With Michelle Obama planting the first vegetable garden in the White House, we too increasingly focusing on the role of food in our environment. However, most of us do not understand what is required to produce the food we eat and make it readily available to us day in and day out.

For example, we no longer have to wait until June to get those early season strawberries. Today, we enjoy year-round what was once considered a seasonal fruit. This convenience is something we enjoy without knowing the severe negative impacts it has on our environment. I will bet that you did not know that our food system uses 19% of all fossil fuels, the highest consumption, second only to cars.

Why not take a first step by more carefully choosing our daily food? Here is an interesting low-carbon diet quiz on Facebook provided by Bon Appetit – http://apps.facebook.com/bonappetitquiz/. Next time when you have to choose between a green salad and a Caesar salad, you will know whether or not they have roughly the same carbon footprint.

Environmental organizations are also raising consciousness on the environmental effects on the food chain.  For example, The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is launching the Growing Green Awards to recognize the contributions of people who have demonstrated leadership in the field of sustainable food. Winners of the “Going Green Award”  will be announced at the annual NRDC San Francisco benefit on May 9, 2009.

Vantage is proud to be partnering with Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) to publicize this event.  E2 is a national community of individual business leaders who advocate for good environmental policy while building economic prosperity. Stay tuned to learn more about growing green.

Written by Cynthia Lai

Most people assume green building is expensive. An interesting post about a recent study published by Good Energies, a global energy efficiency and renewable energy investment company, shows some surprising conclusions about green building costs:

 On average, the public perceives the additional costs to build green at about 17%

In reality, the median additional costs for building green proved to be less than 2%

Over half of the buildings studied had a green building payback period of less than five years from energy and water savings alone (let’s put that another way: a five year payback is a 20% return on investment. Where else can you find an investment which will pay 20%, year after year, forever?)

Up front infrastructure development costs in “conservation developments” can be reduced by 25%, or approximately $10,000 per home.

The built environment has a profound impact on the economy and the earth. If you haven’t checked out the website of our client, Serious Materials lately, click on over for some interesting facts on the built environment: 

“The ‘built environment’ is responsible for 52% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide – which compares to only 9% for cars and light trucks. We can slash that number by re-engineering common products that use or lose the most energy. And local plants will create thousands of green-collar jobs here in the U.S., further reducing carbon footprints.”

With the economic outlook for 2009 looking just as gloomy as the latter part of 2008, it does seem like a lousy time to be touting construction and the like.  But while some industries may be looking for a bailout, green building is on the rise. And that’s not just good for the environment. It makes economic sense too.

Written by Tory Klaubo Patrick