Give Your Mail Person a Break

How much mail do you get that you really need? Most of the stuff we put in our recycle bin is junk mail, and I am sick of getting catalogs for the people who previously owned our house. A few months ago we signed up with Catalog Choice to limit the amount of useless mail we receive. I have to say that I have noticed a significant difference, at least with catalogs, and it's free. They have all of the major catalogs and even more that I have never heard of. Their service makes it really easy to go in and cancel catalogs and magazines at any time. I try to do this at least once a week with any catalogs we may have received.

The next step I am taking is to stop the rest of the junk mail. I have read about some other services that work with all kinds of junk mail, but several require a fee: 41pounds and GreenDimes are a few. The best option I have found so far is through the Direct Marketing Association and costs $1, but in my opinion, that is one dollar well spent. You are able to put up to 5 names per address which is nice since I still get a lot of junk mail sent to my maiden name. I recently signed us up and was surprised by the "are you sure" page. They post the following information to try to convince you to stay on the list (I added the bold formatting to highlight certain content).

Important: you have selected to eliminate all mailings from organizations participating in the DMA Mail Preference Service.

What you will miss.

The average household can save 1200 dollars per year from marketing offers.
You will no longer receive savings offers from these companies.

In fact, you will no longer receive offers and special savings for more than 80 percent of all commercial offers.

And you will miss the environmental benefits of shopping at home rather than driving to the mall!

By replacing just two shopping trips to the mall each year with shopping by catalogs or direct mail, DMA estimates that Americans could:

• Reduce the amount we drive by 3.3 billion miles.
• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 3 billion pounds.
• Save more than $490 million on gas costs.

When you click here, your name will be removed from future consumer prospect lists and you will see a significant reduction in all catalog and other commercial offers. If you wish to reconsider, click here and uncheck the box removing your name from DMA's member prospect lists.

DMA and all its members support the Commitment to Consumer Choice guidelines designed to better serve consumers and your right to choose to receive more of what you want and less of what you don't want. If you have questions about the CCC please visit the DMA web site homepage.

I found it interesting that they were pointing out the environmental benefits to receiving junk mail. Perhaps some people drive to stores often enough that receiving tons of paper is healthier for the planet, but I don't fall into that category. Also, I would rather spend my time searching online for the few products that I shop for each year, than waste it sifting through junk mail to find the two coupons I would use. So here is to fewer pieces of junk mail and more time to spend reading useful things like books!

CFL and After

One of the methods I am using to be more energy conscious is very judicious use of CFL in my house. Thus far I have replaced several entire rooms, and I intend to continue this until I am completely rid of incandescent.

I originally planned to wait and replace as incandescent bulbs burnt out, but at this point I'm wondering why I shouldn't reap those savings sooner. Especially when companies such as Alliant Energy are providing rebates for purchasing these bulbs.

One thing that has concerned me with CFL though is my perception that people are relatively uninformed about how these bulbs should be disposed. The mercury in the bulbs means that they can no longer simply be tossed in the trash.

I was very encouraged though to see a flier up at my kids' gymnastics class stating the a CFL recycling program had been setup in a nearby town. This prompted me to look for and then find some additional CFL recycling information and information for Iowa specifically.

Luckily for me personally there is a center about 10 minutes away. I do think there is still a need to greatly expand on the number of these centers available, so I hope more people will setup local drop off centers.

Green Hanging

Last week, my wife & I were shopping at Wal-Mart for a few things to manage our hanging laundry when I happened to run across hangers by Merrick. They're made in the USA, from a corn base. They're recyclable, but based on a few comments on Treehugger, only by municipalities that have the correct capabilities. I was pretty impressed that Wal-Mart of all places would carry something like this. And the pricing wasn't too bad either, at about $3.50 for 5 hangers.

--JOsh

Build Your Home Green

On January 7th my husband and I, along with fellow poster Josh and his wife, attended a local workshop titled "Building a Sustainable Iowa". It was hosted by Center on Sustainable Communities and involved a presentation by Marc Richmond from Practica Consulting followed by the ability to visit with green vendors. The information was aimed at people building new homes or current homeowners wanting to make green choices.

I found the session very informative and presented from a reasonable point of view. Marc briefly covered what he called the "doom and gloom" side of building that we all hear about, but live so far away from. The majority of the time he discussed common misconceptions, pitfalls of making green choices, and tips. Here is a list of some of the items that really stood out for me:

• Every product that you purchase for your home from the building components to the paint and furnishings can contain harmful things like formaldehyde. These will "off-gas" for many years even if you can't smell it. Look for products with low or no VOCs and low or no formaldehyde.
• Don't get caught up in perfecting your projects. There are pros and cons to every choice so you have to do your research and find the products that fit the best with your goals.
  
• There are many green factors, so rank their priority for your purposes to stay focused. Some of the green factors mentioned were energy efficiency, sustainability, and indoor health.
• You may have a very efficient furnace, but if your duct work was done poorly and leaks, heating your home may be up to 30% less efficient than you think. Getting your system tested can point out areas that need to be sealed better.
• Insulation should completely fill the space between the studs. This has been a common problem with builders and is one of the easiest ways to lose money on heating your home. Watch insulation installation carefully if you are building a new home and remedy the problem if you have an existing home.
  
• Another good test for new and existing homes is a home pressure test. This will test for leaks around windows and doors, electrical sockets and other common culprits.
  
• Don't believe that green materials are always too expensive. Most green products are a few dollars more or even less than their counterparts, and if they are that close in price, why wouldn't you pay a few dollars more to make your home last longer and be healthier for your family? Isn't it worth it to raise your children in a safer environment?
  
• Green products have a lower quality than the old stuff, not! Marc pointed out that many green products have been on the shelf for years, but people don't think to look for them. A good example was paint. "Regular" paint hasn't changed for years, but low/no VOC paint has been evolving to keep up with regulations in states such as California. This means that eco-friendly paint is using the latest paint technology while the "good" paint is still using 20 year old technology.
  

The vendors at the show included companies involved with insulation, paint, windows, gas and electricity providers, construction and building materials that can be reused. I look forward to researching and possibly working with some of these companies for our home projects in the future.

CitizenRe Post 1: Rent Solar

This will be the first of a series of posts on CitizenRe.

I mentioned that my husband and I bought our first home last summer. We bought it because we like it, it's in a great neighborhood, it's close to my husband's office and he can drop me at a variety of bus stops on his way to work. We also bought it to grow into because we hate moving and will have kids some day. This last point means that it's bigger than we need right now, but my green side has come to terms with that because it also means that we are making long term decisions on improving it, more than just aesthetic modification.

The first major one is to add solar. For a long time this was a future goal because of the high up-front cost of solar combined with living in a state that doesn't have good solar rebates. This changed the day of the 2007 National Solar Tour. After visiting a local nature preserve that uses solar panels, we went out to lunch and found a flyer for CitizenRe, a company that promotes solar by renting and maintaining the setup through it's REnU program. The deal sounded really great which was the problem. It sounded way too good to be true. So I sat on it, talked it over with a coworker who has some hobby panels, and did some research online. I found that other people were concerned that it was a scam and there were plenty of arguments on both sides. Finally I decided to sign up and find out if it was real or not. I spent time reading through the terms and conditions and nothing looked fishy so I dove in.

I received a call from the sales manager assigned to us, but didn't answer so I only got the welcome message as a voice mail. Then we were sent papers to sign, confirming that we wanted to join the program. I recently received an email confirming that the papers arrived, but still no word about anyone coming to design our solar system. It is important to note that as of this date we have not been asked for social security numbers or any personal information other than our address and names and even the papers that we signed stated that we were not locked into anything until a systems engineer came and designed our solar setup and we approved it. I bring this up because the sites I found had incorrect statements along those lines.

I hope to have more exciting updates about our personal experience with CitizenRe, but for now, here are a few links that help prove that they are real if you believe what you see on TV.

CitizenRe on Living with Ed

Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry Displays Green

Ian's favorite corner of the web (and coincidentally the midwest), Chicagoist, is reporting that the Museum of Science and Industry is building a fully functional 3 story "green" home that will be available for exhibit beginning May 8, 2008.

If you happen to be in Chicago over the summer, make sure to check it out. It may help you decide on what technology is practical for you. Just make sure to use Chicago's excellent rapid (mass?) transit system while you are there. CTA Trip Planner.

http://chicagoist.com/2008/01/08/museum_unveils.php