There are lots of small ways to reduce energy use in the kitchen. An electric kettle uses less energy than a stove-top model. Cover the pot when heating water—it will boil faster. Replace old refridgerators and dishwasher with ENERGY STAR rated models. Composting fights global warming by helping keep organic waste out of landfills where it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

2. Cut down toxics.

From plastic wrap to oven cleaners, kitchens are a hotbed of toxic chemicals. Don’t worry. From cleaning your sink to storing your food, green solutions abound.

Plastics and non-stick coatings

Avoid these three plastics:

Polyvinyl chloride plastic (#3)—also called PVC—is a uniquely bad plastic. It is high in chlorine and additives, and acts as an environmental poison during its entire life cycle. PVC cannot be readily recycled due to its chlorine and additive content. PVC is used to make a variety of products including blinds, shower curtains, purses and children’s toys. For more information from Greenpeace International on PVC.

Polycarbonate plastic (#7) is a hard plastic used for products like reusable water bottles and CD containers. It can also be used for baby bottles and lining food cans. Polycarbonate plastic contains bisephenol A, a chemical that mimics the female hormone estrogen. Bisephenol A is associated with a variety of health risks including low sperm counts, diabetes and prostate abnormalities. Polycarbonate plastic is often labelled with a #7, although it should be noted that not all #7 plastics are polycarbonate. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to tell the difference without contacting the manufacturer. (Please note, in the spring of 2008, Canada listed bisephenol A as a toxic substance and is set to become the first country in the world to ban its use for some applications.)

Polystyrene (#6) is widely used for foam insulation and consumer products like foam take-out cups and toys. Its production involves the use of known and suspected human carcinogenic substances. Styrene is also known to be toxic to the reproductive system. Polystyrene can technically be recycled but recycling rates are low.

Avoid some chemical coatings. Non-stick pans, grease-proof fast food wrappers and stain-resistant treatments are usually produced with perfluorochemicals, a family of substances that help repel oil and water. Some perfluorochemicals appear to be particularly toxic and bio-accumulative (meaning they have the tendency to build up over time). Also make a point of avoiding microwave popcorn, which can collect significant concentrations of chemicals when heated.

Cleaning products

Here are a few easy steps to reduce your use of toxic cleaning products:

• Avoid products containing harsh chemicals and synthetic scents.
• Try baking soda and vinegar to clean (they work!).
• Avoid over-packaged products. Choose nature-friendly cleaning products in bulk and concentrated form.
• Choose washable, reusable towels or cloths over disposable tissue products like paper towels.
• If you are going to use toxic substances, make sure you dispose of them separately from household garbage since these products should not be land-filled. Contact your municipality for details.

Given recent news reports about lead water pipes in older houses, here are a few tips for tap water drinkers. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment (OME) cautions that homes built before the 1950s are more likely to have lead pipes and service lines. Homes built between the mid-1950s and 1989 are unlikely to have lead pipes and service lines, but might have lead in some fixtures or solder used to connect pipes. (This information may vary by province. Contact your municipality.) According to the OME, lead pipes and fixtures should be identifiable by a plumber or home inspector. Lead service lines should be indentifiable by your municipality.

If you think you have lead pipes, fixtures, solder and/or service lines, contact your municipality. Lead can have serious health effects, in particular for children age six and under and pregnant women. You should be able to request water testing from your municipality. While you are waiting for test results and/or to fix the problem, you might choose to drink water from other sources. This is particularly important for pregnant women, children and water used to prepare infant formula. You can choose to drink bottled water or use an NSF-recommended water filtration system. If you continue to drink tap water, the OME recommends flushing the tap for five minutes to get rid of standing water and using cold, flushed water for drinking and preparing food (according to the City of Toronto, this might not work in high rises – if you are concerned about lead in drinking water, contact your landlord and/or your local health department). Don’t drink hot water from the tap – it could contain higher lead levels. Boiling water does not eliminate lead.

Greenpeace cannot make health recommendations. If you think you have lead service lines, pipes, solder or fixtures – contact your municipality! As with all environmental and health issues it is up to you to ask questions, do research and decide how you want to proceed.

Resolution #2: Cut down on food waste

Nationally, Canadian homes throw out up to 14 million tons of food annually, estimated to be worth $3 to $5 billion. In Toronto alone, residential food waste exceeds 200 million kilograms per year, most of that edible. Although composting in a municipal bin is a step in the right direction, it still means emissions from trucking and storage in landfill sites. (Not to mention the energy it took to produce the food in the first place.) By eliminating food waste, Canadians can prevent the release of greenhouse gases. One estimate puts the savings at between nine to 15 million tonnes annually.

Resolution #3: Reduce your virtual water footprint

The water we use in our households every day (an average of 100 litres per shower, 20 litres per flush of the toilet) represents only three percent of the water we consume. The remaining 97 percent comes in the form of our virtual water footprint—the amount of water used to produce the products we consume every day, including food. A few examples: 16 000 litres of water is required to produce one kilogram of beef; it takes 140 litres to produce one cup of coffee. Calculating your virtual water footprint and making small changes, such as eating a meat-free meal every week, can help save valuable water resources here and around the globe.

Resolution #4: Get outside 

“There is actual biological value in having experiences with nature, value that is measurable and quantifiable,” writes David Suzuki. He references a recent British study showing the bigger and more biological diverse a park was, the greater the sense of health and well-being experienced by participants who visited it. “General health, mental fatigue and physical injury all recover faster when patients have access to natural areas.” The Suzuki Foundation’s Coulter suggests not only getting outside more often, but also doing it closer to home. After all, studies indicate aviation accounts for 4 to 9 percent of total climate change from human activity.

The uncomfortable truth: old fashioned decorative fireplaces are not green, since they send most of their heat straight up the chimney. The best thing to do with such a fireplace is to add a modern insert, an addition that will increase the fireplace’s heating efficiency from near-zero to the 70-85 percent range. But if that’s not in the cards this winter, here are some tips to help you choose a suitable fuel to burn:

Smoke gets in your eyes Natural wood is considered a carbon neutral fuel, since burning it only releases the amount of CO2 that the tree sequestered in its lifetime. It’s not necessarily the wood that is the problem, it’s the smoke. Burning wood badly (using wet wood or letting a fire smoulder) can release excess methane, a gas that has a greenhouse impact 20 times greater than that of CO2. What’s more, burning wood in an open fireplace releases large amounts of ash in the smoke. The particulate matter in smoke is not healthy and can cause illnesses like bronchitis and aggravate chronic heart and lung diseases. Wood smoke becomes air pollution once it goes up the chimney.

Real vs. fake On the other hand, firelogs can burn relatively cleanly and release less ash than their natural wood counterparts. A study done by the EPA compared emissions from real logs and five brand name artificial logs and found that fake logs had 75 percent less than real wood with 80 percent less particulate matter. They also warm your house more efficiently since they burn longer and hotter.

Sawdust and coffee grounds Firelogs are also made from recycled products such as sawdust or like the Java Log – recycled coffee grounds. The firelogs to avoid are those held together with petroleum wax because of their significantly higher CO2 emissions and for their possible adverse health effects. Good green firelogs should be made with bio-wax and contain no petroleum by products.

Some options:

Make your own

Re-use all that newsprint and make your own logs. The simplest way is to roll up the newspaper tight. The EPA recommends soaking the paper beforehand to remove clay. You can also buy a log roller.

• 544,000: Trees saved if every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100 percent recycled ones.
• 20 million: Tons of electronic waste thrown away each year. One ton of scrap from discarded computers contains more gold than can be produced from 17 tons of gold ore.
• 9 cubic yards: Amount of landfill space saved by recycling one ton of cardboard.
• $160 billion: Value of the global recycling industry that employs over 1.5 million people.
• 79 million tons: Amount of waste material diverted away from disposal in 2005 through recycling and composting.
• 5 percent: Fraction of the energy it takes to recycle aluminum versus mining and refining new aluminum.
• 315 kg: Amount of carbon dioxide not released into the atmosphere each time a metric ton of glass is used to create new glass products.
• 98 percent: Percentage of glass bottles in Denmark that are refillable. 98 percent of those are returned by consumers for reuse.
• 51.5 percent: Percentage of the paper consumed in the U.S. that was recovered for recycling in 2005.

Whether added to enhance the “green” feeling of a home or preexisting in a more traditional house, a conservatory is a wonderful way to enjoy nature through most of the year. It’s also an excellent spot for entertaining, summer meals and enjoying warm summer evenings. Because of the many appealing reasons to use it often, it’s important to select conservatory furniture that will complement and enhance the atmosphere.

Cane furniture, commonly referred to as wicker, is the perfect accent for a conservatory for many reasons. First and foremost, uncolored cane furniture offers a lustrous, natural hue that enhances the beauty of a natural surrounding. Natural wicker is a favorite for outdoor seating areas, or for interior rooms that want to bring an element of nature indoors.

While hardwoods such as teak or oak may seem to overpower a natural area, cane furniture made from bamboo or rattan will offer an extremely earthy look that will increase the beauty of the conservatory rather than competing with it. Not only will it look as if it simply belongs, the woven pattern provides a light, airy look that will not weigh down a conservatory’s seating area.
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Truth is, commercially prepared cleaning products can trigger asthma and allergy attacks! Our homes may therefore be clean, but it may not also be safe. So, if commercially prepared cleaning products are not an option for us, what do we have then? Well, we can choose to go organic….environmentally friendly cleaning products goes a long way towards ensuring our home with clean and fresh air, with this, we can breathe a little easier and deeper. Plus, with the added benefit of the thought that we are not doing any harm to our environment.

The usual household kitchen cabinet stocked with cleansers can carry up to 62 toxic chemicals, more than what is found in a chemistry laboratory. They can leave our homes clean, but these chemicals can wreak havoc to our health and to our environment.
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The reasons to begin a vegetable garden are varied. Some people begin a vegetable garden because they are tired of hearing about all of the government recalls on various veggies that they can grow themselves. Some people have started a vegetable garden quite simply, to save money. This is one of the most popular reasons. With a vegetable garden as part of your house, the average family of four can save an untold amount of money.

These are just a few of the reasons that most people turn to gardening. But if you don’t think that you can’t do it because you don’t have the time OR you don’t know anything about it, then let me enlighten you. Vegetable gardening is one of those hobbies that you can go into with both feet because of the wealth of information on the subject. You have literally hundreds of books written by various authors, giving great advice. Not to mention the abundance of information on the subject thats on the internet. So you are never in over your head. That would be the last thing that you have to worry about.
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However if you stop to think about it, the clothing you already have is green clothing, whether it has a tag to say so or not. Your present clothing will not cost the environment any more than it already has. All you need to do is care for it in a ‘green’ manner. Using green laundry products and washing in cold water are ways to go green. Fabric washed in cold water saves the environment in two ways because it often doesn’t need ironing. Clothing bought at the op-shop or swapped with friends can also be considered ‘green’.