5 Easy Ways to a Greener Real Estate Practice

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My recent Audubon excursion to an island off the coast of Maine has me more impassioned than ever about not using plastics in any form. The environment is saturated with them, and recycling, though perhaps helpful, is not the answer as the market for recyclable plastics is not what it was before the world-wide economic downturn.  And energy conservation, in any form, is more important now than ever before.

What can we do, as independent business people?  Let’s start with the home office, though some of these suggestions can apply to your central office as well:

1.  Buy paper for your photocopy machine that’s wrapped in paper, not plastic.

2.  Turn off any lights or other appliances that you are not using, including your printer and computer.  An aside: take a look at these disposal guidelines from the EPA,  for when you break a compact fluorescent bulb.  I was totally unaware of the dangers of mercury gas; sometimes I think we should stick with incandescents and use them sparingly.

3.  Working at home?  Save water by sticking to the old adage: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow.  If it’s brown, flush it down.”  And never, ever, leave the water running while you brush your teeth or wash dishes.

4.  Coffee break?  At-home coffee makers that use disposable plastic one-shot containers might be quick and easy, but why should our caffeine needs hurt the environment?  Going out for coffee?  Bring your own refillable mug and keep one more plastic lid out of the landfill.  And if the counter person sticks your plastic iced coffee container into a styrofoam one, kindly decline the outer cup.

5.  Urge your local grocer to stock products that are wrapped simply.  Yogurt in plastic containers that we eat with plastic spoons?  Lettuce in a plastic box?  Mushrooms in styrofoam packaging?  If we stop buying, the plastics producers will have to eventually stop supplying.

That’s my soapbox for today, inspired by the hundreds of pounds of plastic trash we picked up in only two days on the islands we visited in Maine.  Here’s a photo of some of the winged beneficiaries of a cleaner planet — the Common Tern — that’s becoming less and less common as our oceans fill up with microscopic particles of plastic ingested by seabirds, fish and yes, eventually, us!

Linda Burnett

Jamaica Plain/Roslindale Real Estate Maven
Keller-Williams Boston-Metro Real Estate
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OPEN HOUSES CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO OUR HEALTH!

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It’s probably safe to say that as a Realtor in Boston, I walk into more homes in a month than most civilians do in several years.  One aspect of housekeeping that never fails to stun and amaze me is the use of chemical “air fresheners” – that’s Glade, Renuzit, Febreze, Air Wick and the countless generic brands that mimic them. This includes the purportedly “natural” oil-based products.  And carpet cleaners – I can tell before I walk in when a desperate homeowner has sprinkled their wall-to-wall with a chemical cleaner to cover up an untrained puppy or worse, when they believe it “removes” the smell of cigarettes.  Read the labels closely.  “Baking soda” might be in 10-point print, but look at all the 4-point ingredients and put it back on the shelf.

These mass-marketed products contain carcinogenic chemicals.  Period. And vaporizing agents, (in order to disperse the carcinogenic chemicals), that are also poisonous.  Some visitors to your home, whether it’s on the market or not, could have sensitivity so acute to these chemicals that entering a room where the chemicals are present could cause anaphylactic shock, or worse, death.  Our lungs are soft and absorptive and soak up these chemicals like sponges.

It’s the same stuff that’s in those “Little Trees” that  hang from so many rear-view mirrors, but more lethal as science progresses and can now mimic the most obscure aromas and flavors, and get away with calling them “natural”! Big surprise: FDA guidelines for  flavor and aroma labeling are a joke.

Instead of investing in more plastic-contained poisons to make our homes smell fresh and clean, we can invest, (much less money!) in baking soda, vinegar and other non-lethal household cleaners.  Go to this site – the non-profit Environmental Working Group — to vet everything before you buy it.   Learn the truth about the bath soap and shampoo you use, the laundry and dishwasher soap, and, heaven forbid, the fabric softeners — especially chemical-laden dryer sheets.  And when you vent your dryer into your home or into the atmosphere, you are getting an even stronger dose or sharing these poisonous compounds with your neighbors – two-and-four-legged,  winged and furry. Download this free guide to safer home cleaning.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publishing of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s history and expose´of synthetic pesticides and other chemicals developed since World War II.  Let’s honor her memory by cherishing our health and the health of the planet.

For the bigger picture, visit http:www.silentspring.org.  If audio is your preference, listen to a recent interview with Dr. Julia Brody, Executive Director of Silent Spring, and learn the basics of what mass marketing is doing for our and our planet’s health.   I hope these teeny shards of information will help you to pause before purchasing and that you’ll encourage your homeowner clients to do the same – we’ll all breathe easier!

Linda Burnett

Jamaica Plain/Roslindale Real Estate Maven
Keller-Williams Boston-Metro Real Estate
Search Boston Homes
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