You know that LED products have arrived ...

... when spammers put adverts for LED lanterns in your in-box!

LED lantern e-mail spam. (click to enlarge)

Retailers recognized for green efforts

I've noticed a slew of recent articles discussing green trends and surveying green stores. Here are a few links.

From Triplepundit, Are Big Box Stores Advancing or Detracting Sustainability Efforts? Yes.: "Over the past five years, big box stores have recognized that mitigating their environmental impacts and those of the products they sell can be important marketing tools."

In the Seattle Times, 'Green' is the new black: "Even during the recession, shoppers have increasingly asked for more clothing, shoes and accessories made from sustainable and organic materials. Manufacturers and retailers are responding."

On MNN, 10 eco-friendly retailers: "Every greenie loves to hate Walmart. But the retail giant has been making huge strides in providing average people with eco-friendly options by filling its more than 8,000 retail stores worldwide with green living items like Energy Star appliances, non-toxic cookware and organic-certified groceries."

From Refinery29, Green Mile: Our Guide To Eco-Friendly Shopping In NYC: "From borough to borough, more and more businesses are taking extra steps to introduce green options."

Green carpet news round-up

There's been a slew of news and features recently focussing on sustainable carpets:

InterfaceFlor has received certification to the NSF/ANSI 140: Sustainable Carpet standard for two products. A plant in Thailand has also been certified.

Two New Zealand wool makers are finding U.S. based partners -- including CCA Global -- to manufacture sustainable organic carpet.

A London-based investment firm has bought a minority stake in an Italian carpet-fiber maker in order to invest in recycled fiber.

Grist magazine has an interview with Ray Anderson, founder of carpet maker Interface, about sustainability in manufacturing.

Making old homes more energy efficient

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has launched a Weatherization Guide for Older and Historic Buildings. The site includes some interesting advocacy for keeping historic windows in place:

Going green is about more than just energy performance. To determine real environmental impacts, one must take into account the embodied energy of the new and existing windows, the environmental impacts of manufacturing new products, and the expected lifecycle of the product. Embodied energy includes the energy required to extract the raw materials, transport them, make them into a new product, ship the product, and install it. Existing historic windows have all of this energy embodied in them. Tearing out historic windows for replacement units not only wastes embodied energy, it requires additional energy to remove and dispose them. This is on top of the energy required to create and install the new windows.

Another place to get your green news fix

I can't believe I haven't linked to Chain Store Age's "Green 4 Retail News" page. And I've been the CSA managing editor for almost a year now! D'Oh! Well, check it out, and keep coming back for even more green retailing news. It's in my blogroll on the right if you forget.

Webinar this fall will focus on solar energy for retailers

I'm the managing editor for two magazines on the business of retail, and one of them, Chain Store Age, is partnering with Schneider Electric to present a webinar on solar energy for retailers. The online event will feature speakers from Xantrex Technology, a Schneider subsidiary. To attend the free Oct. 15 webinar, please register online.

Tweet tweet!

Those of you on Twitter may want to check out Hugh Byrne's green business tweets. You can also follow Hugh at GreenBiz.com.

A few recent interesting items noted by Hugh:

• Helping LBM suppliers gain the NAHB's Green Approved product seal.
• Green underpants.
• Walmart's green tips for suppliers.
• Depressed about home energy costs.

Reviewing eco-friendly bug repellents

Wenona Napolitano of Eco Childs Play reviews a range of green products designed to fend off the buggies. Interesting.

The DIY Spirit lives on

Reusing parts, making do with materials on hand, and can-do ingenuity -- surely these are the hallmarks of the true green home improvement spirit! In that vein, please enjoy this link to a blog devoted to fixing it yourself: There, I Fixed It.

New green blog

Consultant Mark Johnson is launching a new green blog this week. Green Design Guide is focused, according to a press release,

on residential design, sustainable building products, online design tools for going green and tips on how to qualify for the latest national green certification programs. The blog will cater to a variety of design professionals, from the designers of custom and spec homes to the designers of home remodeling and addition projects. Material covered will offer something for everyone.

I'll be reading more going forward. The only downside -- Mark's business is called "Markitect," a term similar to one Scott Adams is mocking this week in his Dilbert comic.

The saddest picture story ever told

Offered without comment, seeing as I just got my 401K statement.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Water-saving faucets to Moen for

Fixture maker Moen has launched a Web page focussing on water conservation, sustainability, and presenting a green face to the world. The site boasts of the company's green efforts, lists earth-friendly products, and includes industry associations and company policies.

There's also a video, but seeing as this is a family-friendly blog, I won't comment on its porno-style soundtrack or the sexy shower scenes. :-)

For your browsing pleasure

I added the Shop Eco blog to my blogroll on the right side of the page. Enjoy.

This blog in a nutshell. Or a word cloud.

It's a little self-indulgent, I know, but I plugged this blog's URL through the Wordle Web site and created the graphic above. It's a neat way to capture an essence of a Web site, or any block of text, for that matter. Click on the image for a closer look.

Online training program for pro dealers signs two orgs

The Certified Green Dealer Program, an online training site for pro dealers and distributors, has signed on two new clients: the Construction Suppliers Association, serving dealers in Georgia and Alabama, and the Indiana Lumber and Builders' Supply Association. The folks running the program are also proud of their Web traffic.

Full disclosure: The Certified Green Dealer Program is run by LBM Journal, a competitor of my magazine, Home Channel News (I'm the managing editor).

Blogger blunders; BioBag bothered

In a recent post I made on Perf GoGreen's new products, I used the word "bio-bag" in the headline. I meant that as a generic term, not knowing that a competitor exists called "BioBag." I got a comment to the original post asking me to please not confuse the products. That seems fair enough to me.

So let me apologize to BioBag. I didn't mean to muddy the waters or mix up products. Sorry for the confusion.

New professional association launched

The new Institute of Green Professionals launched a Web site on Dec. 2. According to the site,

The Institute of Green Professionals (IGP) is an independent, professional, education, credentialing, research and philanthropic “social enterprise” organization for sustainable development professionals and academics.

The association is offering several categories of designations for members and associates, as well as courses in Sustainable Development Literacy; Sustainable Architecture; Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts; and more. The president is Grant Austin, an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University.

Remodeling association launches green Web site

NARI has launched a new green remodeling site called, appropriately enough, NARI Green. Check it out at greenremodeling.org. Featured articles include Hiring a Green Building Professional, Let the Sun Shine In, and Green Remodeling 101.

New Web site offers articles, product advice

Eco Home Resource is a new Web site offering products, articles, news, and more. It is aimed at the consumer, not toward businesses. According to founder Karen Moore,

We’re beginning to see people taking a holistic view of their home, from a physical, psychological and emotional point of view, and a connection to the environment is an integral part of this. Eco Home Resource is your one-stop shop for relevant and helpful information on how you can improve the health of your home as well as that of your planet.

Interesting site, with lots of info. A little heavy on the product pushing, but I guess that's kind of the point. Check it out.

Eureka!

Eureka, the vacuum maker, has a new Web site, and while I'm happy to link to any Web site that features WALL-E on its home page -- given my three-year-old's love of the "tidy robot kitty" -- there's something there for readers of this blog who are older than three.

What I'd really like to draw to your attention, though, is the multi-page subsection of the site that boasts of Eureka's concern for the environment. From the new "envirovac" to decreasing packaging waste to recycling and saving energy in the workplace, the company seems to be making the environment a high priority.