Eco Friendly Lawn Mowers
Many people are beginning to get rid of gas powered lawn mowers in an effort to make a positive change on the environment, their health and their wallets. Various types of environmentally friendly lawn mowers are now available on the market that can take the place of polluting gas models. Let’s take a look at why gas lawn mowers are so harmful as well as different models of eco-friendly mowers ways that can make a positive impact on your life.
Why ditch gas?
A big misconception with gas mowers is that fact of just how much of a environmental impact they truly have. Just because they have small engines, that doesn’t mean that they don’t pollute just as much as a bigger engines. I was really blown away by just how much pollutants gas lawn mowers put into our environment. Gas powered lawn mowers use approximately 800 million gallons every year and produce 1/10 of the total smog-forming pollutants from all mobile gas devices. That’s a lot of gas usage every year for such small machines. The worst part is that 1 lawn mower produces as much pollutants equivalent to driving 43 new cars 12,000 miles every year!!! And I always thought that cars were the top culprit for emitting pollutants.
Prior to 1997, many lawn mowers had no emissions regulations at all and are greater polluters than today’s models sold. Even after 10 years of regulations on lawn mowers, there are very few emission requirements on gas lawn mowers and they are not much more efficient that older models. Most still only have a carburetor and a single muffler with no additional emission controls. Also, gas models are a huge source of noise pollution. On a weekend morning when you are trying to sleep in, somebody mowing their lawn with a gas lawn mower is always there to wake you up.
Eco Mowers
A new generation of lawn mowers called eco mowers that are not only environmentally friendly but also eliminate the loud noises of their gas counterparts. Remember the mowers that require you to manually push them with no motor through your lawn? Eco mowers are bringing these push mowers back because they do not require a motor and are overall better for our environment. It may seem weird to bring back such a simple model of mower, but as you will see sometimes simple is better.
Reel Mowers
Reel lawn mowers may seem old school, but are making a comeback with eco friendly mowing. They work by having a horizontal cutting blade that can be described as a cylinder. As the wheels of the mower moves, the reel spins at a fast speed and cuts the ground. Push mowers are a prime example of reel mowers. They seem more inefficient in their cutting method, but actually make a healthier cut and there is no motor to worry about. There are models available with gas or electric engines ( electric being preferable ) that can provide some assistance with the mowing process.
Environmentally-Friendly
It is pretty obvious that eco mowers are much gentler on the environment than traditional gas powered mowers. Many are push models that don’t even have a motor to emit pollutants. You do the work so the environment doesn’t have to be negatively impacted. Even if you decide to use an electric model, there is still no direct emissions and don’t require a large amount of energy to run.
Health
There are no more harmful emissions that you or your family have to breathe in when you are cutting your lawn. Along with better air quality, push mowers will force you to move your body. It is like a workout on its own because it requires you to use your own energy to push a mower over any size lawn. There are even some models available that have a place where you can put extra weights on the mower to give you an even better workout.
Save
Just as with health and the environment, you save money on these types of mowers because they have no motor. Push mowers can cost as little as $100 and require very little maintainance. No more need to buy gas and less worrying about reparing an expensive gas engine.
Where to Buy?
EcoMowers.com is one of the leading companies pushing the eco friendly lawn mower movement. They provide a wide variety of products and information on how getting a eco mower can make a positive impact on our environment. They sell both manual push reel and electric reel models with free shipping on all their mowers. You can also check out your local home store as well for very affordable push mowers.
Business Energy Waste
I usually don’t work long hours or weekends, but this past week was an exception for me. I had to work long hours and a weekend day to meet an important deadline. You may conclude from the title that I found out just how much energy my business is really wasting. The company I work for is not alone. Many major companies across America leave their lights on during all hours of the night, even though when nobody is occupying the building.
Photo by poYang.
The average office building in America leaves their lighting on for more than 20% of their typical operating hours. Even though many offices use a high percentage of energy efficient lighting, there is still no need to waste that much energy. I understand that certain businesses like health care organizations need to keep their lighting on almost all the time, but why the need in office buildings? Offices throughout America are losing approximately $5 – $10 billion every year because of this excess use of energy.
Lighting is only part of the problem. Computer and monitors are left on at all hours of the night. I previously discussed how much energy computers waste and is contributing to the high energy cost that busineses face every year. There is no reason that most people cannot turn of their computers every night even when no applications are running on their machines.
If you work at a business where you see these types of things happening, it’s time to make a difference. There are various items that you can propose to someone at the top of your company or to the office management company.
- Lesson Lighting Hours – As described above, offices are lighting their buildings for many more hours than necessary. Show that a large amount of money can be saved by either turning off the majority or at least some of the lights during non-business hours.
- Efficient Lighting – Another way to get your company to reduce their energy use is to propose buying more energy efficient lighting. Fluorescent and CFL lighting are two alternatives to traditional incandescent bulbs and are another way they can save money. This doesn’t have to apply to just overhead lighting, but also office desk lighting as well.
- Turn Off Computers – Try to get an email sent by somebody in upper management to urge employees to turn off or put their computers to sleep at times they are not present in the office. At minimum, manybe even urge employees to turn off computer monitors and lighting at the desks.
I really hope that more businesses across America begin to see how much energy they are wasting by allowing lights and computers to remain on during off-hours. Even if they don’t care about the energy waste, at least seeing how much money they could save should be a motivating factor.
Green Grilling Tips
It’s that time of year again when the temperatures are rising and the perfect opportunity to pull the grill out. Grilling always seems to get a bad wrap whether it be because of health or environmental reason. There are ways to make this grilling season healthier for you and the environment.
Which Energy Source?
A leading point of confusion when grilling is which source of energy is the cleanest and/or most environmentally friendly. This is actually a tougher question to answer than you might think.
Gas
Whether it be natural gas or propane, gas is considered the cleanest of energy sources for the grill. Both burn cleaner than other fossil fuels and has no ash particle, but do produce carbon dioxide when burned. It’s no surprise that both natural gas and propane are heavily used in cooking. The biggest issues with both is all the process of getting them before using them as a fuel source. Since natural gas is methane gas, it has much more harmful effects on climate change than carbon dioxide. It can leak from pipelines and tanks when transporting and being stored. Another problem is the drilling for natural gas. Just as with oil, it can have harmful effects on the surrounding habitats. There are better measures being taken to reduce the impact, much more so than with oil.
Electric
Electric is technically the cleanest source of energy when it is used since it does not produce any carbon dioxide. The biggest problem is the majority of our electricity as you may know comes from coal. Electric is also considered the a bad conductors of heat generation and is far more expensive to run than gas. If your electricity is coming from a renewable energy source, then it is in fact the cleanest source of energy to cook from.
Charcoal
Charcoal is considered by many as the dirtiest, but usually tastiest form of grilling. It is visibility more dirty as it releases hydrocarbons and soot into the environment. Both can cause problems to your health as well as pollute the environment. This is caused by the various chemicals often used to make the charcoal lumps. Things like coal dust, sodium nitrate, limestone, borax and lighting fluids are just some of the dangerous ingredients found in popular brands of charcoal lumps and briquettes. Not all charcoal brands are created equal as some carry 100% natural briquettes and those made from plant materials.
The Best?
It’s really up to you which source of energy you chose for grilling, but try to make it a little safer for your health as well as the environment. The best bet seems to be using natural gas or propane. You can get a hookup to your house to be able to use natural gas for your grill or buy propane tanks from your local hardware store. If you still do not like the taste of gas for grilling, try using natural charcoals that are made from 100% woods used from environmentally sustainable forests or wood scraps that require no trees to be cut down. There are also various charcoals made from plant materials including 100% Natural Coconut Charcoals. It burns much cleaner that traditional coals, while still giving a great charcoal flavor. Just make sure that no additional chemicals are added to your charcoals. Also, it is suggested to use a chimney starter to eliminate the use of substances such as lighter fluids to add additional chemicals to the grill.
Foods
Foods are just as important of a part to grilling as the energy source need to cook them. The first thing most people think of when grilling is meat. Steaks, burgers and hot dogs are the most popular items to throw on the grill. I’m not suggesting that meats should be avoided at all costs when grilling, but healthier alternatives should be considered. Try using locally grown and free-range meats that are usually healthier and leaner meats. Chicken and fish are much leaner alternatives that can be just as tasty. Fruits and vegetables do not have to be your enemy when it comes to the grill. Instead of a burger, mushroom burgers can be just as hearty, but much healthier. Asparagus, eggplant, tofu, zucchini and squash and pineapple are just a few of the fruits and veggies that can spice up your grill.
Cleaning Up
The first thing to note before cleaning your grill is that you should allow the grill to completely cool. This can sometimes take up to 24 hours. After everything is cool, try using a more natural or homemade cleaner so that you are not harming the environment while cleaning your grill. I sometimes use a combination of the following cleaners to get my grill cleaned:
Vinegar
This basic vinegar solution is such a great versatile cleaner that can also be used anywhere in your house.
- 1 Part Vinegar
- 1 Part Water
It’s that simple and it really fights tough, stuck on grease.
Baking Soda
This is a paste solution that is more of an abrasive solution that is also a versatile cleaner.
- 1/2 Parts vinegar
- 1 Part baking soda
- 1 Part water
You can also try finding a green cleaning solution that is made from natural materials. Whichever cleaning you choose to use, make sure to clean the grill after using it each time to reduce your cleanup time and rusting.
Share Your Tips
Please share your grilling tips to make this grilling season a greener one.
University of Maryland Plans to Bulldoze Woods
The University of Maryland plans on bulldozing 9 acres of woods near the Comcast Center, the university’s basketball stadium. This really hits home for me because I went to the University of Maryland. I used to park in a parking lot right next to the wooded area in which they plan to demolish. The University says that it needs the area to relocate support facilities because of rapid development on campus.
This news comes right as the university is considered one of the top tree-friendly campuses in America. The campus just received the “tree campus” designation from the Arbor Day Foundation along with the college’s arboretum designation by the American Public Gardens Association. This really angers me because this is just a two-faced move by the university. What’s even worse is what Anne G. Wylie, vice president for administrative affairs had to say:
“This is a very complicated problem,” she said, adding that she sees no conflict between bulldozing woods and the university’s campaign to be rated one of the nation’s greenest schools. The overall aim is to develop a more compact, walkable campus and reduce the amount of driving by students, faculty and staff, she explained. “It’s not just about preserving trees.”
Bulldozing woods is not the reason you were named one of the greenest schools throughout the nation? That is so hypocritical that isn’t not even funny. Knowing the campus well, I cxan tell you that this will not help make the campus more carbon neutral at all. No matter what you do with this area of campus, it will not help reduce the amount of driving required on campus.
What’s even worse about this problem is that the fact that the eco-system in this small area of campus is unique for the area. It has a variety of soils and species and would be ashame to seem that all destroyed.
It’s obvious this move by the university is all about money. They would like to develop the campus further by building more campus apartments and shopping. The only way to do that is move the support facilities that are on the main part of campus to these woods that in which no students live or class buildings are located.
Recycle Aluminum Foil
Next time you get ready to ball up aluminum foil and throw it in the trash, make sure to recycle it. Better yet, why not get more use out of it by cleaning it off and reusing it. Either way, don’t let it go to waste and end up in a landfill.
What makes recycling aluminum so important is that fact that it is so much more difficult to make it from it’s bare materials, bauxite ore. Constructing it from recycle materials uses 95% less energy, saving equivalent to watching TV for 3 hours. This along with the fact that it can easily be recycled makes it that much more important that we try to recycle as much aluminum as possible. We do recycle a decent portion of our aluminum, but most of that comes in the form of cans and not foil. One main reason is that some recyclers don’t like recycling aluminum foil is that it is much dirtier than cans. This just means that we have to be a little more diligent and clean the foil before we recycle it.
If you find out that your local recycling center does not take foil, you can still always reuse the foil. By cleaning it and allowing it to dry, it can still be used for many things. Depending on its initial use will determine what you can use it reuse it for. If you use it on the grill, it may tough to use it for food again. Planet Green has a great list reuses for aluminum foil that are not related to food at all. Get creative and don’t let it go to waste when you can get more uses out of it.
Of course whenever you reuse an item, you can really save some money by using what you would normally throw out. Seeing how expensive aluminum foil can be, it really makes more sense to get as much use out of it especially if it is for non-food purposes. Why use a fresh sheet of foil when all you are going to do is cover a burner on your stove?
Green Search Engines
Searching the web has become a major part of our lives. There are tons of search engines available to help you find information or websites, but a few have their way to make our searches a little more green.
Google and Yahoo currently dominate the market for search engines. In order to try to find a more optimum search algorithm to compete with them would require an enormous amount of funds and a team of top mathematicians and computer scientist. There are a few search engines that use these major search engines as a foundation, but use a portion of their profits earned to donate to charities that promote a more eco friendly world.
What’s great about the idea behind these types of search engines that instead of giving all of the profit to google’s or yahoo’s shareholders, you can provide them to environmental organizations. In order to really make a difference, it makes so much sense to make one of the following search engines as our home page to use for search queries:
EcoSearch.org
EcoSearch.org is the best example of one of the search engines I mentioned above. They simply pass Google searches through their site, but direct 100% of the money they earn to environmental charities. The organizations that they sponsor are all focused at protecting or restoring our environment so that future generations can enjoy it. Some organizations that EcoSearch.org supports includes Sierra Club, TreePeople, National Resource Defense Council and the Rainforest Alliance.
EcoSearch
Though the same names as EcoSearch.org, EcoSearch search engine operates slightly differently. It actually uses Yahoo to fuel its search queries and does not alter your searches one bit. They also donate to reforestation projects throughout the world. For every 1,000 searches made, a tree is planted either in the Amazon or Canary Islands. Aquaverde, Foresta and Cœur de Forêt are the major organizations supported by this search engine and ensure that our precious Amazon region remains intact.
The Eco Key
The Eco Key uses an Eco filter on Google in order to make search engine queries more eco friendly. Instead of returning all the search results Google would normally return, it retuns relevant green search results. On top that, they give 40% of their revenue towards cleaning up our planet. That money is directed towards organizations aimed at removing trash and help clean up pollution in communities, parks and beaches throughout the world.
Green Maven
Green Maven is a search engine and directory for environmentally friendly websites. Their goal is to keep growing the green web by providing a single place where a large number of some of the top green sites can be found. Green Maven makes it so easy to find green webistes instead of having to filter through search results from Google or Yahoo.
CLOSED – May Pays to Live Green Giveaway
(Updated 6/5/09) A winner was announced for the contest. Thanks to everybody who participated.
Throughout the month of May, I will be hosting a giveaway to reward my regular readers and those who are active on my site. Similar to the February giveaway, the winner of this giveaway will a gift certificate to your favorite green store. This time it will be $50 either in the form of a gift certificate or as cash, to spend the money at a local or online green store or even to save.
How to Win
There are many opportunities to win this contest. Here’s how you can increase your chances to win:
- Comment ( 1 entry ): Simply leave a comment on this article about how you will be using the money to make your life a little greener.
- Subscribe to my email subscription ( up to 2 entries ): Follow my daily articles by simply subscribing to to my email subscription service and/or RSS feed. This will give you a great chance to win and give you all the latest updates to my blog. A win-win situation. If you already are subscribed, you are already entered. Leave a comment if you sign up for my RSS feed.
- Spread the Word ( 2 entries ): You can get a better advantage by publicizing this contest on your blog. All you have to do is give a brief description of this contest and a link to it. Be sure to include a link to the post in a comment.
- Twitter ( 1 entry ): Just tweet this contest on Twitter and include a brief description of this contest and a link to it. Include a link to your Twitter account in a comment.
- StumbleUpon ( 1 entry ): Stumble this contest and briefly describe this contest in the review.
Make sure to leave a comment for each of the above ways that you entered my contest.
When is it over?
This giveaway will end June 3, 2009. I will randomly select an winner from the list of all entries and announce the winner on June 4th, 2009.
Good Luck!!!!
