Word: greened
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...this year's Best Inventions package, green innovations dominate the selection in a way that no single category has ever done in the 10 years we've been making this list. There's a smart thermostat, solar shingles, the new Philips lightbulb, the edible race car, electric bacteria, lots of electric vehicles and farm-raised bluefin tuna. The remarkable ingenuity shown in the hunt for new materials and products that don't stress the environment is reflected in our list, once again ably edited by senior writer Lev Grossman. One glowing exception to the trend is our invention...
David Kistner's midcareer switch to green cleaning was prompted by another life-changing experience: having kids. In 2002, Kistner was working as a consultant in the aviation industry and his wife Effie was expecting their first child. (They ended up having twin boys.) The baby books he devoured contained a fact that caught his attention: pregnant women and infants should avoid dry cleaning because of the toxic chemicals used in the process. When he had trouble finding a greener cleaner in New York City, Kistner had an epiphany - he'd start his own. The result is Green Apple Cleaners...
Another way to get a green cleaning is to use liquid carbon dioxide. CO2 is nontoxic - thankfully, since so much of it is in the atmosphere. In CO2 cleaning, clothes are put in a vacuum chamber with gaseous and liquid CO2, which dissolves dirt and oil. The drawback here is price: a new CO2 dry-cleaning machine can run more than $100,000. Cleaning green "does take longer and cost more," admits Kistner. How much more? Green Apple charges at least $6.16 to clean a shirt using wet methods or CO2. (See TIME's special report on the climate change...
Despite these relatively high prices, Green Apple has found a niche among the more environmentally sensitive citizens of New York and New Jersey. Before Kistner opened his first store, he had 1,000 customers signed up, and today there are three Green Apple Cleaners in the metropolitan area. It may help that Kistner throws in a few green extras, paying customers to return hangers and employing reusable or biodegradable plastic bags. Outside major urban areas like New York, environmentally friendly cleaners can be tougher to find. But the company Green Earth Cleaning has licensed its technology to launderers around...
...Although green cleaners are still in the minority, government action from the top may make the shift inevitable - California is phasing out the use of perc, and other states will probably follow. "There's definitely a market out there," says Kistner. There's no reason dry cleaning has to dirty the earth...