ECO: Greener pastures ahead

New light bulbs -- check. Recycling sorted -- check. Energy-efficient appliances -- got them, too.

It's no secret that green living has taken on momentum and that Canadians are starting to make environmentally driven choices around their homes. They're doing so in overwhelming numbers: A recent survey by Bosch Home Appliances showed that 95% of Canadians have done something to try to live in a more eco-friendly way, including switching light bulbs and purchasing Earth-friendly household products. But many aren't satisfied with stopping there: The survey reports 75% admitted that while they're greener than five years ago, they still have a ways to go.

Greening the home isn't just about changing to different light bulbs. Experts say it's also about learning to add the environment into the equation when making decisions around your house. These days, those decisions can pay off; for the Earth, but also for your own energy bills and sometimes even for the resale value of your home (according to the U.S.-based National Association of Home Builders, as many as 90% of home-buyers think that energy efficiency is a very important factor when shopping for a new house). Whatever the reason, homeowners across Canada are looking to introduce even more environmentally minded changes to their personal abodes.

"We have an incredible amount of power to make green changes in our home," says Adria Vasil, whose book Ecoholic Home, released in 2009, is dedicated to tips to making your home more eco-friendly. "I think your home offers the perfect opportunity to get going on deeper changes," she says.

But where do you start? First of all, don't just go out and buy a whole lot of green products just because they make environmental claims, Ms. Vasil says. Instead, when something needs to be replaced make the best decision possible at the time. And that means more than just trusting the labels: Research the companies that make the products you're considering for your house, to find out if those green claims go further than the writing on the package. Which of the producers caused the least waste and created the fewest emissions to get your household goods -- be it your refrigerator, your TV or your new wallpaper -- to your door? There are even resources to help you. For example, Greenpeace has its "Guide to Greener Electronics" available online. "Our homes are ground zero for a lot of green crimes, and a lot of them we're not even aware of," Ms. Vasil says.

About 46% of the nation's climate-changing gases are linked to Canadian households, the author says. While that figure also includes the emissions from your car, Ms. Vasil notes it's a number that skyrockets when you consider all of the emissions expelled to create home products. Buying the best products can make your home more efficient, and in some cases even save you money on your energy bills. In the Bosch survey, for example, it was found that nearly half of Canadians are willing to pay at least 10% more for better energy-efficient or water-efficient appliances. For many, it's because they expect to make that money back through energy savings over time. "Even if a customer does the math, and chooses an energy-efficient appliance because it saves money, it's still sealing their decision for an eco-friendly solution," says Steve Preiner, director of marketing for BSH Home Appliances in Canada (Bosch is a unit of BSH).


Making those environmental decisions around the home, no matter the reason, not only gets the ball rolling in your own house -- as one green choice leads to another -- but also sends out silent messages to the others around you. Dr. David Bell-- professor emeritus and former dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, who worked with Bosch on its survey -- equates making environmental decisions around the home now to the non-smoking movement of years ago. Just as it became the socially acceptable thing not to light up in other people's homes, he expects that it will be just as widespread a social norm to make your home as environmentally sustainable as possible. "I think we're on the cusp of significant change," he says. "And I think it's going to be at a household level."

But, beyond the most common steps, what do those changes look like? The David Suzuki Foundation recently released its "Sustainability at Home" toolkit to take homeowners (and renters) through their homes, teaching them how to make the most environmentally friendly decisions in all aspects of their home life. While the toolkit was released in British Columbia, in partnership with The Natural Step and the Light House Sustainable Building Centre, its tips are applicable to homes across Canada, says Lindsay Coulter, David Suzuki's "queen of green." It offers suggestions on such things as getting rid of batteries in an environmentally friendly way, choosing furniture that's healthier for the environment and for yourself (off-gassing from the formaldehyde used in making some furniture isn't healthy for either), and introducing faucet aerators and low-flow shower heads to cut down on water. Even something as simple as the Styrofoam packaging that comes around many of your home products can be looked at in a more environmental way, Ms. Coulter says. "Everyone's a recycler extraordinaire at home, but everybody seems to have Styrofoam piling up because it's not blue bin friendly and you definitely don't want to put it in a landfill. So a lot of companies are now advertising that they have take-back programs," she adds.

The next step to a green home isn't just about offering people a list of things to do, she says, but getting homeowners thinking in such a way that they're making those lists themselves, evaluating their decisions around the home as they go, so that -- as in the case of most smokers today, who wouldn't think of lighting up in a stranger's house -- it becomes second nature.

"It's just about getting people thinking about different things," Ms. Coulter says.

(prepared by Lisa van de Ven/National Post)