April has felt like tornado season as Earth Day, Spring, and nine guests have come and gone through my apartment. Since my apartment is already dirty, that makes it the perfect time to make my Earth Day green change and “green clean” instead of “spring clean”. As I tasked myself to research the best ways that I could green clean, every tip surprisingly made me think, “wow, that is so cheap and doable!” To round out a month of green blogging, I wanted to provide you with my five favorite tips on how you too can green clean.
1. Clean your entire home with only six basic ingredients
Almost every website I visited used the following ingredients to clean everything from toilets to carpets to ovens:
• distilled vinegar
• baking soda or borax
• castile or eco-friendly soap
• oxygen bleach powder or hydrogen peroxide
• water
• antiseptic essential oils, such as cinnamon, clove, lavender, and lemon
Thedailygreen.com, whose mission is to show how going green is relevant to everyone, can give you the ingredient combination for your cleaning needs. My favorite combination chases ½ cup of baking soda down a drain with ½ cup of vinegar, covers tightly, and then flushes one gallon of boiling water down the drain to unclog a post-guest drain. And it costs approximately the same as any traditional cleaning product.
Best of all, according to Seventh Generation, if every U.S. household used a homemade green cleaner instead of one 32-oz. bottle of petroleum-based all purpose cleaners, we would use 6800 fewer barrels of oil . I’d say that is one small step for vinegar and one large step for “household kind.”
2. Recycle your paper and old clothes into cleaning devices
Why not look to that hoard of newspapers and clothes you don’t wear anymore to help mop up the grime? Cotton t-shirts are easy to rip into the perfect size reusable cleaning rag. Additionally, most researchers agree that the large pile of newspapers amassing in the corner is ideal for cleaning windows and glass objects before being recycled.
3. Recycle unwanted electronics – they contain precious metals
As I mentioned in my previous post on mobile phones, in a 1.2 billion global mobile phone market, 60% of all purchases replace existing cell phones – while only 1% of them are recycled.
A cell phone contains 14% copper by weight and also contains gold, silver, and about one cent’s worth of platinum. I would not throw away a bracelet if it contained those elements, so why discard a drawer full of mobile phones?
E-cycle these items, just don’t dispose of them!
4. Plant one houseplant per 100 square feet of living area The EPA estimates that indoor air is 2 to 10 times more polluted than outdoor air due to the synthetic materials in much of our household appliances, accessories, and cleaning products. A NASA study of 15 common houseplants found that they could help remove toxins from the air. Although the EPA did not find any evidence that houseplants could remove significant quantities of indoor pollutants, outside of allergies, what is the harm in trying? Plants that might remove home toxins are spider plants, gerbera daisies, chrysanthemums, peace lilies and bamboo.
And let’s face it: green just looks good in a home!
5. Fresh air and weatherproofing is an energy saving combination
According to The Global Warming Survival Handbook, the average US home creates twice the CO2 of a car in one year. That is 22,000 lbs. Taking advantage of warm weather to increase my household’s energy efficiency could also decrease my energy bill by 20-30%. And it all starts with spring cleaning!
Weather proofing windows with “low-e” coasting, blocks heat and UV rays and can lower energy consumption by 20-30%. Additionally, the natural light that longer days provide, enable me to finally change traditional light bulbs to fluorescent ones, reducing lighting energy consumption by 80%.
Wow! My Earth Day resolution poses a lot to tackle! But as a Chinese proverb states “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” It’s time to start walking!
It’s certainly an interesting time to be a banker, let alone, one focused on alternative energy and energy efficiency. Even the oft-quoted, “best of times, worst of times” quip doesn’t begin to adequately describe the world at hand. Since there is so much bad news about, I will stick to the “best of times” theme for the moment.
One reason for the “best of times” sentiment relates to provisions in the stimulus package. In particular, the change in the investment tax credit (ITC) from a tax credit to out-right grant opens new opportunities for our triple-bottom line orientation. The ITC is available for the owners of solar, wind, and geothermal systems.
The primary benefit of this change is to eliminate the need for a tax credit investor – which, most often, was a very large bank. Now, instead of selling the tax credit to one of these banks, the owner simply obtains a grant from the US Treasury. While these large banking institutions are often fantastic partners, their involvement presented a challenge for many deals, especially for the small, community-based deals ShoreBank is typically involved with.
For one, the large banks weren’t interested in smaller deals because the transaction costs (and hassle) far outweighed the limited upside for these institutions. With billions of tax liability to offset (hard to believe the good old days were just a few quarters ago), smaller deals were simply too onerous to complete given staffing and time constraints. And since even small deals required hundred of thousands of dollars of tax liability, few alternative investors existed. Consequently, it became very difficult to monetize the ITC credits for deals between $250,000 and $5,000,000 in size.
Secondly, the large banks were very risk averse and had numerous limitations on the deal structure – most of these were not unreasonable, given the risks to them, but cumbersome enough that deals were very hard to put together. Probably the most onerous related to restrictions on other loans needed for the transaction and on requirements of the owner/manager. Again, neither worry was necessarily unwarranted, but both definitely made life complicated.
Now that the large banks aren’t needed, we see lots of potential for smaller firms to become the owners of these systems, especially qualified installers who have been active in the energy industry for some time. If the installers are going to provide 5-year warranties anyway, why not collect a portion of ITC grants as additional compensation – this piece of the pie could be worth several hundred thousand dollars.
We believe the change in the ITC structure from tax credit to grant should unlock lots of entrepreneurial potential and open the door for green job opportunities that simply weren’t possible before the passage of the stimulus bill. It’s one reason to be excited to be a banker nowadays.
Guest Contributor: Ryan Schommer, Project Manager, ShoreBank Building Services
We hear a lot about the environmental impact of cars in the aftermath of record gas prices and global warming. What we do not hear about are the actual parking lots. As a member of the Building Services department, I am responsible for building and redesigning our physical locations to make them more sustainable and energy efficient. We want our designs to serve as models for future upgrades to any physical component of our 35 year history. So, when the bank decided to construct a new parking lot, I was excited to explore options to make it more sustainable.
We wanted our parking lots to provide an environmental impact for those for whom public transportation to our locations is not a viable option despite its accessibility. And fewer parking lots features impact our safety, security, and environment more than out lights - and after careful analysis, LED (light emitting diodes) outdoor lights were clear financial and environmental winners. That is why ShoreBank decided to initiate a pilot program to install outdoor LED lights in the parking lots at one of our branch campuses. In doing so, we became one of the first companies in Chicago to install exterior LED lighting.
LED outdoor lights use 65% less energy and last 7 years longer than either HID or florescent fixtures. For ShoreBank, this energy efficiency will result in an annual reduction of 73000 kilowatt hours, $6000 in energy expenses, and 134000 lbs of carbon emissions or the equivalent of 13 cars (leaving extra space in those lots for you to park). They have a useful life of 12 years, so that also means less waste for landfills.*
Of course, we still want our neighborhoods to be lit enough to deter crime but not so much that our neighbors complain! The icing on the cake is that LED is Dark Sky compliant. That means it provides a truer light designed with control shields to prevent lighting upward or shining into neighbors’ homes. So they keep the light where we want it-aiding in the restoration of the night sky while still helping security cameras and overall area visibility.
Thanks to this project, we now have a sustainable model for 3 more lots to be converted to exterior LED lighting in 2009! This will reduce operating expenses and our carbon footprint. This visible example of ShoreBank’s efforts only illuminates the surface of what we can do, and will do, in being truly sustainable. And while we may have only a few parking lots remaining to receive new lighting, together they can provide a big impact and payback, one LED light at a time. And we are proud to have paved Chicago’s way.
Did you know that 7% of all mobile phone contain enough personal data to facilitate identity theft (according to a British Telecom study)? This statistic will most likely increase as more people conduct banking and purchasing activities on mobile devices. Additionally, with new device models, features, and services plans launching all the time, mobile phones have a short lifespan. That is why, when it is time to purchase a new cell phone, you should recycle your device. Not only is it environmentally important; doing it the right way will prevent identity theft.
In a 1.2 billion global mobile phone market, 60% of all purchases replace existing cell phones – only 1% of which are recycled. However, 99% of recycled cell phones contain personal data, including, potentially, bank account information (according to a recent Regeneris study). For Americans, whose average 18 month cell phone lifespan equates to 130 million replaced cell phones and 65,000 tons of waste, this research means that we have a big opportunity to reduce waste – but we need to protect identities in the process.
For those who (hopefully) opt to recycle their mobile phones, it is important to take more than just one step to ensure that your personal information is completely wiped from those devices. Wiping a cell is not like wiping your hard drive. For commercial reasons, mobile phones do not have the open architecture that PCs do.
That means that even if the DIY among us delete everything in their phones, this only deletes references to where the data is located and not the actual information (which is stored elsewhere). I do not know about you, but even though I love recycling, I would rather not risk recycling my identity. That is why I recommend performing any, if not all, of the following tactics, before you recycle your phone:
• Do not store any personal information on your mobile phone which you would not want a stranger to see.
• See your cell phone manual or wireless provider’s website for specific information on permanent information deletion
• Remove your SIM and memory cards prior to donating your cell phone
• Verify that the mobile phone recycling organization erases data
• Use the data erasing software programs
Green Festival™, a joint project of Global Exchange and Co-Op America, kicks off a three day festival today in San Francisco. ShoreBank will be there, and is very excited to sponsor tonight’s After Green Festival Party at Mars Bar. If you’re in San Francisco, we invite you to join other green leaders at the event to network and discuss how we can encourage environmental sustainability to change the world. But of course, exciting green innovation and dialogue should not be limited to one location. For example, the story of our clients Tim and Charles Heppner reminds us all that you don’t have to be in San Francisco to implement a ‘do-it-yourself’ approach to ‘greening’ the world.
Brothers Tim and Charles Heppner are rebuilding a 100 year-old wood frame single family residence on the South Side of Chicago, and are implementing energy efficiency improvements that will make it the greenest home in the city! Many DIY projects focus on interior finishes or fixtures while missing the energy basics, but here they are addressed head-on. In addition to the usual insulating strategies, triple-glazed windows with deep overhangs will be used for passive solar heating. The home will have no incandescent lights (perhaps a first in modern Chicago renovation). A shallow hydronic earth-loop will preheat or precool air entering the energy recovery ventilator – this simplified take on a ground-source heat pump (minus the heat pump) may also be a first in Chicago. Rough-ins for future solar electric or hot water panels will make it easy for the brothers to add these features over time.
Tim and Charles began work on this project by deconstructing the internal structure of the original house, reclaiming hundreds of linear feet of old growth forest wood framing, hardwood flooring, sub-flooring and joists. They also recycled all the metal, concrete, glass blocks and windows with the assistance of a local scrapper. All their new materials are required to meet at least one of the following criteria: sustainable, durable, recycled/recovered content, produced locally, low or no VOC, formaldehyde free, plantation grown, rapidly renewable, or FSC certified. They intend to utilize the reclaimed materials for framing up window openings, reinstalling hardwood flooring and building custom kitchen cabinets.
The home takes advantage of the ample property surrounding it by including a large rain garden and bioswale in addition to a vegetated garage roof. Crushed limestone will be used in place of concrete for all sidewalks, addressing both stormwater management and urban heat island. A new reflective metal roof will be installed – a rarity in the shingle-loving Midwest.
We are really proud to be a part of Tim and Charles’ project. Watch and listen to their story and let it inspire you to change the world.
Hello! I welcomed you to the ShoreBank blog a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to check back in. I do a lot of work with consumer savings products and sustainable personal finance is an idea that comes up regularly. I wanted to take some time and dive into this topic today.
It has been amazing to watch the explosion of “sustainable” options in our daily lives. Organic food is a great example. Organic food once was a niche product … hard to find, sold in out of the way locations and not aimed at the general population. That’s no longer the case. These days, organics are widely available, and a much wider range of people are buying them. (I can even get organic versions of foods I never knew existed!) Not everything I buy is organic but I like to have choices and I like to know what the choices mean.
“Sustainable” options are also available in the broad category of personal finance. The choices often start with how people spend their money – before they even pick a savings vehicle. Certainly where you live, how you commute and what you eat are all part of the bigger financial picture. With any luck, however, after these choices there is some money to be saved.
Your money can work for you both financially and in support of sustainable initiatives. This brings us to the issue of asset classes – how much of your savings should be in cash or stocks or bonds or other assets. There has long been a Socially Responsible Investing industry, particularly with regard to stocks. They can include (or exclude) companies based on specific screening criteria like industry or employee practices.
Some portion of your money, however, will likely be in a form of cash. These products, like checking accounts, savings accounts and CDs, are found at banks and related financial institutions…but sustainable banking products do not seem to get much media coverage.
There are many ways to think about sustainability within the banking industry. The biggest one is to look at what the bank does with your deposit. Banks use deposits to fund their loan portfolios. So if your bank is making loans to companies that are local then your money is funding the local economy. If they are making loans to shoe manufacturers then you are supporting that industry.
Other areas to look at are the bank’s internal practices and the options they give you as the customer. For example, do they offer paperless accounts? Do they have a clear policy regarding internal energy use? Do they support “green” building practices?
ShoreBank is a community development and environmental bank – we track our loan portfolio against these two primary areas of focus. And we are working to make our operations more sustainable. (In fact we just opened a new office and incorporated many green features – I will share more on that in a future posting.)
We are working hard to provide you with options in sustainable personal finance – we look forward to continuing to innovate and to sharing our experiences along the way.
And if you are interested in banking with us the quickest way is to open our online High-Yield Savings Account at (it has a 3.50% APY* with a $1 minimum).
*The Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is effective as of June 4, 2008, and is subject to change without notice. APY is valid only with a ShoreBank online high-yield savings account. Fees could reduce earnings on the account. A minimum balance of $1.00 is required to open the account and obtain the stated APY.
During the past year, ShoreBank has been involved in a number of discussions about residential energy efficiency. Indeed, it is a key element of most climate plans due to the fact that homes represent upwards of 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions in most large cities.
One of the most interesting aspects of the dialogue is the difference of opinion about whether homeowners are making rational or irrational economic choices when they select inefficient homes.
For some, the inefficient homes and offices in America reflect conscious choices by consumers about the inadequate pay-backs from investments in energy efficiency or alternative energy. I respectfully disagree, instead believing that consumers rarely have the relevant information to make informed choices or the ability to choose since so many of the decisions in rehab projects are influenced by contractor/architect knowledge, opinions, and proclivities.
In addition, I feel the decisions are reflective of human psychology and the fact that we generally fear loss more than value potential gain. Thus, consumers are troubled by having to bet on expected future savings given the known and real upfront costs, irrespective of the projected ROI on these investments. It is one reason for the emotional appeal of the performance contracting model – a guarantee of future savings by a third party coupled with no upfront cost to the consumer. I also see traces of the human tendency to discount the potential for future price increases over potential price reductions, despite mounting evidence that cheap power is not coming back any time soon. We simply fear spending money to protect us from potential future shocks that may not occur more than we fear being unable to afford our utility bills in the future, even if we see the increases as inevitable.
These beliefs form the lynchpin of ShoreBank’s approach to sustainability. Underlying our efforts is the belief that all people, regardless of income or upbringing, care deeply about elements of sustainability since sustainability touches such fundamental aspects of our lives. In essence, sustainability is about household economics, job security, health, well being, and our community. The reason that more people are not choosing more sustainable lifestyles, in part, reflects our society’s failings in helping individuals make informed choices, in presenting easy to understand and easy to implement changes, and in crafting clear, targeted messages.
April has felt like tornado season as Earth Day, Spring, and nine guests have come and gone through my apartment. Since my apartment is already dirty, that makes it the perfect time to make my Earth Day green change and “green clean” instead of “spring clean”. As I tasked myself to research the best ways that I could green clean, every tip surprisingly made me think, “wow, that is so cheap and doable!” To round out a month of green blogging, I wanted to provide you with my five favorite tips on how you too can green clean.
The EPA estimates that indoor air is 2 to 10 times more polluted than outdoor air due to the synthetic materials in much of our household appliances, accessories, and cleaning products. A NASA study of 15 common houseplants found that they could help remove toxins from the air. Although the EPA did not find any evidence that houseplants could remove significant quantities of indoor pollutants, outside of allergies, what is the harm in trying? Plants that might remove home toxins are spider plants, gerbera daisies, chrysanthemums, peace lilies and bamboo.
One reason for the “best of times” sentiment relates to provisions in the stimulus package. In particular, the change in the investment tax credit (ITC) from a tax credit to out-right grant opens new opportunities for our triple-bottom line orientation. The ITC is available for the owners of solar, wind, and geothermal systems.
We hear a lot about the environmental impact of cars in the aftermath of record gas prices and global warming. What we do not hear about are the actual parking lots. As a member of the Building Services department, I am responsible for building and redesigning our physical locations to make them more sustainable and energy efficient. We want our designs to serve as models for future upgrades to any physical component of our 35 year history. So, when the bank decided to construct a new parking lot, I was excited to explore options to make it more sustainable.
For those who (hopefully) opt to recycle their mobile phones, it is important to take more than just one step to ensure that your personal information is completely wiped from those devices. Wiping a cell is not like wiping your hard drive. For commercial reasons, mobile phones do not have the open architecture that PCs do.
