It's Not About Hugging Trees...it's About Planting Them

Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breathe...

5 Easy Tips to Green the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) of your Home & Business to protect your health and improve your workforce’s productivity
1. Use “green” cleaning products and techniques to reduce harmful effects of unhealthy chemical exposure.
2. Properly maintain your HVAC system to ensure good indoor air quality.
3. When painting, replacing carpeting or furniture, use products with low VOC emissions.
4. Use task lighting in work areas to decrease energy use and increase human comfort.
5. Provide opportunities for your family and/or employees to have indoor plants that create healthy air quality in their personal breathing space. The peace lily is my top pick – it filters toxins from the air very effectively, and most important, is almost impossible to kill even if you have a brown thumb.

Fast Company Contributor, Trung Le, Talks Education & Environment

According to this week’s Go Green Radio guest, more than half of the world’s population currently lives in an urban environment, and that number is expected to rise to 70% by the year 2050. In his most recent article for Fast Company, Trung Le writes, “These urban centers are supported by a diversity of interconnected systems and infrastructure that enhance the human condition (i.e. employment, culture, housing, education, transportation, public safety, healthcare, energy and technology)… But there is always a weak link, and in this instance, the weakest link in many of the leading urban economies is preK-12 education. Education is critical to a thriving urban center, so why are urban education systems in distress? Better yet: What can we do to change this fate? What does an urban preK-12 physical environment look like in the third millennium?” According to Le, creating sustainable schools that follow the International Living Building Institute guidelines is a critical component in answering these questions. Tune in to Go Green Radio this week to learn more about how Trung Le is helping to put this theory into practice at an urban school in Chicago. The show airs live at 9 a.m. Pacific on www.VoiceAmerica.com.

Introducing Planet Connect – a program from the National Environmental Education Foundation

The National Environmental Education Foundation, in partnership with The Weather Channel, has launched Classroom Earth, a program designed to enhance and strengthen environmental education in high school classrooms nationwide. Planet Connect, a program of Classroom Earth, targets high school youth in an effort to increase student engagement in environmental learning, stimulate interest in environmental careers, and learn how to protect the environment. Planet Connect was developed with input from a diverse group of students from around the country who have helped to design the Planet Connect Web site, www.planetconnect.org and the Planet Connect High School Grants. This week on Go Green Radio, we’ll be talking with David Lanham who just finished a highly successful student video contest for Planet Connect. The winning videos can be found on the Go Green Initiative YouTube Channel: http://tinyurl.com/2fhtq2h.

Tune in to the live interview on Friday, July 2, at 9 a.m. Pacific/Noon Eastern on www.VoiceAmerica.com, or download the podcast when the show is archived at: http://tinyurl.com/yzhyjdc