip plan to cut energy consumption and conserve in the home, in conjunction with its upcoming exhibit "The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design" (May 20, 2006 – June 3, 2007). A great list to start with (and live by) it simplifies some of what needs to be done to make your dream house a green house. If green construction seems overwhelming, this is a list you can just pass on to your contractor--to reap the results.
Ten Tips to Go Green
1) Turn down the thermostat. Lowering it by just one degree can reduce heating energy costs by about four percent.
2) Use ceiling fans in the summer AND winter. By reversing the direction of the blades, warm air is pushed down, helping to keep rooms warm in winter.
3) Conserve energy by purchasing major appliances with an Energy Star rating. Compared to a 1990 model, an Energy Star-qualified refrigerator would save enough electricity to light a home for more than four and a half months.
4) Repair leaky fixtures: one drop per second from a leaky faucet can waste as mush as 10 gallons of water each week.
5) Install low-flow showerheads, faucets, and toilets. Low-flow faucets reduce water consumption and the cost of heating water by as much as 50 percent; using a low-flow toilet can save Americans 2.1 trillion gallons of water and $11.3 million nationwide every day.
6) Choose carpeting, rugs, window treatments and other textiles made from natural fibers, such as cotton or wool, which are untreated and free of toxins, such as pesticides or chemical cleaners.
7) Ask for flooring products made from rapidly renewable resources, such as bamboo. Bamboo is one of the fasted growing plants in the world, requiring no replanting and little fertilization or pesticides.
8) Select solid woods harvested from sustainably-managed forests, when possible, for furniture or cabinetry, rather than pressed woods or composites that may contain formaldehyde or other chemicals that may be toxic and hazardous to your health.
9) Eliminate waste by choosing products that are biodegradable or recyclable. Consider the “lifecycle” of furnishings and accessories before purchasing: Are they made of materials that can be reused or recycled when the item eventually wears out or is no longer needed?
10) Recycle packing and shipping materials from any newly purchased items, and safely dispose of paint cans and other containers with contents that could potentially contaminate the ground or water supply. ::National Building Museum
(image copyright Keith Stanley, 2002)
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I had a question around #9 "Eliminate waste by choosing products that are biodegradable or recyclable". I recently bought quite a few biodegradable trashbags, lawn bags, and cat box bags and though these are made from corn and not petrolium, these products aren't going to biodegrade when smashed into a landfill, right? It's a Catch-22 I haven't been able to work through. Any suggestions?
All the corn-based stuff will biodegrade in landfill; the starch molecules from the corn that give the bag its structure are digested by microbes found everywhere, and in the same way food waste biodegrades in landfill, so should the corn based products. They will form gases like methane, but these can be collected and used for power production. The only reason to worry about the sustainability/ethics of the bags is that use of corn for anything other than food (eg bags, biofuel) is increasing costs so that poorer countries can no longer afford to buy the corn and so are suffering from famines.
It's great to see so many simple ideas for the green home. Too many people think that being environmental requires a lot of work, but it really starts with some simple steps from lots of people to make a real difference.