SanJoseGreenHome.com

Don’t try to tackle all the issues, pick the closest to your heart, where you’re most likely to make a decent impact.  Most importantly – be brave, don’t be politically correct, have courage,  be the change you want others to be.  Mean what you say and don’t be mean when you say it.  

Don’t fall in the extremes as those who do that are very vulnerable… do it from the heart.  When it gets tough, remember the others, do it for them, don’t expect rewards, don’t ask for recognition.  This is the way of a true eco warrior.  

Stevie Wonder sang… “If you believe in things you don’t understand then you suffer.”  He’s awesome.  Get educated, see what’s really happening in the world, study the science yourself, go visit places!  Visit places in Asia, you’ll see much less subtle ways how humanity is wreaking havoc on the planet.  We’re all connected. 

The biggest challenge facing the planet is overpopulation and all the demands on the resources that this brings with it.  Every new life will create a footprint.  When you have kids, don’t be selfish by having many.  Strive to live (more…)

Tweet This Post

Did we even need to drill the Deepwater Horizon oil well to begin with?  Actually, no. There are over 100 million homes in the U.S. Most of them use energy inefficiently because they’re not well insulated, sealed and set up.  The energy contained in the biggest oil spill in U.S. history is equal to the energy that just 75,000 homes waste in a single year.

Seventy-five thousand homes represent less than 0.1 percent of all single-family homes in the U.S. or the number of homes in a single mid-sized U.S. city, like Providence, R.I., or Chattanooga, Tenn. Doing energy retrofits to make those homes efficient would save the equivalent of the entire Gulf Oil Spill every year on a permanent basis.

Comparing the Costs

No one really knows how much it’ll end up costing to clean up the disaster created by the Gulf Oil Spill. And when a final number is calculated, years from now, there’s no way that it’ll take into account the true extent of the environmental damage that the oil spill has created. But even in the preliminary estimates made before the oil has finished flowing, the cost is expected to exceed $40 billion.

How does that compare to doing 75,000 home energy retrofits? (more…)

Tweet This Post

If you’ve never been to Newby Island Landfill in Milpitas (near San Jose, California) you would be up for a treat if you visited.  It would totally blow all of your concepts on how our trash is managed.  During an annual Earth Day event, organized by Allied Waste, one can go on a romantic date with one’s trash in a comfy limo bus.  

State of the art landfills like Newby Island are quite effective at managing food scraps for compost materials, yard waste for mulch, concrete for paving the roads at the facility and many other great things.  Perhaps you would be most impressed to learn how the methane from rotting organic matter is captured and then used for electricity production that helps power some of the surrounding homes in the area. 

The thing that hit me during that trip is that no matter how well our waste is managed it takes tremendous amount of energy and resources to further sort, downcycle and burry our trash.  Furthermore, when I asked whether they truly “recycle” plastic bags, the lowered tone response was not a very clear one – “Yes, but into lower grade plastic bags that are further shipped to China.”  You be the judge whether this makes any sense to you or sounds anything close to the truth.  

Frankly, you can’t blame the guys if these plastic bags simply go up in fumes.  Recycling plastic bags is a total financial disaster; it’s nothing but a big headache and a huge expense.  It’s really up to us to use more bio-degradable trash bags and cloth or at least paper bags at the grocery stores.  

Enjoy the short video of the tour that started with a wonderful lunch and a few speeches.  (Make sure to click off on the Google ad so that it’s not in your way of viewing.)

Tweet This Post

It’s easy to lose perspective these days.  Sometimes the real meaning behind our efforts simply drowns in concepts, ideas and daily routine.  As you watch this video that has already been viewed almost 5 million times, I hope it brings you home.  The place in your heart where you feel connected.  A place where you feel like your work and life have a purpose; where you are aligned with what truly matters in life.   

Nature is so amazing, so harmonious, so beautiful and precious.  Even though this is a human made ocean floor in Japan, one can not help not to marvel at the unrushed scenery and simply be in love with all living beings.   Hope this brings you some peace and even more resolve to protect life on the planet.  Enjoy. (Make sure to click off on that Google ad to close it as it will be in your way).

Tweet This Post

Bay Area water suppliers expect there will not be enough water for their customers by 2018.

Water. It’s difficult to say we lack it during this el-nino year.  You look outside, nothing but rain.  You open your faucet, it doesn’t run out.  It seems like it’s always there in unlimited quantities.  Hence lies a dangerous illusion that water has always been there and always will.  However, there’s been a lot of buzz lately about the shortage of this precious commodity.  Some even call water the next gold.

After all, gold values have risen in the last several years. Will water too? Bay Area water suppliers expect there will not be enough water for their customers by 2018. So what does this mean for us and our homes? It means we can expect the water bill to get bigger.  Much bigger.

Have you seen all the hub-bub being made about the EPA filing on rainwater runoff? You can read the actual filing if you like.  Basically, the tax would be levied on new and newly redeveloped sites that do not meet certain requirements for control of storm water discharge. Closer to home, Deputy GM of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Michael Carlin indicated that San Francisco Bay Area households that pay $63/mo for water can expect to pay $128 in 2018. To top it off, the cap on the water that can be drawn from the Hetch Hetchy in 2018 won’t be enough for residents – it will be short by (more…)

Tweet This Post

If you are going on a long trip across a couple states for a week do you drive your own car or do you rent one?  Many people rent because they don’t like adding extra mileage on their cars.  Normally renting a car is a bit more expensive than driving your own but what about renting a hybrid?  Can the gas savings potentially offset the rental car costs?  As we found out during our recent trip to Nevada and Arizona, the answer is absolutely YES! 

First, we weren’t sure what to do.  Alamo at San Jose Airport presented two options: to rent an economic mid-size car for a total of $180 per week or go for a hybrid for $220.  Considering the fact that we are thinking of buying a hybrid in the future, and the fact that our trip would leave a smaller pollution trail, we decided to have some fun and go for a hybrid – the brand spanking new Toyota Prius. 

Man it was exciting to get into one of those.  Besides the fact that it took five minutes to figure out how to start the darn thing, the ride, the comfort, the dynamics is all really a joy in that car.  Cruising at low speeds in national parks and knowing that there is absolutely no emissions coming out of the pipe was nothing short of orgasmic.  

It was a great trip but what about the bottom line on the numbers? (more…)

Tweet This Post

Do you ever find yourself so deeply entrenched in your beliefs that you miss a bigger picture?  It’s safe to say we all do.  Recently, I had a chance to speak with a lovely lady who had purchased a fantastically green home.  The house had all the latest in green building like engineered lumber, sustainable materials, non-toxic finishes and many other bells and whistles.  You can imagine that my eyes sparkled like a five year old’s at a sight of an ice-cream truck.  Meeting her filled me with much excitement.  

My first questions obviously were:  “So how do you like it?  Does it feel good to have a low carbon footprint?  Don’t you just love your solar water heater?”  I was expecting to hear something profound like: ”Wow, we love the fact how much less wood was used to construct this house, how much stronger it is because of engineered lumber, how low the heating bills were,” you know…, the standard stuff that we greenies get jazzed up about.  But you know what her answer was? “It’s nice; we love the quality of the floors and are very comfortable here.”  

My jaw dropped.  “What?” uninvited but silent thoughts started creeping in, “She’s got to be kidding… this home should be like a Lincoln monument for green building and all she cares about is bamboo floors… For the sake of the planet, what’s wrong with her!?”  

Needless to say, this was puzzling as hell but on the way back home it dawned on me (more…)

Tweet This Post

Homes in Mexico built from garage doors salvaged from Bay Area and LA. Photo is a courtesy of The Reuse People. http://thereusepeople.org/

You’ve heard the saying: “One man’s trash is another one’s treasure.”  Nothing can be more true when speaking about the actual parts of your house.  We reuse and recycle things like plastic to paper without giving it a thought so why should it be any different when it comes to our home?  Various parts and systems of the house can be often reused in other properties and often re-purposed for building homes for the less affluent ones in Bay Area or even across the border.  Amazingly, deconstruction can even be more cost effective than plain demolition. 

The questions abound… If you are tearing down an old home or a part of it do you demolish or deconstruct?  Do you take it to a landfill or would you rather have someone else enjoy your “trash” as their treasure?  What’s more cost effective and what’s more reasonable for the environment?  Most people believe plain old demolition is the way to go but hold your horses; you may be up for a surprise.  

Salvaging means deconstructing the house piece by piece to keep the materials and systems in tact.  The advantages can be enormous: 

• Salvaging saves embodied energy – the energy that was used in the work of making a product. This lifecycle of each product includes raw material extraction, transport, manufacturing, assembly, installation, disassembly, etc. 
• Salvaging can actually improve a standard of living – allows low income members of society to buy materials at a fraction of the cost.   This can really mean the difference between a straw barn or a functional house, like in the case of homes in (more…)

Tweet This Post

Many times people you’ll meet will be skeptics of your ambitions to live a green lifestyle and protect the planet.  They may say some scientists do not support the theory of climate change, some may say we humans are not the cause of it and some may be… well, lackadaisical.  

Please share with them this highly scientific, carefully drafted decision making graph that may help them understand the picture.  If you were in a driving seat and saw these signs, would you keep going?

This masterpiece was inspired by the sunny Saturday morning and a cup of green tea. 
Copyrights are strictly unprotected.    Have a great weekend!

Tweet This Post

Image is by a wonderful artist: Misha Gordin. You can enjoy more at bsimple.com

Can you imagine what would happen if the entire world, from the poorest to the wealthiest, would wake up tomorrow with one single thought in mind: “Yes, the planet’s ecosystems are in peril, I have contributed to it but I can also make things better because my actions matter.  From now on this is a priority.”  

What would happen to the world in one year after we woke up with that one thought and took action?  What about five years?  How would it feel to breathe clean air in our cities and sustain ourselves without depleting earth’s natural resources?  While we could only speculate, it is invigorating to even give it a thought.  But what’s even more entertaining is how, while trying to imagine this Pandora like, new world, our minds have already spit out the most potent green house gasses of them all –  doubt.  

In the age where many are paralyzed by apathy towards climate change one can blame nothing but doubt.  Doubt is a product that we get for free these days either on TV, newspapers, the internet and from our less joyful friends.  But do we ever think what could be the real cost of doubt?  

Recently, while reading a wonderful book called Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, I came across wise words from a Buddhist teacher with a name of Sogyal Rinpoche.  These were the most powerful and illuminating words about the nature of doubt that I have ever heard.  He said: 

“Our minds are riddled and confused with doubt.  I sometimes think that doubt is the greatest block to human evolution.  Our society promotes cleverness instead of wisdom, and celebrates the most superficial, harsh, and least useful aspects of our intelligence.  We have become so falsely (more…)

Tweet This Post