Green – and clean – at home.
Quick question: What typically causes more greenhouse gas emissions — your car, or your home?
Car emissions might get a lot of the press, but the energy used in the average home can be responsible for more than twice the greenhouse gas emissions of the average car, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The good news is – there is a growing array of products that can help you achieve a greener, cleaner lifestyle.
Green products that literally hit close to home are also popular, for example, organic foods and beverages, health and wellness products, and cleaning products like nontoxic cleaners and finishes. Green energy products are popular, for example, because they easily show a good return on investment while being better for the planet, too.
That’s according to Corinne Asturias, a sustainable living analyst with Minneapolis-based consumer trend trackers Iconoculture. She counsels companies on where the market will go next for environmentally conscious consumers.
“Anything that goes ‘in my body, on my body or around my body’ — these are places where people are making the most green choices now,” Asturias says. “Consumers may not feel like they can control the outside world but they can at least try to control what’s happening in their homes and with their family.”
Of course, a big part of anyone’s home is all around you — air. The quality of indoor air is getting attention like never before. And a great place to start is your furnace air filter.
Have you thought about yours lately? According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a dirty filter will slow down air flow and make the system work harder to keep you warm or cool – wasting energy. But it also can keep your indoor air clean in ways you may not realize.
“You can actually think of your furnace as a whole-house air-cleaning system,” says Sara Aubitz of 3M, which produces the Filtrete brand of electrostatically charged air-quality filters. "Cleaning the air is not the primary purpose, of course, but it's a good secondary benefit."
3M is tracking increases in consumer concerns about indoor air quality. Aubitz credits this increase to media attention as well as heightened awareness about respiratory issues and how they can affect people and those they care for. And studies from agencies like the EPA, Aubitz says, show that indoor air can be three to five times worse — and sometimes up to 100 times worse — than outdoor air, both for particulates and gases in the air. The EPA has identified indoor air quality as one of the top five risks to people’s health.
No air filter can handle gases, but the most sophisticated Filtrete filters are 93 percent effective at capturing “large particles,” Aubitz says, including those associated with allergens like pollen and mold. And she says that three months is a good amount of time between Filtrete filter replacements.
Learn more online at www.filtrete.com.
Reprinted with permission from Life Time Fitness Experience magazine
