When we think of pumpkins, we think of Halloween, Jack-O-Lanterns, pumpkin pie, and maybe Thanksgiving.

But, truth be told, there are plenty of ways to use a pumpkin!

During October, pumpkins are abundant.  Sometimes, too abundant.  And it’s not uncommon to see excess pumpkins cast aside or left to rot after Halloween, but there’s really no need to let the extras go to waste.

The following are just a few of the great uses for pumpkins:

1. Pumpkins in Recipes

As food, pumpkins are low in calories, yet high in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, protein, and potassium.  Dig out your favorite cookbook and search for recipes containing pumpkin.

Pumpkin bread, pies, and muffins are favorites, but you can probably find plenty of others.  As an impromptu house guest in Paris, I was once served an incredible pumpkin soup (though I never completed my search for that recipe).  There are more exotic recipes to try as well – pumpkin juice, pumpkin ice cream, and even fried pumpkin.

2. Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds (also called “pepitas”) are also known to be highly nutritious, and are used in weight-loss diets.  They provide fiber, healthy fats, and protein, as well as minerals such as magnesium, manganese, zinc, iron, and copper.  They are also known to strengthen the immune system, and to be good for people with high cholesterol.

Roasted pumpkin seeds make excellent between-meals snacks, can be sprinkled over a holiday squash soup, and are a favorite in Mexican cooking.  Candied pumpkin seeds are great for parties as well – and even the children might accept them among their Halloween candy.

3. Pumpkin for Pets

Mashed pumpkin is a great remedy for digestive trouble in dogs.  It can be used to combat weight gain or diarrhea, and for resistance to infections.  It is also said to be good for a dog’s night vision and general health.

Simply add a few spoons of cooked, mashed pumpkin to the dog’s food.  (Important: it must be pure mashed pumpkin, not a mix!)  For instructions on how to create your own mashed pumpkin, see #4 below.

Cats may like pumpkin as well, and it can be given to help cats with similar digestive troubles, as well as hairballs.

Remember, if your pet is sick, take him to the vet!  And ask your vet about using pumpkin as a home remedy.

4. Saving Pumpkins for Later

If you have more pumpkin than you know what to do with, you can save it for later use in recipes and for winter holidays.

There are several ways to create pumpkin puree which can be frozen for later use.  The following are three preparation methods:

1.  Baking – Cut the pumpkin in half, place it on a baking sheet with the flat side down, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for about an hour, or until it is tender when tested with a fork.

2.  Microwave – Follow the same procedure as above, but instead of placing the pumpkin in an oven, microwave it on high for about 15 minutes, or until it is tender.

3.  Boiling – Cut the pumpkin into large chunks and rinse.  Then, place the chunks in a large pot, cover with water (fully immersing the pumpkins, plus one inch of water on top), and boil until tender.

Once you have utilized one of the above methods to soften the pumpkin, cool it off, peel it, and mash it in a food processor.  You can also use a potato masher or similar device.

Then, simply seal the puree into zip lock bags, or whatever is convenient, and freeze it for for the winter.  The puree can be used as a substitute for canned pumpkin, in any recipe.

5. Pumpkins as Dishes

You can clean a pumpkin well, cut it in half, and dry it for use as a serving bowl or flower vase. You can also use a halved pumpkin to cook or bake other foods in.  For more information, see How to Carve a Pumpkin Bowl.

6. Pumpkins for the Skin

Pumpkins contain anti-oxidants and alpha-hydroxy, which are said to be good for the skin.  You can use pumpkin peels as a facial, to combat aging or other skin problems.

7. Pumpkins for Children and Games

You can use pumpkins for children’s drawing or carving contests.  If your kids are too little to start carving yet, they can also decorate pumpkins with markers or paint – or even a pumpkin collage.  Another use of pumpkins is as targets for archery practice.

But we definitely don’t recommend any games that involve throwing pumpkins, nor using them as substitutes for soccer balls.

And, possibly even better, how about a cross between a Jack-O-Lantern, a Snow Man, and a Scare Crow?  Your kids might have a great time making a pumpkin man – and it’s much better for them than watching TV.

8. Pumpkins as Ornaments

Pumpkins, gourds, and squash can be used to create candle holders, Thanksgiving centerpieces, and other ornaments.

9. Musical Pumpkins

Yes, that’s right, pumpkins make great musical instruments as well.  Or, at least they can if you know how to make (and play) them.  You can see and hear a variety of ideas for instruments that can be made from gourds, squashes, and pumpkins. Although many instruments are made from gourds, one can easily imagine how a large or small pumpkin would do just as well in several cases.

10. Pumpkins for Crafts

If you are an experienced craftsman or devout hobbyist, you might try some more advanced and creative uses of pumpkins.  You can make pumpkin leather like the American Indians did, or settle witih a simple pumpkin bird house.

As you can see, there’s really no need for pumpkins to go to waste, either before Halloween or afterwards.

During economic recessions, it’s not uncommon that people have more time on their hands than they have money.  Instead of letting extra pumpkins go to waste, these are a few ways you can stretch your grocery budget a bit further, invest some time in your health, get your kids away from the screen, and have some fun at the same time.

It wasn’t too long ago when CFL bulbs were all the rage. Even though they contain small amounts of mercury, they were and are still one of the easiest ways to reduce energy consumption. According to the EPA, if every American home replaced just one incandescent bulb with a CFL, Americans would save enough energy to light 3 million homes, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. Federal legislation passed in 2007 effectively banned incandescent bulbs after 2014. It seems that the CFL bulb has won the battle against the mighty, yet now antique incandescent bulb, but is there another battle looming on the horizon? CFL bulbs are still the darling of many in the environmental movement, but is there honeymoon nearing an end?

The competitor is the LED, or light-emitting diode, which was first conceived in Russia in the 1920’s, but are only now beginning to be available for a variety of business and residential applications. Although LEDs have their own problems that need to be worked out, they have some clear advantages over CFLs. First, they don’t contain any mercury. Second, the light they emit is more similar to incandescent bulbs than CFLs, which is usually a plus to most consumers. Third, on average, they use less energy than a CFL and can last up to twenty years. And fourth, they can be used in large scale applications where CFL installation is difficult. Simply put, as Energy Star states, “LED lighting is more efficient, durable, versatile and longer lasting than incandescent and fluorescents lighting.”

On top of all that, recent studies have confirmed that the production process for LEDs uses less energy than production of CFLs, which seems to tip the argument undeniably in favor of LEDS… except for the fact that they can cost anywhere from $5-50.  LEDs seem to be in the same debacle that CFLs were a decade ago. They are incredibly expensive, but the amount of energy they save is enormous, even compared to CFL’s advantage over incandescent bulbs.

A recent New York Times article highlights the advantages of LEDs for large-scale business applications. Sentry Equipment Corporation in Oconomowoc, Wis., was in the process of lighting one of their new factories last year and eventually chose LEDs for the majority of their outside and inside lighting. Although Sentry spent $18,000 total, $12,000 more than they would have with traditional lighting, they save $7,000 a year in lighting costs, which will have a return of investment in just two years.

Not everyone is convinced that LEDs will dominate the lighting market in the future. In the same New York Times article, Mark Rea, director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, said, “L.E.D.’s will gain dominance in downlighting, outdoor and track lighting… I do not see a major step toward change in general illumination without transforming the infrastructure. To say L.E.D.’s will change everything, I don’t buy it. I think a lot of it is hype.”

Regardless of whether LEDs will dominate the market, it is clear that businesses and municipalities interested in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and cutting costs at the same time will be on the lookout for LED technology. It seems unlikely that LEDs will be a huge presence in the residential lighting market, but who knows what future technological advances will bring.

For more information on how you and/or your business can benefit from LED lighting, check out Energy Star’s guide to the LED.

When I was a young child, I used to put a certain small 45 rpm Sesame Street record on my Fisher Price record player.  The record had Kermit the Frog repeatedly singing, “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green.”  Today, as a mature, suit-and-tie-wearing frog, working in a marketing department of a large corporation, Kermit would easily refine his identity-conflict tune to “It’s Not Easy Marketing Green.”

According to the American Marketing Association, “Green Marketing” is defined as the development and marketing of products designed to minimize negative effects on the physical environment or to enhance its quality.  However, applying a concrete definition to such a slippery concept, which has taken many forms and shapes over the years, has proven to be anything but simple or manageable.  And, as you have seen on our Source and Resource site thus far, green marketing can include a variety of activities in diverse areas.

In general, a company’s green strategies has involved any of the following: 1) improving efficiencies in the production process, 2) changes in advertising style, and/or 3) taking greater account of a firm’s wastefulness of the earth’s resources, pollution and its release of toxins into the atmosphere.

Ever since Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports first emerged in the late 1980s alongside a company’s annual financial reports, firms’ environmental considerations have manifested in various (some may say ‘nebulous’) commitments, promises, and proclamations.  Some half-hearted, some gracefully fulfilled.  Such actions have ranged from recycling waste in industrial processes to a company exclusively using recycled paper; from a firm’s increased efficiency in the utilization of energy and materials, to improved logistics management for cutting down transportation emissions; and, even from transforming plastic waste into pencils, to donating employees’ used eyeglasses to a program called Vision Aid Overseas.

As we have all witnessed, consumer and corporate environmental consciousness has dramatically elevated in recent years.  Related news, events, and proposed legislation seem to emerge and change at warp speed.  More apparent causes and effects of global climate change, depleting fisheries, deforestation, and the current energy and impending water crises have all caused people to reassess what they put in their cupboards, dishwashers, and gas tanks, along with what they do with such things once they’ve been used.

Because of this intensified environmental awareness, it has become increasingly important how a firm deals with such global challenges.  Or, one might argue, it may be even more crucial how a firm is viewed in approaching such issues.  In this manner, CSR environmental behavior and “cleantech” investments have become essential to a company’s core operations, regardless of the sector in which the company operates.  That is, companies are not only sensing the rising accountability demands of shareholders, the public, and governmental bodies, but also the opportunities involved in a “green products” market estimated at US$209 billion.

Along the years, many corporate executives acquired newfound headaches attempting to navigate through the ever-shifting Green landscape.  Sometimes, it would seem as if all good deeds went punished, or, at best, unrecognized, and all “regular” activities were hyper-scrutinized.  Yet, nearly all will tell you that such experiences were tremendous learning opportunities and that it is quite important for companies to stay active, involved and persist in the green marketplace.  Unlike the first environmental movements of the 1970s and 1980s, this Green Marketing movement is a core business paradigm that is here to stay.  And, as executives are quickly learning, businesses not only need patience, but also much guidance along the way.

In addition to what Greg has been doing with critical updates on resources and news on sustainable, green business practices, this column provides the latest innovative approaches to green business strategies and corporate environmental marketing.  This will include a greater background understanding of the issues, theories, and policies involved, as well as insight from leading experts of where the green marketing movement has been, what it has learned, why, and where it is today.  We will explore how firms are overcoming the green marketing challenges and where they are seeking and finding new opportunities; how they are positioning themselves and where they are investing. We will search for answers to the key question, “How do firms embrace the holistic approach to green marketing that, although initially seems quite daunting and elusive, could provide a wealth of innovative and environmentally sustainable opportunities?”

Habitat for Humanity is known for building low-income houses, but soon they may become a national leader in low-income residential “green” housing. Habitat for Humanity International and The Home Depot Foundation announced Tuesday the national expansion of “Partners In Sustainable Building,” a successful pilot program initiated at 30 affiliates that resulted in the construction of 260 sustainable homes. Most of the houses participating in the pilot received 15-30 percent energy reduction, while some achieved LEED Platinum certification, which resulted in nearly 50 percent energy savings. Jonathan Recker, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International, called the pilot program “extremely successful.”

The national program will expand to 120 affiliates in 45 states across the nation and will provide $30 million in assistance to participating affiliates over a five-year period. According to Habitat’s press release, affiliates will be granted $3,000 for each home built to Energy Star standards and up to $5,000 for each home built to a higher green standard.  These amounts are the typical additional costs to sustainably build an average $75,000 Habitat for Humanity house. The higher costs are attributed to additional needed materials, certification, and new training.

The program is hoping to build 1,500 sustainable homes by the end of 2010 with the eventual goal of building 5,000 in the next five years. Homes can be certified by a number of green building organizations, including the National Association of Home Builders standard, LEED, EarthCraft, and Enterprise Green Communities.

Although the environmental and monetary benefits of green building are catching on in the United States, it is still difficult to convince some people to make the investment. In addition, LEED certification is not as popular with residential housing as it is with business buildings.
Habitat’s pilot program proved that upfront costs of green residential building are minor and that the initial extra costs can be easily recouped throughout the lifetime of the house. If the national program is equally successful, it will be one of the largest, if not the largest, low-income green building initiatives in the United States.

Low-income individuals and families are hardest hit during energy price fluctuations, such as spikes in natural gas prices that have occurred during the last couple of years. High energy costs often mean no heat during cold winter months for low-income families. Energy efficiency housing provides these families with a buffer between volatile energy prices and their pocketbooks.

At the core of both organizations is the belief that environmentally-sound building should be accessible to all:

“The Home Depot Foundation believes green building techniques are not a luxury—they aren’t exotic or expensive,” said Kelly Caffarelli, president of The Home Depot Foundation. “By embracing the practical principles of green building, our partnership with Habitat for Humanity International is demonstrating that these techniques can actually make homes more affordable to own, maintain and live in from day one and for the long-term. With health and economic concerns at an all-time high, this issue is more important than ever for the families who will purchase these homes.”

Money is also allotted to train employees about green building: “To inspire and educate additional affiliate participation, eight Habitat State Support Organizations, which provide services to 440 affiliates, will also receive grant money to add staff and host training sessions for Habitat affiliates to learn how to build to nationally-recognized green standards.”

The Home Depot Foundation was created in 2002 and has since granted $120 million to nonprofit organizations and supported the development of more than 65,000 affordable, healthy homes. The foundation focuses on supporting sustainable building projects for working and low-income families across the United States.

Due to its impressively reproductive abilities, Bamboo is hailed as one of the most sustainable raw materials available. Not to mention, nearly everyone, from consumers to researchers, has a positive perception of bamboo, and it is often quoted as the ‘perfect’ green substitute. The reason lies in its inherent durability, affordability and overall adaptability. Overwhelming demand for bamboo products like furniture, paper, keyboards and apparel wear has led to the inception of a bevy of profitable green industries. Bamboo goods are even being retailed at major stores like Wal-Mart and eco-centric brands like Banana Republic. It is expected that the size of the bamboo goods industry will amount to nearly $25 billion in 2012. Therefore, it is no surprise that newer ways of using bamboo for other green business practices are also being researched.

Bamboo-based products have vast business potentional. Bamboo is a great green solution for organizations striving to adopt greener technologies but struggling from restricted funds. The growth pattern of a bamboo ensures bamboo will remain cheap to produce, needing little or no pesticides and minimal water supply. This isn’t to mention its environmental benefits, using up more carbon dioxide than any other contemporary vegetation of comparable size. These features make it one of the most environmentally-beneficial materials introduced in the last decade. Further, it is a demand-compliant raw material that can be manipulated for nearly every conceivable use. For example, Method, a cleaning-products company in San Francisco uses bamboo for its packaging and industrial cleaning needs. The bamboo company, Totally Bamboo, alone produces 300 different types of bamboo-based products to meet the rising demand.

Bamboo Laptop

However, despite praises for its sustainable aspects, the conventional bamboo harvesting and procurement methods aren’t the most sustainable. There is a growing fear that the surging demand pattern may eventually damage bamboo production beyond redemption. Analysts believe that there is a highly misplaced notion among bamboo growers that just because it grows quickly and is more resilient than conventional crops, its harvesting doesn’t need to be regulated.

Just consider this — The United Nations has stated that nearly half among the 1,200 known varieties of bamboo are already extinct or are on the verge of being eradicated.

Major suppliers like Totally Bamboo depend upon sourcing bamboo from China but are taking care not to indulge in over-harvesting. This should be regarded as a smart business decision, since there are already predictions of a bamboo shortage by 2011-12. The anticipated demand is already pushing-up the price of bamboo products beyond anticipation and if this disturbing trend continues, its appeal as a green substitute for businesses may quickly lose its shine.

Among the many solutions discussed for ensuring the availability of bamboo over a sustained period of time, cultivating it within the US has received a lot of support. Bamboo providers like Totally Bamboo have already begun exploring this opportunity. Various parts of the country like Florida, Texas, Maryland and Missouri have been recommended for being gradually converted into the bamboo belt of America. Certain indigenous American varieties like Florida Bamboo have already found a lot of domestic demand. These areas have traditionally been used for growing cotton and are regarded as most suitable for growing the varieties of bamboo that are being imported from China.

A more enterprising initiative has been taken by BooShoot Gardens based in Mount Vernon, Washington. This innovative laboratory presents a radically-different solution for replenishing the production of bamboo. As a part of its agroforestry initiative, it is growing various varieties of bamboo through the tissue culture technology for being planted across the US.

Think that turning on the light switch translates to the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions during all hours of the day? Think again.

Last Friday saw the creation of realtimecarbon.org, a United Kingdom-based website that allows UK citizens to view the varying carbon intensity of their energy usage throughout the day.
The site tracks the carbon footprint of a KW of energy over time. Demand for electricity fluctuates depending on the time of day and season of the year. Peak hours are normally daytime and early evening and cold winter months when electricity is needed for heat and the days are shorter.

When consumers use energy during these peak hours, the carbon intensity of each unit of electricity used is higher because it increases the cost of wholesale energy which causes utilities to switch on the cheapest sources, usually coal-fired power plants.

For example, on average in the United Kingdom, boiling a pot of water or running the dishwasher in the middle of the afternoon emits 40% more carbon dioxide then doing the same activities in late evening or at night.

The website “uses data from the organisations who manage the ‘balancing and settlement’ of the electricity grid to determine which power stations or wind-farms are generating electricity at any given time. It then calculates the overall carbon intensity using coefficents for each type of generation.”

The self-proclaimed goals of the tool are to “reduce carbon emissions, enable more accurate carbon accounting for businesses, promote smart-grids with smart demand, and encourage debate on energy and climate change policy.”

Duncan Clark at The Guardian’s environment blog explains its significance, “It may sound geeky but it’s hugely significant… Anyone interested in energy and emissions has known about this for years – though only on a theoretical level. For the first time, Realtime Carbon actually gives us some numbers.”

The creators of the website are hoping to reduce carbon emission and spur the creation of clean energy projects by making it easier for companies to understand, estimate, and reduce to their carbon emissions. Although a real time carbon counter was installed in New York City a month ago, there is yet to be a North American counterpart to the UK tool.

The tool cannot simply be copied because it uses energy data specific to the United Kingdom. Although the United States’ energy supply is fairly homogenous—in the sense that most regions are heavily dependent on coal and natural gas—a tool for the United States would have to be split up into states or regions because energy sources do differ significantly. For instance, Washington receives a significant supply of its energy from hydroelectric power that is virtually emission-free compared to coal power. It would be problematic to group it with Idaho or Montana, states whose energy supplies are sourced from dirtier sources.

Regardless of the difficulties involved with adapting the tool for countries other than the UK, it seems clear that this website is a landmark achievement in understanding energy supply and communicating that understanding to the public. It is a tool that, if accurate and user-friendly, could revolutionize how businesses use and think about their energy.

The Plastics 2020 Challenge Takes Global Centrestage

An alliance of the worldwide plastic industry, consisting of leading trade associations, has been forged to ensure that they are able to alter the common perception that the plastic industry is environmentally-insensitive. This significant development has come about in the form of ‘The Plastics 2020 Challenge’ organized by PlasticsEurope, the British Plastics Federation and the Packaging & Films Association. The Challenge would represent the innovative and eco-friendly efforts of about 5,000 plastic companies.

As part of this campaign, the concerned entities would try to incorporate the use of lightweight plastics along with developing new ways in which plastic products can be recycled without any substantial carbon emissions. This essentially means that the brands registered under this forum would seek more cooperation from the government agencies involved in developing greener technologies, particularly those concerned with recycling. One of the objectives would be to develop affordable waste-to-energy technologies when recycling does not seem like an economically-feasible option.

Plastics 2020: The Outline

The forum has emphasized that they want to double the recycling rate for plastic packaging and other products by 2020. This will be combined with an effort to limit the volume of plastic wastes being dumped in landfills.

Challenge 2020 endorses an easy-to-understand tag line for educating people about its efforts. This is being promoted as the ‘Four Rs’:

•    Reduce — restricting plastic wastage by phasing-out plastic products that don’t present a recycling option. This means a commitment towards introducing high-performance plastic materials.
•    Reuse — gradually increase the use of thinner and low-emission plastics for packaging and constructional purposes. These plastics are as reusable as conventional plastics but have a lesser impact on the environment.
•    Recycle — seeking support from industrial conglomerates and government agencies for increasing the efficiency with which used plastics are transformed into safe, affordable products. This includes creating sustainable international markets that would endorse this new range of refurbished plastics.

•    Recover — creating a safer and more sustainable method for eliminating plastic products that cannot be safely recycled. This means researching new waste disposal techniques for end-of-life plastics.

Plastic Use & Contemporary Business Practices: Understanding the Predicament

If you consider the relevancy of the Plastics 2020 Challenge, it would seem that it couldn’t have been timed any better. Although there is a great emphasis upon adopting greener business practices across the globe, there is lot of confusion regarding its feasibility and method of adoption. For example, among the latest plastic-centered green building technologies is the Translucent Roofing System that is used for controlling the amount of natural light entering the living spaces and it is recyclable.

There is also a gradual shift towards using an innovative plastic-based, nano-porous insulation material. However, apart from a handful of such examples there is a serious dearth of adopting greener plastics into the modern business segment, particularly in creating sustainable homes.

The Problem — The general perception is that plastics have an extremely negative environmental impact and their use should be avoided. However, plastics produced from a single polymer with negligible additives can be easily recycled and have appreciably low carbon emissions. A notable example is the construction industry that presents a confusing picture wherein PVC, polybutylene, polypropylene and polyethylene are being used with varying interpretations about their environmental impact.

The notion that PVC shouldn’t be used for houses based on the green construction platform was severely challenged in 2007 by the US Green Building Council. According to this organization’s report, though much-maligned, PVC was not as environmentally-challenging in comparison to some of the ‘supposedly’ greener materials preached for being used in roofings, pipes, sheet floorings, window frames and claddings.

As a result, there is a great debate over the environmental footprints of PVC. Now, polyethylene, polybutylene and polypropylene are being increasingly substituted for PVC-based constructional products since they don’t contain harmful chemicals chlorine. Yes, these plastics are more environmentally compatible than PVC but their production is heavily dependent of fossil fuels. There are many other plastic options besides these three that haven’t been explored, or more critically, they haven’t been presented in an adoptable format.

Plastics 2020: A Step In The Right Direction

If the above-illustrated example of using plastics for creating greener and more sustainable homes is continued with, the Challenge 2020 will educate its members about various mediums to help businesses understand Sustainable Construction. This would include issues such as decoding carbon footprints of PVC windows, plastic water pipes and use of plastic foam insulation. Resource efficiency of a building is still a grey area for most businesses. For example, plastics foams are cost effective and environmentally friendly and expanded polystyrene insulation helps to conserve energy within an establishment. Similarly, the new-age version of plastics pipes has a lesser ecological impact than concrete and iron pipes and being extremely lightweight, they help to save on transport costs.

This is how the utility of the Plastics 2020 forum will come to the fore — educating businesses about various kinds of plastics that can be incorporated for affordably, adopting greener technologies.