Green Ideas – October 25 – Clean doesn’t have a smell

courtesy of green ideas

GREEN IDEAS
FOR A HEALTHIER PLANET & A BETTER FUTURE
Five ways to improve your indoor air quality
From a recent blog post I read: “Commercials and slick marketing techniques have led us to believe that ‘clean’ equates to a scent that you would not find in nature. But what does a clean home really smell like? Nothing at all!”
It’s true: we’ve become accustomed to air ‘fresheners’ and ‘fresh’ smells in our cleaning products. But often the chemicals that produce those pleasant smells are very unnatural concoctions, negatively impacting the quality of the air where most of us spend most of our time: indoors.
So what to do? Here are five quick tips for better indoor air quality:
  • Choose fragrance-free products, because most ‘fragrances’ are chemicals your lungs and skin would be better off without
  • Avoid aerosols, because they create fine particles that are more likely to be inhaled because they float in the air longer; use spray pumps instead
  • Look for logos of third party certification like EcoLogo (Canada) or Safer Choice (US EPA); don’t accept manufacturer claims of ‘green’, ‘natural’ or ‘new and improved’ at face value
  • Read labels, and beware of vague ingredients like ‘parfum’ or ‘preservative’
  • Diffuse natural oils like lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus or others to naturally freshen your air
More info here and here (the sources of this info)!
In the news
Double disappointment: the US EPA removes climate change references and resources from its website, and prevents its scientists from speaking at a climate change conference this week
Double platinum: new Vancouver convention center is the first in the world to be certified double LEED platinum (that’s really, really good!!)
If anyone launched an energy efficiency ad campaign that dared to list the most inefficient vehicles on the market, what makes and models would appear on the list?

Wow: prices for new solar power projects are falling so fast that the cheapest prices from 2016 have become the ceiling price for solar today!
Quotable
“As of December 2016, GM’s landfill-free list consisted of 152 global facilities that recycle, reuse or convert to energy ALL waste from daily operations. This drives our top and bottom lines by delivering efficiencies, generating revenue and saving money.”
– Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO, General Motors Co.
Share this tip – it’s easy!
CARL DUIVENVOORDEN
Speaker – Writer – Sustainability Consultant
For bookings, call 506.363.8117,
“Maybe you can’t change the whole world, but you can change your corner of it.  And when you change your corner of the world, you actually change the world.”