February 10, 2013 starts the Chinese New Year – the Year of the Snake.  Snake years are predicted to be a time for reassessing our personal situation regarding finances, career and relationships.

It’s also a mysterious year that suggests it pays to be cautious when making commitments.

Doo Consulting has committed itself to sharing resources to help make your life, greener, save you money, time and effort.

Nest – the gorgeous, elegant, smart way to save money on your heating bills.

The Snake is unable to control its temperature, but we have Nest, which is able to control yours. Nest learns your schedule and temperature preferences to save up to 20% on your heating and air-conditioning bills.  If you’re not intimidated by owning devices that may be more intelligent that you, this is just what the doctor ordered. Installation takes less than 30 minutes. As you start making temperature adjustments, it starts learning. Adjustments can also be made from your iPhone or Google based cell phone.

http://www.nest.com/

Declare – a “nutrition label” for building products.

Operated by the International Living Future Institute, Declare is a new “nutrition label” or ingredient label for building materials.  Declare provides answers to three main questions:

Where does this product come from?

What is it made of?

Where does it go at the end of its life?

Declare takes aim straight at “green washing” and promises a decisive marketing advantage as more consumers, contractors and service providers learn of its existence.  Declare arrives just in time for LEEDv4 that will require this kind of data for its material declaration credit. Encourage the manufacturers of your favorite products  to up-load their information to this website.

http://www.declareproducts.com/product-database

Tate Phase change floor panels – natural safe passive energy savings through flooring.

As the sun heats the panels during the day, energy is stored and released at night.

Tate’s EcoCore Phase Change Panel uses phase change materials to reduce indoor air temperature fluctuations and save energy. During the peak solar load of the day, the phase change material embedded within the welded steel panel is designed to melt and absorb energy — energy that would otherwise be reflected back into the room as heat or transferred to the air stream.

http://www.tateinc.com/products/ecocore.aspx

Happy New Year!

The team at Doo Consulting looks forward to helping you optimize your sustainability in 2013.