Green Pets, Investing, and Home Remodeling: Part 2

GREEN HOME SHOW #59: Green Pets, Investing, and Home Remodeling: Part 2 Pet News and Investing Tips

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Overall Segment #2 – 12:00

Walter Kranktite: Pa announcement on the signing of an alternative Energy Bill which allocates 650 Million dollars towards businesses and home owners.

Green Pet News – 5:00 Sponsored by: CMI Solar Electric

Hi Brook! What do we have today...

So we always talk about how to green our lives here on the great green home show ((from what we eat to what we put under our arm pits))...were always talking about recruiting all your friends and getting our employers to be green... greening our office

But what about our best friends?...our pets!!!!

So after doing some research i came up with my top ten ways to green your pet!!!

((73 million dogs and 90 million cats currently inhabit U.S. homes))

  1. Adopt from a shelter Pet breeders raise large quantities of purebred animals for profit. They’ve also been pilloried for misdeeds such as overbreeding, inbreeding, poor veterinary oversight, lousy food and living conditions, overcrowding, and culling of unwanted animals. Why buy when you can adopt one of the 70,000 puppies and kittens born every day in the United States?

    Pet finder

    Pets 911 currently has a list of over 20,000 adoptable pets from 8,000 animal shelters. homeless cats and dogs each year.

  2. Keep animals inside

    The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that domestic cats kill more than 39 million birds annually—and that’s just in Wisconsin. There are over 66 million pet cats in the United States; approximately 35 percent are kept exclusively indoors.

  3. Always keep your dog on a leash

    Confine your mangy feline indoors. cats are the biggest, baddest bird killers of all time. Even wind turbines have got nothing on them. Two out of every three vets, recommend keeping cats indoors, because of the dangers of cars, predators, disease, and other hazards. The estimated average life span of a free-roaming cat is less than three years; an indoors-only cat gets to live an average of 15 to 18 years. If kitty needs to heed the call of the wild, an outdoor cat

  4. Help Control the Pet Population

    population is just as important for animals... all these newborn animals will need homes and someone to buy them food, shots, etc...the more animals the more food and money is needed to support them and the bigger their carbon footprint will require.

  5. Spaying/neutering

    Spayin and Neutering your pets can also have an environmental impact. According to Animal World Network, seven puppies and kittens are born for every human, which means animal overpopulation is a more serious issue than human overpopulation. Spay or neuter your pet b4 they are 270,000 puppies and kittens are born every day in the United States? We don’t need any more homeless animals than we already have. As a bonus, spaying and neutering helps dogs and cats live longer, healthier lives by eliminating the possibility of uterine, ovarian, and testicular cancer, and decreasing the incidence of prostate disease.

    Over 5,500 puppies and kittens (compared with 415 human babies) are born every hour in the United States. They’re also less likely to suffer from ovarian or testicular cancer, which means less resources spent on treatment. All of these animals need things like food, water and vaccinations to survive. They are not disposable, An estimated that as many as 25 percent of purebred dogs were afflicted with serious genetic problems. Shelter workers nationwide are forced to euthanize an estimated 3 to 4 million

  6. Make Poop Disposal Environmentally Friendly

    All animals go to the bathroom, and disposing of animal waste is no fun no matter what kind of pet you own. Biodegradable bags are sold at most pet stores, and provide an alternative to using plastic bags that are nearly impossible to decompose. Flushing any remains down the toilet is a smart option as well because most traditional landfills don’t lend themselves to composting. Compost your pets waste burry a garbage can in your yard (far away from your way from vegetable garden)

  7. Clean up their poop

    Scoop up your doggie doo in biodegradable poop bags so your buddy’s No. two isn’t immortalized in a plastic bag, while deep-sixed in a landfill somewhere for hundreds of years. .. Cat owners should avoid clumping clay litter at all costs. Not only is clay strip-mined (bad for the planet), but the clay sediment is also permeated with carcinogenic silica dust that can coat little kitty lungs (bad for the cat). Plus, the sodium bentonite that acts as the clumping agent can poison your cat through chronic ingestion through their fastidious need to groom. Because sodium bentonite acts like expanding cement—it’s also used as a grouting, sealing, and plugging material—it can swell up to15 to18 times their dry size and clog up your cat’s insides. Eco-friendly cat litters avoid these problems; a happy cat is a cat that doesn’t claw your face off. American dogs and cats create 10 million tons of waste a year, and no one knows where it’s going

    Here are some alternatives to clumping clay kitty litters Swheat Scoop wheat-based cat litter is made without clays and chemicals, and is fragrance-free and biodegradable. It’s even flushable. Oops, I Pooped makes biodegradable pet-waste bags

  8. Find a Local Vet Every time you drive your pet for a routine check-up, you’re emitting carbon dioxide into the air. A five minute drive creates far less

    Also why live they have mobile vets... A Call Away with Dr. Mindy Carletti... covering Pennsylvania Maryland and Delaware right there in the corner by Newark/Landenberg/in Elkton. 443 553 8174

Look for the mobile that in your area they usually make rounds, cost about the same as your regular vet, and they would be expanding a lot less carbon and everyone driving their pets to the vet

Green’ Investing - 5:00 Sponsored by: Suntrust Mtg of Christiana

Be careful and study

It’s great to be green these days, but make certain you’re getting what you pay for when you invest: By Peter Krull

It’s time to jump on the bandwagon again! Do you remember back in 1999 when every other day a new technology investment “opportunity” was popping up? It didn’t matter what the company did or how qualified they were to handle the billion dollars given them after the IPO, as long as they used the words technology, internet, semiconductor or dot-com in their name.

I’m seeing a similar trend happening again. How many times have you heard the words “green” or “alternative energy” lately? Companies are spending millions of dollars to get in on this market. By my count, there are almost two dozen new green investment options available since the start of 2007, with no sign of a slowdown.

A survey conducted by Allianz Global Investors in December of 2007 found that more than half (54 percent) of the 1,003 participants felt that environmental investing will be an important focus for them in the future. In addition, 71 percent considered environmental technology the most desirable sector.

Now green or environmentally responsible investing has long been an integral part of the more broadly termed socially responsible investing (SRI) industry. In fact, there are several managers that have been around since the seventies and eighties. Their investment decisions are based on a series of responsibility screens in addition to fundamental financial analysis. They also incorporate shareholder activism and advocacy to get middle-of-the road companies to improve their environmental practices.

My worry is that this new crop of green investments lacks environmental responsibility and the core ethic that is the basis for SRI. Anyone can offer a clean energy investment vehicle, but does the money manager follow any environmental values in their business, or when they vote their proxies? Or, is it just another opportunity to exploit an industry.

The term green-washing has been bouncing around as well. Green-washing refers to any business that attempts to mislead consumers into thinking a product or service is environmentally responsible. Several asset managers do base their business model on social and environmental responsibility and that translates into their investments. The majority, however don’t even have a paragraph referencing the environment or sustainability on their websites.

It helps to look at what the money managers are actually buying. One investment manager’s “green” product lists a major “Big Oil” company as it’s top holding. I can think of several companies and sectors that I would place above big oil in terms of environmental awareness! Another manager has a major automaker as a top holding – yes a company that markets a “green” hybrid SUV getting a whopping 21 miles per gallon. I think we’re seeing some greenwashing here, folks.

Look at what else is the asset manager is marketing. Do they specialize in environmental responsibility or is it just another product offering? One manager’s website lists a solar energy security next to it’s timber security. Another has a coal-focused security listed along side it’s solar and alternative energy securities. Neither site discusses the importance of environmental responsibility. They are just another offering.

To contrast, one money manager has been focused on alternative energy investing since the early eighties. Their holdings include companies such as wind energy producers, solar manufacturers and geothermal. Over the years they have expanded into areas such as water technology and energy efficiency. They run the business with the same ethic that they invest: environmentally responsibly.

Folks who have been involved in the environmental movement through the years are used to greenwashing and typically know what to look for. Resources such as Co-Op America and the Social Investment Forum can help you do your research. The Allianz survey however found that 73 percent of investors felt they needed the help of an advisor with their environmental investments. Interestingly though, of participants who currently had a financial advisor, 83 percent said that their advisor had not recommended an environmental investment.

My recommendation is to do your homework and ask lots of questions. If an advisor or asset manager cannot answer some basic questions, move on to the next one. Look at longevity and specialty on the green side of the business. It’s easy to place a “green” stamp on a product, but the ones who back it up with actions are worth considering.

(Peter Krull is President of Krull & Company, a Darien, GA based socially responsible financial services firm. He is a registered principal with and securities are offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. He can be reached at 877-235-3684 or pkrull@krullandcompany.com)

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