Being a little greener and a little richer is really easy with these six items that pay for themselves within a year by helping the environment.
5. Programmable Thermostat
Having a programmable thermostat is the easiest way to lower your heating and cooling costs. And having the house temperature right where you want it every hour of the day isn’t bad either. You can find programmable thermostats as cheap as $20 – at that price, it would probably pay for itself many times over in a year.
I don’t know anybody enjoys paying taxes but I know of a lot people who enjoy using what our taxes pay for. Roads, drinkable water, and many other things we use everyday are provided to us from the government (at least in Canada) and these services cost money. A recent Canadian study has done the math and found that in 2006 the average per capita benefit from public services was about $16,952!
Believe it or not taxes are good for you.
The majority of Canadian households enjoy a higher quality of life because of the public services their taxes fund, the study argues.
According to the report, Canada’s Quiet Bargain: The Benefits of Public Spending, the cost of the public services that a typical Canadian household uses annually is the equivalent of about 50 per cent of its annual income.
Toronto is set to implement a law that would make green roofs mandatory for tall buildings. Being Toronto, the policy is confused and is arguably not bold enough, but the fact that this is being tabled with support across the city is a very good sign. Torontoist author Toodd Aalgaard has a look at the green roofs coming to Toronto:
After January 30, 2010, according to a draft version [PDF] of the by-law being tossed around today, every building “with a gross floor area of 5,000 square metres or greater shall include a green roof,” meaning that rooftops greater than five thousand square metres in area will require 30% green coverage, with 60% for rooftops exceeding twenty thousand square metres. Further, the construction and maintenance of new roofing will toe strict guidelines laid out in the Green Roof Construction Standard [PDF], ranging from assembly and load bearing to fire safety and plant selection. Even minimal alterations will be subject to City approval.
The Globe and Mail also examines Toronto’s green roof law:
The proposed bylaw would mandate specially irrigated rooftop gardens that are said to reduce air-conditioning costs and mitigate the “urban heat island” effect blamed on pavement and dark roofs.
Part of Mayor David Miller’s climate-change initiative, the move was deferred for fine tuning yesterday and was to return to a meeting next month of the city’s planning and growth committee.
The Mediterranean diet is delicious and good for your heart! The researchers wanted to look at what kind of foods that we should be eating a lot of. Hint: it’s not hot dogs.
The review, which appears in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine, analyzed nearly 200 studies involving millions of people published between 1950 and June 2007.
The Mediterranean diet involves high consumption of:
Vegetables.
Legumes.
Fruits.
Nuts that are not roasted or salted.
Cheese or yogurt.
Whole grains.
Fish.
Monounsaturated fats such as olive oil and avocados.
The research also confirmed that trans-fatty acids are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.Starchy carbs such as white bread, white rice and white potatoes that are high on the glycemic index were also linked to an increased risk of heart disease.
I never thought I’d be writing about golf courses on this site because golf courses are absolutely awful for the environment. They use lots of pesticides and consume insane amounts of water – all so people can hit a ball into a hole. So, it is with shock that I find out that there are at least seven eco-friendly golf courses on this planet. These are places I’d try to hit a ball!
Machrihanish Dunes, Scotland
This course in Scotland, opening this May, is historic in a number of ways. It’s being built on a Site of Scientific Interest (SSSI), the first time this has ever been allowed. The course steers clear of the rare native plants for its fairways and makes only less important grounds in play. It’s also literally inspired by golf history. The course will use no pesticides, chemicals or non-natural irrigation systems at all. Not even heavy machinery is allowed on the course. It will be a throwback to how the game started, a real natural links course built out of the sand dunes near the Mull of Kintyre. The course’s naturalist approach to the game is a lesson Donald Trump, who has been trying to build a 1 billion pound golf resort on wetlands nearby, would do well to learn.