Sierra Club Green Home » Appliances

Batteries’ Eco Afterlife

SCGH — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:39:38 +0000

From cameras and cell phones to watches and eggbeaters, we use batteries every day in all sorts of household products. It’s hard to imagine not using batteries, but is our current use and disposal sustainable?

Sierra Club Green Home asks Jessica Bell from LEI Electronics to explain what a standard battery does to the environment when it is disposed of in the trash, and why it is important to think about sustainability when powering up. LEI Electronics produce EcoAkalines, which are carbon-neutral, environmentally-friendly batteries.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To find a recycling location for your single-use batteries, check out our Recycling Center.

Customized Reports Save Money, Electricity

Debbie Van Der Hyde — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 09:00:05 +0000

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The cost savings from energy conservation efforts can add up quickly. (Jannoon028, freedigitalphotos.net)

By Debbie Van Der Hyde

Utilities and energy providers across the nation are turning to personalized home electricity reports to help customers save on their utility bills and reduce their carbon emissions.

These easy-to-understand reports provide customers with information about their energy use compared to people with homes of similar square footage. Some reports include a progress tracker to see how a homeowner’s usage changes over time.

Many reports also offer personalized tips, including no-cost and low-cost improvements to help customers make their homes more efficient. Examples include unplugging cell phone wall chargers when not in use, putting outdoor lights on timers, hanging laundry to dry, and buying more efficient refrigerators.

Behavioral approach to energy conservation
The home reports get their approach from behavior-based electricity management, a new, growing field in conservation. Puget Sound Energy, a private utility in Washington state, for example, currently sends reports to 24,000 customers. Joel Smith, who manages the company’s energy efficiency services, sees how these reports encourage more eco-friendly behavior.

“The program provides our customers with a benchmark for understanding how they and their home use energy. It gives them an idea of whether or not there is room for improvement if they choose to make changes,” says Smith.

La Vonna Jones, a former Puget Sound Energy customer, altered the days and times that she did laundry based on her reports.

“I didn’t know that energy usage at certain times of the day was higher and more expensive because so many people were using it,” Jones says. The behavior change reduced her electricity bill and was rewarding, she says. “It seemed perfectly easy and reasonable to me to make small changes to save energy while also helping the community as a whole.”

Do the reports achieve results for customers and utilities alike? The answer is: definitely.

“On average, a Seattle City Light customer who receives the report is using about 3 percent or 300 kilowatt less electricity per year than those who are not,” says Lars Henrikson, program manager for the home electricity reports for Seattle City Light. The public utility launched the program in 2009 and is currently sending reports to 50,000 customers.

“When we multiply that savings by the number of customers receiving the reports, we’re achieving approximately 15 million kilowatt hours of savings annually. That’s about what a windmill would produce in one year,” says Henrikson.

Figure 1: Seattle City Light electricity savings per household for the first two years of the program for the initial cohort of 20,000 customers. (Graph courtesy of Opower)

Opower, a software company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, provides the analytics behind the home electricity reports used by Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light and about 60 other utilities across the country. Opower estimates that up to 20 percent of electricity in people’s homes is wasted.

“The reports are designed to make sure customers have full visibility into opportunities to save electricity, and to make it easy for them to do something about it by eliminating the amount that is wasted,” says Ogi Kavazovic, Opower vice president of corporate marketing.

Behavior-based management can be just as beneficial for the utility companies as well. “In many cases, our utility customers are also using the platform to help them evolve from providers to electricity management advisors and service providers,” says Kavazovic.

This is certainly the case at Seattle City Light. Customer calls about the report are directed to the utility’s conservation call center. “The reports are a great conversation starter about measures our customers can take. They also help our customers understand the costs of inaction,” says Henrikson.

Other energy management tools
In addition to paper-based reports, some utilities work with Opower and similar companies to offer Web portals that provide customers with more in-depth and customized home electricity usage statistics.

Tendril, located in Boulder, Colorado, serves more than 30 energy service providers across the United States, primarily in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. Tendril’s Web platform gives customers insight, choice, and control over their energy use in real time.

“Consumers can monitor their kilowatt hours being used, determine what actions they can take to reduce their usage, and then see an impact on their bills,” says Sheila O’Neill, communication director at Tendril.

Utilities can then offer their customers smart devices, such as programmable thermostats or smart outlets. “This gives consumers more control over their energy use and more savings,” says O’Neill.

Cape Light Compact, a Massachusetts-based electricity service provider, designed and implemented a smart home monitoring pilot program in collaboration with Tendril. Customers could see real-time electricity usage and could chat through a secure Web dashboard with others in the pilot about what they were doing to help save electricity.

“We were looking for a new way to reach customers and to see if small behavior changes impacted their energy consumption,” says Briana C. Kane, senior residential program coordinator for Cape Light Compact.

“On average, we saw a 9.3 percent reduction, showing how small changes can lead to big impacts,” Kane adds.

Additional electricity management services available through some utilities include email or text message alerts to monitor usage and mobile management applications. Using the apps, participating customers can access electricity usage information and remotely control devices in their home, such as programmable thermostats or air conditioners. This saves even more energy and money.

Are you interested in receiving a regular home electricity report? Call your utility to find out if it offers the program or to learn more about other available energy-saving offers.

For related story: Top 10 Tips to Lower Your Home Energy Bills

E-Waste: Out of Our Sight, Into Their Air

April Fang — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:00:25 +0000

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A girl holds up a keyboard found among e-waste shipped to her town. (Blogpaedia, Flickr)

By April Fang

Ever wondered where your used electronics go? Or maybe you just think, “I paid my recycling fee, so they must have been recycled in a proper way.”

As a matter of fact, most e-waste from all over the world is shipped to third-world countries such as China. In Nanyang, China people dismantle e-waste in their homes or on the street rather than in a factory. The toxic smoke from incinerating e-waste causes serious health effects, including high lead concentration residents’ blood and lower IQs among children born in the area.

Here are little things we can do to make a difference:

Buy reusable batteries rather than disposable ones;
Upgrade hardware computers rather than throw them away;
Recycle batteries properly. Often public libraries have information about local places to recycle batteries and other hazardous waste. Some chains that typically collect batteries to recycle include Best Buy and Staples; and
Recycle your cellphone by donating it. Sprint will allow you to send in any cell phone for free if you pick up a postage-paid envelope from one of their stores, or print out the mailing label online. You can also search for a local cell phone recycling program using ReCellular‘s Web site.

Spread the word about these simple practices and how they can help mitigate e-waste’s harm to the environment and to human health.

Panasonic’s Novel Japanese Recycling Plant

E.Q. Lam — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:50:04 +0000

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The history of Panasonic began with its first products, a light bulb plug and double sockets. (By E.Q. Lam)

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series looking at Panasonic and its ecological strategies and technological developments.

Story and photos by E.Q. Lam

In Japan, nearly everyone practices the Shinto religion, which worships nature as millions of gods. Also in Japan, a man named Konosuke Matsushita started a company in 1918 that would become Panasonic. The name Matsushita means “below the pine tree,” and pine is an evergreen.

Perhaps it is a stretch to link the above facts to make sense of Panasonic’s embrace of eco-centric business. But Panasonic often cites its founder’s philosophy, which encourages valuing nature and resources, as the basis for its recent adoption of the theme “eco ideas” and the strategy to be the number one green innovation company in the electronics industry by its 100th anniversary in 2018.

A fitting example of its green business is the Panasonic Eco Technology Center (PETEC), in Kato City, near Osaka. It is Panasonic’s home appliance recycling plant, but it is unusual to be located among high-tech companies in Yashiro Science Park, says Kazuyuki Tomita, PETEC’s president. Recycling centers in Japan are usually located in a coastal area landfill or deep in the mountains where there are no residents, he says.

(E.Q. Lam)

Location is not the only unusual thing about PETEC. The walls along the stairway are decorated for a preschool, with fun colors and cartoonish images. Its motto is “treasure hunting”—finding the recoverable materials within the end-of-life appliances.

“So we try to hunt for treasure or gems to recover the resources,” Tomita says, adding jokingly that little gold has been found, however.

“From product to product” is another PETEC concept, meaning that the recovered materials are used in new products. Of 49 recycling facilities in Japan, PETEC boasts that it is the only one with a research and development division. PETEC offers feedback for product development and lets engineers experience how to dismantle a product, so that they learn the value of recovered resources and can apply that understanding in designing products. For example, the material that an air conditioning label is made of can interfere with the ease of recycling the AC panel material, so the type of label and its printing were changed.

Take a mini-tour of PETEC:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to last year’s special factors where the value of resources increased drastically, PETEC is in the black, Tomita says. “Our [Panasonic Group] president said, ‘You don’t have to make a profit,’ but he did not say make a loss!” he jokes. And PETEC expects its role in promoting recycling-oriented technology to grow more significantly.

“Recycling activity will improve radically through these small [design] changes,” Tomita says. “… Our target is to conduct 3R designing—to incorporate the recycling performance or easiness into the [product] design.”

PETEC also is remarkable because it is a clean recycling facility, with little debris or particles in the air and does not appear from the outside to be a recycling center. It uses a dust collecting system for the environment of its 230 employees. PETEC (which has 250 solar panels that produce 50 kilowatts to power all the lights) has developed advanced recycling technology—such as a high-precision resin selection system and an organic decomposition system—combined with manual dismantling of appliances. Decomposition uses titanium oxide, which decomposes one part and allows for the recovery of what is left of the materials. PETEC uses magnetism to separate iron, and gravity and vibration to recover copper and aluminum. Plastics are sorted in a high-precision air system, where infrared light can pick out a single resin.

(E.Q. Lam)

A total of more than 8 million units have gone through PETEC since the facility began operations in April 2001. PETEC accepts refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and televisions (the older cathode-ray tubes and LCD flat panel TVs) from 23 manufacturers. It recycles 85 percent of the materials on average, says Takae Tsuchida, plant tour guide. In the past couple years, Japan has switched from cathode-ray tube TVs to flat panel TVs, which has helped to increase the annual number of units recycled from an average 650,000 to more than 1 million units.

Here are the amount of recovered resources converted to more-meaningful data:

129,903 tons of iron = 158,417 cars
20,249 tons of copper = 81 Great Buddha of Nara statues (the statue stands 49 feet tall)
10,928 tons of aluminum = 95 jumbo jet aircraft

: (E.Q. Lam)

Education and involvement in the community are important, Tomita says. PETEC formed an environmental conservation council and works with local government and residents; it also outsources some work to another group which employs physically challenged workers. PETEC offers tours to the public, receiving more than 12,000 visitors a year (with only about 1,000 from overseas). It has had 100,000 visitors since tours started in August 2010.

Tomita says there is a NIMBY attitude among consumers. “Everybody understands that we need recycling, but everybody thinks ‘not in my back yard, no way,’” he says.

Japan mandates by law the recycling of end-of-life appliances and electronics, which is unique in the world, Tomita says. “The aim of this unique home appliances recycling law is because Japan, we are not blessed with [lots of] resources,” he says.

The law requires consumers to deliver the products to retailers or manufacturers, which must accept them at designated collection points. Manufacturers must develop methods for recycling and recovery of materials, says Tomita. Consumers pay a recycling fee, which ranges from about $17 to $48 dollars depending on the product and is set every four years by the recycling facilities. But consumers bear only a portion of the costs for the recycling process; manufacturers also face a cost in handling the products. Manufacturers aim to reduce the recycling cost to consumers to zero, Tomita says.

PETEC, as a recycling center, sells the recovered resources. The panel cullet from cathode-ray tube (CRT) TVs are given to glass manufacturers; a new application in Japan is to make cement-like blocks for use on pathways such as outside PETEC, in parks, and at schools, says Tsuchida. Materials from LCD TVs and washing machines are reused in new versions of the same types of products. PETEC also worked with Panasonic’s Home Appliances Company to develop a way to make glass wool from CRT materials.

(E.Q. Lam)

“So we are making every effort to recover these to use in an efficient manner,” Tsuchida says.

Some recovered materials are shipped overseas, if there is no use in new products for them in Japan. “However, our idea is to use the recovered resources as much as possible in Japan,” Tomita says, “because Japan has less resources.”

PETEC also wants to expand recycling in Panasonic locations overseas, Tomita says. “I think we have to localize the recycling factory to fit the law of each country.”

Travel and accommodations provided by Panasonic Corporation.

Check out more articles by E.Q. Lam.

Technology for Smart Homes, Smart Cities

E.Q. Lam — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:15:19 +0000

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Design of Fujisawa sustainable smart town in Japan, to be realized in 2013. (Courtesy of Panasonic)

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series looking at Panasonic and its ecological strategies and technological developments.

By E.Q. Lam

Japan is known for being high tech, and thanks to companies such as Panasonic, its high tech is going green. Take a look at Panasonic’s eco innovations for appliances and electronics, both those currently on the market as well as those the company hopes to introduce in the near future. The company’s various divisions have public venues which showcase the products for complete energy solutions for the home. In addition, Panasonic is spearheading entire smart town projects in Japan and other parts of Asia.

The Eco Ideas House, located at Panasonic Center Tokyo, welcomes tour groups such as students and on weekends is open to the public without an appointment. The House models products and appliances for daily living for the home of the future—one with zero carbon emissions. Panasonic is focusing on three areas for a sustainable lifestyle: ways to save energy, create energy, and store energy. Check out the quick tour below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Among the features at the Eco Ideas House are the following:

A Home energy management system (HEMS), which will even tell you when the best time to do laundry is, according to the weather forecast.
Standard household electric vehicle charging station, which plugs into a regular outlet.
LED lighting system, with LED light bulbs that use seven watts (one-sixth that of incandescent bulbs, which consume 45 watts of power, but with the same brightness). The lighting system can be adjusted by shade or color quality (from warm to cool).
Home office technology for “e-work,” to cut out travel (daily commutes as well as long-distance business trips). The Japanese government estimates that 2 million tele-workers could reduce CO2 emissions by 4 million tons, according to Naomi Tomaru, Eco Ideas House guide. The technology features no noticeable time lapse between sound and images, so the communication is as natural as speaking to someone physically present. For document exchange, high-quality image capability means documents appear clear enough to read when shown to the camera.
The house of the future will create energy with fuel cells and solar power generators (5,060-watt capacity for 22 modules on the roof of an average Japanese home), and store the energy in a storage battery. In an emergency (e.g., a power outage), you can reverse charge a home from your electric vehicle to the home.
The ventilation system takes in cool air in the summer and warm air in the winter through the floor, where the air temperature is more stable.
U-Vacua super-thin insulation material will be used as building materials for the home itself as well as in appliances such as refrigerators and bath tubs. Panasonic achieves 20 times more energy efficiency than foam with the thinner insulation.
A washing machine with a tilted drum, which allows the same amount of clothes in a load to be washed using 50 percent less water, because the tilted angle of the drum extends the water level.
A sit-down shower system which uses only one-eighth the amount of hot water in a typical bath.

Also, in 2008 Panasonic began to create eco home products under the product group ECO NAVI: to help you navigate energy management. Check out the Osaka-area ECO NAVI House, a showcase of the latest technology developed by Panasonic to help consumers navigate their home’s use of resources. The company also encourages do-it-yourself methods to reduce energy use. Find out the famous Japanese home product that inspired nearly 30 more products:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Besides providing technology solutions for smart homes and businesses, Panasonic is collaborating with the local city government to develop a sustainable smart city in Fujisawa, east of Tokyo, on land that formerly held a Panasonic factory. The project is expected to provide 1,000 homes as well as small businesses, medical centers, community centers, and mobility services such as shared electric vehicles. The town will have a community grid and equipment and systems for optimal energy, security, and information. The smart town is set to open in 2013 and has a target of 70 percent CO2 emissions reductions.

Panasonic also is involved in smart city projects elsewhere, including Tianjin Eco-City and Dalian Best-City (both in China) and a pilot project for total energy solutions for residential buildings in Singapore. For these projects in Japan and Asia, Panasonic is addressing two concerns: lack of raw materials and a growing population in urban areas—particularly in China, Japan, Europe, and the United States.

“We need many, many resources to maintain our living,” says Haruyuki Ishio, Panasonic’s director for the Corporate Division for Promoting Energy Solutions Business. “The ordinary or old cities cannot serve the concentration of populations. We believe the smart cities can be an answer to this global picture.”

Travel and accommodations provided by Panasonic Corporation.

Check out more articles by E.Q. Lam.

DIY Tips and Technology for Double Energy Savings

E.Q. Lam — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:58:53 +0000

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Shozo Kinoshita of Panasonic Home Appliances Company provides do-it-yourself tips, including washing clothes in large loads to cut down on the number of loads.

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series looking at Panasonic and its ecological strategies and technological developments.

Story and photos by E.Q. Lam
November 9, 2011

KUSATSU, JAPAN — In the United States, Panasonic Corporation is known for electronics, not for its home appliances which are a familiar brand in Asia and a growing brand in Europe. The company is taking big steps, however, toward providing green solutions for living, including both “do-it-yourself” tips as well as Panasonic technology for the home.

In an eco press tour of Panasonic’s facilities in Japan, the company highlighted its vision to become the number one green innovation company in the global electronics industry by 2018, the 100th anniversary of its founding. The goal of the company is to make the environment central to all of its activities in order to cut carbon emissions by 50 million tons in fiscal year 2013 and 120 million tons by fiscal year 2019. Panasonic’s approach to CO2 emissions reductions involves both the production of its electronics as well as development of eco products.

Panasonic gave a tour of its ECO NAVI House in Kusatsu (near Osaka), where Panasonic Home Appliance Company (Panasonic HA) is located. The ECO NAVI House showcases the home appliance products which Panasonic currently offers (mostly in Japan and China). Among 21 ECO NAVI products are smart air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines. The air conditioner will be on the U.S. consumer market in January 2012, says Kazunori Takami, president of Panasonic HA.

At the same time that Panasonic HA introduces ECO NAVI products, it gives what the company calls “do-it-yourself” tips to save energy, under the theme of “You can start now. Let’s save energy together.” Shozo Kinoshita, senior public relations coordinator for Panasonic HA, says the double dose of information encourages consumers to be more conscious of their energy use and change their habits.

“People can change their mind,” says Kinoshita. “We can start now; we can save energy globally.”

Here are some of the DIY tips that Kinoshita highlights:

Refrigeration: The refrigerator needs a good air path from top to bottom, so do not block the air flow with larger objects on higher shelves. Place the food with the warmest temperature on the lowest shelf, so that it does not warm the rest of the food. Even better, wait till the food cools down before putting it in the fridge. Organize and arrange food for easy access; opening a refrigerator door for 10 seconds will raise the unit’s temperature by five degrees Celsius.
Freezer: Place the freshest food on top, since that is what freezes first. Unlike in the refrigerator, crowding food is fine because frozen food below serve as blocks of ice.
Laundry: optimize washing by combining clothes into one large load. Utilize the water from baths, or pre-wash stubborn stains by hand.
Air conditioning: Avoid placing the outdoor unit near objects, which may block the vents and reduce efficiency. Place the AC unit in the shade, not the sun.

Travel and accommodations provided by Panasonic Corporation.

Check out more articles by E.Q. Lam.

Top 10 Tips to Lower Your Home Energy Bills

Janice Zaltman — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:00:01 +0000

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Here's a glance at where the energy bill comes from for a typical, single-family home. (Energy Star)

By Janice Zaltman

In my real estate and consulting business, the one question that comes up time and time again is: “What steps can I can take to lower my home energy costs?”

“Ask your neighbors what they spend on their energy bill each month,” advises Ben Millar of E3 Building Sciences in Fort Myers, Florida. “If you are spending the same as everyone else with similar square footage in your neighborhood, maybe your home is okay,” he explains.

Once you have an idea of how your costs measure up, look at your consumption and the things that you can easily change. Here are some examples:

Lighting: Do you tend to leave the lights on when you leave the room? Keeping the home well lit can be a big concern for families with children. Luckily, there are several solutions to this issue. Energy-efficient lighting involves both the light source and the fixture. In many cases, you can simply change the light bulb to either a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) or a light emitting diode (LED). Energy-efficient bulbs may require a certain type of fixture by having a pin base that cannot fit into traditional fixtures. By replacing the five most frequently used light fixtures in your home with Energy Star qualified models, you can save $70 each year, according to energystar.gov. Other solutions include occupancy sensors, which automatically shut off the lights once everyone leaves the room.
Electronics: Do you have power strips on your high-consumption technology such as televisions, computers, stereo, or DVD player? As long as your gadgets remain attached to a power source, they are generating heat and electricity. Use a power strip switch which turns everything off when not in use.
Program the thermostat: Give your air conditioner a break during the day. Installing a programmable thermostat can regulate the temperature throughout your house whether you are home or away.
Solar water heaters: Solar water heaters can be a cost-effective way to reduce your hot water bills. They can be used in any climate, and the fuel they use (sunshine) is free.
Give your home an update: Improve outdated home appliances for the best return on your investment. Outdated appliances can be a drain on your utility bill. When I purchased a new Energy Star refrigerator and dishwasher last year using the Energy Star Rebate Program, my utility bill went down 40 percent.
Heating and cooling: As much as half of your energy costs go towards heating and cooling, according to Energy Star. If you have an HVAC system that is at least 12 years old, it may be beneficial to consider a newer and more efficient model. Changing the filter monthly and having your system checked at least once per year helps ensure energy efficiency. Your HVAC system, like your body, needs a good tune-up each year to remain in good health.
Weather-strip your windows: Plug up those drafts! If you have old windows and are considering changing them, check out Energy Star windows and pick one for your appropriate climate condition.
Rebates and incentives: Check out rebates and incentives at the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. They can significantly reduce the cost of your upgrade and lower the time it takes to recoup your investment.
Get help from the local utility: In some areas, the local utility offers a free or low-cost service to come to your home and do an energy audit.

By following the above suggestions, you can save between 10 and 40 percent on your home energy bills, depending on your individual usage.

For related article:
10 Quick Ways to Green Your Home

Solar Clovers and Gadgets Galore

Debra Atlas — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:00:52 +0000

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A view of the showcase, with San Jose City Hall in the background. (Courtesy of the City of San Jose)

Editor’s Note: This is the final piece in a four-part series looking at the environmental efforts of the city of San Jose, California.

By Debra Atlas

SAN JOSE, CA — Solar installations grew by 69 percent nationwide over the last year, and the City of San Jose is at the head of the race. Last year, San Jose made more solar installations than any other city in the state. The U.S. Department of Energy named San Jose one of three “Solar American Showcase” cities in 2007, and in 2008 the city was designated one of the 25 Solar America Cities.

The Solar America Cities program was created so the designated cities could share their experiences and best practices with other cities. Cities interested in using the technology more can then adapt this information to their own community. The designated cities cover different climates from around the country. It was a way to help break down barriers to this energy source, both commercial and residential, according to Mike Foster, who manages the city’s community energy efficiency and green building programs.

San Jose has always been at the forefront of innovation, ever since it became California’s first established city in 1777, and using technology to go green came naturally. To promote public awareness of clean-tech, San Jose created the Clean Energy Showcase, which puts solar, wind, and electric vehicle (EV) technologies on display across from City Hall.

Close to 6,000 people have toured the showcase since it opened in December 2010, including groups as varied as local schoolchildren, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and Russian entrepreneurs. The block-long exhibit is a hands-on demonstration area created to help educate the community about the benefits of the clean energy technology and how to save money by adopting it.

Among the various solar technologies the exhibit features are the Solar Clover by Armageddon Energy, a Sun Oven solar cooker that scouts use to bake their favorite cookies, and a solar heating and cooling unit reminiscent of a bay window. The Showcase is a great example of the city’s Green Vision Plan and the possibilities it holds for the future of San Jose.

Check out more articles by Debra Atlas.

EPA Builds New Web Page to Help Consumers Shop Green

Gustavo Grad — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:08:31 +0000

By Gustavo Grad

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a new portal designed to provide easy access to information about everyday products at www.epa.gov/greenerproducts.

“By purchasing greener products, consumers can help reduce air pollution, conserve water and energy, minimize waste and protect their children and families from exposure to toxic chemicals, while also creating green jobs,” says Steve Owens, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, in a press release. “Pollution prevention is good for our health, our environment, and our economy.”

The Web page makes it easy to find electronics and appliances with the EPA’s ENERGY STAR label or to review products that can save water and energy under the WaterSense label. In addition, you can find information about cleaning products that are safer for the environment and better for your health with the EPA Design for the Environment (DfE) label.

The new portal also helps manufacturers and institutional purchasers with information on standards and criteria for designing greener products. As part of its mission, the EPA has been working to promote the development of standards for environmentally preferable goods and services, and the site offers an explanation of what different eco-labels mean. Labels vary in whether they are standards developed by private entities, by public agencies under EPA authority, or jointly by stakeholders and experts from the public and private sectors.

Eco-labeling programs include ENERGY STAR, WaterSense, and Design for the Environment (DfE). They are good examples of government leadership in advancing energy efficiency, water conservation, and commitment to objective, fact-based decision making.

Not convinced that these labels matter? Here are the EPA’s most important reasons to follow eco-labels:

By looking for greener products when you shop and using products in ways that respect the environment, you will be joining millions of Americans in helping protect public health and the environment. Using products in ways that respect the environment includes conserving energy, water, and materials as well as disposing of the products responsibly through recycling and reuse.

Products can have a wide variety of public health and environmental impacts, including toxic exposures, air pollution, water pollution, climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, natural resource use (e.g., energy, water, materials), waste disposal, and ecosystem damages.

Despite a variety of initiatives to prevent misleading claims, one cannot believe every environmental claim you see. Look for:

Product standards or eco-labels with published criteria for qualifying their products (e.g., published on their Web sites);
Product standards or eco-labels issued or supported by organizations widely respected and trusted;
Product standards which require verification of some type;
Products qualifying for EPA eco-labeling programs or meeting standards that EPA helped develop and manage; and
Products meeting broad-based environmental criteria such as computers and other electronics meeting the IEEE 1680 environmental performance standards, or products from businesses that have undergone SCGH’s GreenCheck evaluation.

The bottom line is that green products can save money, prevent pollution, and protect people’s health.

Tax Credit for Energy Efficiency May End Soon

Robbie Harris — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:56:54 +0000

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Windows, skylights, and exterior doors that meet ENERGY STAR criteria are eligible for a tax credit. (Courtesy of Simonton Windows)

Editor’s Note: October is National Energy Awareness Month. Take a look at your home’s energy use and how you can take advantage of incentives for efficiency.

By Robbie Harris

You may have gotten the mailers or seen some items in stores marked “Eligible for the Energy Efficiency Tax Credit!” Maybe you bought that new storm door, window, or even the entire energy-efficient heating and cooling system qualified for the credit. Then, if you noted it on your federal income tax return, you got some money back—the government’s way of thanking you for doing the right thing for your home and the planet.

“The goal overall was to encourage people to make that extra jump to the energy efficient product,” said Thomas Simchak, a senior research associate at the Alliance to Save Energy in Washington, D.C. “If they were going to be installing an air conditioner, [the tax credit was intended to] have a value that would compensate for the price difference for the energy efficient unit.”

Blink and You May Miss It

The federal tax credit for existing homes has been available to homeowners for their primary dwelling—albeit in changing amounts—for most of the last six years. You still have time to get in on the tax incentives, but there are costs to putting off those household improvements. These federal incentives will be gone entirely by the end of 2011. Qualified items must be installed and placed into service before the end of the year to get you money back on your federal tax return.

: What do I need to do to get the tax credit? You will need to file IRS Form 5695 (not yet available for the 2011 tax year) with your taxes (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5695.pdf). In addition, you will need to keep at least receipts proving that you purchased the improvements and a copy of the manufacturer’s certification. Accountants and tax advisors also should be able to provide more guidance.

Even if you upgraded to energy-efficient products, you may be among the many Americans who left money on the table. A survey out this week finds “[m]ost American consumers aren’t at all aware of the tax advantages of upgrading to energy efficient products.” Karl Zellmer, vice president of air conditioning sales at Emerson Climate Technologies, guided a Harris Poll commissioned by the manufacturing company. The poll found that “71 percent of consumers did not take advantage of any rebates, tax holidays, or other incentives” and that 61 percent did not even know these potential money savers existed.

“The survey did show that a majority of folks have gone to [compact] fluorescent bulbs to reduce energy consumption, and that does help,” Zellmer says. “They may do that because of the four or five dollars extra for the cost of the light bulb and they get beat up with that information everywhere they go.”

But when it comes to the details about state, local, and federal incentives, Zellmer says the study clearly shows that consumers are not getting the information they would need to calculate the costs and the paybacks of more-substantial purchases.

Like the weather, the federal government’s home energy efficiency tax incentives have been, well, changeable. The tax credit came in as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 signed by President George W. Bush and began as a 10-percent credit on certain items. It disappeared for a year in 2008. After returning in 2009, it reached its highest level—30 percent—under the Economic Recovery act, signed by President Barack Obama in February 2010. Then, almost before you could grab the low-hanging fruit of the tax credit tree, it was cut back to 10 percent for 2011. This most recent change also came with lower thresholds for rebates and more restrictions; there is now a $500 cap on tax credits a homeowner can use. Blogger Darwin Prince says the smaller tax credit and lower threshold for cash back made the tax credits less attractive to consumers—and less effective overall.

“When the window tax credit was up to $1,500, for instance, that was a substantial tax credit, which rightfully incentivized many homeowners to get around to installing new windows, making their homes more efficient and pumping probably $5,000 to $15,000 into the economy, depending on the extent of their upgrade,” says Prince on his blog Darwin’s Money. “The dual benefit was lower energy consumption into the future while providing manufacturers and installers with much needed revenues.”

At The Door Store, in Glenview, Illinois, where some doors’ prices run into the thousands, the 30-percent tax credit was extremely attractive to buyers. Owner Chris Erickson said, as that year drew to an end, “People were actually offering to pay extra as an incentive to get their door installed before the deadline.” The store did not accept the extra money, however, and could not accommodate all requests.

There is no way to know exactly how many homeowners took advantage of the federal tax credit in its various incarnations. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service does not publish that information. A report by the Government Accounting Office is expected to be published in the near future.

“Anecdotally, talking to contractors and vendors, the home improvement stores and window installers definitely saw this as a big selling point,” says Simchak, senior research associate at the Alliance to Save Energy.

If some merchants say the tax credit helped sales, and consumers who might have taken advantage of the tax credit say they were unaware of them, why not continue or even increase the tax incentives for home energy efficiency? Simchak, who is an energy efficiency advocate, believes the issue got buried.

“I think it’s largely a victim of congressional deadlocks more broadly,” Simchak says. “There is not a lot moving in Congress right now and other items were seen as ‘must pass,’ while the energy tax credits were not.” He adds that, even though they are going away soon, this “may not be the last we’ve heard of these tax credits. [But] we’re not optimistic they’ll be extended before the end of the year.”

Similar tax credits for commercial buildings, however, will remain in effect until 2014.

A Window Closes, a Door Opens

Even if these particular federal tax incentives for home energy efficiency do not come back any time soon, other options remain for capitalizing on your energy efficiency purchases. Similar state initiatives are unaffected by the closing of the federal window at the end of this year. You can check your state’s programs at http://dsireusa.org/.

Emerson Climate Technologies has just unveiled a new smart phone app that allows you to compute the true costs of products by energy use calculated using rates in your area. Zellmer says the new smart phone application will help consumers research purchasing options ahead of time, instead of waiting until the air conditioner stops working on a 90-plus-degree day and running out to buy anything to cool off. His survey found that consumers are aware that heating and cooling are their highest energy costs, but the majority were not willing to spend more for energy efficiency upgrades unless the payback time was relatively short. According to the poll, 67 percent of respondents said they would be willing to invest up to $5,000 in a home energy upgrade, but only if it paid for itself within six months. Only 29 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to invest that amount if the payback were 10 years.

Now that the sun is setting on this particular tax credit, there will be an opportunity to assess its effects. After all, if a tax incentive is successful, it should go away once the behavior it aims to encourage is widely adopted. Simchak suggests that if a large number of homeowners believe upgrading their homes for energy efficiency is the right thing to do, they will do so, cash back or not.

“These tax credits got a lot of people thinking about energy efficiency, even if they didn’t actually go out there and use the credit,” Simchak. “People started hearing about energy efficiency on the news, and the media picked this up as a way to get yourselves $500 or $1,000. People say, ‘Oh, energy efficiency, yeah, I guess my kitchen door is pretty drafty, and I feel that chill on my feet in the morning, and yes, that does affect my bills, and they have been going up,’ so it gets people thinking that this is important to them.”

: Manufacturers can certify (in packaging or on the company’s Web site) which of their products qualify for the tax credit. Retailers, contractors, and manufacturers should be able to help you determine what levels of insulation and what other products qualify. All the improvements must be installed in or on the taxpayer’s principal residence in the United States. Condo and co-op improvements are apportioned to the owners proportionally. (Source: Alliance to Save Energy)

For related content on home health, see http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/home-health/.

Robbie Harris is a writer, editor and producer in Chicago at Lucid Dream Productions.