Amazon Green Scene's Blog

Early November marks the time when we turn the clocks back and daylight savings comes to an end. With the hours of daylight shrinking, we use more lighting in our homes – which can mean costlier utility bills. You can easily save money during the winter months and help the environment by choosing ENERGY STAR qualified lighting.

ENERGY STAR qualifies over 60 categories of products, including bulbs, fixtures, and holiday light strings. These lighting products use 75% less energy and produce about 75% less heat, so they're safer to operate and can significantly cut energy costs.

In fact, if every American home replaced their 5 most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR, we would collectively save close to $9 billion each year in energy costs. Together, we’d prevent the greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.

So, thinking of decorating with lights this holiday? Make sure to look for the ENERGY STAR on qualified light strings for your tree and outside decorations. Light emitting diodes, or LEDs, are exceptionally energy efficient, using up to 90% less energy than an incandescent bulb to produce the same amount of light. You can save $10 over the lifetime of the lights for each ENERGY STAR qualified decorative light string.

And when you replace incandescent strings with ENERGY STAR LED decorative light strings, you can reduce the amount of energy you use, save money on electric bills, and help in the fight against global warming.

A few key benefits:

• Use 75% less energy and can last up to 10 times longer than traditional incandescent light strings.
• Do not have moving parts, filaments or glass, so they are much more durable and shock-resistant than other light strings.
• Are cool to the touch, reducing the risk of fire.
• Are available in a variety of colors, shapes and lengths.
• Are independently tested to meet strict lifetime and electrical requirements.
• Some models deliver features such as dimming or color shifting.
• Come with a three-year warranty, meaning fewer light string replacements.

To read more information about ENERGY STAR decorative light strings and to see a list of ENERGY STAR qualified brands, visit www.energystar.gov/dls and www.energystar.gov/lighting. Shop for ENERGY STAR qualified lighting on www.amazon.com/green.

Thanks to the EPA and ENERGY STAR for this post.

~Amazon Green Scene

Autumn is the perfect time of year to make energy efficiency home improvements that will not only improve the comfort of your home during the winter months, but also help you save money on your energy bills. Plus, using less energy means emitting fewer greenhouse gases, which contributes to the fight against global warming.

By planning ahead and addressing some common problems in your home now, you can avoid cold drafts and expensive heating bills in the winter months that are approaching. One of the best ways to make a difference is to seal and insulate your home with ENERGY STAR. By following these recommended steps for improving the “envelope” or “shell” of your home, you can cost effectively improve the energy efficiency and comfort of your home.

To Seal and Insulate with ENERGY STAR, there a number of things you can do:

The benefits of proper air sealing and insulation include:

Important Tips for Effective Home Sealing and Insulation:

Energy Efficiency Tax Credits

Take the ENERGY STAR Pledge
Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR is a national campaign from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encouraging all Americans to join with millions of others in taking small steps that make a big difference in the fight against global warming. Visit www.energystar.gov/changetheworld to pledge to seal and insulate your home with ENERGY STAR. 

For more information and helpful tips on your next home improvement project, visit ENERGY STAR; download the Do-it-Yourself Guide to Sealing and Insulating with ENERGY STAR online at Seal and Insulate with ENERGY STAR (.PDF),and shop www.amazon.com/green for products to help you seal and insulate your home with ENERGY STAR.

Thanks to our friends at ENERGY STAR for the post.
~Amazon Green Scene

From Treehugger.com:

Getting Started with Open Supply Chains from Matthew Hockenberry on Vimeo.

~Amazon Green Scene

Nicholas Kristof, an American journalist, New York Times op-ed columnist, and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, is best known for bringing to light human rights abuses in Asia and Africa. Having traveled to 140 countries, he has an exceptionally diverse perspective on the world. But earlier this summer, he turned his attention to a much different subject when he wrote a piece called “How to Lick a Slug,” a personal story of a backpacking journey up Mount Hood with his 11-year-old daughter.

Kristof’s journey into nature was his way of taking “time to hit the ‘reset’ switch and escape deadlines and BlackBerrys… The experiences offer us lessons on inner peace and life’s meaning—cheap and effective therapy, without the couch.”

Our society seems to have misplaced that reset button. We are slowly becoming an indoors nation separated from the necessary physical and mental restoration that immersion in nature provides. The problem is especially acute among young people, who are retreating to the sofa in a huge and historic cultural migration.

One recent study found that 37% of kids aged 10-12 spent just a half hour or less outside each day. Few were outdoors for two hours or more. Children who bucked these trends were those whose parents let them roam the neighborhood. But, as Kristof notes, research on 9-year-olds finds that that the distance from home in which they are allowed to wander fell almost 90% from 1970 to 1990.

At the same time, obesity has doubled over the last 30 years among preschoolers and adolescents and tripled for kids in between. In 1985, only 1-2% of with children diabetes had the adult onset form of the disease. By 1995, that number had risen to 17%.

These are just some of the symptoms of what author Richard Louv calls“nature deficit disorder.” But the even greater tragedy is what the loss of this relationship is doing to our souls.

As we forsake nature and become creatures of solely artificial environments, tethering our days to information feeds and video streams, and dialing in not to the divine but to over-accelerated thrills and other manufactured diversions, an essential ancient part of ourselves is slipping away. We losing our reset button, and with it the sense wonder that make us human.

As I discovered this summer on my own solo journey into the mountains of Colorado, a trip in which I was completely alone and surrounded by nothing but that which has existed since time out of memory, only nature can give us that. Only nature can slow us all the way down to our aboriginal speed, empty our minds completely, and in the perfect silence that follows teach us those things for which words do not exist. In the absence of these lessons and the larger, deeper understanding they bring, we become harder, colder, and something much less than I think we’d like to be.

Some of the more terrifying results of that transformation can be seen in today’s many environmental crises, which are ultimately symptoms of a single spiritual crisis born of our current nature deficit disorder epidemic. As regular contact with the natural world becomes a rarely practiced anachronism, we are forgetting what nature gives us and why we should protect these irreplaceable gifts at any and all costs. In the absence of the awe that the nature world inspires, we no longer care enough to care for it, and all that it contains becomes as disposable as everything else in our increasingly synthetic worlds

But this need not be our fate. There is a better ending to our story. All we have to do is get outside and go find it.

By Jeffrey Hollender
Chief Inspired Protagonist
Seventh Generation, Inc.

This back to school season, think about ways to save energy, money and get involved in the fight against global warming with EPA’s ENERGY STAR. From getting your family involved in fun and educational projects focused on energy efficiency to purchasing ENERGY STAR qualified products for a new college dorm room, there are tons of actions you can take to protect our environment.

Fun Energy Saving Ways to Do Your Part

PTO Today

EPA is working with PTO Today, an organization that serves the nation's parent-teacher organizations (PTOs), to build environmental awareness and understanding among the America's families by organizing “Go Green Nights”.

These fun, interactive events will be held in schools to teach families how to live a greener lifestyle by saving energy at home. So far, almost 3,000 free planning kits have been requested by schools spanning all 50 states. Make sure to ask your kid’s school if they are hosting a Go Green Night, and if not, encourage them to visit PTO Today to learn about this great opportunity.

Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA)

EPA has partnered with BGCA to support energy-efficiency community service projects among club member, such as completing energy check ups in the home or teaching younger kids about the benefits of saving energy.

60 Boys and Girls Clubs will be participating in projects across the country – visit the Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR campaign site and the ENERGY STAR Kids Pages to find out more about how students can make a difference in the fight against global warming.

ENERGY STAR Challenge for Schools

As many school districts across the country face budget cuts, some are slashing their utility bills with help from ENERGY STAR. Nearly 2,000 schools have earned EPA’s ENERGY STAR label for superior energy efficiency, and on average, these schools use 30 percent less energy.

School districts can answer EPA’s call-to-action by taking the ENERGY STAR Challenge, a pledge to improve the energy efficiency of our nation’s buildings. EPA is asking parents, teachers, and students to work together to save energy at home and at school.

ENERGY STAR Fun and Free Educational Materials

Teachers can take advantage of the free resources offered by ENERGY STAR to educate students that becoming energy-efficient can help save our world. ENERGY STAR offers lesson plans and activities on energy efficiency and renewable energy for grades K-12. You can also order publications for free at www.energystar.gov/publications, such as the Lorax Activity Book (.pdf) and Poster (.pdf) with a Helper Check List for younger kids.

ENERGY STAR Qualified Products 

For most college students, computers, printers, desk lamps, and televisions are at the top of their shopping lists to outfit their dorm room for a successful school year.

By looking for ENERGY STAR qualified products, enabling power management settings on the computer, and following simple energy-efficient behaviors such as turning the lights off when not in use, you can help fight global by using less energy. Make sure to look for the blue ENERGY STAR label when shopping on www.amazon.com/green.

Thanks to EPA and ENERGY STAR for this post.

~Amazon Green Scene

Sometimes you think you have something important to say, and hope that someone in the publishing community agrees with you. That was the scenario two years ago when I sat down to write, In Our Every Deliberation, Seventh Generation: The Journey Toward Corporate Consciousness.

The idea behind it was simple:  I believe that you can’t grow a responsible business without also growing everyone in its community.

My experiences at Seventh Generation taught me that developing this consciousness is a process that is not for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of patience, a lot of honesty, and, perhaps most importantly of all, a lot of mutual support.

My new book is a way to provide some of this support. It describes a very personal journey that attempts to answer a question that business is not well designed to answer: What does the world need most that we are uniquely able to provide?

This question embraces the vast potential that business has to be a positive force for change rather than simply an engine for the use of capital and the creation of wealth. It’s a question that forces us to explore how we support the development of the new spirits, fresh minds, and different thinking needed to respond to the huge challenges and boundless opportunity now facing our society.

I wrote this book to help executives and employees find answers. In doing so, I hope to inspire a brave new group of business leaders committed to ensuring that business realizes its highest potential.

The possibility of a more just and sustainable future needs everyone’s help if it is to succeed. In exchange, the journey toward it can and will provide the most powerful potential for each of us to enrich our lives and fulfill our dreams.

The book is available exclusively at Amazon.com.

By Jeffrey Hollender
Chief Inspired Protagonist and Executive Chairperson
Seventh Generation, Inc.
www.seventhgeneration.com

Sometimes we humans just need to be shown an example to get the confidence to give something a go. Whether its framing a house, learning to fish, creating a wedding cake from scratch, writing a poem or sauntering vaguely into a Greener existence, it always helps to have some guidance as we begin. To that end, a story from earlier this summer I found via the Trendcentral.com daily newsletter:

~Amazon Green Scene

 By Linda Teschler for Fastcompany.com:

~Jeremy G. for Amazon Green Scene

From Environmental Leader Daily:

From FastCompany.com:

Jeremy G. For Amazon Green Scene

From the EL Daily: Chemicals Industry Works Toward Safe Chemicals Management by 2020

Why does this make me think of Austin Powers - International Man of Mystery? You remember, the first movie, where Vanessa and Austin are sneaking into Dr. Evil's underground lair, disguised as tourists.

The tour guide goes on about all they produce and work on at the factory and keeps ending his sentences with "... and volatile chemicals."

Also from the Environmental Leader Daily:

We didn't get wings this time, did we Red Bull?

~Jeremy G. for Amazon Green Scene