Autodesk Green Building Studio web-based energy analysis software can help architects and designers perform whole building analysis, optimize energy efficiency, and work toward carbon neutrality earlier in the design process. With faster, more accurate energy analysis of building design proposals, architects and designers can work with sustainability in mind earlier in the process, plan proactively, and build better.
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We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children… Native American proverb
As parents, we care about the environment, in large part, out of concern for our children. And when we begin to realize the environment, as our children will know it, depends on the lifestyle policies we adopt in order to protect their health and well-being, there will then be an instinctive understanding that the environment, as our children’s children will know, it depends on the lifestyle policies they adopt. Continue Reading →
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards… Anatole France
But why Mommy? How’s come Daddy? How many parents have heard this, and often? Teaching children effectively entails more responsibility than merely telling a story or making statements or issuing commands. Although children are eager learners, they are inquisitive learners and want to know why. With young children, lessons are easier for them to learn if there is a personal reference for them to relate to. So with regard to the environment, it is important for children to experience nature. There are many ways to help children connect with nature, regardless of the opportunities for direct access. Continue Reading →
Childhood has its own way of seeing, thinking and feeling and nothing is more foolish than to try to substitute ours for theirs… Jean Jacques Rousseau
The White Hutchinson Leisure and Learning Group published an article titled Nurturing Children’s Biophilia: Developmentally Appropriate Environmental Education for Young Children that discusses the 3 basic stages of children’s environmental education and development:
Empathy
Early Childhood (ages 3-7)
There seems to be an ongoing debate with regard to the best way to teach children about the environment. Does environmental education require the child to have access to outdoor opportunities? Or must this education be taught in the classroom? Is the environmental education provided in the classroom or on TV biased? Does it really matter and if so, to what extent? Well, considering the fact that until our children leave home and set out on their own, it remains our responsibility as their parents to sit as sentinels to safeguard and provide what we believe are appropriate core values.
It would be difficult for parents to teach their children without being a role model for them to follow. Young children are impressionable. Teach your children in a simple way how to interact with the natural environment around them. At an early age it is important for them to become aware of what exists in their world, not what they may see on TV, a thousand miles from their environment. Continue Reading →
The promising news for parents who accept that their responsibility to environmental stewardship should include green education for their children is the fact that children are just that – children. Children are born with the innate ability to be inquisitive and caring. Take a child to the zoo or stroll along a path in the park or nature center and this becomes immediately obvious – their caring for the birds and flowers and most things in nature. Trees seem to be a natural habitat for children as well as animals. Providing the opportunity for children to nurture their connection with nature almost certainly guarantees success for the first step in their environmental education – awareness. Continue Reading →
For the volumes of green websites that focus on the environment and green industry, few offer such exemplary experiences as those created for the green education of our children. Those listed in this section represent a few of the best planned and most effective. By design, many offer excellent resources for the parents, with the intended effort to induce a shared experience.
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): NRDC is an environmental action group, and this webpage aggregates a large and comprehensive listing of resources for kids of all ages; categorized links to sites that cover the environment, animals, plants, habitats, oceans, air pollution, global warming, recycling, parks, forests and global activism
Care2: although Care2 is a great site for all ages, this section also presents a very nice collection of websites dedicated to kids
Environmental Kids Club: who better to present the environmental story to kids than the EPA
National Geographic Kids: exactly what we expect from National Geographic
KidsRgreen: Center for Environment Education, this webpage offers effective techniques for teaching the very young group the most basic green fundamentals
Recycle City: a great EPA site for kids to learn the basics of recycling by creating their own Recycle City
Charity Guide: a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire and facilitate flexible volunteerism with a Volunteering on Demand approach; how you can make a difference in 15 minutes, in a few hours or while on vacation, for a variety of concerns including children’s issues, animal welfare, health and safety, community development, poverty and environmental protection; however, the relevancy here is the information offered in the sections addressing the environmental education of children and consumers; many common sense tips on how consumers can be environmentally responsible and save money; this page is specific to the environmental education of children
Family Education: has Your Child sections for age groups 0-6 yrs, 7-11 yrs, 12-18 yrs
GreenMyParents: GreenMyParents is a revolutionary, nationwide program to help young people teach their peers and parents how to work together to help the economy, earn money at home, and save the planet through simple, everyday actions
Kids F.A.C.E. (Kids For A Green Environment): provides information on environmental issues to children, to encourge and facilitate youth’s involvement with effective environmental action and to recognize those efforts which result in the improvement of nature
Kids for Saving Earth: the mission of Kids for Saving Earth is to educate, inspire, and empower children to protect the Earth’s environment; Kids for Saving Earth provides educational materials, posters, and a highly acclaimed web site featuring environmental education curriculum and activities
Ollie’s World: child-friendly, comprehensive, fun and stimulating website presenting information on all sorts of issues relating to sustainability principles; an interactive sustainability resource site for youngsters covering topics such as recycling, water conservation, biodiversity, green projects and includes a family of characters for the children to relate to on their level
Kids Geo – Geography for Kids: comprehensive educational Kids Know It Network that must be visited; topics covering the earth, astronomy, biology, geology, history, spelling, math and so much more. Includes Miamiopia, a free educational virtual world
DITC Environmental Education Foundation, Inc: resource for education to all, particularly eight to twelve year old children learning about animals, trees, air, water and oceans, recycling and pollution
Biodiversity - Everything Counts: from the American Museum of Natural History, find out how biodiversity affects your everyday life - even if you live in a city
EEK!: an online magazine for grades four to eight created by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, is packed with short articles and activities about animals, plants and environmental issues
eartheasy: eartheasy is a good website for general green living information but also has a nice collection of children’s green websites
Meet the Greens: this site has created an array of high-traffic, compelling, award-winning content for getting kids to think about the world and their place in it; highly interactive, using animation and other visual techniques to keep its readers attention, Meet the Greens is a website for all ages
Energy Kids: U.S. Energy Information Administration site that explains what energy is, what sources provide energy, how we use and can save energy, also has games for the kids
EekoWorld: PBS website teaches kids ages 6 to 9 how they can help take care of the earth; animated characters use games and activities to present facts about ecosystems and pollution; children can build their own “EekoCreature” and help it overcome
Children of the Earth United: geared towards youth and their families and teachers
Rainforest Heroes: The Rainforest Action Network is a site for teachers and families to help explain to the very young the importance of forest stewardship with regards to their ecosystems
Healthy Kids Go Green: good site for parents as well as children, with an interactive blog for interesting topics; also aggregates a collection of green websites for kids
Scholastic Act Green: interesting website for teachers, families and kids
Green (Environmental) Websites for Kids: neat collection sites, including links to the U.S. government and EPA
EPA Student Center: well-conceived EPA site for mid to upper level school age children that begins with environmental basics and includes topics such as ecosystems, air, water, conservation, waste and recycling, human health and climate change. Includes sections for games, videos and quizzes
EPA WaterSense Kids: Great site teaching kids about water, why save water, simple ways to save water, includes game
Every parent is concerned about the perils their children may be subjected to whenever they interact in cyberspace, whether it involves social networking, chat rooms, blogging or just surfing the web. We encourage parents to supervise their children so that they do not disclose any personal information about themselves in any of our public discussion areas.
Facebook’s New Anti-Bullying Tools
Whitehouse Conference for Bullying Prevention
If you discover any broken links, or have sites you recommend be included, please contact us or post here. Thank you.
Unless you’ve lived in isolation the past several years, you have no doubt heard there is something going on with the environment. Again. The media has saturated the airwaves and printing presses with countless reports that, via Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), the glaciers are melting, the oceans are rising, the rainforests are rapidly becoming nonexistent, the temperature of the earth’s near surface air and oceans has been rising since the mid-20th century - the end is near unless society succumbs to social engineering changes constructed by political and corporate sponsored programs such as Cap and Trade. It has been determined the earth is warming at an alarming rate and, with neither established protocol for peer review or debate, being proclaimed that the science is now settled. But what had science informed us in the past? Well, another report of near global destruction. In 1974, Time magazine printed an interesting expose titled Science: Another Ice Age? The scientific claim, then, was the earth was cooling at an alarming rate, as evidenced by scores of scientific data and examples, similar to the ones we read about today – global food shortages were predicted then as well. According to the Time magazine article, University of Toronto Climatologist Kenneth Hare, a former president of the Royal Meteorological Society warned:
“I don’t believe that the world’s present population is sustainable if there are more than three years like 1972 in a row.”
We could somehow surmise society took heed and, in the blink of a cosmic second, over corrected? Confused? You should be. Why then is this being discussed here? Because you, the consumer, must understand. In essence, there are two camps concerned about the environment. In one corner are the environmentalists – those who believe in Environmentalism. As expressed by well-known author Michael Crichton from his September 15, 2003 speech at the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA, Environmentalism as Religion :
“One of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists.”
“It seems facts aren’t necessary, because the tenets of environmentalism are all about belief. It’s about whether you are going to be a sinner or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom.”
“Because in the end, science offers us the only way out of politics. And if we allow science to become politicized, then we are lost. We will enter the Internet version of the dark ages, an era of shifting fears and wild prejudices, transmitted to people who don’t know any better. That’s not a good future for the human race. That’s our past. So it’s time to abandon the religion of environmentalism, and return to the science of environmentalism, and base our public policy decisions firmly on that.”
In the other corner stand those who are pro-environment, but anti-environmentalists. The pro-environment group is indeed concerned about the environment, but believes more reasoned assessments and subsequent remedies should be exercised - in other words, responsible sustainability.
So what do we know? What we do know is the fact the earth has survived numerous cyclic changes in climate and will continue to do so, with or without human intervention. However, what we have to understand is there is no argument that population growth and development practices and lifestyles do, in fact, cause harm to the environment. Those who are pro-environment get that. Environmental issues today are being successfully addressed through reasonable green building codes and green building rating systems. For both residential and non-residential construction, green building codes are being mandated throughout the country to address energy and water conservation, carbon dioxide emissions and an array of other environmental and health issues. And many will do so to varying degrees by offering optional increased levels of green construction.
Also what we know is that the participation of the family, as consumers, is of vital importance to the success of responsible environmental stewardship. These are the voices of influence, who rarely succumb to the messages from extremists on either side of the argument. This is why it is important for them to learn about the argument and then understand the reasonable and responsible responses toward solutions.
Continuing further, consider these facts:
In the U.S., the impact of buildings on resources reveals the following statistics: 40% energy use, 72% electrical consumption, 13.6% potable water use and a 39% contribution to carbon dioxide emissions. Unabated, the quality of our indoor air can be up to 100 times more contaminated than the quality of the air outside – and Americans spend 90% of their time indoors. There are approximately 120 million homes in the U.S. and about 2 million new homes are constructed each year. The residential sector alone accounts for 22% of the total energy consumed in the U.S., 7% of the water usage while also contributing 21% of the carbon dioxide being emitted.
According to a recent survey, consumer motivation for a green lifestyle had revealed 21% were interested in protecting their children’s future, 19% were concerned about increasing energy prices, 16% concerned about our reliance on foreign oil, while 14% were in the Global Warming camp. Yet another survey of 38,000 consumers revealed an astonishing 76% were interested in saving costs while only 24% placed the environment as their prime reason for being motivated toward green living. There is no denying that cost is an issue, as well it should be. This is why it is important to understand that responsible sustainability need not break anyone’s bank. Every little bit is singularly important to the environment, somewhere.
Some consumers express disappointment with the performance of their green home. For those who have new homes that were or are being built to conform to some level of sustainability, they need to understand that only the vehicle is being provided to them. The owner of a new car must not only learn how to operate their new car, but also understand the importance of scheduled routine maintenance to the continued performance of their vehicle. As an example, take two families living next door to each other. One, the Jane family includes the mother, father and two teenage girls. Next door lives the John family with mother, father and two teenage boys. Each family buys an automobile. Identical automobiles - same make, model, power train and accessories. The Jane family drives responsibly, managing their daily trips and usage miles, obeying speed limits and having scheduled maintenance performed as recommended. On the other hand, there is John and his two teenage boys. Jumping in the car at every whim, total disregard for speed limits and changes the oil and spark plugs only when the car fails to start. Guess which family achieves the performance and reliability they expected when they purchased their brand new automobile? This same analogy applies to a sustainable building - that sustainable building is as well constructed and finely tuned as an automobile.
A sustainable home is greater than the sum of its pieces. While each of the individual pieces have meaning on their own, it’s when taken together - working in unison – where the meaning changes. High performance buildings depend on these pieces being coordinated as a whole. For example, your sustainable home may use energy conservation measures designed to meet a certain performance level to save energy based on agreed to material and color selections. Change the colors from light to dark and flooring from carpet to ceramic and you’ve changed the original parameters. And, occasionally, these seemingly innocent changes are made too late, as the equipment had been installed. Now the dark colors reflect less light and absorb more of the sun’s energy and the ceramic tile acts as a heat sink. More artificial lighting is required, possibly additional cooling needed and certainly more electricity. A sustainable design and construction team are aware of the design and parts that must be applied before they begin the project. However, given the fact that not only was the new home designed and built to specific parameters, the home will begin to degrade the day the keys are turned over. The homeowner needs to be aware of their responsibilities to ensure continued high performance. And this requires an education about their home and its design and construction parameters (e.g., energy and water conservation measures, indoor air quality equipment and operation). A green lifestyle may require a change in lifestyle. Learning the importance of how to use water and energy to maintaining the sustainable products and equipment are all fundamentally important.
For those who do not have a new green home, a multitude of free or low cost options are readily available for them to do their part in protecting the environment and at the same time save money in operational and maintenance expenses by living green lifestyles.
Greenwashing is any form of marketing or public relations that links a corporate, political, religious or nonprofit organization to a positive association with environmental issues for an unsustainable product, service, or practice. In some cases, an organization may truly offer a green product, service or practice. However, through marketing and public relations, one is wrongly led to believe this green value system is ubiquitous throughout the entire organization. Greenwashing, on a corporate policy level, can be difficult to accurately assess because, according to most accounts, you can’t be just a little bit green. There has been much written about the motives of corporations adopting green policies - from being defeated by environmental activists to diverting public attention away from dismal records in other areas to being opportunistic by realizing they can make more green by being more green.
We, at the consumer and professional levels, aren’t capable of discerning the reasons for a company’s green purchasing or construction policies, or why they deliver green products to the marketplace. So what if there were ulterior motives as long as their policies and products do, in fact, help protect the environment? If the claims about green products are not misleading or false, the company should receive credit. However, Hefty trash bags, Pampers and Luvs disposable diapers and aerosol spray products, to name a few, have been taken to task for making false or misleading claims. Some self-proclaimed green producers found themselves being investigated by state attorneys general for false advertising and other offenses against the consumer.
For consumer protection against false or misleading marketing, there are groups that monitor green product claims.
