Need some help figuring out where to start modifying products and services for the green market? A new EPA Web site might just be the ticket.

The agency has created a the Green Homes Web site that identifies some of the biggest areas in a home that need green attention. The main purpose is to help home owners or renters identify cost-saving opportunities to reduce heating and cooling bills.

Companies can use this handy Green Homes site to refine their product and service offerings by tracking what the hard-pressed home owner (renter) is spending their money on right now.

For example, the Green Homes site identifies the laundry room as home to the most energy intensive activities, and EPA urges changes in consumer behaviors, such as buying detergents that:

• come with minimal packaging
• are formulated for bulk or concentrated use, and
• are designed for use in cold water, which creates huge savings for homeowners because about 90% of energy used for washing clothes is for heating water.

EPA even recommends that consumers use an old fashioned, solar/wind clothes dryer (i.e, a clothes line) to cut back on energy usage.

So when EPA targets hot water heaters as wasteful products in need of a serious green upgrade that presents an opportunity for manufacturers to build ones that are certified under EPA’s Energy Star program.

If your products are not Energy Star-certified, are you sure you want to ignore this rating system? It doesn’t mean you have to abandon your existing product line.

A few tweaks here and there could be all that’s needed to be able to offer a green version. That’s what Proctor & Gamble did with its popular Tide laundry detergent. They’ve turned it into Coldwater Tide to cater to the green-minded, energy conscious consumer.

Tags: Coldwater Tide, energy efficiency, energy star, Green Homes