Editorial

You spent all day being green — sorting recyclables, painting with low-VOC paint, and preparing your rain barrel for the cold weather — and now you want to go out to dinner and relax. But don’t drive your Prius to just any restaurant — continue your green day by choosing an environmentally aware restaurant.

As you can imagine, restaurants produce tons of packaging waste, use enormous amounts of electricity and other utilities, and produce significant emissions. A green restaurant is one that pays attention to those things and attempts to limit them.

The Green Restaurant Association, a trade group that certifies green restaurants, lists seven issues that restaurants can address: water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable furnishings and building materials, sustainable food, energy, disposables, and chemical and pollution reduction.

A restaurant seeking certification follows the GRA’s program and earns “points” for each step it takes. For example, in the water efficiency category, if a restaurant uses a prep sink with a flow of less than or equal to one gallon per minute, it earns 2.25 points. Using an Energy Star qualified steamer earns 4.25 points, and installing landscaping that requires little water over at least half of the site earns 3 points.

A restaurant can become a Two-Star Certified Green Restaurant by earning at least 100 points, having at least 10 points in each category, having a full-scale recycling program, not using polystyrene foam, and participating in yearly education. A Three-Star restaurant needs 175 points, and a Four-Star restaurant (the top rating) requires 300 points.

“Restaurants are America’s largest consumer of electricity in the retail sector,” says Michael Oshman, CEO and founder of the Green Restaurant Association.  ”By choosing a Certified Green Restaurant®, you are enjoying your meal with a lower environmental impact. Because we eat three times per day, your choice of a Certified Green Restaurant® could be the largest environmental decision you make over the course of the week.”

You can find green restaurants by visiting the consumer section of the Green Restaurant Association’s website http://dinegreen.com/customers/default.asp.

Currently the highest scoring green certified restaurant is Uncommon Ground, a coffee shop and restaurant in Chicago with two locations. Among the restaurant’s green features are tables made from wood reclaimed from storm-damaged trees, a rooftop garden that provides much of the restaurant’s produce, and a commitment to local purchasing (to reduce emissions from shipping).

“We purchase everything as local as possible,” says Michael Cameron, owner of Uncommon Ground. “We have been ‘farm-to-table’ long before it was a popular buzzword in the business.”

So don’t let your green guard down when planning a night out — put your dining dollars to work in an environmentally aware restaurant.

When you recline in your dentist’s chair, whether the practice is environmentally sound is probably the furthest thing from your mind. But consider these facts: Every year, dental practices in the United States generate 3.7 tons of mercury waste, 1.7 billion sterilization pouches, and 28 million liters of toxic x-ray fixer. That’s some serious waste!

    The good news is that new products and technologies are emerging that allow dental practices to significantly reduce or eliminate much of that waste. For example, a typical single-dentist practice can keep 40,000 pieces of paper and 20,000 pieces of plastic from the landfill by switching from disposal patient bibs to washable bibs. Other single-use items, such as impression trays, can be replaced with stainless steel versions that can be sterilized and re-used for years. Three more ideas: X-ray developing fluids can be eliminated by switching to digital imaging equipment, steam sterilization can replace chemical sterilization, and frequently used items such as gloves and masks can be purchased in bulk to reduce packaging.

    ”Technological innovation and the emergence of green dentistry are transforming the dental industry,” says Susan Beck, director of the Eco-Dentistry Association http://www.ecodentistry.org, an organization devoted to greening the dental industry. “Green dental professionals are reinforcing the industry’s move to high-tech solutions that reduce its environmental impact, such as oil-free compressors and waterless vacuum systems. They’re also demanding alternatives to the industry’s traditional ‘throw-away’ solutions, sparking the innovation of eco-friendly products such as re-usable sterilization pouches and compostable impression trays.”

    How can you tell if your dentist is green? Some signs are obvious, such as whether the hygienist pitches your bib in the trash when you’re done. Other green issues, such as the use of digital imaging equipment instead of old fashioned film x-rays, may not be obvious to you, but you can ask. The Eco-Dentistry Association offers a “green my dentist” letter that patients can customize and send to their dentists; it encourages the practice to use earth-friendly practices.

    If you’re seeking a new dentist and want to focus on green practices, you can find an Eco-Dentistry Association member by searching on the organization’s web site http://www.ecodentistry.org.

    ”Dentistry is a perfect example of how small choices add up,” Beck says. “That single plastic sheet that covers the dental chair during your visit may seem nominal. But consider that it is one of 680 million disposable patient barriers dumped by US dental offices each year. The simple act of choosing an EDA Member dental professional conserves and protects your local water, eliminates a significant source of waste and pollution in our local communities, and saves energy resources globally.”

Green living has become a buzzword with industries and small business and you can spend a lot of the green in your own wallet in pursuit of eco-living. You don’t have to break the bank in order to save on energy, electricity, water or oil, though. Small changes in your daily routine and some clever gadgets make a big difference in how you impact the planet. 

Every day you make small decisions that can impact the health of the planet.

If you follow yourself on your daily routine, opportunities to reduce your carbon footprint turn up practically at every step you make. You might be surprised at how much waste occurs without your even thinking twice about it.



Your alarm clock sounds and you pull yourself out of bed. Groggy, you turn on the taps and let the water run until the water heats up. Water down the drain is water wasted. You can install and on-demand water heater that only delivers hot water when and where you need it. Not only do you get hot water quickly, you don’t waste fuel keeping a tank of hot water ready when you are not even home. Changing out an old-fashioned toilet for a low-flush type also helps save you water as well.



Breakfast can be greener if you compost the leftovers. Keep a secure, sealed container on your counter to collect the food without attracting bugs or rodents. After you unwrap a pastry or bread stored in aluminum foil, brush off the crumbs from the silvery material, smooth out the wrinkles, fold it up into a neat square and tuck it away for reuse.



Heading out to your car for the commute? Walk or bike to public transport instead, or better yet, explore your options for telecommuting with your workplace. Increasingly, enlightened businesses are recognizing the benefits of a flexible workplace. They save on electricity and infrastructure, and get a more relaxed productive employee.



When its time to recharge your cell phone, relax by a bubbling fountain or light up a dark corner of your garden, you can harness the power of the sun to achieve your goals. Solar panels and photovoltaic cells are getting more compact and cheaper, allowing you to unplug from the grid and power small items with energy from the sun. After the sun goes down and you switch on the lights to read, make sure that you are using energy-efficient compact fluorescents (CFLs) or LED bulbs which emit less heat and use less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs.

They start out as a museum exhibit for the curious, providing a look into the future and spreading knowledge about things that capture our imagination.

Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry has featured a “green home” for visitors to learn about building and living in a truly sustainable home.

Now, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History has opened its PNC SmartHome Cleveland to visitors, providing tours of a home that could represent the future of energy-efficient housing.

PNC SmartHome Cleveland was constructed on museum grounds as part of an exhibition called “Climate Change.”

Conservationists have long felt construction in the United States would do well to consider that a country like Germany has thousands of furnace-free homes built at a “cutting-edge” efficiency standard that features walls more than a foot thick, large triple-paned windows, doors that resemble bank vaults, and other engineering methods that cut cooling and heating costs. It’s a concept known as a “passive house” and has been reported in the media that only about 15 such houses exist in the United States.

But there is one in Cleveland now. And though it currently stands as a museum exhibit, the SmartHome Cleveland will eventually be removed and presented to the public as a property available for purchase as a new home in the Cleveland area.

Designed to function without a furnace, SmartHome Cleveland is reported to be 90 percent more energy efficient than a typical home. It was constructed with sustainable materials and furnishings, advanced stormwater techniques, healthy housing techniques and designed to connect occupants to nature.

Three key elements distinguish “passive house” structures from typical houses: high levels of insulation, with walls up to 18 inches thick; a carefully sealed building envelope with minimal air leakage combined with efficient heat-recovery ventilation for superior indoor air quality; and ultra high-performance windows—at least double-paned and typically triple-paned. The result is a home with no drafts, no cold spots and extremely low heating bills.

The “Climate Change” exhibits will be on display through Dec. 31, 2011, in the museum’s Kahn Hall, but SmartHome Cleveland will be on display only from June to September 2011. SmartHome is funded by PNC Bank, the Cleveland Foundation and various other organizations and donors.

Constructing a building with conservation and environment in mind is one thing. But having the building serve the purpose of educating future generations about “green living” makes it a win-win for the environmentally conscious.

That philosophy guided the park district in St. Charles, IL, through the design and construction of its Hickory Knolls Discovery Center. A LEED-certified building, Hickory Knolls Discovery Center met a rigorous set of criteria to satisfy the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines, and it now invites the public to attend tours and numerous classes or programs at the newly-opened nature facility to learn of the many ways to “go green” — at home, at work, any where, any time.

The discovery center hopes to get people thinking that small changes in habits can lead to positive impacts on our planet, even if it is as simple as starting a home recycling program or converting to CFL light bulbs.

The center itself was planned to be as sustainable as possible, from the installation of plants on the roof to all aspects meeting LEED specifications, which monitor such things as indoor air quality, water efficiency, and CO2 emissions.  Developed and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington, D.C.-based, nonprofit consortium of building industry leaders, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The program’s guidelines serve to minimize environmental impact of the construction process.

“The entire building in and of itself is an exhibit,” says Pam Otto , Manager of Nature Programs and Interpretive Services.  “We want to be a source of inspiration to people who are considering adopting green practices in their own lives.”

Some of the decisions made by the park district included leaving the concrete block and brick walls exposed.  “Choosing not to cover them with sheetrock and paint conserved resources,” says Otto, while an integral color concrete floor in many areas of the building did away with the need for carpeting or tile and the inherent adhesive materials necessary for their installation.

Homeowners looking to remodel an existing structure using environmentally-friendly designs and products, or those who are contemplating new construction, could learn much from a center like Hickory Knolls as a source of information and ideas to get any project off to the greenest start possible.

If the city or village you live in encourages “green living” by promoting recycling programs, rain barrel use, CFL or LED lights, and restrictions on water use during hot summer months, you’d like to know that the city fathers practice what they preach.

A good way to find out would be to determine what sort of green practices are in place at City Hall and other municipal buildings and operations.

Chances are, you will find a “green team” in place at the city level, pushing for conservation through example as much as through educational and marketing campaigns.

In Geneva, IL, a “Green Team” has been assembled with a representative from the various city departments being a part of this panel that studies ways for the city to embrace conservation projects and habits.

But it starts right in their own surroundings, with the City Hall building being upgraded with more energy-efficient equipment — from the HVAC system to the CFL lights on timers replacing incandescent bulbs.

Putting a dishwasher in the City Hall building may sound odd, but it allows plates, glasses and mugs to be cleaned and reused, rather than supplying the building with wasteful paper products, single-use plastic forks, knives and spoons, or even Styrofoam products.

Programmable thermostats in Geneva’s water treatment plant are an example of how most city buildings have been upgraded in an effort to reduce power costs. In another interesting twist, the gas generated from the main digester building that treats waste water is being used to provide fuel to heat exchangers. Rather than ship sludge off to landfills, the high-quality sludge is being used to fertilize farm fields.

The city takes its green measures to the street, literally. Street lighting has been converted from mercury vapor to more efficient high-pressure sodium, and city crews are recycling tree limbs and branches into wood chips, while also recycling scrap metal as a source of revenue.

Ongoing energy audits allow the city to track waste and make improvements in older city buildings.

Last, but not least, don’t be surprised if you see police cruising around your hometowns on a Segway in the future. There would still be squad cars available for emergency response, but fewer of them if the police are making some rounds through town on a Segway – thus saving on fuel costs and lowering greenhouse gases in the environment.

The overall trend for the clean-energy market continued to be one of growth and expansion in 2010. Combined global revenue for solar, wind power, and biofuels surged 35.2 percent over the prior year, growing from $139.1 billion to $188.1 billion, according to the Clean Energy Trends 2011 report from Clean Edge Inc., a research and advisory firm devoted to the clean-tech sector. The bulk of this expansion came from a more than doubling in global solar photovoltaic installations and steady growth in the biofuels sector. For the first time since Clean Edge began tracking the wind power sector, however, the global wind market witnessed a slight year-over-year decline in market size, in both overall dollars and installations.

This year’s report represents a full decade of Clean Edge data and trends analysis. The full report can be downloaded for free at www.cleanedge.com.
According to Clean Edge research, the global market for solar photovoltaics has expanded from just $2.5 billion in 2000 to $71.2 billion in 2010, representing a compound annual growth rate of 39.8 percent. The global market for wind power has similarly expanded from a global market worth $4.5 billion in 2000 to more than $60.5 billion today, for a growth rate of 29.7 percent.

“As witnessed over the past decade, clean tech has proven to be a significant business opportunity, and its growth rates now rival that of earlier technology revolutions like telephony, computers and the Internet,” said Ron Pernick, Clean Edge co-founder and managing director. “We expect overall growth to slow down in some sectors as the clean-energy market reaches wide adoption and utility-scale deployment, but there’s still considerable room for expansion.”
Clean Energy Trends 2011 includes growth projections for the major clean-energy sectors (solar PV, wind and biofuels), as well as analysis of global clean-tech investment and trends. The report’s key findings include:

• Biofuels (global production and wholesale pricing of ethanol and biodiesel) reached $56.4 billion in 2010 and are projected to grow to $112.8 billion by 2020. In 2010, the biofuels market consisted of more than 27.2 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel production worldwide, up from 23.6 billion gallons in the prior year.

• Wind power (the capital cost of new installation) is projected to expand from $60.5 billion in 2010 to $122.9 billion in 2020. Last year’s global wind power installations declined slightly to 35.2 gigawatts, down from a record 37.5 GW the prior year. China, the global leader in new installations for the third year in a row, continued to see strong growth with total new installations of more than 16 GW, an increase of 27 percent. The U.S., the world’s second-largest market, declined after record growth in 2009, adding only half as much capacity as the prior year with just 5 GW installed in 2010.

• Solar photovoltaics (including modules, system components and installation) are projected to grow from a $71.2 billion industry in 2010 to $113.6 billion by 2020. New installations reached more than 15.6 GW worldwide in 2010, a more than doubling from 7.1 GW in 2009, representing the largest year-over-year increase on record.

• According to data provided by the Cleantech Group, U.S.-based venture capital investments in clean tech increased 46 percent from $3.5 billion in 2009 to $5.1 billion in 2010. Clean Edge analysis found that clean-tech’s percentage of total U.S. venture capital investments continued to rise, accounting for a record 23.2 percent of total U.S. venture activity in 2010.

The report also outlines five key trends that will impact clean-energy markets in the coming years: the phase-out of incandescent lights replaced by low-cost LEDs, advances in natural gas, cleaner aviation fuels, low-cost green buildings and innovative alternatives to rare earths.

Three key trends that define modern civilization are increased urbanization, rising demand for energy and rapid growth in the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) that is generated by industrialized societies. However, emerging waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies hold the promise of addressing two of these major issues by utilizing MSW for the efficient production of electricity and heat using both biological and thermal methods. A recent report from Pike Research, Boulder, Colo., forecasts that global revenues from WTE systems will experience strong growth over the next five years, more than tripling in size from $4.2 billion in 2011 to almost $13.6 billion by 2016.

“Waste collected in cities contains a large amount of biological and renewable materials, and it is therefore an important source of renewable energy,” says Pike Research President Clint Wheelock. “As a consequence, energy-from-waste contributes to energy security and diversification and matches the growing demand for renewable energy in a carbon constrained world.”

Wheelock adds that policies, regulations and changing economic conditions are driving the growth of WTE capacity worldwide, creating attractive business opportunities for providers of WTE technologies and related components. Combustion is the primary technology today and is entrenched in the market, yet advanced thermal treatment (ATT) technologies such as plasma arc gasification are now emerging. Moreover, Pike Research’s analysis finds that biological technologies for treating waste offer an attractive alternative to thermal treating methods.

The WTE technology market offers opportunities for turnkey plant and key equipment suppliers, service companies that provide plant operations and maintenance, and engineering companies. Yet, the barriers to enter the turnkey business are substantial. Strong balance sheets to capture high capital-intensive projects and sustain long sales cycles, very reliable technologies and long-standing track records, and in-depth knowledge of market constraints are prerequisites to successfully operate in the market. A handful of specialist companies per region have these capabilities. The market is less constrained for key equipment categories such as air pollution control (APC), and this is also the case in the biological treatment market, where the capacities and the capital requirements of the projects are smaller.

An executive summary of Pike Research’s study, “Waste-to-Energy Technology Markets,” is available for free download on the firm’s website, www.pikeresearch.com.

The term “retrofitting” has become common in a world in which older buildings are being remodeled and rehabbed in a way that brings more “green” into them to conserve energy or water.

These building makeovers could occur in residential or commercial areas, but also for older buildings that become recreational or office centers used by park districts and cities.

But even if new construction unfolds on the site of an existing building, it can be done with much of the material from that existing building and incorporate numerous “green” facets into the process.

One such building used by the Fox Valley Park District in Aurora, Ill., has been honored for its environmentally friendly practices.

The Conservation Foundation presented the park district with the 2011 Sustainable Development Award in honor of its new Cole Center building.

The district had consolidated all of its park, maintenance and administration operations into the Cole Center building in the fall, but completed numerous sustainable upgrades and modifications prior to the consolidation.

“This award goes to a business or agency that best demonstrates environmentally friendly practices in its development projects,” said Brook McDonald, president and CEO of The Conservation Foundation. “With all of its sustainable features, the Cole Center is model structure that meets or exceeds the highest environmental standards.”

The Fox Valley Park District reports that the Cole Center has more than 100 environmentally friendly highlights – such as a rainwater harvesting system for vehicle washing, LED lights that use 75 percent less electricity than fluorescents and parking lots built with permeable pavers. By developing the center from an existing building, the park district was able to reduce its carbon footprint by reusing, restoring, recycling and reinvesting.

Other highlights of the building include:

*Contractors were required to divert waste from landfills and maximize recycling of construction and demolition debris.

* Steel stairs, acoustical wall panels and concrete retaining wall blocks were salvaged from the existing building and saved for reuse in new construction.

* Many products specified for use in the Cole Center construction contain high levels of either pre-consumer or post-consumer recycled material content, such as concrete, structural steel, ceramic tile, carpet tile and cast stone.

* Wood-based products were manufactured using sustainably harvested wood materials, not from old-growth timber.

* Office areas have multi-level lighting to allow at least 50 percent light reduction while maintaining uniform lighting levels throughout the building.

* The facility design is based upon the natural and native elements of the nearby Fox River shoreline, featuring stone, wood, water and heavy timber.

* Landscaping that does not require permanent irrigation systems.

* An energy-efficient, direct-fired heating system for a large garage area, and a high-efficiency water heater.

Steve Stevens figures that if Thomas Edison could see the need for energy conservation in the future, it would be wise for all of us to become practitioners today.

Stevens, a resident of Golden, Colo., has made sustainability studies his life’s pursuit after retiring from a long career at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 2000. His home in Colorado also serves as a bicycling history museum (his other passion), but one that is considered a “net power plant,” meaning it generates more energy than it uses.

In briefing a group recently at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Wheaton, Ill., Stevens reminded attendees of what Edison saw in the future.

In 1931, Edison said, “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy, and I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Stevens also points to George W. Bush, who as president was considered an ally of big oil companies and “a great oil salesman.”

“But it was George Bush who said ‘we are addicted to oil,’” Stevens noted. “And after two wars over Mideast oil, he has changed his tune and now has a ‘green’ ranch in Texas and is a huge proponent of conservation.”

Stevens said that “retrofitting” homes to be more energy efficient is an up-and-coming industry that is going to create jobs.

“The key components are sun, sealing and super insulation,” Stevens said, pointing to examples of homes in Taos, N.M., that are so energy efficient that they are called “earth ships” or “energy-free homes.”

“The easiest way to look at this is by considering your house as a bucket with leaks in it, and you have to plug those leaks,” Stevens explained. “Energy slips out of every seam in your house.”

Stevens goes further than most in his pursuit of energy conservation. He kept Excel spreadsheets of his bill payments, monitoring his electricity and natural gas payments, and coming to conclusions on where he needed to concentrate his efforts.

“I took out the incandescent lights and replaced them with CFLs, but then I noticed my gas bill went up, because I didn’t have the incandescent lights generating heat,” Stevens said. “I went to LED lights and an energy-saving furnace, in addition to plugging leaks, and then my bills went down.”

Stevens has charted the “source energy factor,” or what it costs to deliver electricity to a home, and concluded that a single-family home in the Midwest uses 65,000 BTUs per square foot for an entire year of energy use. By comparison, a new EPA home, or LEED Gold home, would use 40,000 BTUs, while a “net zero home” would generate as many BTUs as it consumes.

“How do you make heat and how do you contain it?” Stevens asks.  “By making your heating its most efficient, you are saving money right away. A condensing furnace, and then sealing up the house so no outside air comes in during cold weather, is the key.”

Stevens recommends using a product called Mastic on the gaps on heat duct joints, while also making use of solar panels to capture solar heat. While wood burning stoves are effective, Stevens recommends getting rid of fireplaces, which don’t heat the house and are generally the biggest draw of warm air out of the house.

“Simple stuff, the low-technology applications, can have the highest returns,” Stevens said in encouraging that every crack in the house should be calked or foamed, starting with doors and windows.

An energy audit of the home is also helpful, along with a temperature gauge that indicates the temperature level at each wall or area in a home.

“The doors to a garage are usually a big culprit for bringing in cold air,” Stevens said. “And you should seal electrical outlets on the inside of the outlet box. The rim joists in the basement need to be caulked along the edges to stop air leaks.”

Stevens is also a big proponent of blowing insulation into attics, and also using fiberglass to fill up wall cavities in a basement.

“It’s also important to insulate any overhangs in your homes,” Stevens said. “Most of the time, with those overhangs, you have an inch of plywood and two inches of air between the air duct inside your home and the outside cold air. When it gets to be below zero outside, how much cold air do you think can make it through an inch of plywood and two inches of air?”