Green Home Great Design

Green Home, Great Design

We’ve heard about the world environmental crisis and global warming for years now. And while the pundits were debating whether our environmental world is flat or not, the crisis arrived at our doors. Sadly, we’re already seeing alarming impacts occur – like polar bears becoming extinct in the wild in the near future. We can’t put off the environment and hope everyone else uses fluorescent bulbs. No, the time is now to limit our impact on our one and only Earth. Fortunately, living green can translate to all areas of our lives, including home design. Here are six ways to go green around the house and still enjoy good design.

1. Be cool. Keeping a home cooler can reduce electrical usage. Besides lowering your thermostat in winter and raising it in summer, always opt for Energy Star appliances and make selections for your home with electrical usage in mind. For instance houses with black roofs use up to 30% more electricity to keep them cool than houses with light-colored roofs. Even selecting LCD TVs versus plasma is a cool choice. LCD TVs aren’t as hot as plasma TVs and many LCD TVs carry the Energy Star, making them more efficient. Be thinking about this when TV signals go digital in 2009.

2. Go natural. Natural building materials are so much more pleasing to the eye and are very popular now. Unlike composite materials that require more energy to make and that often off-gas unhealthy chemicals, natural building materials keep your home’s environment cleaner and more pleasant. Opt for stone, clay, wood, glass and metal when selecting surfaces and building materials.

3. Paint clean. Hands down, my favorite brand of paint is Benjamin Moore. I prefer the quality of Benjamin Moore paints to other brands and I am especially impressed that they offer paints that are very low in VOCs (volatile organic compounds). It’s wonderful to be able to purchase top-shelf paints that are gentler to the atmosphere. As environmental awareness grows, we’ll see more mainstream paints go to low- or no-VOC. Benjamin Moore offers EcoSpec with zero VOCs and the new Aura brand is low-VOC, combining quality with a conscience.

4. Buy organic. Cotton is a wonderful fabric, but it requires tremendous amounts of chemicals to produce. From fertilizers, water, and defoliants, getting cotton to market is taxing on the earth. Look for organic cotton when buying sheets and towels to minimize the impact of chemicals in the environment. Buy at Gaiam.com and thecompanystore.com.

5. Bamboo up. The one plant found on every continent except Antarctica is bamboo. It’s one of the world’s most versatile materials. Bamboo can be used for building, for flooring and it can be made into fabric. Bamboo sheets and towels are wonderfully soft, absorbent and durable. Bamboo is one of the most easily replenished building materials, too, making it a good choice over wood, which is much slower growing and harder to replace. Look for bamboo towels at Landsend.com and sheets at Target stores nationwide.

6. LED the way. Lighting is another energy drag on the environment – and our household budgets. Many people have begun changing from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent. But there is an even better choice and that’s LED lighting. LED lights last longer and can use up to half the light that a fluorescent bulb uses. The prices are coming down too and are a little more costly than fluorescent, but well worth buying. LED lights can last up to ten years and are cool-burning. Go to ledlight.com for bulbs and check your favorite home center.

Make a stand for Mother Earth and make green choices around your home. The polar bears are worth it and so are our children and grandchildren.