Natural Cooling

This tip came to us through Green Building Blocks, a good source of information on green construction products and techniques.

Natural cooling systems incorporate shading from deciduous trees (for east- and west- facing glass), window overhangs and awnings, and radiant heat-reflective barriers installed in the attic space.

Benefits:
Natural cooling reduces the need for air-conditioning, saves money on energy bills, and makes homes without air-conditioning more comfortable.

Application:
Any combination of natural cooling techniques can be used to reduce overheating in homes. Use awnings and window overhangs primarily on south-facing glass to provide a balance between summer cooling and winter heating through solar gain. Use landscaping to shade east- and west- facing windows.

Looking for additional ways to keep the homes you build cool? Here are a few solutions to consider, from GBB’s Product Guide (which contains over 1500 independently-reviewed green products):

Scotchtint Plus All Season Films
Lutron Shading Solutions
Greenscreen Trellising System

Earth-Friendly Pet Products

Approximately 63 percent of American households have pets. That means there's a huge market for pet-care products, and this industry, like so many others, is going green. It's now possible to find everything from litter produced from sustainable materials to eco-friendly pet shampoos to biodegradable doggie toys.

Hartz's Clean Earth line includes biodegradable grooming products (dog shampoos and sprays), training pads, and cleaning supplies (dander, odor, and stain removers).

SimplyFido's line of organic pet toys are made with PVC-free plastic (PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is a toxic chemical), organically grown cotton (unbleached, untreated, and unprocessed), and organic dyes (natural extracts from plants and minerals, such as gardenia seed, clove and chestnut bur).

GPC Pet sells eco-friendly cat litters made out of materials such as corn, wheat, recycled newspapers, and wood chips, which are more environmentally friendly than clay litters. Next Gen Pet has a litter made with green tea leaves!

Only Natural Pet Store offers a variety of organic pet foods, grooming products, and other products, including these bumper beds, which are filled with recycled materials. Rawganique carries a wide line of hemp products, including hemp pet beds filled with organic millet hull. Worldwise's pet beds, which include PoochPlanet and SmartyKat, are made mainly with recycled materials, including EcoRest, a special fiberfill blend spun from post-consumer plastic bottles. Many of the beds are filled with the equivalent of more than 50 recycled bottles.

And for those whose pets are more - well - feathered, Nature's Choice Essentials offers organic bird food.

ConEdison Goes Green

ConEdison, the supplier of electricity for almost all of New York City, now offers green power. Customers of ConEd subsidiary ConEdison Solutions can purchase electricity generated from pollution-free, renewable energy, like wind, solar, and small-scale, “run of the river” (no dams) hydropower. ConEdison Solutions sells electricity that comes from a mix of wind and run-of-the-river hydroelectric, at a mix of 25 percent wind and 75 percent hydroelectric. Another energy company, 1st Rochdale Cooperative of New York City offers a similar wind/hydroelectric package and, in the future, hopes to offer even better green power packages, including one with a five-percent solar component, sourced from roof-top solar-panel installations in New York City.

Business is booming for both companies, which sends a very real and meaningful signal to the developers of renewable energy projects, not to mention energy planners and politicians, that there is a market for their products, and that they can confidently build new renewable generators to meet the energy demands of the future.

Josh Radoff of GreenHomeNYC explains how it works on the supply side:

[E]ach unit of green electricity generated results in a “renewable energy credit” or “green tag.” The credit itself is only a piece of paper; a legal certificate that merely states that a given amount of electricity is indeed “green,” or from the renewable source that it claims to be from. These credits are stamped by a third party so it’s all on the up-and-up and there’s no double counting, and are then purchased on the wholesale market by green power marketers. Con Ed Solutions has partnered with a company called Community Energy to be its supplier of green credits, while 1st Rochdale uses a company called Sterling Planet. In fact, if you wanted to, you could keep your regular Con Ed electricity service and buy the credits directly from the wholesalers. ("Renewable Energy, Now Available for Delivery in NYC")

Compared to regular ConEd energy prices, the premium for green energy has ranged from seven cents to less than one cent per kilowatt-hour, with an average premium of around two to four cents. The average monthly usage for most families is about 400 kilowatt-hours per month, for which the monthly green premium would average out at around ten dollars; or about 30 cents a day. Moving forward, the actual premium may turn out to be much less, and eventually even be negative, as wind power gets cheaper and oil and gas get more expensive.

For more information or to switch to green power, go to ConEd Solutions residential page.