Sustainable North

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Sustainable North

How green is your shelter?

June 11th, 2009 · No Comments

From the New York Times on Wednesday, June 11, 2009:
Environmental savings can be elusive, and the benefits and costs confusing. To help households wade through the information, consultants armed with stepladders and gadgets are selling advice on energy efficiency, indoor air quality and even methods for creating an eco-conscious wardrobe.
The field of personal and home [...]

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Category: Energy, Information · Energy, Renewable · Recycling · Sustainable Living
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Wash water + a simple valve = happy plants

June 8th, 2009 · No Comments

From npr.org on Monday, June 8, 2009:
Susan Carpenter breaks California state plumbing code three times a week. Her accomplice is her washing machine. Rinse water from washing machines usually goes into the sewer — so what if you could recycle it? That’s what Carpenter does, using it to water plants at her Southern California home.
“The [...]

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Category: Mechanical Systems · Recycling · Sustainable Living
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Green building can present new legal risks

June 1st, 2009 · No Comments

From the New York Times on Friday, May 29, 2009:
Building green can open the door to plenty of legal pitfalls, a new study warns.
The study, by Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law & Policy Clinic and sponsored by Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, a Philadelphia law firm, says that green building raises a number of liability [...]

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Category: Building Structure · Legislation and Policy · Sustainable Living
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Weatherization set to win in stimulus funding

May 11th, 2009 · No Comments

From npr.org on Monday, February 23, 2009:
People in the business of weatherizing homes are expecting to profit from the new economic stimulus plan. The federal aid package sets aside $5 billion worth of spending for making homes and buildings more energy-efficient. The idea is to save energy, create jobs — and even perhaps slow global [...]

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Category: Energy, Information · Energy, Renewable · Legislation and Policy · Sustainable Living
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Options for monitoring home energy use

May 7th, 2009 · No Comments

From inhabit.com on Thursday, May 7, 2009:
… we’re focusing upon tracking energy usage, since the first step to cutting down on our power consumption is being able to measure it. Smart meters installed as part of smart grid projects will make it extra-easy to monitor home energy use — and while there are numerous smart [...]

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Category: Energy, Information · Energy, Renewable · Sustainable Living
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The fundamental problem — too many people or too much stuff?

April 13th, 2009 · No Comments

From Yale’s environment360 website:
It’s the great taboo, I hear many environmentalists say. Population growth is the driving force behind our wrecking of the planet, but we are afraid to discuss it.
It sounds like a no-brainer. More people must inevitably be bad for the environment, taking more resources and causing more pollution, driving the planet ever [...]

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Category: Energy, Information · Energy, Renewable · Legislation and Policy · Recycling · Sustainable Living
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Green tax tips

April 9th, 2009 · No Comments

From the New York Times on Wednesday, April 8, 2009:
Still looking for ways to lower your taxes? Greening your home means you can get more greenbacks in return. The stimulus plan approved by Congress in February offers tax credits for making your home more energy efficient. For tax tips, the Green Home turned to Kateri [...]

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Category: Energy, Information · Energy, Renewable · Legislation and Policy · Recycling · Sustainable Living
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Stimulus money for homeowners

April 6th, 2009 · No Comments

From treehugger.com on February 20, 2009, retrieved on 3/6/09:
The stimulus bill has finally been passed and signed into law—and now it’s time to help put the thing into action. Which shouldn’t be tough to do: tucked into the thousands of pages of confounding language, there are tons of fantastic new tax credits you can get [...]

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Category: Energy, Information · Energy, Renewable · Legislation and Policy · Sustainable Living
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20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer?!

April 6th, 2009 · No Comments

From GOOD magazine, published on 3/17/09, retrieved on April 6, 2009:
As we become more and more aware that we may be using water at an unsustainable pace, the idea of water footprints—the amount of water an individual uses—is becoming more common. Water footprints can be hard to calculate, depending on how far up the chain [...]

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Category: Sustainable Living
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Solar incentives may light up US homeowners’ pocketbooks

March 18th, 2009 · No Comments

From the New York Times on Wednesday, March 18, 2009:
Solar cells adorn the roofs of many homes and warehouses across Germany, while the bright white blades of wind turbines are a frequent sight against the sky in Spain.
If one day these machines become as common on the plains and rooftops of the United States as [...]

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Category: Energy, Information · Energy, Renewable · Legislation and Policy · Sustainable Living
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