Green Living presentation – topics include responsible sourcing, local materials, toxic ingredients in beauty supplies, green travel, carbon offsets, open source software and green investing.

2. Four Guiding Objectives
When deciding what you, as families, can do to make the shift to a
sustainable lifestyle, you must consider four guiding objectives:
1. Eliminate your contribution to fossil fuel dependence and
wasteful use of scarce metals, minerals and natural resources.
2. Eliminate your contribution to dependence upon persistent
chemicals and wasteful uses of synthetic substances.
3. Eliminate your contribution to encroachment upon nature
(e.g., land, water, wildlife, forests, soil, ecosystem).
4. Meet human needs fairly and efficiently.

3. Green Living
• Home
– Furniture
– Paint
– Flooring
– Countertops
• Clothing
• Beauty
• Travel
• Offsets
• Open Source
• Investing

4. Home
The air in your home is 5 to 10% more
polluted than the air outside.
What to examine:
• furniture
• paint
• flooring
• counters

5. Home - Furniture
Unless you bought your furniture from a
company that implements sustainable
standards, they are releasing toxins into
your home.
• Formaldehyde, found in:
• particleboard (pressed wood)
• adhesives
• PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) found in:
• foam cushions
• mattresses

6. Home - Furniture
Do you consider where the wood in your
furniture comes from?
• FSC - Forest Stewardship Council
• harvested from sustainable sources
• Exotic Wood
• teak
• mahogany

7. Home - Furniture
Do your research!
• IKEA
• 2modern.com
• Evo.com
$5,998 FSC wood & cotton rope
• BranchHome.com
$399 sustainable sources

8. Home - Paint
That “clean” smell from fresh coat of
paint are VOCs -- volatile organic
compounds.
• worsen asthma symptoms
• cause nose, skin & eye irritation
• headaches, nausea, dizziness
• respiratory problems
• extreme cases: nerve damage, liver &
kidney disease

9. Home - Paint
Look for low- or no-VOC paints
& varnishes.
• BioShield – Retailer in Blanco, TX
www.BioShieldPaint.com
• EcoSpec Paint – several Tarrant retailers
BenjaminMoore.com
• Kelly-Moore Enviro-Cote
www.kellymoore.com

10. Home - Flooring
Carpeting and adhesives in wood flooring
also offgas. Alternatives include:
• FLOR® tile carpet - www.flor.com
• FSC Wood/Reclaimed Wood
• Marmoleum - linseed oil, cork flour, jute,
limestone, rosin – Green Living
• Cork – Lumber Liquidators, Green Living
• Bamboo – Lumber Liquidators,
Green Living

11. Home - Countertops
Make sure your countertops are from a
renewable and local source:
• EnviroGLAS® in Plano

12. Clothing
Until the 20th century, all
clothing was “natural.”
Although clothing made
from synthetics is strong, it
is not breathable. Although
cotton is breathable, it’s
laden with pesticides.
Cotton – uses 25% of the
world’s pesticides.

13. Clothing
Alternatives
• organic cotton - Target, Wal-Mart
• virgin wool
Organic cotton
• hemp
• soy
• bamboo
Soy
• wood pulp
• corn – Ingeo fiber
Bamboo/Organic
Cotton

14. Beauty
Wandering the cosmetics aisle
can be like walking through a
minefield of toxic chemicals.
Two of the biggest hazards are:
• Carcinogens
• coal tar colors (FD&C, D&C) – hair dyes,
dandruff shampoos, cosmetics
• formaldehyde – shampoos, nail polish,
nail hardeners, hair-growth products
• DEA, TEA and MEA – shampoos, body
washes, soaps

15. Beauty
• Endocrine disruptors – interfere with
normal function of hormones
• Phthalates – in 3/4 of 72 popular
beauty products – perfume, hair-care
products, nail polish, hand lotions
• Surfactants – shampoos, hair dyes,
shaving creams
• Parabens – mimic estrogen &
adversely affect testosterone levels in men
– found in almost any cosmetic or personal-
care product

16. Beauty
Alternatives
• Natural cosmetics from plant extracts
• Hair products – tea tree oil, coconut
oil, olive oil, castile, wheat, soya proteins
• Hair colors – plant dyes made from
beets, walnuts, tea or marigolds
• Skin- and body-care –
macadamia nut oil, cocoa butter,
vitamins A & E

17. Beauty
Alternatives
• Oral Care – toothpastes with zinc
citrate, peppermint, fennel
• Nail Care – green tea extracts, shea
butter
No Miss Nail Polish
Tom’s of Maine Toothpaste

18. Travel/Tourism
Tourism is one of the world’s
fastest growing industries,
according to the United
Nations’ World Tourism Organization.
Part of tourism is supposed to be
supporting the local economy. However,
that is typically far from the truth.
Support the local economy by hiring local
guides, paying to enter protected areas, use
local transportation and buy souvenirs from
local shops or crafts cooperatives.

19. Travel/
Tourism
Flying Conscientiously
In 2004 alone, 1.9 billion passengers
traveled by air.
Choosing to fly, however, is a decision with
serious environmental consequences.
If flying is your only option, carbon credits –
or offsets – can be purchased to offset the
harmful emissions released during flights.

20. Travel/Tourism
Carbon Offsets
Carbon offsets can be purchased through a
number of companies. You pay according
to the number of miles you’re traveling. A
carbon calculator is used to calculate your
“carbon footprint.”
The money funds clean energy
and efficiency projects such as
wind farms, solar power and
tree planting.

21. Travel/Tourism
Airlines/travel agencies that offer
carbon offsets when purchasing tickets:
• Continental • Virgin Blue
• Lufthansa • Qantas
• Swiss • Cathay Pacific
• Travelocity • SAS Group
• Delta • Silverjet
• Expedia

22. Travel/Tourism
Another way you can travel more
environmentally is through “eco-tourism,”
“responsible tourism” or “sustainable
tourism.”
Recent studies suggest that 4-7% of all
tourism worldwide is eco-tourism.
The International Ecotourism Society
states that eco-tourism aims to conserve
the environment and to improve the well-
being of communities, by sponsoring
responsible travel to natural areas.

23. More on Offsets
The Federal Trade Commission is holding
a series on green marketing. The first one,
in January, focused on the carbon offset
industry.
The three that more companies are
turning to?
• TerraPass.com
• CarbonFund.org
• ConservationFund.org

24. More on Offsets
What can you offset at home?
• air travel
• hotel stays
• home energy use
• commuting
• weddings
• dorm rooms

25. Open Source Software
Because most large software companies
protect their “source code,” no one can
build on that software without explicit
permission.
This stymies the opportunities for new
ideas, security patches, better ways of
working and software improvements.
Open source software is open to build on,
improve and start another version.

26. Open Source Software
Operating systems
• Linux
• Red Hat
• SUSE
• Ubuntu (South Africa)
For almost any software you can
purchase, there is an equivalent open
source alternative.
• SourceForge.net
• OpenSourceMac.org

27. Investing
Why give your money to an unsustainable
company?
Socially Responsible Investment –
investors are demanding corporate
transparency, accountability and socially
responsible standards.
Watchdog and Research Organizations
• AsYouSow.org • IRRC.org
• Ceres.org • KLD.com
• Socialinvest.org

28. Microfinance
Got a few dollars left over at the end of
the month? Check into Microfinance.
Grameen Foundation provides tiny loans
to poor women entrepreneurs to help
them escape poverty.
GrameenFoundation.org
Opportunity International provides
financial services to the poorest of the
poor and trains them in basic business
practices.
OpportunityInternational.org

29. Microfinance
Or you can donate breeding
pairs of livestock to an
impoverished family through Heifer
International.
When a family receives a breeding pair
they get meat, milk or eggs. They can also
sell the offspring.
Each recipient must agree to give one
breeding pair of offspring away to another
family, paying the gift forward.
Heifer.org

30. Micro-lending
If you want to loan your
money, not just make a
donation, there’s Requesting $300 to purchase vegetables
for resale in Cambodia.
micro-lending.
Kiva lets you lend to a specific
entrepreneur in the developing world. You
can watch their progress online. The
course of the loan is usually 6-12 months.
At the end of the loan, you can take your
money out or re-loan it.
www.Kiva.org

31. Thank you!
And good luck on
your journey toward
sustainability!