EcoFoot Footprint Calculator
The Global Footprint Network established a Ecological Footprint calculator at EcoFoot.com. This interesting calculator allows you to step through various aspects of your life to determine what your ecological footprint is.
A person’s footprint can be determined by several factors included food, shelter, mobility, goods and services and various land types. The calculator asks each person a variety of questions based on each of these factors. Based on the answer as compared to national averages, your footprint can be determine. Each question goes in depth to every aspect of life, ranging from your daily driving habits to how much renewable energy you use.
What separates this calculator from other footprint calculators is that it calculates your EcoLogical Footprint that is based off international standards established in 2006. It takes into account the land aspect of each item that goes into normally calculating our footprint. So it takes into the land that has to support the manufacturing plant, any waste that the plant produces and the energy to get it to you.
Give this calculator a try out. It’s not perfect, as with most calculators, but it’s interesting to see how many planets required if everybody on earth lived the same lifestyle as you.
Samsung Release Billion Dollar Eco-Management Initiative
In an effort to become the top sustainable electronics company, Samsung announced their Eco-Management 2013 Initiative. The company wants to achieve the following in their plan:
- Reduce their carbon emissions in their manufacturing plants by 50%
- Ensuring that 100% of their products are eco-friendly and exceed current eco-mark standards.
- Invest 5.4 trillion Korean won equivalent to approximately $4.33 billion U.S. dollars in eco-management initiatives
- Grow green partnerships with suppliers.
Samsung Electronic’s CEO and vice chairman Yoon-Woo Lee said this about the new initiative:
As a leading global technology company, Samsung Electronics has always taken our environmental responsibilities very seriously, but today we are committing to becoming a truly green enterprise that places eco-management at the very heart of our business decision-making and growth.
Electronics can have a huge impact through their massive use of electricity and tough ways to dispose of. The hope with this plan is to increase energy efficiency on all of their products as well as make materials used in their electronics recyclable. The large $4.3 billion investment will completely revamp all of their facilities and make them much more eco-friendly.
This plan is quite impressive and hopefully will set a higher bar in the electronics industry. They are currently one of the top electronic companies in terms of sales and in quality. I applaud this plan in that it will drastically reduce their impact on the environment.
Environmentally Friendly Flooring Options
There are a wide array of flooring options available in today’s market that claim to be the most environmentally friendly, but which really are? I will go through the my top choices of eco friendly floors and include their durability, eco friendliness and price. Here’s a quick table comparing each choice I will go through and how they rank in each of the categories:
Green Flooring Options
| Cork | Linoleum | Wool Carpets | Reclaimed Wood | Bamboo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pros | Sustainable, Durable, Insulating | Long Lasting, Water Resistant, Biodegradable, Inexpensive | Durable, High Quality | Strong, Lots of Character, Variety of Types | Strong, Price Comparable to Wood, Quick Growing Plant |
| Cons | Can't Hold Heavy Objects | Thin, Limited Options | Holds Moisture, Can Be Expensive | Slightlot always Sustainabley more expensive than new hardwood | Concerns about Sustainability |
| Cost | $$ | $ | $$$-$$$$ | $$-$$$ | $$ |
Cork
Cork is my favorite flooring material in terms of just how eco-friendly it is along with it’s unique look. Cork is harvested from the Cork Oak tree by stripping the bark off of the trees, leaving the tree unharmed and forest intact. The trees are harvested every 9 years and the trees live a life of around 200 years. Combine the sustainability of it’s production with the fact that it is biodegradable or can be recycled make cork a truly environmentally friendly option. There are so many positives about cork flooring that it would hard to list them all, but here are a few. It is extreme durable yet lightweight, easy to maintain, noise absorbent, insulating and fire and water resistant. All of these properties really make it a popular choice in the kitchen. A really cool feature is that they provide some resistance providing a little bit of a cushion. This feature also makes it not desirable to put heavy objects on it, such as furniture as it can cause damage. On top of all these great things, it’s also an affordable option, starting at about $4 per sq. ft. and higher for a more colorful floor or intricate design. After installation, it can cost as much as $10 per sq. ft.
Linoleum
Linoleum floors have been around for years and usually thought of as the “cheap” floor to buy. It may be more inexpensive than other flooring options, but it is one of the more eco-friendly flooring options. Don’t get confused with vinyl floors as they are not the same and it not eco-friendly at all. Linoleum is made from all natural materials including linseed oil, wood flour, tree resins, cork dust and minerals that are then pressed onto a vegetable fiber backing. It has many other great positives including it being long lasting, waster resistant, fairly easy to clean and biodegradable at the end of its life. Linoleum has also taken on a new life with new designs and colors to make it more appealing that it once was. They are definitely not as high end as some of the other options I am mentioning in this article, but are definitely the most affordable option. At a cost of $1-3 per sq. ft and after installation cost of around $3-5, you can’t go to wrong with this flooring option.
Wool Carpets
Not all carpets are created equal as some contain high levels of VOCs just as in paint and can be made from materials derived from petroleum. Wool carpets on the other hand are made from all natural materials. Of course wool is the main material, but use natural adhesives and backings. You will not find harmful chemicals and everything is biodegradable. It is a beautiful fiber that looks great as a carpet and is higher quality than the non-natural carpets. This means that it will last longer and it much softer than those synthetic materials. The major downside with wool is that it is ultra absorbent, thus holding in more moisture and susceptible to getting mold or mildew. Their is a fairly high cost associated with wool carpets, usually around $25 all the way up to $100 per sq. ft. The quality and durability usually make up for the cost difference between wool and synthetic material carpets.
Reclaimed Wood
Recovering wood from old and antique buildings or river bottoms and using it as flooring in your home can be a great eco-friendly option, while still getting beautiful floors. The wood reclaimed from historic places can have great character and give your home a distinctive look. There is also a reduced risk of bending because it has been dried for years. This also means that the wood will be slightly more durable as well as stronger. By recycling old wood, you get all the benefits of having beautiful wood flooring without having to cut a single tree down. The cost is slightly more than new hardwood floors at around $5-11 per sq. ft.
Bamboo
Quickly becoming an extremely popular option, bamboo is an ideal material to use for flooring along with being eco-friendly. Bamboo is a much more renewable resource than traditional hardwood as it requires a much shorter time to grow and can be harvested from the same plants. It is often just as strong if not stronger than most hardwoods and has similar properties to them as well. Treehugger has a great article on some of the positives and negatives of bamboo and some helpful hints on where to buy your bamboo from. Bamboo can sometimes be grown after cutting down a natural forest or habitat. Be sure to pick a supplier that makes buying bamboo a green option. Bamboo is comparable in cost to hardwood flooring and will really depend on the quality and probably supplier you buy from.
If you are in need of new flooring, consider purchasing one of these or the variety of other green flooring options. There are other options that are just as environmentally friend than just the ones I listed above to choose from. Make sure no matter which option you choose when buying flooring that you buy from a reputable source to make sure you are getting flooring that you can truly say they are environmentally friendly.
If you currently own or have had experience with any of the above flooring options, please share you thoughts on them.
AAA Rating to Include Eco-Friendly Designation for Lodgings
Along with all the other designations lodging currently receive from AAA, it will now have a new “eco” icon. This is an effort for AAA to indicate which properties in their 2010 TourBook editions are promoting green practices.
Properties that will be eligible for this rating must be AAA approved or have a Diamond rating as well as part of their local or a national green lodging program. Also, the complete description of this new “eco” icon will be located in the front of each TourBook. It’s great to see that they are putting strict standards to ensure that the properties given this designation are not just using it for monetary benefit.
This designation can really make it easy for us as consumers to determine if a lodging is following similar practices to what many of us consider eco-friendly. It usually requires some research on a property to find exactly what they are doing to be more environmentally friendly. Next time you go on your trip, be sure to check AAA to see if properties you plan to stay at have this new rating.
Coast Your Car to Savings?
Coasting seems like an obvious way to increase your fuel efficiency. Our car is using as little gas as possible by simplying idling. This issue is not as cut and dry as many may think, but there are still ways you can utilize this technique to extend the distance your gas tank will take you.
The two ways that will help reduce mpg while not causing harm to your vehicles are when coasting down a hill or to a stop with your car running. There are no specific mpg or dollar amounts that these methods will save you, but both are effective. The key to the savings is pretty obvious, we are allowing our car to coast in a situation when we would normally break our vehicles. I currently use both methods whenever I am in either situation and have seen an increase in mpg. The amount is not tremendous, but every little amount helps. The thing that is frustrating with both coasting methods is that people do not utilize them often. I see people continuing to accelerate to an already turned red light to break it at the last minute. Why not just begin coasting to the light when you see it’s red and let your car naturally stop? It can also help save you money by reducing wear on your breaks.
Not all techniques are as fuel saving or safe as the ones mentioned above. Putting your car in netural, especially with automatic transmissions, is not a huge saver as most would think and can increase your risk of getting into an accident. The only way that putting your car in netural could save you additional costs is if your car idled at a lower RPM than when it is still running while coasting. In many cases, it will not idle much lower and only reduce the control you have over a vehicle. Don’t ever use this method with automatic transmissions as you will be shortening the life of your torque converter, which can be pricey to replace. Avoid as much as possible in a car with a manual transmision even if it seems natural to switch to neutral.
Another popular technique that can actually increase your fuel consumption is when you drive to a fast speed and then coast until it reaches a speed in which you have to repeat again. This not only looks stupid, but it burns more fuel when you have to go from a low speed to a high speed. It’s better to maintain a steady speed so your car doesn’t have to work hard for a longer period of time. Just think of it in terms of city vs. highway mileage. Why do you think city mpg is so much more less?
The next time you are coming to a stop or about to go down a hill, make sure to coast to get that little extra savings. Make your safety a top priority and keep your car running longer by avoiding some of the other methods of coasting.
Cash For Clunkers Begins Today
You can begin taking your car to your local dealer for the Cash For Clunkers Stimulus program. Dealers are ready to hand out the $3,500 – $4,500 incentives to trade in their old gas guzzling vehicles. If you have an old vehicle that on it’s last leg, take advantage of this program and try to buy as fuel efficient vehicle as possible. Check out http://www.cars.gov/ to find full details on whether your old car qualifies for this program.
2009 Global Green Brands Study
A recent study conducted by several consulting firms found that some of the world’s major countries share similar ideals about green products as well as some of the top brands people feel are the most green. Several major consulting and research firms conducted the survey including the Esty Environmental Partners firm. The countries in which people were surveyed include the Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, the UK and US.
The major finding of the survey was that 77% of all people surveyed felt that it’s somewhat or very important for a company to be green. One of the most important things that they felt was a way to show that they were “green” was to lower their use of dangerous materials in their business. Dan Esty of the Esty Environmentalyl Partners consulting firm also felt that:
Consumers expect companies to recycle, use energy efficiently, reduce packaging, and pursue green innovation. So to gain loyalty, a company’s environmental strategy must be comprehensive.
Not all countries agreed on all parts of the survey though. Several countries including the UK and France felt that their countries were not moving “on the right trick” in terms of the state of their environment. The remaining countries including the US felt just the opposite.
People surveyed were also asked about what brands they considered to be the most “green”. Some of the major brands include Clorox Green Works, Burt’s Bees and Tom’s of Maine and even tech companies like Microsoft and Google. I agree these companies do have green business practices, but was a little shocked that Proctor and Gamble and Wal-Mart were mentioned in the list for the US. That does not bode well for the US if they feel that those two brands are the most green companies. This just goes to show how much of an influence media has in our country and the misconceptions people have of what makes up a green company.
For full details on the survey, check out the Environmental Leader.
What are you thoughts on the findings of this survey and what are some of the companies you feel are the most green?
