Sustainability Factoids
• LED bulbs use 90% less electricity than traditional holiday bulbs. With their 20-year lifetimes, you don't have to replace LED light-strings as often as conventional ones. Burning 10 strands of lights with 100 lights per strand, eight hours per day for a month costs $175 for incandescent bulbs vs. about $1 for LED mini-bulbs. Incandescent lights give off as much as 90% of their energy as heat, leading to fire concerns. LEDs barely warm up. (from Ideal Bite Nov 26, 2007)

• Use cold water for hand washing. Every 10-degree drop in H2O temperature saves you 3%-5% on water heating costs. Most faucets spit out 2 gal per min while you're waiting for the water to warm up. With hand washing, the friction and the soap are what really get your hands clean. As far as water temp goes, you'd have to rinse your paws in boiling water to actually kill germs. (from Ideal Bite Nov 26, 2007)

• Home heating systems emit 1 billion tons of CO2 per year in the United States. (from Ideal Bite Nov 26, 2007)

EarthEasy.com
• $45 — Amount saved replacing a 75 watt incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb.
• 90 — Number of average sized power plants that could be retired if everyone in the U.S. used energy efficient lighting.

GreenBiz.com
Sustainability and the Bottom Line
• 16% — The average productivity gain companies experienced after moving into a green building, as measured by The Rocky Mountain Institute and USGBC

Terrapass.com
• 265 lbs — Amount of carbon dioxide emitted per person during a round trip from Lake Oswego to Bellevue. Includes flights and taxis between airport and Waggener Edstrom offices.

ReTronics.org
• 315 million — Number of computers disposed in landfills in 2004.
• 5 lbs. — Average amount of toxic material per computer.

EarthDay.net
• 24 acres — Average ecological footprint of each American. 4.5 acres — Number of biologically productive acres available per person worldwide.

• Every minute of every day, the U.S. loses two acres of agricultural land to development, up to 1.2 million acres per year. American Farmland Trust

• The rate of lost farm and ranch land is 51% faster today than in the 1980’s. American Farmland Trust

• Over the past 20 years the acreage per person for new housing almost doubled. American Farmland Trust

• From 1982 to 1997 more than 3 acres of primary forest and cropland was developed ever minute of every day (totaling over 98.2 million acres in 1997 alone). U.S. Department of Agriculture

• The U.S. has lost 17 million acres of formerly tilled land to soil erosion since it was founded, more than any other nation in the world over the same time period. NRCS

• From 1955 urban and suburban development increased by 300% while populations increased only 75%. Cambridge University Press, The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems

• By 2050 U.S. Forest Service estimates that the U.S. will lose 23 million acres of existing forest lands. U.S. Forest Service

• By 2030 one third of all plants and animals will be extinct. 55,000 species are lost every year, more species than went extinct during the age of the dinosaurs. Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

• From the year 2000 to the year 2030 the amount of construction will equal 50% of the volume of all the buildings that currently exist. In 2030, 427 billion sq. ft. constructed building will exist. 182 billion sq. ft. will be devoted to personal housing. However, the material to build these structures does not at this time exist and may not be available in the future without recycling. Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

• The world’s population is now over 6 billion individuals, by the turn of the century it will exceed 9 billion individual and could be as high as 12 billion individuals. IPCC

• The world now lacks potable drinking water for 2 billion people and that number is increasing daily. CSIRO

• To produce one kilogram of: oven dry wheat gain, it takes up to 750 liters of water; corn, up to 630 liters of water; rice, up to 1550 liters of water; soybeans, up to 2200 liters of water; beef protein, up to 100,000 liters of water; and wool, up to 170,000 liters of water. CSIRO

• In a study conducted in the United States between 1982 and 1998, a 1°C increase in temperature decreased corn, wheat and rice production by over 10%. In other countries that decrease ranged up to 17%. In some countries, however, crop production increased as temperature increased. IPCC

• The IPCC predicts an increase in global temperatures of 1.4-5.8°C in this century. IPCC

• As of 2000 the world was no longer sustainable. National Geographic Study

• Although tropical forests cover only about 7 percent of the Earth’s land, they probably harbor about half of all the species on Earth. They could be extinct by the end of this century. NASA

• In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Rainforest Concern

• Forests provide 1/3 of the world’s drinking water. Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

• The deforestation rate in the 1990s was estimated at 14.6 million hectares per year; since 5.2 million hectares were gained through afforestation (i.e. establishing a forest on previously unforested land) and natural expansion of forests, the rate of net deforestation was 9.4 million hectares per year. UN Study on Deforestation

• Every minute of every day 21 children die of hunger. 6 million children under the age of 5 die each year from hunger and lack of water and that number could continue to increase as our climate changes. CARE

• 854 million people across the world are hungry, up from 852 million a year ago. Many of these people could soon die from malnutrition or lack of clean drinking water. Bread for the World

• Worldwide, the United Nations estimates that 60 percent of the most valuable commercial fisheries are currently over-fished, or fished to the limit. WWF

• By the year 2050 we will have run out of most of our sustainable forests, most of our carbon energy used for transportation and construction and we will have placed such a strain on our growing populations that single-family housing will be considered a luxury. UN Study on Sustainability / Populations

• 8,000 lbs of waste are typically thrown into the landfill during the construction of a 2,000 square foot home. Green Builder
Campus Waste

• The average college student produces 640 pounds of solid waste each year, including 500 disposable cups and 320 pounds of paper. It is estimated that every year 222 million tons of waste will be generated by college students alone.

• Campuses offering incentives for double-sided copying have cut paper use and costs almost in half!

• Implementing a recycling collection as infrequent as once a week has diverted about 40% waste at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

• Campuses offering reusable mugs and drink discounts have seen disposable waste decrease by as much as 30%.
Electronic Waste (E-Waste)

• E-waste is made of many toxic ingredients such as lead, beryllium, mercury, cadmium, and brominated-flame retardants that pose both an occupational and environmental health threat.

• It is estimated that electronic waste currently represents between two and five percent of the national municipal solid waste stream, and is expected to increase by three to five percent per year.

• More than 4.6 million tons of e-waste ended up in U.S. landfills in 2000.

• Millions of pounds of electronic waste from obsolete computers and TVs are being generated in the U.S. each year and huge amounts (an estimated 50% to 80% collected for recycle) are being exported.

Energy
• The United States spends roughly $440 billion annually for energy. Energy costs U.S. consumers $200 billion and U.S. manufacturers $100 billion annually.

• In 2004, Americans with the help of ENERGY STAR saved about $10 billion on their energy bills while reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of 20 million cars.

• Residential appliances, including heating and cooling equipment and water heaters, consume 90% of all energy used in the U.S. residential sector.

National Waste
• Every year, the average American household will spend $17,000.00 on basics including food, clothing, body care, and other household items. And over the past 30 years, the waste produced in this country has almost tripled, from 88 million tons in 1960 to about 236 million tons in 2003.

• In a study done in 1996, Americans, who make up only five percent of the world's population, used nearly a third of its resources and produced almost half of its hazardous waste.

• More than 100 million trees worth of bulk mail arrives in American mailboxes each year that's the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.

• U.S. pesticide amounts useduse in both 2000 and 2001 exceeded 1.2 billion pounds.