Green Building

With the green fever that has been sweeping the nation, why not also have that apply to building and remodling homes?

GREEN BUILDING is a way of building homes that allows people to be more responsible with our natural resources and energy. Whether building or simply remodling your home, green has become the most logical and economical choice.

The air quality inside our homes is worse than the air quality outside! This is due to formaldehyde in compressed wood counter tops and furniture, toxins in paints and common household cleaners; there are also the chemicals used to make our upholstry, linens and clothing. Just because you can't smell it does not mean it isn't lingering. This is why green matters!

A healthier way of building is to build green. In traditional construction, indoor air quality is polluted due to poor choice in building materials and inadequate lighting. A green home is designed, constructed and operated to enhance the well being of the occupants. Green homes also minimize the negative impacts on the community and environment.

A green home will:

• be easier to maintain and is built to last


• bring a higher resale value


• provide a healthier and more comfortable environment


• improve the indoor air quality


• provide occupant satisfaction


• incorporates energy and water efficient technologies


• include renewable energy technologies


• reduce construction and demolition waste

When you factor in the benefits I have listed, building a green home can save you money in both the construction and operation of your home.

Many people will tell you that building green will cost you more than a traditionally built home. In reality, with a clear budget, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to build a green home for the same price, or possibly less than, a traditional home.

If you are interested in building green, one such company that can help you is FIVE EAGLES DESIGN, LLC (http://www.5eaglesdesign.com/index.html) located in Charlestown, NH.

Five Eagles Design, LLC is a group of general contractors and designers specializing in the construction of energy efficient homes. It is the goal of Five Eagles Design, LLC to provide customized energy star quality homes for an affordable cost. Their business will guide you through all aspects of the home building process. They are partnered with Preferred Building Systems, who manufacture high quality modular homes that are energy efficient, built green and offer a comfortable lifestyle for the owners.

So if you're in the market for a new home, why not buy into something that will help the planet and help you save money.

Shop Green, Save Green (Spend Less)

By now I think I have stated it enough times.......going green does not have to be costly, and in fact it can save you hundreds of dollars on your overhead expenses!

If you shop around you will notice that due to everyone shopping green and demanding environmentally friendly products and services, we are all becoming more earth and health savvy, and therefore stores are going along with it. Where and how you spend your money shapes the world we live in. If we all started eating in moderation and bought more organic foods, we would have to be catered to. Remember that whole supply and demand thing you learned about in your early years of school? Well this is exactly what happens and what I am talking about.

Due to alot of people being more health conscious the stores have to stand up to the competition. For example, Whole Foods has their own line of organic products called 365. Not only is the 365 line cheaper than the name brand organics out there, they are also often cheaper than their non-organic alternatives.

Another way to cut back on expenses is buying in bulk. This does not mean buying large cases at your local price club. Buying in bulk simply means buying the largest size of a product that you were going to purchase anyway. Buying a 64 ounce bottle of laundry detergent is better for our planet than buying a 32 ounce bottle,. It not only uses the smallest amount of packaging per ounce, it also saves you some money per ounce, and that means there is less waste going into our landfills.

BYOB! Bring Your Own Bags! Almost every supermarket I have been to offers some sort of "bag credit." I have received discounts between 2 and 10 cents per bag for bringing my own. There are huge positive impacts to skipping out on the plastic bags. Too many plastic bags have ended up as litter making their way into oceans, killing marine animals, sea creatures and birds by the millions. Man made plastics don't biodegrade and stick around for thousands of years!

And although paper may be recyclable, they can be worse. According to the Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment (www.ilea.org), although nearly 20% of paper bags are recycled, it takes more energy and creates more waste to make one paper bag than it does to make 2 plastic bags.

The U.S. has begun to follow in the footsteps of countries that have banned or heavily tax the use of plastic bags. Australia, South Africa, Ireland, and some U.S. cities have begun to take a stand. San Francisco has banned plastic bags since March 2007. There are various other cities, such as New York, considering the same eco-friendly move. Read more about plastic bag bans at www.treehugger.com
Search "plastic bag ban"

You probably already know that eating less meat is better for your health. It is also better for the environment! Here's the rundown: Methane from captive livestock is responsible for 1/5th of all greenhouse gas emmissions caused by humans.

Eating less meat will also result in saving for you! Like in any health conscious diet, moderation is key! A "normal" serving of meat should be no bigger than the palm of your hand. And half of your plate should be filled with greens/vegetable. The last small part left can be a carb of some sort or can just be left empty.

You can also save money by substituting your meat for another source of protein. A pound of organic lentils might cost you about $2 and will yield you around 13 servings! Cheaper and serves more than a pound of ground meat would. Lentils are packed with nearly as much protein as the beef! So why not give it a try? You don't have to become a vegetarian, but consider cutting out meat once a week to start with.

You can save money on vegetables by buying locally and in season. Local farmers are more likely to sell you produce a little bit cheaper since they are selling it to you directly. There is no middle man or shipping involved.

Another way to save on produce is to grow your own! A packet of tomatoe seeds might cost you $3 (about the price of a pound of tomatoes at a supermarket). The seeds will produce fresh, tasty tomatoes that will last all summer long.

GREEN CLEAN = SAFE CLEAN

What is the meaning of clean? The ammonia smell that lingers after you've cleaned using a toxic cleaner? That is really chemicals lingering behind in your home that you are inhaling.....not my definition of clean. But there is nothing to fear! There are options out there for cleaning that are safe and effective!

The first thing I will address is all of these companies that for years have been producing toxic cleaning products are now providing us with "green" and "eco-friendly" products. They think they are doing us a favor by saturating the market and making it readily available......the only problem is that "green" and eco-friendly" or even "Earth Smart!" mean nothing! The reason for this is that many companies out there are claiming to be green without any support to their claims and still contain toxic chemicals. Some of the "all natural" ingredients/chemicals are naturally occuring such as formaldehyde. Formaldehyde has been known to be toxic.

General All-Purpose cleaners contain an array of chemicals that can be harmful on their own, forget about the toxic fumes they produced when combined with other chemicals! The basic ones like chlorine bleach and ammonia produce fumes that can be dangerous for people with respitory and heart problems. PLEASE NEVER EVER CONSIDER COMBINING these two as they become MORE TOXIC!

Many cleaners contain petroleum based surfactants (can mimic the hormone estrogen) or other chemicals that can easily be absorbed through the skin and damage nerves. Do these ingredients sound like "clean" to you now?

Here's an important thing to remember and I hope many people start to understand....CLEAN HAS NO SMELL! All those "clean" scents you smell are really synthetic frangrances meaning, you guessed it, more chemicals that linger around for us to inhale.

If you are truely trying to be green, you should also be looking to lower you carbon footprint through buying and using less plastic. True green cleaners will come in a superconcentrated form meaning you end up spending less money and putting less plastic into our landfills.

A simple rule to keep in mind when shopping is the less packaging, the better. When I have a choice, I buy the largest size available. Less packaging is more green.

As I write this, I think back to the days when I would lock myself in my bathroom to clean because I did not want my children exposed to the nasty fumes released by the bathroom cleaner I used at the time. My youngest was diagnosed with asthma and I did not need a trip to the emergency room or a rushed nebulizer treatment. But locking myself in would only cause more harm to me as there was no fresh air circulating nor did I realize that the fumes linger and my children would be exposed to them, even if at a lower levels. Since switching to green cleaners, I have not had to lock myself in the bathroom and can even clean with my children in the same room. I have even begun to let them help me when they want to and they are only 3 and 4 years old! I don't have to worry about any toxins they maybe being exposed to!

I personally use the line of cleaners Shaklee has to offer for my family. I have had the same bottle of BASIC H2 concentrate for over a year now and I might be half way done with it. This has significantly saved me lots of money and trips to the supermarket just for cleaning products. This solution in different concentrations makes my all purpose cleaner, windows/mirrors cleaner, and my degreaser. I also keep reusing the same plastic bottles, significantly reducing both my carbon footprint and my contribution to our local landfill.

Just imagine this for one second, 5,824 spraybottles piled up in your backyard. Now transfer them over to your local landfill. This is not what I want to leave behind for my children! And I know you are asking yourself why the number 5,824? Because that is the number of bottles of window cleaner you get from ONE bottle of the BASIC H2 concentrate!

I have done some thorough research to make sure that all of the company's claims hold up to what they promise and that they are all natural. There are other options out there, and I would gladly discuss the best options for each individual, personally. Feel free to contact me through email at betterlivingenterprises@gmail.com

There is so much more that could be said about the cleaners that are commonly used around the house, and I have not even begun to touch on laundry, hand soaps, drain cleaners, dishwashing detergents, etc. It may all sound scary, but there is still hope. Clean Green...

Book Review on FOOD MATTERS

FOOD MATTERS: A Guide to Conscious Eating
by Mark Bittman


This book confirms what I have already mentioned: the lifestyle choice you make not only makes you healthier by reducing your risk of many long term and chronic diseases, it can also help you to loose weight if you need to, save you REAL money, and help stop global warming!

No change comes without effort, but the changes are not as hard as you think and take less time than your average workout routine. Knowing this can intrigue anyone. Don't take it from me, read this book for yourself and confirm what I am talking about.

The book is divided into two basic sections. The first section will make you rethink about your food consumption. You will learn how we tend to overindulge and how we have come to considering these outrageous portions we eat to be "normal." Bittman does an amazing job with a brief history of our over consumption of food. Think you're doing good following the food pyramid guidelines? Ever think that the government would want to help or hurt when it comes to our food consumption? Think again.

The second section offers tons of recipes that are good for you, the earth, and they're yummy too!

I really enjoyed reading Bittman's book, FOOD MATTERS: A Guide to Conscious Eating, and I think you will too. It really fortifies the old adage, "You are what you eat."