Thursday, May 19, 2011

Ecofficiency Speaker Series at the The Camp - Greening Your Home Part 1

As you probably know by now, Ecofficiency holds a monthly meeting at The Camp focusing on specific topics of everyday sustainability. This last Tuesday's meeting covered Greening Your Home. We were lucky enough to have 3 different speakers address various topics to assist us in making our home healthier to live in. Because each topic was so extensive, I will be spreading this meeting out over 2 blog posts.

The first speakers of the evening were Lisa and Ron Beres, a husband and wife team who co-authored Just Green It and pioneered Greennest.com. Both are building biologists who have dedicated their efforts to educating people on reducing the toxins in their home. Believe it or not, you can develop something called Sick Building Syndrome if toxins in your house reach a level that your body can no longer handle. So, here are a few tips for you to creating a a healthier living environment. Use your 5 sense and follow along!

1) Smell - Create better indoor air quality via increasing ventilation, replacing furnace filters, using HEPA vacuums and air purifiers, checking for lead paint, painting the walls with low or zero VOC paints, using non-toxic cleaning products.
2) Taste - Filter your drinking waters through reverse osmosis, carbon-based filters, distillation and shower-head filters. Avoid toxic plastic containers that contain BPA and/or are plastic #3, #6 #7. Use stainless steel water bottles and/or plastic #1, #2, #4, #5.
3) Sound - Reduce electro-pollutions that cause sleep deprivation and interfere with the body's immune system. Move your cell phone, cell phone charger, LCD tv and Plasma tv away from you sleeping areas.
4) Touch - Be conscious of the fabrics you sleep on as many are treated with formaldehyde and pesticides. Eliminate toxic flooring and pesticides.
5) Sight - Have a vision for your green life!

I hope this was insightful to you! Feel free to browse the Green Nest website here for more information on how to green your home. The Beres' book is a great place to start in case you need a manual to green living in your home.

PS - There is a book that I use regularly called Haley's Hints Green Edition that gives you great household tips from cooking to cleaning and everything in between. This is where I learned to create my own cleaning solutions with safe products such as vinegar, baking soda and toothpaste. Truthfully, I didn't care about having chemicals in my house until I had children. Just the thought of them getting into dangerous chemicals gives me chills but now I don't have to worry about it!

Cheers to green living!

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