Anyone remotely interested in the environment has known for some time that the disposable society and our general way of living is pretty much unsustainable for much longer. However as much as eco warriors and the various ‘Green parties’ across the world shouted the more people didn’t want to listen.
One of the main problems was that we were all too well off, sure we all worried about the environment a little. But surely it didn’t matter if we just treated ourselves to that new laptop, latest Iphone, foreign holiday etc, etc. The problem of course was that all our economies were based on throwing away and consuming – endlessly and relentlessly replacing perfectly good items because a shiny new model had come into existence.
I’ve been told that not so long ago you could pick up a top of the range LCD TV from a rubbish tip in Tokyo with ease – purely because the model was 12 months old. It’s not surprising that our economic model has collapsed – it was quite clearly unsustainable in the long run.
So now to the title of this post – the Austerity Opportunity and it comes from a discussion I had with a cobbler the other week. Now we all of course know what a cobbler is but I wonder how many use their services regularly – there used to be loads in my home town – now I can think of only one.
Are they All Broken?
Do people repair shoes anymore or merely dispose and replace? The cobbler was fairly certain that very few people did repair shoes compared with 30 years ago. He told me about recently he had bought a special machine which was able to repair running and training shoes perfectly. But after 12 months of virtual none-use he sent the machine back. Nobody repaired trainers or sports shoes – they just bought new ones.
But this is where there will be an opportunity – to make business that repair, recycle and reuse rather than just throwing on the landfill sites. When cash is short people will want to spend a few pennies repairing their trainers rather simply to save money. They’ll make do, and reuse and recycle things increasingly. Any businesses that tap into this austerity market and embrace the concepts could end up doing very well.
I wonder how many cobblers are looking at these sport shoe repairing machines again, or how many eco friendly business opportunities the world financial crisis will actually end up bringing. It’s certainly a good opportunity to start any sort of business which will enable people to genuinely save money and help them to reduce, reuse and recycle.
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Have you been thinking about leading a more eco friendly lilfestyle. It’s a hot topic today and rightfully so.You’ll hear about different fuel sources for our cars.Buit obviously the most important is the way we are our polluting our planet.Thankfully the awareness is in the corporate sector too, where business is seeing that consumers are demanding a greener product.Particularly important is the way businesses create their products using scarce resources.
With this new awareness, some natural products are making a mini-revival – baking soda is one of those.It’s a natural substance which is very inexpensive with a whole host of uses. The power of baking soda has grown from just cooking and cleaning to also being used for brushing the teeth and as shampoo. It is a terrific product for anyone who wants a greener way of life. Another fantastic thing about baking soda is that is really low-cost and is a great cleaning product. Baking soda blended with water into a paste is fantastic for scrubbing clean tile, counters, sinks, tubs, and even garbage cans. Lime scale, soap scum, and even terrible toilet bowl stains can be scrubbed clean with some work.
As a result of the bicarbonate in baking soda, it is effective in neutralizing odors; in fact, it works better than most chemical based products. Baking soda can be used to eliminate foul smells coming from your litter box. Putting a box of baking soda in your refrigerator can help reduce smells from scented foods. For those of you who want brighter and cleaner garments, add some baking soda to the wash cycle. Baking soda will not ruin your clothes like bleach products can.
Possibly the best uses for sodium bicarbonate have to do with your wellness. Baking soda makes an excellent toothpaste since it is a natural product. Baking soda will make your teeth much whiter and it will destroy germs. Heartburn and acid reflux have been a problem for many people, and they spend money on medications and curatives when they could just use baking soda. People have only recently found the how important your body’s pH level is to your general health. Your body must stay within the healthy pH levels of 7.35 and 7.45 pH; if your blood goes outside of these levels, your body will expire. Many emergency rooms use sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to help keep a patient’s blood pH where it should be.
It has likewise been discovered that people who have a lower level of pH have higher odds of catching diseases. Baking soda can be used to prompt the body to be more alkaline. You will find that you will feel better if you blend a certain amount of sodium bicarbonate in water and drink it a couple of times per day. A big element of living a green lifestyle is to begin making use of more natural health remedies. Perhaps you are not really that interested in following a green lifestyle, but the one part you should check out is natural health. On the whole, baking soda can not only be used for cleaning and cooking, but it can save your life likewise.
Sick Building Syndrome is a term that first surfaced forty years ago, long before anyone ever heard of environmentally friendly building materials. The structure was usually an office building, but not always.
The primary symptoms caused by Sick Building Syndrome are irritation of mucous membranes, sensitivity to odors, lethargy or fatigue, and headache, nausea, and dizziness presenting as chest problems, dry coughs, throat irritation, colds, sinusitis and itching eyes, sensitivity to odors, dry or itchy skin, difficulty in concentrating as well as a general drowsiness.
There are several environmental causes for Sick Building Syndrome, one of which points to the materials used in constructing the building. If the structure was built prior to 1980, chances are the contractor did not use environmentally friendly materials and there may be chemical emissions coming from some of the building materials. The fix may be expensive; however, you can significantly improve the indoor air quality by using low emitting building products when making the upgrade.
Building Eco Friendly Houses
Of course, when constructing a new building — whether home or office — to prevent the possibility of Sick Building Syndrome, use environmentally friendly building materials in the wood studs, insulation, plywood, roofing, flooring, cabinets, countertops, paints and stains. If you use traditional building materials in the new construction, all of these items have the potential for emitting VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) into the air.
The construction industry worldwide utilizes approximately three billion tons of unprocessed building materials each year, which places a heavy toll on the earth and environment. Therefore, using such building materials not only contributes to the well being of a person but to the well being of the planet. Eco friendly houses can make sense on many levels – both environmentally and economically.
Some of the earth and eco friendly building products being used today are:
- bamboo
- cork
- recycled denim
- salvaged building items
- soy
- wool
Bamboo, unlike forest lumber, is a renewable resource that grows quickly and can be used for a variety of home building items. Bamboo cabinets and countertops, and decks and flooring can be stained. Indoors, bamboo is used in place of traditional hardwood floors. Outdoors, reinforced bamboo is used in place of plywood.
Cork panels make a durable, soft floor. Cork, which is harvested from the bark of a cork tree about once every ten years without damaging the tree, is a renewable resource, making cork panels ideal environmentally friendly building materials.
Recycled denim is used as insulation in lieu of fiberglass, which is considered a health risk if the tiny fibers are breathed in. Cotton, which is a renewable resource, is used as an eco friendly insulation, and is often recycled from old denim cloth.
All types of buildings are destroyed each day to make room for new construction. Reusable lumber, bricks, stones and even cabinets are salvageable building items left after demolition. You might even find that these eco friendly methods actually significantly reduce building costs.
The various oils in soybeans are processed into environmentally friendly paint, finishes, varnishes and stains, as well as grout.
Wool is an excellent natural resource used to make carpets and rugs in a variety of styles, patterns, and colors. Because a sheep can be safely sheered over its lifetime, wool carpets are also considered environmentally friendly building materials.
By building homes that last longer, have less operating expense, and keep families healthier, green home builders are taking housing to the next level. At the same time these type builders are helping improve the environment while also building more efficient structures that use less resources, reducing the impact on the environment.
They have built a variety of homes using conventional building practices to accomplish these improvements. Green builders can even lower construction costs while providing homeowners a quality product for the money.
Green home builders offer homeowners tremendous opportunities to impact the environment. For instance, people who build green homes help:
- reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- save energy
- reduce waste
- maintain natural resources
- upgrade water and air quality
If all construction in the United States met the highest green building standards, U.S. energy usage and global warming would decrease by ten percent. The rate of construction waste recycling is over seventy percent. Therefore, the possibility of reducing waste is greater.
Energy efficiency is the number one benefit of building green. Energy efficiency, of course, is all about saving gas and electricity. Green home builders are always mindful of effective home placement on the site in order to take advantage of year round savings.
To reap the benefits of the sun’s heat in the winter and shade in the summer, builders strategically plan the placement of windows, overhangs, covered patios and shade trees.
An area often overlooked when considering green building is water conservation. By using special plumbing fixtures and installing drought tolerant sod and landscaping items, green builders conserve water both indoors and outdoors.
Green home builders also use eco friendly construction materials that are recycled, renewable, or resource efficient. These materials are generally structurally stronger, more durable, resulting in less maintenance.
By reducing air infiltration, properly installing insulation, controlling indoor humidity and installing quality doors and windows, conscientious green builders achieve energy efficiency as well as indoor comfort.
Green home builders recognize that green construction is vital in managing rain water runoff, a concern in many metropolitan areas. It is actually possible for them to make the construction site function like a wooded area.
By enabling the site to absorb water, it nurtures trees that cleanse the air. Being able to produce safe homes that are also comfortable and healthy is what motivates green home builders to promote green home building.
From homeowners to local governments to regional businesses, green building benefits the environment in both the local and global communities. Even while working within the limitations of a budget to build an affordable house, green home builders can make these benefits a reality.
Building green only costs approximately two percent more than the cost of building a traditional home and continues to decrease. Many subsidies and incentives are already available to support building green projects.
New policies, legislation, regulatory amendments, and financial instruments are on the horizon and will soon make building green an established method of construction of affordable housing. Green home builders agree that now is the right time to build green.
For some people, organic can be a magical word, but is food from an organic and natural garden really as safe as everyone says it is? It doesn’t matter the places you go, natural is becoming more prevalent. When you buy natural food whether it’s fruits or vegetables, are you ever curious about how safe it is? In this piece, you will learn some new information about organic food that you may not have known.
33% of the food purchased in the united kingdom was proven to have measurable levels of pesticides and chemicals within them, and this was done by a scientist in the UK. These kinds of chemical substances were used to enhance the crops, and are considered to be harmful to the human body. The exact same study indicated that this was a fact throughout the developed world, and the amounts of contamination were almost the same, and it wasn’t any different for organic food. The pollution was principally caused by the water in the ground that was ingested by the plants. Bug sprays and fertilizers make it possible for plants to grow bigger and quicker but it seems that this has been done at a price.
The chemical compounds are actually entering into water tables which are spreading into everything we eat. In essence, the only solution to not use this water is to use distilled water, but then you will be missing the proper nutrients. The contamination even was spread out by the wind currents. Almost all of the fertilizers and bug sprays are sprayed on the crops, so when the wind is blowing they can be carried anywhere. The air is full of contamination, from who knows what poisons, or where they come from, but they continually circle the globe. Your organic garden may take damage because of this fact.
You never know what might be swirling around in the air and even the best safety measures might not work. Regrettably, unborn and newly born children may be subject to these pesticides. No one actually knows the valid effects of all these pesticides and chemicals that we have been allowing corporations and farmers to put on our food. Just some of the issues we can experience with chemicals are types of cancers, weakening the immune system, and the breakdown of the nervous system.
Safe guarding your food by cleaning them just isn’t as true as many people declare it is. Washing the peel will not be very helpful due to the fact certain chemicals leech through the skin and into the vegetable thus defeating the purpose of washing it. Organic and natural foods can continue to have chemicals within them, and this article revealed to you why organic might not be better Even so, they are in all probability still far healthier than what you get at a supermarket.
