Top 5 Green Living Facts

Green Living Facts #1. According to a recent McKinsey Global Institute report, the U.S. residential sector is second only to Chinese heavy industry in terms of inefficient energy use.

Green Living Facts #2. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that if every American home exchanged the five most frequently used bulbs with efficient compact fluorescent bulbs, one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases would be kept out of the air over the course of the bulbs’ lives (a lifetime range of five to as many as eight years or so). That’s equivalent to the annual emissions of 8 million cars, the annual output of more than 20 power plants, and $6 billion in U.S. energy savings.

Green Living Facts #3. Many conventional building materials and coatings release chemical vapors into the air, sometimes for decades after construction. Green building design and construction dramatically reduce or eliminate emissions of volatile organic compounds, such as formaldehyde.

Green Living Facts #4. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, nationwide, landscape irrigation accounts for almost one-third of all residential water use. If all residential irrigation systems in the United States were replaced with weather-based systems (systems that adjust irrigation levels based on local weather conditions), America would save 24 billion gallons of water annually.

Green Living Facts #5. The National Association of Home Builders estimates that building a 2,000 square-foot home in the United States generates an average of four tons of construction waste. With a little planning and preparation, it is possible to recycle as much as 90 percent of the construction waste from the homes without raising costs for builders or home buyers. Green home building practices could eliminate more than four million tons of construction waste annually.