I’ve written before about health and environmental concerns associated with halogenated flame retardants in foam building insulation and furniture foam. Levels of these toxic substances are increasing in household dust, human breast milk and wild animals, according to the Green Science Policy Institute. Evidence is mounting that these chemicals don’t belong in our buildings or our bodies, yet the green building industry has been relatively quiet about the issue.
If you’re a green building professional, I urge you to find out about the problems with flame retardants in the products you specify. A good place to start is www.greensciencepolicy.org.
If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, please join me on Wednesday, July 1 for a presentation in Berkeley about the flame retardant dilemma. I’ll be facilitating a panel of three speakers: Cate Leger of Leger Wanaselja Architecture, Brendon Levitt of Loisos + Ubbelohde, and Dr. Alex Madonik of the Green Science Policy Institute.
The presentation is hosted by Build It Green’s East Bay Green Building Professionals Guild. Click here for details.
Are you looking for a trustworthy source of practical information about how to green your home and your life? Check out the Sierra Club’s new website, Sierra Club Green Home. The site features exclusive articles on more than 100 topics, from choosing eco-friendly countertops to selecting a solar energy installer. I may be biased, since I wrote dozens of articles for the site, but I think it’s one of the most comprehensive and useful sources of green home information on the Internet.
In addition to educational articles, Sierra Club Green Home gives you access to local providers of green products and services via its searchable directory. Every company listed on the site has been vetted by the Sierra Club Green Home’s GreenCheck process — giving you assurance that the company is making a meaningful effort to offer environmentally responsible products or services.
On April 1, from 12 to 2 pm, I’ll be giving a seminar titled “Creating Dream Green Kitchens” at the San Francisco Design Center, as part of SFDC’s seventh annual Designers’ Wednesday lunch-and-seminar series for the design professional. I’ll be talking about how to create beautiful kitchens that are healthier for people and easier on the environment.
In this land of free-flowing corn syrup and 600-calorie coffee drinks, the specter of food scarcity may seem remote to many Americans. That could change in the coming decades.
This week the United Nations Environment Programme released a report predicting that by 2050, global food production may drop by as much as 25% due to climate change, water shortages, land degradation and the spread of invasive pests. During those same decades, the world’s population is expected to climb to 9 billion from nearly 6.8 billion today.
These opposing trends spell catastrophe, especially for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Although none of this sounds like good green news, there is a silver lining: each of us can make a difference with the choices we make every day about what we eat.
Waste less food
According to the UNEP report, more than half the world’s food is wasted due to inefficiencies in the food chain, from produce that rots before it gets to market to food that’s purchased but not eaten. The problem isn’t limited to developing countries with poor distribution networks. In the United States, food waste and losses in the food chain are as high as 40 to 50 percent, according to the UNEP.
Photo: Linda Svendsen for Good Green Homes.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that American homes, restaurants and grocery stores generate nearly 32 million tons of food scraps every year. All but about 2.5 percent of that waste winds up in landfills, where it decomposes and produces methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
While we may have little say over what happens between the field and the market, we do control what happens between the market and our mouths.
In a recent post, I wrote about the ubiquitousness of halogenated flame retardants and their potential health effects on humans and other species. If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are a couple of events coming up where you can learn more about why halogenated flame retardants are a problem and what we can do about them.
On Friday, January 30 at the University of California–Berkeley, the Green Science Policy Institute is holding a daylong, interdisciplinary symposium on halogenated flame retardants. Open to the public, this event convenes two or three times a year, bringing together scientists, business leaders, environmental and health activists and others to present research and discuss issues related to the use of halogenated flame retardants. More information and registration: www.greensciencepolicy.org.
On Wednesday, February 11 in San Rafael, I’ll be taking part in a panel presentation, “The Flame Retardant Dilemma: Keeping Buildings Safe without Toxic Chemicals,” at the North Bay Green Building Professionals Guild. Fellow panelists include Cate Leger, Leger Wanaselja Architects; Alex Madonik, Green Science Policy Institute, and Brendon Levitt, Loisos + Ubbelohde Associates. Click here to find out more.
1/29/09 addendum: If you can’t make it to these events, I encourage you to watch these two short videos featuring Arlene Blum, Ph.D., talking about the problems with toxic flame retardants and what we can do to keep our homes and families safer. Dr. Blum is the executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute and a visiting scholar in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
This post belongs in the category of shamelessly tooting my own horn.
The January/February issue of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine has a special section called “25 Amazing Alumni, 25 Amazing Ideas” in which Dartmouth College alums “from all walks of life offer the ultimate in how-to advice that will make you smarter, richer—and more interesting,” according to the magazine.
In addition to featuring my ideas for how to green up your kitchen, the section presents 24 other indispensible pearls of how-to wisdom, like “How to save capitalism and prevent the downfall of democracy” by former labor secretary Robert Reich ‘68.
Also included is expert advice from Dartmouth alums on how to raise happy kids, how to fast as a means of protest and survive, how to prepare credible intelligence (from a former CIA officer), and my personal favorite, how to build your own igloo.
The magazine isn’t online so I can’t give you a link but if you’re interested in how to green your kitchen, you can always go to the source—my book, Good Green Kitchens.
Organic cornfield at Eatwell Farm, Dixon, Calif. (www.eatwell.com). Photo: Erik Kolderup.
I got an email today from my friend and former colleague Liz Muller. She’s spreading the word about Food Democracy Now’s petition asking President-elect Obama to choose a Secretary of Agriculture who will lead this country toward saner agriculture and food policies.
Liz and I worked together years ago on environmental programs and policies at Gap Inc. She’s now an environmental consultant (www.lizmuller.com) helping organizations develop more sustainable products and operations; improving agricultural practices in developing nations is one of her many areas of expertise.
I’ve copied her email (with her permission) in this post — it’s good summary of
Halogenated flame retardants are widely used in furniture foam, foam insulation and hundreds of other products. Photo: Linda Svendsen for Good Green Homes.
This is a good news/bad news post.
In 2005, U.S. manufacturers voluntarily phased out the use of the flame retardant chemicals penta-PBDE and octa-PBDE because of growing concerns about their toxicity and their buildup in the bodies of humans and wildlife across the globe. That phase-out is the good news.
What’s the bad news? Those two compounds are part of a large class of chemicals—called halogenated flame retardants or HFRs—whose use continues to increase. HFRs, which contain bromine or chlorine, are added to products to make them fire resistant. They are widely used in building materials and consumer products, including foam insulation and foam furnishings, plastics, electronics and textiles.
Although scientists are still investigating how these chemicals get into our bodies, one of the main routes seems to be dust: the chemicals escape from the materials they’re mixed with and contaminate ordinary house dust, which we then inadvertently ingest.
What’s the problem?
Evidence is mounting that some halogenated flame retardants may be similar
A 1.5 kilowatt solar electric system on my home's roof in San Francisco. Installation: ReGrid Power. Photo: Erik Kolderup.
With our attention riveted by the election and the economy this fall, it was easy to miss some good green news coming out of Washington, D.C. On October 3, President Bush signed into law the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.” Best known for authorizing the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, this bill also extends federal tax credits that expired in 2007 for energy-efficient home improvements. In addition, it increases tax credits for solar energy systems and extends them for eight years.
Besides benefiting homeowners, this law will likely spur the growth of the domestic solar industry, leading to the creation of thousands of green collar jobs and helping reduce the nation’s carbon emissions.
If you’ve been putting off buying a photovoltaic (PV) system because of the cost, it’s time to take another look. The previous federal tax credit for residential solar electric systems was capped at $2,000. Now, for systems placed into service from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2016, you can take a credit equal to 30% of the installed system cost, with no cap. [Read more →]
Pasture-raised chickens at Full Belly Farm, Guinda, CA. Photo: Erik Kolderup.
The California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act (Proposition 2 on California’s November ballot) bans the practice of cramming farm animals into cages so small the animals can’t even turn around, lie down or stretch their limbs.
If you’re a California voter, please vote yes on Prop. 2. If you live in another state, I encourage you to look for ways to help end inhumane industrial agriculture practices that confine laying hens, veal calves and breeding pigs to cages barely larger than their bodies.
As the New York Times put it in an October 8 editorial, “To a California voter still undecided on Proposition 2, we say simply, imagine being confined in the voting booth for life. Would you vote for the right to be able to sit down and turn around and raise your arms?”
Apart from the ballot box, we’ve got so many ways to say no to factory-farm cruelty. I don’t eat meat but I do eat eggs from four hens that live in my San Francisco backyard. I started keeping chickens as a way to ensure that the eggs [Read more →]
