Simple Green Tips

Use less water.

One of the single biggest sustainability issues we face is the way we waste/overuse and discard water. Our water is a finite resource and treating it as such will go a long way towards leading an easy green life. Read more

4 Green Remodeling Tips from an eco-consultant

4 Tips from an eco-consultant

“Everybody wants to be green.”

It’s sexy, it’s cool, and it’s socially responsible being green. Unfortunately it can also be paradoxical and elusive. Is it green to lay down bamboo flooring that’s been shipped from China? Hmm…

Whether your project is a home remodel, redoing a city building or you are incorporating sustainable business practices into your 500 employee company there are some basic tenets for your sustainable green remodeling projects that apply. Read more

Plastic bad for you & the environment - going No Plastic Please!

Living close to San Diego’s coast and surfing for fun I see the effects of plastic pollution regularly. So as a green building and life style consultant for businesses and homeowners but most importantly a dad who wants the best earth for his child to live in, how could I not comment on this topic - Plastic!

It’s no secret that the overuse of plastic in our world is one of the most dangerous aspects to climate change/deteriorating health of the planet/people.

The 2 main reasons for this are simple: Read more

What is an ‘eco life’?

The simple definition of ‘ecolife‘ is living a life where you are aware of your impact on the planet. A life where you make choices to reduce your impacts and support companies/products/people that do likewise. Obviously that is not a perfect definition but that’s my humble opinion at 7:24am on a Saturday morning the day before my daughter’s third birthday.

When my daughter, Kaya, is my age the planet is going to probably look a lot different. It sure looks different than when I was a kid. Growing up, you could eat snow, go in the ocean after a rain, and ski until May. I remember one of my fondest memories was sitting outside of my grandmother’s house in the rain and tasting the rain as it fell from the sky. I was 5. Can you imagine that now? Read more

Sustainability and making eco green lifestyle choices

The Environmental Protection Agency’s definition of sustainable development: “Environmental protection does not preclude economic development and that economic development must be ecologically viable now and in the long run”.

U.S General Services Administration’s definition of sustainable design: “Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, and the health and comfort of building occupants, thereby improving building performance. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste and create healthy, productive environments”. Read more

Measuring Sustainability

As an eco-consultant, I am often asked by clients about how companies connect sustainability and green business initiatives to show that these measures result in real financial advantage. It is an obvious concern for any business focused on the bottom line. For a business, every action must have a proportionate change in its net profits and the impact of putting green business practices in place should be no different. In fact, ‘profit’ is one of the 3 principles of sustainability and plays an important role in whether or not more companies would get into the ‘green business club’.

But it is a complex question because, for one, the immediate effect of green business practices can be an increase in costs, albeit a marginal one if at all. Secondly, green business tips abound on the Internet and through green business guides and following them leads to more than one benefit in different areas. It is a task melding those benefits into a cohesive form. Read more

Living green in the real world

Learning to live green is a process. You don’t simply wake up one morning and you’re Ed Begley Jr. Even he wasn’t Ed Begley Jr. the environmentalist for 20 years. Living green is a process in which you take small, incremental steps everyday to leave less of an impact on our world. It means conserving water, energy, and using the power of your dollar wisely, etc.

The areas you can make daily changes are: Read more

Green Incentives

Green Incentives

Nationwide, many local governments and groups are offering a wide range of incentives to go green. Cities all around America are doing what they can. For example, Read more