green products

How to Choose Less-Toxic, Low-VOC Paints and Coatings

Most conventional paints and coatings contain and emit Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Some types of VOCs contribute to smog, and many VOCs are emitted or “offgassed” indoors and contribute to indoor air pollution. VOCs can cause respiratory problems and some are known carcinogens.

I have written a 4-page overview of VOCs and other toxicity issues related to paints and other types of coatings. For the free download, just click on this link:

How to Select Less-Toxic, Low-VOC Paints, Primers, Stains, and Coatings [PDF]

Fortunately, almost every major paint manufacturer (and retailer) now has a low-VOC or zero-VOC product line. Most of these products are also low-odor, as some VOCs are responsible for to that noxious “new paint smell.”

I maintain an online product listing of Low-VOC and Zero-VOC Wall Paints, which I recently updated. The listing includes natural paints (e.g., plant- or mineral-based), as well as more conventional synthetic (e.g., latex/acrylic) paints.

A few paint manufacturers, such as AFM Safecoat and YOLO Colorhouse formulate their entire line of paints and primers to be low- or zero-VOC and low-toxic. While most low-VOC paints are interior paints, some brands (including those two) also offer low-VOC exterior paints.

My listing indicates which paint lines have been Green Seal certified or SCS Indoor Advantage Gold certified. GreenGuard also certifies paints; it has a basic Indoor Air Quality Certified program, as well as a more stringent Children and Schools Certified program. All of these certification programs are primarily focused on testing products’ VOC emissions.

Unfortunately, synthetic paints often contain other toxic compounds, beyond VOCs, such as phthalates (which are endocrine-disrupting chemicals), propylene glycol and glycol ethers (PGEs), certain heavy metals, and toxic biocides or fungicides. (Green Seal’s certification standard prohibits the use of some of those compounds.) See this Pharos article for additional information on paint toxicity.

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September 26, 2011
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Daily Links and Good News Featured on The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page

Please take a look at The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page to see our daily green blurbs and links. You can view the page even if you don’t have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, click on the “Like” button (if you’re not already connected to page); then you will be able to see The Green Spotlight’s posts in your Facebook news feed.

Visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that it covers, and feel free to comment on the posts.

Here’s a sampling of topics that we’ve spotlighted on the page in recent weeks:

  • new films, including The Economics of Happiness; Bag It; Flow; and Queen of the Sun
  • a new environmental news website: This Week in Earth
  • videos about the achievements of this year’s Goldman Prize winners (from the U.S., El Salvador, Germany, etc.)
  • video about the NRDC’s Growing Green Awards winners
  • AIA’s Top Ten Green Projects award-winning buildings
  • organic gardening tips for weed and pest control
  • driving tips to save gas and money
  • a new Green Jobs report, and an interactive map of clean energy companies
  • online action to oppose uranium mining in the Grand Canyon
  • a summer tour of organic food and farming in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
  • dog and cat toys made from natural, renewable materials
  • new thin-film solar products, and a mobile solar power generator
  • the story of a North Carolina farm started by a family inspired into action by the film Food, Inc.
  • the story of two 15-year-old Girl Scouts who are calling Kellogg’s on its use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies and other products
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May 5, 2011
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Green Gift Giving: Ideas and Tips

Before the holidays (and other gift-giving occasions), I sit down and have a brainstorm session to try to come up with thoughtful, meaningful gifts that are well suited to each person on my list. Then, I run those ideas through my budget filter, as well as another set of filters that I consider to be just as important: In an effort to be an environmentally and socially conscious consumer, I strive to choose gifts that meet one or more of the following criteria—many of which also happen to be economical:

  • Non-Stuff: As Art Buchwald said, “The best things in life aren’t things.” Consider alternatives to material things, such as:
    • Activities: Doing something special for/with someone or a group of friends or family (e.g., making a fancy dinner or going out to eat);
    • Giving a gift certificate for a restaurant, a service (e.g. spa/massage), an educational opportunity (such as an online solar training course), or music/movie downloads (e.g., iTunes gift code by email); a ticket to a special event (e.g., a concert); or a voucher for a personal favor (e.g., babysitting or a household repair task); or
    • Making a donation (or getting a membership) to a nonprofit organization on someone’s behalf.
  • Homemade, handmade, or homegrown stuff: e.g., baked goods, jam, art, crafts. Or, if you have been growing herbs or have saved flower or vegetable seeds from your garden, I think that fresh or dried herbs (like rosemary, thyme, or lavender) and seeds (like cilantro/coriander, which can also be ground for use as a spice)—or flower bulbs or seedlings—can make really nice gifts.
  • Locally-made or Fair Trade goods: You can help support your local economy/community by buying locally-made goods from small independent businesses in your town, or you could support a sustainable enterprise in a third-world country by purchasing Fair Trade goods. Whatever you do, try to avoid buying cheaply made (low quality, low durability) stuff that was manufactured with toxic materials in an overseas sweatshop; unfortunately, that description applies to a lot of the stuff sold in Big Box chain stores these days.
  • Re-gifted items or lightly-used finds: When I receive an item for which I don’t have any use, I don’t have qualms about re-gifting it (or donating it) to someone who would enjoy having it more than I would. In fact, I get great satisfaction out of redirecting things to the right recipients. You can also sometimes find a perfect and perfectly lovely gift for someone at a vintage/antique shop, yard sale, flea market, thrift store, or Craigslist. Some “pre-owned” items are treasures just waiting to be found.
  • Eminently useful things: There are certain things that almost anyone can put to use, such as consumables (favorite specialty foods or spices), cozy socks, a mini-LED light for a keychain, or a good book about a topic of interest to the recipient.
  • Small stuff: Try to choose items that don’t use a lot of resources, don’t require a lot of packaging/shipping material, and won’t take up much space in someone’s home.  Sometimes the best gifts can fit into a stocking.

And if you still just can’t think of anything good to get for a certain person and you decide to get that person a gift certificate for a store, get one from a store that offers electronic/email gift notices (or else paper certificates) rather than disposable PVC plastic gift cards.

Lastly, minimize your use of store-bought/new wrapping paper. Some people like to use the cartoon section of their newspaper as wrapping paper. I keep a stash of reusable gift bags and ribbons that have come to me over the years. If the contents of a gift don’t need to be covered up, putting a nice ribbon or bow around it (sans wrapping paper) is an elegantly simple way to adorn it.

 

NOTE: See our newer posts, Greener, More Gratifying Gifts and Green Gifts (2.0), for more tips and suggestions.

For additional info on green gifts, products, and consumerism/over-consumption, take a look at these sites:

Please share your own green gift ideas and suggestions in the Comments section below.

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November 20, 2010
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Switch to High-Efficiency Plumbing Fixtures to Save Water, Energy, and Money

Reducing your water use has multiple benefits. In addition to helping to conserve and protect your community’s vital water supplies, saving water also helps you save money and energy.

According to the U.S. EPA, if all U.S. households installed water-efficient fixtures and appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year.

Conserving water also conserves energy, because energy is used to treat, deliver, and heat water. If one out of every 100 American homes were retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, that would save about 100 million kWh of electricity per year—avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions: equivalent to removing nearly 15,000 automobiles from the road for one year. For additional information on the benefits of saving water, see this EPA webpage.

Low-flow fixtures have been on the market for a while. These days, there are also many ultra-low-flow fixtures that conserve even more water without compromising performance. The EPA’s WaterSense program labels ultra-low-flow, highly water-efficient plumbing fixtures that have been independently tested and certified to meet efficiency and performance standards. In addition to being approximately 20% more water-efficient than average products, WaterSense labeled products have been verified to perform “as well or better than their less efficient counterparts.”

To select the most water-efficient plumbing fixtures, you should look for products with certain flow thresholds. The following sections outline the thresholds to be aware of when selecting ultra-low water-use toilets, showerheads, and faucets:

HIGH-EFFICIENCY, WATER-SAVING TOILETS

Toilets are often the source of the most water use (and water wasting) within a home, accounting for nearly 30 percent of an average home’s indoor water consumption. If you have a toilet(s) that uses more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush (gpf)—as do almost all toilets installed before 1994—replace it with one of the following:

If you have a 1.6 gpf (post-1994) toilet, you can make it more water-efficient by putting a small water bottle (filled with water, with the cap on) into the toilet tank for displacement. (It’s not a good idea to put a brick in the tank, as it will erode and the sediment can clog up the works.) Soon, these fake “bricks” should be available.

In California, new legislation has mandated that all new toilets sold or installed in the state after 2014 must be high-efficiency toilets. At some point, federal standards might also be raised to this standard.

For commercial/office-building bathrooms, install ultra-low-flush (ULF) urinals in lieu of regular urinals.

[CLICK HERE to CONTINUE]

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August 25, 2010
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Low-Cost, High-Payoff Green Home Improvements and Retrofits

Homeowners (and renters) are increasingly interested in making green home improvements, and they’re particularly interested in knowing which improvements have a low cost and a clear payback—i.e., a decent Return on Investment, or ROI. Here are some commonly agreed upon suggestions for relatively easy and economical projects that reap surefire savings (in energy, water, and dollars):

  1. Switch to LED and/or compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs. (Note: When buying CFLs, look for low-mercury products. Also, because CFLs contain mercury, they cannot be thrown in the trash; they must be recycled by a hazardous waste facility. Some stores, such as Home Depot, collect used CFLs. You can find other places near you that take used CFLs on Earth911.com.)
  2. Switch to WaterSense plumbing fixtures (e.g., dual-flush or other high-efficiency toilets, and ultra-low-flow faucets and showerheads). [MORE INFO here.]
  3. Switch to Energy Star appliances and electronic equipment when it’s time to replace old units. Install an Energy Star ceiling fan(s), to reduce or eliminate your use of air conditioning.
  4. Insulate your hot water pipes and water heater; and add insulation to your attic (and/or walls and basement).
  5. Have a home energy audit done to check for air leaks and identify other inefficiencies; a home performance contractor should then make the needed improvements. More and more companies are springing up to offer these services. (One very experienced company in California is Advanced Home Energy, formerly called Recurve.) You can search here for a contractor near you who has been accredited by the Building Performance Institute. If you live in California, check out the information provided by Energy Upgrade California.

For other ideas and helpful cost/benefit assessments, check out this new book: Green Sense for the Home: Rating the Real Payoff from 50 Green Home Projects, by Eric Corey Freed and Kevin Daum (Taunton Press, April 2010). Here’s the publisher’s description of the book: “When does a green home project make financial sense? The authors of this book provide the answer to this and other questions relating to the cost (and relative value) of environmentally friendly home improvements. They evaluate a wide array of projects, including insulating pipes, weatherizing doors and windows, composting and recycling trash, installing a solar hot water heater, installing green countertops, upgrading appliances, building with reclaimed materials, and installing radiant heat.”

Other recent books include Green Home Improvement: 65 Projects That Will Cut Utility Bills, Protect Your Health & Help the Environment by Daniel Chiras, PhD (RS Means) and This Green House: Home Improvements for the Eco-Smart, the Thrifty, and the Do-It-Yourselfer by Joshua Piven (Abrams).

A number of federal, state, and local tax credits, rebates, and other financial incentives are available for installing energy-efficient equipment or renewable energy (e.g., solar) technologies at your residence.

For a more comprehensive checklist of ways to save energy, see our new post [added 5/2013]: Tips for Saving Energy

 

For additional tips on green home improvements and retrofits, these are some useful online articles and websites, most of which feature lists of cost-effective improvements:

If you’d like assistance with choosing and implementing your green home improvements or remodeling strategies, I am a green advisor who can provide this type of assistance through email consultations (or phone or in-person consultations). Click here for more info.

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May 6, 2010
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Flea and Tick Treatments That Won’t Poison Your Pet

Fleas and ticks (and mosquitos) can bring severe itching, allergic reactions, discomfort, and even serious diseases (such as lyme disease) to your pets, so it’s important to protect your pets from them. However, studies have found that some common flea and tick control treatments—products that are readily available at stores and have been recommended by many vets—aren’t just harmful to fleas and ticks; they can actually poison pets, and some are also dangerous to humans and other animals.

Some conventional flea and tick treatments (including many of the topical, spot-on treatments that are applied directly onto pets’ skin, as well as flea collars, powders, and sprays, and even some ingestible products) contain highly toxic pesticides, some of which have been shown to cause a range of serious reactions in pets, from skin problems, vomiting, and excessive drooling to neurological problems (e.g., seizures or uncontrollable shaking), heart attacks, and death. So, tragically, some pesticides end up serving as pet-icides…

The Center for Public Integrity did a study in 2008, and found that at least 1,600 pet deaths related to spot-on treatments were reported to the EPA over the previous five years. According to the NRDC, cats may be more susceptible to adverse reactions than dogs, since they are more likely to lick the treatments off of their fur and they often lack enzymes for metabolizing or detoxifying the pesticides. Many of these pesticides are toxic to humans, as well, and children are especially vulnerable to exposure.

Avoid products that contain pyrethroid, pyrethrin, or permethrin pesticides, organophosphate insecticides (such as tetrachlorvinphos/TCVP; chlorpyrifos, dichlorvos, phosmet, naled, diazinon, and malathion), carbamates (e.g., propoxur, fenoxycarb, and carbaryl), or Amitraz. [This list was updated on May 26, 2010.] Many common flea/tick control products contain at least one of these ingredients. (Towards the end of this post, you will find a link to a listing of some specific products to avoid.) Please note: Never use products on cats that are meant for use on dogs (and vice versa), and never give your pet more than the recommended dose.

It’s disturbing that so many of us might have been unwittingly sickening our animals (and possibly shortening their lives) by using these products, often at the recommendation of our veterinarians, who trusted the manufacturers’ assurances of the products’ safety. It’s yet another example of how you can’t trust that a product is safe just because it’s been allowed into the marketplace. According to the Humane Society, the EPA did not start reviewing pet products for safety until 1996, and there is still a backlog of products that need to be tested. However, the overarching problem is that some ingredients that the EPA had deemed “safe” clearly were not. In 2009, the EPA announced that it would be developing stricter testing and evaluation requirements and could place new restrictions on flea and tick products.

Fortunately, there’s no need to wait for those changes to take effect. Safe and natural alternative products and methods for controlling fleas and ticks already exist. Here is some guidance from the NRDC on ways to prevent flea problems. And when treatments are necessary, some pet supply stores and many online sites (see links below) now carry flea and tick products that are made up of plant-based ingredients, such as peppermint oil, citrus oil, clove oil, or Neem, which is a natural insecticide that comes from a tree. See the NRDC’s Flea and Tick Product Directory to look up the ingredients and risks of specific products. Some flea and tick solutions can even be made at home. Fleas and ticks are repelled by rosemary, thyme, eucalyptus, and lavender. So to ward off the bugs, you can tuck sprigs of one or more of those plants under your pet’s bed cover (or under your rugs), or boil some of those herbs in water and pour the cooled water onto your pet, rubbing it into their coat. (Note: Some herbal or “natural” ingredients can cause allergic reactions or toxicity in animals. Be sure to test any treatment in a small dose first; and always apply treatments sparingly and only as needed. Also, never use pet products that contain pennyroyal oil, which is toxic to animals. Furthermore, while some sources say that adding a little bit of garlic to a pet’s diet will repel fleas, other reputable sources say that garlic can be toxic to dogs and even more so to cats, even in small amounts; so I steer clear of using garlic, just to be safe.) If your pet has a flea infestation that does not respond to any of the plant-based solutions listed above, look for the lowest-risk commercial products listed in the NRDC’s directory, which include Spinosad-based products, such as Comfortis.

NRDC’s research has identified many common products that should be avoided, due to their high toxicity risks. According to the NRDC, such high-risk products currently include K9 Advantix II, and a number of products made by Hartz, Sentry, Sergeant, Vet-Kem, Adams, Bio Spot, Happy Jack, Verbac, Zodiac, and other companies.

To take action on this issue, print out some of the info from the links below, bring it to your pet store and to your veterinarian, and ask them to stop selling flea control products that contain the most dangerous pesticides (and to start selling the lowest-risk products), to protect the health of pets and their people.

Resources for More Information:

The following are a few online stores that specialize in natural and non-toxic pet supplies. (Note: This list does not constitute an endorsement of any of these companies):

Related Post: Selecting Safe and Healthy Pet Foods;  and Natural Mosquito Control

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April 7, 2010
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Green Business: Key trends, websites, books, companies, and organizations

SEE NEWER POST (added February 2012): Sustainable Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethical Finance, and Sustainable Economies

 

While the majority of businesses still have a long way to go to be environmentally sustainable, it’s clear that interest in greening the business world is on the rise. One of the many signs of this is the growing number of Sustainable MBA programs cropping up around the country (e.g., the Presidio Graduate School’s MBA in Sustainable Management, Dominican University’s Green MBA, and at least 20 others). Another indicator is the gradual greening of massive companies like Walmart, which recently developed a Sustainability Index to assess the sustainability of its supplier companies. We’re also seeing the emergence of “green” banks, such as New Resource Bank. And some cities and counties have established Green Business certification programs for local businesses.

Given the significant environmental, social, economic, and health impacts (as well as the political influence) that many companies have, it’s critically important that we support and create businesses that implement responsible and sustainable policies and practices—businesses that reflect our values and whose practices and products aren’t compromising the length or quality our lives.

Among U.S. companies, a few that have shown early and exceptional leadership in sustainability are: Patagonia (the recreation/outdoors outfitter), Interface (the commercial carpet company), Seventh Generation (household products), and Straus Family Creamery (organic dairy).

Two of the many recent books on green business are:

And a seminal book on green business is:

These are some of the major online hubs for news and information on green business:

Also, author and consultant Andrew Winston has a good green business blog.

And last but not least, the following are some of the most prominent groups and networks that help companies improve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts and their environmental performance:

 

SEE NEWER POST (added February 2012): Sustainable Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethical Finance, and Sustainable Economies

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January 29, 2010
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BuildingGreen Picks Top 10 Green Products of 2009

The good folks at BuildingGreen recently announced their eighth annual Top Ten Green Products. Of the ten they selected, three of my favorites are: Baltix office furniture; Mobile solar power generators; and Pentadyne flywheel energy storage for uninterrupted power supply systems (the flywheel essentially uses magnets and physics, as an alternative to using batteries).

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November 24, 2009
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Green Tax Credits, Rebates, and Other Financial Incentives

GreenDollarSignThe following are key online resources for information on federal, state, and local environmental tax credits, rebates, and other financial incentives. Most of the incentives that are available are for installing energy-efficient equipment or renewable energy (e.g., solar) technologies.

FEDERAL

This is a good directory of federal income tax credits and other incentives for energy-efficient products—for consumers, as well as businesses, builders, and manufacturers: Energy Tax Incentives Assistance Project

(For info on federal grants to organizations and agencies, go to Grants.gov.)

STATE AND LOCAL

Check out the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency for a compendium of options, organized by state. Also check with your municipality (city and county governments) and local utility companies. Many offer their own green rebates and incentives. And this is a great summary of energy-efficiency grants and funds provided to state and local agencies by the 2009 economic stimulus/recovery bill (ARRA).

CALIFORNIA

For those of you who are in California, there are numerous entities offering green rebates and other incentives. Take a look at these resources:

If you know of other useful directories or resources related to green financial incentives, or if you have made use of energy tax credits or other green incentives, please share your experiences or suggestions by leaving a comment below.

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November 16, 2009
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