If you’re planning to build a home or re-furbish the one you have to be more environmentally friendly in 2008, the Green Builder Magazine may be just the resource, you’ve been seeking.
“Green Builder magazine, the flagship publication of Green Builder Media, is the only publication in the market today that is focused exclusively on residential sustainable development….Green Builder magazine is the authoritative voice on green building and sustainable development. Building professionals across the country look to Green Builder for recommendations on products and practices, guidance on green design and news, updates on legal and legislative issues, profiles of other green builders, reviews of recent and classic construction practices books, and business and marketing advice on how to sell themselves as green builders.”
This website offers a wide array of resources for professionals and those of us learning about eco-friendly practices in an easily accessible and readable format. Checkout the magazine to learn more about green home building methods and companies. For the Do-It-Yourself enthusiasts, the website also provides quick references to green home building products.
Congratulations; you’ve taken the plunge and placed a few green resolutions on your list. There’s just one snag; you’re not quite certain where to start. No worries–there are plenty of resources available to help guide you as you embark on the path of sustainable living pracitices.
Vital Juice Daily & Lime.com–Fun, eco-friendly beauty, fitness and health tips Treehugger.com—Provides guides to a little bit of everything necessary to living a green lifestyle. iGo Green–keep up to date on green trends, practices, products and services
Gifts equal shopping. Shopping equals more travel, and more travel equals higher gas usage, which equals increased carbon emissions. Many of the gifts given could end up generating more waste in our landfills (packaging and decorative wrapping) and increased stress levels, due to the hectic race to find and purchase the perfect gifts (remember, part of living green is living healthy).
What to do? Boycott the Christmas gift giving tradition? Of course not, there are alternatives. Here are five tips to get you started.
1. Plan your shopping trips, so that they occur along your usual routes as much as possible. If you work downtown take a stroll by the shops. Is there a shopping center or mall along your route from work? Check it out?
2. Carpool. If you’re planning to go to the local outlet mall, get your friends together and make it a shopping date.
3. Give sustainable gifts: water bottles, canvas shopping bags (decorate them with fabric pens or iron on patches for a personal touch), or stainless steel travel mugs. Check out other suggestions on Treehugger’s Holiday Gift Guide.
4. Give recycled gifts. Look in your closet, your cabinet or storage space. What’s in there that you haven’t used in the longest time, is gently used and could be of service to a family member or friend? Read Brian Smith’s story at Altenet.org.You can also recycle or create decorative wrapping paper and cards using old Holiday cards, decorations and papers that you have around the house.
5. Give homemade gifts. If you make great holiday cookies, pies, or other treats. Whip up a batch and give them as gifts in reusable decorative container. If you’re an artist, create miniature works to share with family and friends.
Check out Googles’ initiative to contribute to a greener planet while staying on the cutting edge of developing technology. Google plans to target five areas to make their endeavors as planet and people friendly as possible:
Developing sustainable snergy sources cheaper than coal
Reducing Their Carbon Footprint
Advancing Green Technology
Helping Their Users “Go Green”
Even if you don’t yet own a home, it doesn’t hurt to have some ideas in mind for the future. ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition built a “green” home from scratch for a Navajo family during its latest episode. The Yazzie family went from a dilapidated trailer to a spacious four bedroom, solar and wind powered, and green insulated home with a locally supplied water source. Watch the full episode at ABC.com. You can also visit the EMHE, Green Element, page to view more examples of green home design.
The changes in our environment are having broad ranging effects on all of us on planet earth. Whether you live close to nature in the wilds of Alaska, or in the heart of an urban center, you know that the world is getting warmer, acquiring food a little harder or more costly, and that the seasons aren’t quite what they used to be.
In order to prevent the dire predicitons of environmentalists and scientists becoming a foregone conclusion, everyday people and industrial players are going to have to change the way they operate. The negative effects of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, as well as the pollution generated by business and daily living, can be curbed if everyone makes simple changes that conserve energy and resources.
This challenge to the modern lifestyle many us know and love also holds a silver lining. It could provide a partial solution to the economic and social challenges which face many people living in urban and former manufacturing centers. In short, it could be the gateway to jobs, financial security and social stability for those people currently classified as unemployed and the working poor.
Check out the proposal at Green for All, and watch this Link TV footage featuring Van Jones of the Green for All Initiative:
