I found this information very disturbing.

Especially as when I spent 3 years living in an apartment and while it was very convenient, modern and easy to care for, I continually had a cough.  Summer and winter I coughed.  When I moved I stopped coughing.  I don’t know why but I seldom cough now and this stopped overnight.  Was it formalin in all the kitchen fittings and MDF trim?  I got rid of the carpets so it was not that.
The rest of the building was not coughing so I must have been sensitive or idiosynchratic

Anyway here is the story I read about a family in Sydney who found hundreds of potentially dangerous chemicals inside their Marrickville house.  The chemicals included parabens  which ”mimics female hormones and linked to breast cancer”, optical whiteners  which”upsets immune systems and kills fish” and sodium lauryl sulfate  which ‘’strips skin’s protective oils”.

The home owner said ”iIt is a bit scary, there is no real conversation about this stuff. It is all about how many germs this thing will kill or what it cleans, not what it leaves behind.”  He has suffered from psoriasis, while wife Harriet, 30, and children Isla, 2, and Olive, 7 months, have also had skin problems.

Environmental scientist and National Toxics Network co-ordinator Jo Immig said everything from our carpets to our computers contained toxic chemicals and these included t perfluorochemicals (found in stain resistant chemicals in carpets, upholstery and some clothing) that have been found to be potentially carcinogenic and risky for pregnant women; brominated flame retardants (found in electrical goods such as computers and televisions) that have been linked to cancer and reproductive damage; and lead (found in old paint in many homes and in some imported products, such as toys) that has been linked to learning disabilities and behavioural disorders.

Then there is triclosan found in products labelled ”antibacterial”, including wipes, shower curtains, even toothpaste; and formaldehyde found in building materials such as chipboard that is a known carcinogen.

Blimey!  Should we be living indoors with all of this.

Apparently regulatory action had been taken on three types of brominated flame retardant in 2001, while the use of perfluoros had been monitored since 2002 and a restriction on lead in industrial paints was made effective on January 1, this year.

I don’t want to be alarmist but every time I look at labels they seem to list huge numbers of chemicals I don’t know about.  I do not eat things with lists of chemicals but do we know what is in fresh food.

I worry about the adverts for continually pumping out insecticide to repel flies and mosquitoes.   What does that do to me if it kills insects?

I am not a wild greenie but shouldn’t life be simpler?

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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A new survey shows that the average Australian household dumps $616 worth of food in the bin each year.

That’s a whopping $5.2 billion in waste food Australia wide and it creates as much carbon emissions as that of the iron and steel industries.  A real contributor to climate change.

The What a Waste survey, which took in the responses of 1,603 Australians during October, found that despite being concerned about wasted food – and guilty – households threw out an average $616 worth of food annually.

Fruit and vegetables were the most thrown out items, followed by restaurant and takeaway leftovers and then meat and fish.  Richer households tossed more and also smaller households

The millions of tonnes of food waste left rotting in landfill gives off methane a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The survey authors believe the onus is on government to introduce policies to get people thinking smart about food shopping and waste.  They survey showed that people are more likely to reduce food waste for financial reasons than because of environmental or humanitarian concerns.

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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There are two rebated schemes at present “free” insulation and heavily subsidised solar hot water systems and householders are apparently only eligible for one.  These subsidies are paid for by carbon credits so the businesses selling the “free” insulation are being paid to deliver so they are getting out and selling.  Unfortunately The householders are unaware that they need to choose which they want to do and it they subsequently want to get a solar hot-water heater for $500 they have lost the Federal Government’s $1600 rebate to help pay for a solar hot water heater.

There needs to be clear information that is readily available so people who want to do both can balance which is their most cost effective option.  People really need both and it would make sense for both to be available.

Given the number of businesses that are opting to pay to pollute by buying carbon credits instead of becoming using sensible energy management, these two schemes would seem to be sensible things to use as carbon offsets because they do lead to environmental sustainability.

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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In western countries like Australia, the US, Canada and Europe, our households are major contributors to the greenhouse effect and global warning.  And this also costs us more to live.

The three major contributors are:
•    The food we eat
•    How we travel and
•    The energy and water efficiency of our houses and gardens

We can minimise the wasted energy and reduce our carbon footprint by eating locally grown food, with lots more fresh vegetables and less processed food.  Then we can use compost bins or worm farms to save the waste going to landfill and generating methane.

We can use our legs, public transport and combine trips in the car to minimise our travel waste.  We can use a smaller car and we can drive more steadily.  Road rage uses much fuel then driving peacefully.

We can get into the habit of turning off things when we are not using them and going for a “grumpy walk to check.  We can give ourselves more insulation and use natural things like shade in summer and not in winter combined with fans so our rooms do not have warm and toasty ceilings but be cold where we are sitting.  This sort of simple energy efficiency will also reduce our power bills.

This will help our homes go green, have environmental sustainability and save us serious money.  My book “Reduce Your Carbon Footprint” can help you save and also my Reduce your carbon footprint workshop

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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We can add to the low energy sources like alternative fuels, solar panels, and wind turbines simply by using better insulation, better insulated windows roofs PLUS we can add white roofs and even pale coloured roads. Many people have negative feelings towards white roofs because they are conservative.  While white roofs may make some houses and buildings appear ugly, there are several advantages to white roofs which ancient civilizations knew well before us.

This is something that builders used in ancient Greece.  Light coloured roofs and building remained a norm among Greek society as well as other civilizations until the invention of air conditioning.
During the summer on a hot sunny day, black roofs can heat up to temperatures over 160 degrees Fahrenheit, while white roofs get only slightly hotter than the actual air temperature.   Dark red, as a dark colour also raises the temperature.

White roofs act similar to polar ice caps and clouds which regulate earth’s temperature and reflect sunlight back into space. White roofs reflect sunlight and keep buildings cooler than those with dark roofs and saves 15-40% on air conditioning costs in summer.

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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I run a monthly free teleconference about going saving money by going green reducing your carbon footprint and other forms or energy management and environmental sustainability.

This month my guest was  Jolyon Nove, has been working on greenhouse emissions for 40 years.  He is an honours engineering graduate who worked with a variety of hydro electric schemes and other major energy generation projects in Australia and overseas.

In his private life, Jolyon has made dramatic emissions reductions at no cost, first by saving money as a result of emission reduction then by spending the savings on energy reduction he now saves around $5,000 per year and has plans to take this further and become even more energy independent.

This was a really interesting conversation show what Jolyon and Marion have done to reduce their greenhouse emissions.  You will learn a lot that is useful both for business and home this is worth listening too and here is the recording.

My latest book, Reduce Your Carbon Footprint, would be a big help to readers in making those initial savings that allow you to pay for the extras like more energy efficient equipment, sola rpanels electrric cars and so forth.  My Virtutal Assistant, Kellie Simon, saved over $200 from her next electric bill after I gave her a copy.

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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ON Tuesday morning

9.30 am Adelaide time (because Adelaide is the first location on www.timeanddate.com and it is definitely winter here at present)
This is 10am Sydney time and 8pm Monday night in New York.

This is a great call for those interested in both green business and green homes

Go to http://www.itiseasytobegreen.com/go.html to log in and get the details and that way you can access the recording.

This will be a great call for both business and home because my guest, Jolyon Nove, has been working on greenhouse emissions for 40 years.  He is an honours engineering graduate who worked with a variety of Hydro electric schemes in Australia and overseas.

In his private life, Jolyon has made dramatic emissions reductions at no cost, first by saving money as a result of emission reduction then by spending the savings on energy reduction he now saves around $5,000 per year and has plans to take this further and become even more energy independent.

So phone in and ask Jolyon questions about how this works for him and how you can also make savings.  Here are the details again.
http://www.itiseasytobegreen.com/go.html

You may also want to look at getting my book Reduce Your Carbon Footprint because for only $15 + postage you can make a huge difference to your power bills.

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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When we want to go green at home there are a number of issues about house work that come up and doing the laundry is certainly one!  Quite apart from it being boring and time consuming it can be harmful to both your family’s health and the environment.

Some of the environmental issues include:

1. The energy used and for heavens sake air dry your clothes and remember that pegs were invented hundreds of years ago and still work effectively.  Driers are a hopelessly wasteful energy management even for apartment dwellers.  The simply guzzle carbon producing energy
2. The amount of water used and front opening washers are the best here by far to prevent wasting water
3. The laundry powder used

I want to talk about the last one today because one of my friends is Dana Steddy who is a farmer’s wife from Western Australia.   She is the mother of 4 gorgous kids and three had eczema.  Dana got both mad and creative.

She banned all harmful chemicals in her home and an environmentally friendly product that was cheap and that worked well.   This initially seemed like an impossible situation.  so she searched the world until she found something then got it tailored to Australian conditions and Miracle Laundry Balls from Dana’s company EnviroCare Holdings Pty Ltd was born.

Dana addresses the water issues as well with lots of tips to save water.  Go check out Miracle Laundry Balls

You can also go to my www.itis easytobegreen .com website where I am setting up a home user page of products I know and can recommend

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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I was reading about a matting manufacturer who is making environmentally sustainable matting from 100 percent recycled materials bonded to a vinyl backing.  It even mops up spills and is easily cleaned.

Great – this is what our grandparents did by cutting old clothing, old sheets etc into strips and plaiting them into long colourful plaits then sewing the plaits into circles or oval mats.  These lasted for years, absorbed small spills wonderfully then simply went into the wash and the “other” rug from the cupboard came out to replace it.  The other way was to cut the fabric into small squares and knot them through the holes into rug canvas making colourful recycled rugs that are warm and washable.

Worn jumpers were also used for this and I still have one of these that my grandfather made.  It is made from old woollens and he died it all dark blue.  I keep it by the patio door because it is so thick and absorbent and everyone comes in with clean feet.  Because it is so old I get it professionally cleaned now and the carpet cleaners always have a shock with it but respect that it is an antique and they are amazed at how thick and also attractive it still is.

We live in such a throw away society now that this is no longer something that anyone did.  He made rugs during long dark winter evenings in the north of Scotland long before TV.

There are so many things that you can do to save money by going green and there are lots of these ideas in my book Reduce your Carbon Footprint.  This particular example is NOT in the book – I just read the article about the “new idea” of making rugs from recycled materials

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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It is time to reduce your carbon footprint and have environmental sustainability in your home.  There are four ways individuals can start going green and you will save money.
1.    energy management
2.    transport
3.    waste management
4.    water management

Energy management

• Go around the house and turn things off when they are not being used.  Install some timers and motion detectors for the lights.  Have a look what is on permanently in the kids’ rooms
• Use low energy bulbs but do get them recycled properly – they contain mercury which must not go to landfill

Transport

• Plan so that you can minimise the number of trips you take in the car by combining several chores in one run.
• Carpool, bus, walk and ride when you can
• Drive steadily.  Road rage emits more greenhouse emissions

Waste management

• 3.2 million tonnes of organic waste is produced annually in Australia and
• only 10% IS RECYCLED
• and Approx 40% of all consumer waste is food waste and nearly all ends up in landfill generating methane
• Paper and cardboard is also organic and breaks down to give off methane in landfill
• If you possibly can, use either a compost bin or a worm farm.  I have a worm farm on my apartment balcony and I find it  a minimal hassle, the worms give me marvellous worm “juice” in a small bucket I use as fertiliser on my pot plants and every few months I get a lovely lot of worm rich compost for the pots They love having paper on top of the food as bedding
• Recycle all your glass, plastic, metals

Water management

• It is possible to clean your teeth without leaving the tap running.  Just fill a tumbler with water to first wash your mouth then used the remainder to wash your toothbrush
• Install a low flow shower head and use timers for the bathroom.  Make sure that the dishwasher is full before you run it and you do not need to pre-wash dishes to put them in the dishwasher.  I never do and my dishes are always clean

Buy my book Reduce Your Carbon Footprint it is full of ideas to save you money.

Read what Kellie Simon from Elizabeth SA said.
“I wanted to let you know that I was so happy the other week when I got my latest electricity bill.  My electricity bill dropped by over $200 compared to what I have been paying over the last couple of years.  It also makes me feel that I’m doing my little bit to start trying to make this a better place for my children.  I think every household needs to read your book “How to reduce your carbon footprint” because there are so many good points in there and they do work…….”

envirojean

Save Money with Simple and Effective Management Systems

Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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