Green Products

Green SUV? This gas and electricy guzzler is one with nature. The picture tells us so.

Hogwash. Rubbish. Poppycock. Or my favorite: Bull. It is all the same as Greenwash. It’s not uncommon to get excited about a few great products that boast to “save rain forests and fuzzy little animals” or SUVs that are so eco-friendly that flowers shoot from their exhaust pipes. While Company X is planting a tree for every ten dollars customers spend on their clothes, the clothes are being manufactured by poor, starving children halfway across the world. This type of boasting about being green when the information is censored and/or skewed is labeled as greenwash: it consists of blatant exaggerations and misleading notions mostly, but may involve noting positive aspects of a product or service while strategically ignoring the product’s or service’s negative qualities.

Greenwash is hype about “eco-friendly”, “green”, “environmentally responsible” things. It exists because people want green/healthy products and services nowadays. Marketing professionals have picked up on the demand for this green market niche and use it to the fullest advantage. We are all victims of Greenwash. This “Greenwash Guide” reference guide is a funny, informational and witty piece. Give it a glance. Learn to better point out advertisements that try to pull the 100% organic, unbleached wool over your eyes… The best piece of information I came away from this piece with: American companies are under no obligation to steer away from exaggerating the ‘wonderful’ qualities of their products and services on their websites and in advertisements. US advertisers are able to do the following:

1. “use environmental images capable of making a sweeping claim of environmental benefit”,
2. “be technically or narrowly correct, without looking at the bigger picture”,
3. “present claims as universally accepted when the scientific basis is under dispute of inconclusive”,
4. “make claims indicating an environmental benefit that while literally true, is unlikely to happen in practice”
5. “use exaggerating language”

That means its your job to determine what is Greenwash.

Good luck.

This article was submitted by ThinkDwell.

My hands have been on this keyboard for 100s of hours now, researching these last details of our house. Since most of the materials, applications and fixtures are not normally used in residential applications, I've had to swim through oceans of information to find these items with the help of my architect. Jan says that most of the residential norms are crap, so we HAVE to research every little corner and crevice for the ultimate THING. Most of the stuff we want has primarily been used in the commercial sector or green building, and as Ted says, it's because those things are built to last and simply are better (sigh!)... so here we go, I am freakin' tired, but am grateful that the Internet was invented in my lifetime.

First, insulation. Yes, we are using SIPs for most everything. But because our 2nd story cantilevers (overhangs) out above our pool, we have to use something other than our beloved SIPs. So, Ted suggested using batt on the floor of our 2nd story overhang to save money, but now I want to look at this natural fibre insulation that's safe, environmental because their made with post-industrial waste (recycled blue jeans!) and they are good quality for not too much money. The advantage is that even though they are more expensive per square foot ($0.39/sf batt insulation vs. $0.89-1.09/sf natural fibre insulation), you will save in labor costs because batt has to be stapled in and handled with care because of the itch and fiberglass irritation. This stuff can be put in by hand and don't need to be stapled in, so they are quickly installed and safe to handle as you can see with the baby below.

I found this company:
Bonded Logic at http://www.bondedlogic.com/

I couldn't resist posting this adorable photo:

Then on to ventilation ducts. We learned of a system that removes humidity from our bathrooms that can be planned with fewer punctures through our roof because they share the same vent to the outside. They are quieter & better designed so that you can control 2 or more bathrooms with the same ventilation duct....MORE HERE

So where do we go to buy all of these great green building products? Do we run out to the local hardware store? How about the big box stores? Would it be more likely we find what we are looking for in a specialty shop? What about online sales? Will they ship blue jean insulation with FEDEX??

All of these are valid questions. It is already possible to visit several websites and order what you are looking for. However, I would argue, the shipping costs are now all passed onto you, the buyer. Normal distribution theory passes the freight off to the distributor. It is typical with a distributor that he get a freight discount since they are ordering in larger quantities with higher frequency from the same manufacturer you just ordered from online. Of course, this as we know from experience, is not always true.

So, let's say we need something we can't buy online for our new green home....say solar cell panels complete with all electricals and wiring for our local building code. Would you dare to try to order this online, even if you could? I wouldn't.

So someone mentions you can buy those solar cells at a new "eco building supply" in the next major town over. You think, cool this will work! When you get there you discover you are now "shopping" at a small retail store which stocks alot of great green products....for the do-it-yourself crowd. So what happens when you go asking about what sized solar cell array you need for your sized house, which is still on the drawing board?

Ok, I’ve beaten this subject a bit too much. So, it would appear we have a challenge/opportunity/problem. Enter, Maine Green Building Supply (http://www.mainegreenbuilding.com/). Maine Green Building Supply quotes they provide “Sustainable buidling products and systems…Bringing responsible options to a Changing World.” Recently, I had a moment to catch up with the owner Steve Konstantino. We discussed the future of distribution for green building supplies. (more...)

I am sharing the following article which I wrote for the IAQ industry, but it will be valuable to all of you who are trying to learn about green building products. Please keep in mind that this is a copyrighted article and is reprinted here with permission. It's a long article, but full of info and resources.

How to Avoid ‘Greenwashing’ in Product Choices

Written by: Stacey Champion

This article appears in Volume 7, Issue 12 (October 2006) of Indoor Environment Connections newspaper and is reprinted here with permission of the publisher. For subscription information, visit www.ieconnections.com.

Green buildings and greener materials are quickly going mainstream. One form or another of green has been on the cover of many newsmagazines in recent months. As we see an increase in consumer demand, more and more products will be touting themselves as being “green” or a plethora of other adjectives that sound happy and wholesome.

On the other hand, “greenwashed” is the term associated with products and such that are quickly coming into the marketplace touting themselves as being green, environmentally friendly or non-toxic when in reality they are not - and, in some cases, are potentially even more toxic or just a simple waste of extra money.

We will delve into understanding “green” terminology, resources to verify a product’s “greenness” and some of the new green products (and some of the old ones) that exist along with some pros and cons. (more....)

I get lots of email requests from PBS viewers wanting to know where to buy the products featured on the show. We strive to provide information and links in our detailed episode guides, but there are still many parts of the country where the green lifestyle remains a bit exotic, and I've always wanted to do more to make green products accessible to everyone.

To that end, Building Green TV has partnered with StarStyle.com to launch a new online store, where you can find everything from organic clothing to environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, to energy efficient appliances. Choose from among a selection of home furnishings and other products featured on the show, and items hand-picked by me and the rest of the Building Green TV staff, or StarStyle.com for their eco-appeal.

Buying online is a great way to shop green. E-commerce introduces efficiencies into the supply chain that greatly reduce energy consumption—not to mention the gas you save not having to drive from store to store looking for what you need. Reduce, reuse, recycle—and when you do buy, buy green!

And please consider our store a starting place, but do explore the vast world of “mom and pop” internet shops out there working to bring you green products and services. You can check out my "top ten" favorite items from around the web on ThisNext.

I want to what your favorites are, too. Have a green shopping site to recommend, or know of a great local venue for shopping green? Sign up to share your tips with the Building Green TV readership on your own blog, or click on "comment" below and leave your suggestions right here.

When Home Depot asked suppliers to make a pitch to have their products included in its Eco Options label program, almost a third of the products the retailer sells applied for inclusion, The New York Times reports.

Plastic-handled paint brushes were touted as nature-friendly because they were not made of wood. Wood-handled paint brushes were promoted as better for the planet because they were not made of plastic.

“Most of what you see today in the green movement is voodoo marketing,” said Ron Jarvis, a Home Depot senior vice president who oversees the Eco Options program.

Only 2,500 of the products, including solar-powered landscape lighting, biodegradable peat pots and paints that discharge fewer pollutants, made the cut.

Home Depot is working with Scientific Certification Systems to develop new broad-based standards that will grade a product based on its environmental record over its entire life cycle - including the sustainability of its production process, its efficiency and longevity and how it can be recycled when it is no longer useful.

Third-party environmental certifications - aimed at specific areas - already exist. The Marine Stewardship Council covers seafood; VeriFlora certifies flowers; and Green Seal puts its stamp on government and corporate buying.

Stonyfield Farm is expected to announce that Climate Counts, a nonprofit group it helped found, will independently evaluate leading consumer-products companies’ efforts to manage their climate effect. The idea is to create a metric that will allow consumers to compare, say, McDonald’s and Burger King.

Burt’s Bees has established its own standard to define natural personal-care products, vowing to follow its own rules as it works to get other players in the industry to endorse its standard too.

The question is whether or not retailers, with programs like Eco Options, can change the way suppliers operate. In addition to Home Depot, retailers such as Wal-Mart and Office Depot have been flexing their corporate environmental power lately, extending their green policies beyond their own operations to impact suppliers and consumers. Wal-Mart, for example, is helping to push a repackaging trend along by encouraging its 66,000 suppliers to reduce their packaging starting next year as part of its goal of cutting overall packaging five percent by 2013.