IS IT REALLY “GREEN?”

By Ella Tyler

The Houston Green Expo: Sustainable Energy and Green Building Consumer Event will be open from 10 am to 5 pm on April 5 and 6 at Reliant Park. It is free and open to the public.

The Expo is sponsored by the City of Houston and Gulf Coast Green, a green building symposium organized by the American Institute of Architects Houston Chapter’s Committee on the Environment that will be June 3 and 4. The Green Expo is for consumers to find out about products from leading companies in an atmosphere free of greenwashing. To be exhibited or sold, products and services must meet guidelines such as, for example, being ENERGY STAR®, Green Seal, or Forest Stewardship Council. The guidelines are listed online.

The Expo also offers the opportunity to purchase certified green products on the spot and to connect with local retailers, distributors, and installers. Besides the shopping, there will be educational presentations on local services and innovative new products as well as practical “How To” advice on reducing both your family’s environmental impact and your utility bill.

The Green Expo has five themes: green building, energy efficiency, renewable energy, alternative transportation, and Green Youth Zone.

The Green Youth Zone sounds like a pretty cool place to be. It has been organized by the mayor’s youth commission to celebrate the creativity and commitment of Houston area youth to making our world a better place. They have an “iGreen” campaign with the pledge iReduce, iReuse, iRecycle. The website for the campaign has a list of ways to “iGreen”, but the really interesting page is Factoids. Did you know that:

Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil.

Energy saved from one recycled aluminum can will operate a TV set for three hours and is the equivalent to half a can of gasoline.

If you throw away 2 aluminum cans, you waste more energy than 1,000,000,000 (one billion) of the world’s poorest people use a day.

You might want to leave your kids at home unless you’re committed to living greener.

Educational presentations will cover topics such as sustainable commercial roofing, waste and climate change, green cleaning, electric and hot water solar, renewable energy power plants, wind resource assessment, Watersmart Landscaping and less toxic pest control.

For details, see the event’s website.