Green Your Home Room By Room: Kitchen

I am starting a new series of how to design your spaces in an eco-friendly way.

This installment is the kitchen. I wanted to start where you can implement some (or all) of these ideas whether you are building new, remodeling, or even just want to green the way you live.

Let's start with appliances. Energy Star™-rated appliances save energy and money and are usually comparably priced to non-Energy Star™-rated items. There are a variety of brands of refrigerators, dishwashers, and trash compactors, and so on the Energy Star™ database. We have GE Monogram--VERY COOL. Convection and microwave ovens are not Energy Star, but save energy in that they cook faster and use less

You will notice that there are NO Energy Star garbage disposals. This brings me to the next green kitchen thing you can do. Composting. Anyone can compost. AnyTHING (except meat & dairy) can be composted. NO need for a garbage disposal--it just adds garbage to the water supply. It's a little more work, but after a while, it becomes routine. If you want to get really elaborate, you can introduce red worms to speed up the process. But make sure you get all the info before you take that one on. We're still figuring it out.

Of course, the food you stock will also have an impact on the planet. Buying organic is not only good for you and those for whom to cook. It's also saving the atmosphere and waterways from deadly pesticides. Buying local keeps pollution and fuel consumption down as well. You are also helping local farmers who care about the environment. AND it tastes better. AND you won't have harmful chemicals in your compost. On the Neck, you can join the local farmers "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA) through Olin Fox Farms. We pick up our share every other Wednesday at the Health Food Store in Kilmarnock--YUM!

Of course, green building materials suitable for kitchen floors are cork, linoleum, or woods from managed forests. Bamboo doesn't doesn't do as well in wet areas, so I would not recommend it. ALSO, if your Northern Neck home is on the water, bamboo might expand and contract too much to be practical in our humid climate for any room.

Cabinets, etc. should have low emissions in the glues and finishes as well as be from either reclaimed wood, or managed forest woods. An interesting option is wood made from fallen palm trees. Interesting, super-hard but still a bit pricey.

Low VOC (volatile organic compound) finishes should also be used on walls and cabinetry. We use Aura by Benjamin Moore for walls and furniture (semi-gloss). Aura seems a bit more expensive, but you don't need primer so it actually is not that much more. It's worth it to not have those fumes.

We also have concrete counter tops, which are green because we used local materials and fabricated them on site. Although granite and other stone counter top materials require little upkeep and are durable, they have to be quarried, which takes lots of energy.

We had trouble finding a cabinet maker in the area that would change their materials or their methods, so we bought cabinets from Green Tea Design, which are from reclaimed ginkgo wood, but came all the way from Korea, so not so green. We have since found a local carpenter who works with FSC-certified woods and urea formaldehyde-free plywood. He is also great about re-using scraps to keep waste down (also a green thing. He did our breakfast nook to match the cabinets as well as other more complex and gorgeous built-ins throughout the house.

Other green things? Lot's of plants help purify the air according to a study from NASA and cleaning products should NEVER contain chlorine or phosphates. We use baking soda, Borax, and plain (cheap) white vinegar for nearly everything. We do get our dishwasher soap from Ecover. Only use paper towels if you HAVE to and then use those made from recycled paper like those made by Seventh Generation.

For more information and yet even more ways to green your kitchen, give us a call at the studio: 804-435-5334

Next Time: Greening Your Bathroom