When it comes to home projects, going green is a broad philosophy that encompasses not only the products you use, but also which projects you choose, the attitude with which you approach them, the people who participate, and even the size and design of your home. That’s the advice from Steve Thomas, host of Planet Green’s Renovation Nation and former longtime host of This Old House on PBS. “You don’t have to put in $40,000 worth of solar panels or drill a geothermal well,” Thomas says. “The accumulation of smaller things — if we all do them — adds up to big numbers.”

Consider one of his recent home projects — adding a pergola to the exterior of a home in Maine. “An outdoor structure like the pergola is not as directly green as water conservation or solar panels,” he acknowledges. “But outdoor structures are a way to increase your space. It gets you outside, and you don’t need as big a house if you use the outside.”

If the house is not as big, that means it doesn’t require as much energy to heat or cool. And if more time is spent in outside spaces, the air conditioner does not need to run as much. “My general philosophy is to keep the space as small as possible and provide transitional space that gets you out of the house and into your yard,” Thomas says.

The next green consideration in a project like this involves materials. What’s the greenest choice for building a deck or pergola? An obvious pick is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified lumber. But perhaps the most important factor — even more important than FSC-certified status — is durability and a lack of required maintenance, says Thomas. Materials that don’t last long must be replaced more often — and that means harvesting, shipping, and disposing of more building materials. Better to choose materials that will stand the test of time, such as Western red cedar, which can survive the weather without regular painting or treating.

The downside: The most durable materials may cost more at the outset. Consider, however, that their durability pays off in the long-run through lack of required maintenance and a much longer lifespan. That was Thomas’ thinking with his Maine project, which also included a large deck.

“There is nothing that requires maintenance on the outside of the building. It’s not going to self-destruct. It will be resistant to weather and wind,” he says. And applying the less-is-more design philosophy helps with the bottom line, he adds. “If you simplify a project, you can afford to spend more on materials. I kept it simple and dialed up the detailing and materials. Luxury to me is not having a lot to take care of.”

Another important point, says Thomas, is what a home project gives the family — especially the kids or grandkids — in terms of relationships, experiences, and learning opportunities. “For me, the first green principle is to make a connection between the human hand and making things,”
he explains. “I always tried to figure out projects I could do with my son that made the connection between the human hand and stuff. You don’t have to go buy something — you can make it!”

Steve Thomas
Courtesy: Planet Green/David Johnson

And if those life lessons include an appreciation for things homemade rather than assembled in China, packaged, loaded onto container ships, and sent to the local discount store for impulsive purchases — well, that’s a green lesson. “I would argue that in and of itself is green.”

A great green family project is constructing a raised garden bed and planting it with vegetables. (It’s not hard to do — see the sidebar.) Add another green component by building a garden bench nearby. Kits make the project easy for completion with kids.

And consider installing a rain barrel for watering the garden, Thomas suggests. Kits are available for this project, too, though some people recycle barrels from food or drink manufacturers. Either way, they can be hooked into a downspout and outfitted with a spigot and hose at the bottom. “It’s deeply
satisfying to use water that you have harvested from the sky,” he says. “I like to call it ‘cloud juice.’ ”

Green projects are great, but it’s clear that Thomas sees green building as a way of life, not just the way families fill their time on weekends. “This is not adding onto an existing lifestyle,” he says. “This is going back to — or forward to — a different lifestyle where we recognize that we’re stewards of the planet, not consumers of it.”

Raised Garden Bed: A Green Project for the Family

Looking for a weekend project that’s good for kids and grandkids, easy to accomplish, and pays lots of dividends? Thomas recommends a raised garden bed. It’s a project that’s green in a number of ways.

It’s a simple project — basically a lumber frame that holds soil deep enough (about 12 to 16 inches) for planting vegetables. Plus, you don’t need very many tools, Thomas points out. “Most of the big home centers will cut lumber to fit. You can load it into your station wagon and bring it home.” Just determine how big you want your raised garden to be and have lumber cut to fit. You can pick something grown to last, such as Western red cedar. Or, if cost is an issue, try a less durable wood.

It will likely hold together for a few years — long enough to provide a lot of enjoyment and bushels full of vegetables.

Assemble the lumber into a sturdy square frame using stainless steel screws or timber screws. Line the bottom with geotextile or landscape fabric, then fill it with fresh loam — a soil comprised of clay and sand containing humus (available at home centers in large bags). “Off you go,” Thomas says, “and you can plant immediately.”

Green Building: It’s a Way of Life The Saturday Evening Post

For him, the scene proved a perfect illustration of the difference in the way the French view wine, compared with most Americans. In France, wine is not seen pimarily as an intoxicant-first and foremost, it’s food. And its moderate but regular consumption may be one of the reasons the French fare better on a number of measures of health, despite their love for foods that we would typically view as unhealthy.

A growing body of evidence suggests that drinking red wine can result in numerous health benefits, says Dr. Joseph Maroon, a professor of neuroscince at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the longtime team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers. he details the studies in his new book, The Longevity Factor: How Resveratrol and Red Wine Activate Genes for a Longer and Healthier Life.

Dr. Maroon says scientific studies suggest resveratrol, a substance found in red wine and a number of other foods, can protect against heart disease, cancer, and neurological diseases. It can also help prevent some infections; server as an antiviral; reduce obesity; protect against some forms of diabetes; and slow the effects of aging. He’s among the increasing number of scientists who believe resveratrol to be a primary factor in the French paradox: the puzzling low rate of heart attack deaths in France when compared to the United States, even though the French on average eat many more grams of fat a day-60 percent more cheese, three times more port, and four times more butter.

“I’m a traditional physician, but this is really the future,” says Dr. William Gruss, a Florida cardiologist and internist, and author of A Cardiologist’s Guide to Anti-Aging, Antioxidants & Resveratrol. He sees benefits to the heart, vascular system, brain, nervous system, and skin, as well as the possibility of cancer prevention. What’s more, he adds, consumption of red wine and resveratrol is by and large compatible with most traditional medicine. “If you can find something that will not hurt you and will probably help you, and not interfere with traditional medicine, I’m all for it.”

How It Works

Put simply, resveratrol protects humans because it protects plants. The substance is produced when a plant—in this case, a grapevine—becomes stressed, perhaps by weather, but often by fungus or other disease. Resveratrol collects in the skin of the grape, helping the grape to ward off the stressor.

The reason resveratrol levels are highest in red wine as opposed to white is that the grape skins are left in the juice for a much longer portion of the winemaking process. It’s what makes red wine red and allows more resveratrol to remain in the finished product.

Among reds, resveratrol levels tend to be highest in pinot noir. Why? As actor Paul Giamatti’s character in the wine flick Sideways explained it: “It’s thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early.” With its thin skin, the pinot noir grape must produce more resveratrol to protect itself. So must the grapes produced in higher altitudes, as are many used in the wines from Chile, the Burgundy region of France, and the Finger Lakes region of New York, Dr. Maroon says.

Resveratrol, he explains, appears to activate what are known as the sirtuin genes—sometimes referred to as scarcity or longevity genes. Research in the 1980s found that yeast colonies lived significantly longer if scientists restricted the amount of glucose that they fed on. Subsequent studies suggested that this scarcity caused the sirtuin gene to kick in, resulting in greater longevity. The question then became, is there a way to activate these genes in humans without reducing calorie consumption?

Resveratrol is among a number of substances that have recently been labeled sirtuin-activating compounds. Most of these substances are polyphenols-antioxidants also found in such foods as dark chocolate, green tea, onions, apples, and other fruits and vegetables. “In a bottle of wine there are 1 to 3 milligrams of resveratrol, but also hundreds of other polyphenol compounds that are also very health-providing, and many of which also activate the sirtuin gene,” Dr. Maroon says.

Is It Necessary to Drink Wine

Not surprisingly, given the benefits associated with resveratrol, supplements are starting to flood the market. According to Dr. Maroon, more than 200 supplements with resveratrol are out there, and pharmaceutical companies are searching for ways to mimic or amplify the benefits through drugs.

Supplementation makes it possible to ingest resveratrol at higher levels than can be found naturally. Even wines with the highest levels of resveratrol may deliver only a couple of milligrams a day to the person who drinks two glasses daily. However, if resveratrol is part of the answer to the French paradox, even that small amount may be beneficial.

On the other hand, animal studies of resveratrol supplementation have who don’t drink.”

Beyond the obvious perils of addiction and the risks of auto accidents and violent crime, overindulgence in alcohol is linked to increases in heart disease, liver problems, and certain cancers —virtually the opposite of the positive effects of resveratrol.

In any case, he says red wine is just part of the diet required to make a difference in health.

Dr. Clower, director of Mediterranean Wellness, agrees that what is important is approaching food with the right attitude. “You can eat anything on the planet as long as it’s a food, and you have it in control.” In France, wine is considered a food; therefore, “when you eat food, of course you have wine.”

But that means food in moderation, too. “When they choose food, they choose high-quality and a lower quantity. They taste —they don’t gobble,” Dr. Clower says. Red wine fits that philosophy nicely, because people are more likely to sip rather than guzzle. As for the doctors in the French hospital cafeteria that served red wine, “I never saw anybody going back for seconds.”

Cheers to Health! The Saturday Evening Post

America’s longtime love affair with the big car hit a pothole last summer, when skyrocketing gas prices pushed more and more drivers toward smaller vehicles. As the price of gasoline plummeted in the fall, car dealers wondered whether the country’s rediscovered interest in fuel economy and mpg ratings would remain strong.

If gasoline is not $4 a gallon — or even $3 a gallon — is it still important to trade in your gas-guzzling wheels for something more economical? For many, the answer is still yes. Industry experts say the price of gas is likely to be all over the chart in the coming months and years, so there’s no telling when it might climb back up to uncomfortable levels. Just as important, anyone considering unloading a less economical vehicle will find that it’s not an easy deal to make when gas prices are at their peak. A time when “rightsizing” your car feels not quite as urgent may actually be the best time to do so.

Fred Rozell, retail pricing director for the Oil Price Information Service, was not surprised to see the price of gasoline crash this past fall. “We’ve been forecasting this for a while,” he says. “When it was $4, people never thought it would be under $3 again. What we’re going to see over the next few years is great volatility in fuel prices.”

Car dealers have definitely seen more interest in fuel-efficient choices, says Paul Taylor, chief economist with the National Automobile Dealers Association. “Overall, the small-car category is up 6.2 percent year-to-date,” he says. There’s also a lot of interest in crossover utility vehicles, those models that in some ways resemble gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles but are based on car chassis and, therefore, get better mileage.

“The sweet spot has been the crossover utility vehicle space,” he says. “Sales of crossovers has reached nearly 3 million in yearly volume.” Earlier this decade, people bought about that many SUVs in a year, but that volume is down by about a third now.

Why don’t more people rightsize their wheels? Some have tried but have found that their gas-guzzling trade-in is no longer worth enough to make a deal feasible, with a trade-in value far lower than the amount needed to pay off the loan. That situation may be on the mend, Taylor says, with gas prices in retreat. For example, while high gas prices resulted in lower SUV trade-in values, every dollar that the price of gas drops can add back as much as $2,000 to the trade-in value of a relatively new SUV, he says.

Of course, a lot of people who drive gas guzzlers have an all-American aversion to deprivation. They don’t want to give up the benefits of the wheels they love. But the reality is that achieving better gas mileage needn’t demand sacrifice when it comes to comfort and luxury. There are plenty of moves you can make that preserve what you love the most about your less economical car, while offering significant relief at the pump. Following are some possibilities, with fuel economy statistics courtesy of the federal government (check out fueleconomy.gov to see how your vehicle compares with others).

Escaping From Your Grand Cherokee

So you love driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee, but cringe when you pull up to the pump. No wonder. Its city/highway combined mileage is 15 mpg. Even at the more reasonable place where gas prices arrived in October, a 2009 four-wheel-drive Grand Cherokee with a 5.7-liter gasoline engine cost $4.43 to propel 25 miles. Now consider how much your wallet would appreciate a switch to a 2009 four-wheel-drive Ford Escape Hybrid. We’re still talking SUV here, but the combined mileage is nearly double, at 28 mpg. Driving 25 miles in this vehicle costs just $2.38, and the average owner would pay $1,238 less per year to keep the tank filled. The planet benefits, too: the Ford emits 6.6 tons of carbon dioxide over the course of a year, while the Jeep churns out 12.2. If you’d rather stick with a gasoline-burner, you could opt for a Pontiac Vibe crossover utility vehicle. Order it with a five-speed manual transmission and your mileage will be 24, your cost per 25 miles will be $2.77, and your carbon footprint will be 7.7 tons.

From One Flagship to Another

For a luxury ride, it’s hard to beat the Audi A8 L, with a 12-cylinder engine and a raft of amenities. But it’ll cost you at the pump — $4.88 per 25 miles — partly because it requires premium fuel and partly because its combined city/highway fuel economy is 15 mpg. On one hand, the flagship Kia Amanti is no Audi, but it does have leather seats, an Infinity sound system, a V-6 that delivers 264 horsepower, and fuel economy of 19 using regular unleaded. Make this switch and you’ll save $832 a year on fuel, and reduce your carbon emissions by about a quarter.

Gotta Have a Camry

It’s among the world’s most popular cars, and with gas mileage of 23, the Camry outfitted with a 3.5-liter engine is not too bad at the pump. But you can do even better, without sacrificing anything on amenities. Just swap it for a Camry Hybrid, watch your fuel economy jump to 34, save an average of $563 per year, and cut your annual CO2 emission from 8.0 tons to 5.4.

Another Kind of Gas

For fuel economy, the standard Honda Civic is a great option, with an average combined city/highway economy of 29 miles per gallon and an average annual bill of $1,377. Not bad at all. Honda also makes a version of the Civic that runs on compressed natural gas, which has lower carbon emissions and an average annual fuel bill that’s nearly identical, at $1,366. You’ll do best with the hybrid Civic, though, with its gas mileage of 42 and annual fuel bill of $950.

Midsize Makeover

The Dodge Avenger is a decent choice when it comes to economy, averaging 20 mpg, which translates into an annual average fuel cost of $1,995. But you’ll get just about the same interior room and even more trunk space in the Hyundai Elantra, along with fuel economy of 28 mpg. Trade in for an Elantra and you’ll save $571 per year in fuel costs, and put out 6.6 tons of CO2 annually, compared with 9.2 from the Dodge.
Keep on Truckin’

Pickups have been popular for years, not just on the farm but in suburbia. High gas prices have driven some people away from their pickups, but others have found ways to economize. If you drive a four-wheel-drive Chevy Silverado with a 6.2-liter engine, you’re looking at an annual fuel cost of $2,849. Trade it in for a Silverado 15 Hybrid 4WD and your mileage will jump from 14 to 20, while your average annual cost will drop by $854. The planet will appreciate the 3.9 fewer tons of carbon dioxide emitted by your hybrid every year.
Totally Electric and Sporty

Everyone loves the Ford Mustang, and the current models are just as cool as those from the late 1960s. You’ll pay $4.58 to drive this classic 25 miles, using the premium gas that’s recommended for maximum performance. Or, you could really turn heads behind the wheel of an all-electric Tesla Roadster. This is every bit as sporty — and powerful, too — able to accelerate from zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds. You’ll go 244 miles on a full charge, but the best part is that the same 25 miles you paid $4.58 to drive in your Mustang will cost you just 85 cents worth of electricity in your Tesla, built by California-based Tesla Motors. That’s an average annual savings of $2,239. And there’s no carbon emission at all, compared with 11.4 tons per year from the Mustang.

The Ethanol Option

There are pluses and minuses associated with ethanol-based fuels. On the positive side, your car will pump out a lot less carbon if it’s burning E85 gasoline, which is mostly ethanol. But doing so cuts your fuel economy, and it can cost more, too; so if you’re looking to pocket some savings, you may be disappointed. Consider the Chevrolet Impala flex-fuel version that lets you take your pick between fuels. Fill it with gasoline and you’ll be generating 8.0 tons of CO2 per year, compared with 6.5 if you burn E85 instead. But your annual fuel cost using E85 will be $2,884, compared with $1,736 for gasoline.

So, will American interest in rightsizing vehicles continue, with gas prices lower? The jury is still out. As Rozell with the Oil Price Information Service notes, “When the price was $1 a gallon, people didn’t give miles per gallon a thought. When it got to $1.75, people were screaming, but it was still more of an inconvenience. When it moved to $3 and $4, it was on their minds.”

Rightsize Your Car The Saturday Evening Post