Water: Waste Not, Want Not “We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.”
- Jacques Cousteau As I was recently rinsing “dirty” dishes to put into my dishwasher, it suddenly hit me: The clean water effortlessly flowing from my faucet would be considered liquid gold by many people, especially in developing countries. The average faucet flow is 2 gallons per minute. Add that to the 4-6 gallons used in the dishwasher, and the total is more clean water than the average African uses daily – compared to the 176 gallons that the average American does!

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What You Need To Know About Fracking There are many conflicting messages out there about natural gas. Commercials from interests in the natural gas industry claim it's the clean abundant way to "power America's future" by creating jobs and providing a cleaner and more climate-friendly alternative to coal. However, anyone who has seen the documentary Gasland and remembers the neighbor of a fracking operation setting fire to his tap water may raise an eyebrow at the use of the word "clean" to describe natural gas.

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2012: A Unique Year for Car Buying When deciding to buy a new car one of the most important decisions is whether to buy new or used. When I Googled “buying new car vs. used” I first clicked on an article by the trustworthy consumer advocacy site, Consumer Reports, where they wrote “choosing a three-year-old car instead of a new one can save you thousands of dollars over the first five years.” Then I noticed the date the article was posted: October 2008. Since we’ve been living in a new economic reality for the past few years, conventional wisdom about car buying does not hold as true today as it did before the financial meltdown.

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Fix, Scrap or Sell: What to Do About a Smoking Vehicle A few years ago, while taking a course in air pollution control technology, I first learned that a small percentage of cars (known as super emitters) are responsible for a large portion of total vehicle emissions of pollutants. According to a report by the National Research Council, most researchers agree that about 10% of vehicles are responsible for about 50% of the mobile source emissions. This makes sense intuitively. At some point, we have all had an encounter with a particularly smoky super emitter - that car or truck driving in front of us or passing by, spewing noxious plumes in its path.

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Green Associate Training Online

leed ga exam This Leonardo Academy training course covers the key knowledge areas for the LEED® Green Associate exam and the information needed to be an effective participant in the green building marketplace, including what you need to know about

Sustainability
Sustainable buildings
LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI)
The LEED® Green Associate Exam
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World Green® - The Sustainability Social Network

About the World Green® Community

world_green_2011_web Leonardo Academy's vision for World Green® is to fundamentally transform the way we think about sustainability by providing a forum for sharing information and working together on green actions.

World Green® is a unique online sustainable community created to help social entrepreneurs on all levels develop and communicate the impact of their green actions. By providing a forum for the discussion of environmentally sustainable materials, reduction of negative environmental impacts and increased energy efficiency, Leonardo Academy extends its knowledge-base freely to the public. Leonardo Academy also emphasizes designs and materials that safeguard the health of residents and locations.

World Green® is designed to help companies, investors, builders and home owners make the transition to a greener future and a sustainable living standard.

Leonardo Academy’s World Green® Community provides a forum for sharing information and working together on green actions. This site launch will be followed by upgrades that include additional communication channels and interoperability with other social media sites. Leonardo Academy would like to leverage its knowledge with all sustainable communities to help create a World Green® Vision.

Leonardo Academy is a (501c3) nonprofit organization founded in 1997 that is dedicated to advancing sustainability and putting the competitive market to work on improving the environment.

Leonardo Academy is a Think and Do Tank. We develop and distribute strategies, guidance, metrics, standards, education, and information on how to increase sustainability. We also help companies, organizations, families, and individuals successfully promote, encourage, and implement sustainability. Our integrated approach makes sustainability very practical for our clients.