A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of chatting on the phone with internationally acclaimed and award-winning activist Van Jones about his book The Green Collar Economy.  Van was both informative and funny – at one point comparing clean coal to having unicorns pull our cars.  I sincerely hope you enjoy listening to the interview as much as I enjoyed talking to him.  The Green Collar Economy has been endorsed by Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle and Al Gore and both Van and the book have been written up in both Time Magazine and The New York Times.

In addition to being an author, Jones is the founder and president of Green for All, a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.  For more information on Green for All, go to www.greenforall.org.

Van Jones

Sure I showed you where you can check out how the presidential candidates feel about the environment but environmental change doesn’t start with your vote, it starts with your home and work.  Try these facts on for size:

1. 17,000: the number of petrochemicals available for home use, only 30% of which have been tested for exposure to human health and the environment.

2. 63: the number of synthetic chemical products found in the average American home, translating to roughly 10 gallons of harmful chemicals.

3. 100: the number of times higher that indoor air pollution levels can be above outdoor air pollution levels, according to US EPA estimates.

4. 275: the number of active ingredients in antimicrobials (those little hand cleansers like Purell) that the EPA classifies as pesticides because they are designed to kill microbes.

5. 5 billion: the number of pounds of chemicals that the institutional cleaning industry uses each year.

6. 23: the average gallons in chemicals (87 liters) that a janitor uses each year, 25% of which are hazardous.

Eye opening, right?  Check out this article at Treehugger for more information and what you can do to make changes in your green cleaning.  Considering last night I saw a Clorox commercial on ESPN for an all green cleaner (during that great Illinois v Indiana game) you can be certain that this isn’t just a small industry anymore either.  Get on board!