Are you a Polluter or Clean and Green Homeowner?

Tips for homeowners looking to reduce their carbon footprint!

The new theme for this blog is the homeowners impact on our environment.  Each entry will offer a different issue and solution/contribution we all can make.  Though many real estate professionals can write about the condition of the real estate market itself, I believe like-minded individuals will expect the professionals they deal with to have a similar sense of environmental and social responsibility.  So here is my contribution!  

By: Jennifer Mann

July 11, 2007

Todays peeve:  How many of you walk your dogs as I do regularly in your neighborhood, (I’m in the San Fernando Valley), only to discover that what your neighbors doing the same have left behind?  It gets worse: Weekly then, all our neighborly gardeners arrive to mow, but before they do, the doo gets kicked to the curb!  “What a pitty” I think and say “hey, that’s really pretty s____” but true because I see it peppering the gutter every week on that same day.  In all fairness, what many homeowners may already know but don’t think to tell their gardeners, is that what washes down our raingutters does NOT go to the same place as the sewer systems our homes are connected to!  Where then, does all that trash, motor oil, and yes doo-doo that gets washed into the streets go, you may ask? The answer is: the ocean!  So then, what happens to all that trash in the ocean?  Well, what can be eaten by sea creatures is, and what’s left over usually either entangles, strangles and poisons them.  So, when you go out for that $100 seafood meal, what are you eating?  Are you catching my drift?    SOLUTION:  Let’s all do our part and 1) Clean up after our pets. 2) Instruct our gardeners to place the waste in the trash, not the gutter.  3) Go to http://www.liveearth.org/ to learn how a few small changes can make a huge impact!  Other valuable resources can be found on the environmental page of my website at: http://jennifermann.prudentialcal.com/Content/Content.aspx?ContentID=422022

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