Green Home Innovations

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UltraTouch Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation. Photo Credit: www.BondedLogic.com Only a few years ago, environmentally sensitive home products were hard-to-find and even harder to afford. But as energy prices have risen and the green movement has become more mainstream, innovative materials, systems and practices have become big business. Here are a few favorites of builders and designers. Smart Surfaces New materials for floors and countertops are getting lots of attention because they truly mimic the look of other solid-surface countertops but are made from more eco-friendly materials. Paperstone, Sqauk Mountain Stone and Richelite countertops are made of composite materials like post-consumer recycled paper or plastic resins, are monitored to ensure they don't release harmful levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and are formaldehyde-free yet look like regular, high-end solid surface countertops. Other materials, like reclaimed wood butcher block countertops or glass tile surfaces, are also increasing in popularity. But even if you crave a natural stone surface like granite, it's important to consider not just the material but also its fabrication, says Alex Pettitt, green builder and host of the digital TV show, Mainstream Green (mainstreamgreen.tv). Pettitt says he and his wife were going to choose materials from a nearby granite company for their Austin, Tex., home, thinking they were acting responsibly because the rock was mined locally. But when Pettitt found out the rock was mined about 50 miles away then shipped to Houston where it was put on a boat and sent to Italy to be polished and honed then shipped back to Texas for installation, he looked elsewhere. "We just thought, wow, this stuff has gone so far!" he says, laughing. For carpets, wool and other natural materials are good choices. Even mainstream manufacturers like Shaw and Mohawk are becoming more eco-friendly with carpets made from recycled products like old plastic bottles and organic materials like corn. Wood Products For wood flooring, rapidly renewable forests are becoming popular resources. Bamboo and palm look beautiful, wear well and grow back much faster than old-growth forest trees, says Pettitt, who put Durapalm from Smith and Fong in his own recently renovated house. "It's a gorgeous product made from trees that have quit giving fruit," he says. "It's sustainable because they're managing their farms and using something that would have been a byproduct, and it's a beautiful material." Durapalm flooring. Photo Credit: Benny Chang. Photo courtesy of Smith & Fong. For renovations, using reclaimed wood from its original site is a very eco-conscious way to manage your waste. LEED-accredited designer Sharon Patterson recently completed a green renovation of her home in Boise, Idaho, and used wood she salvaged from tear-down on the heads of the door frames as well as the new staircase to the addition. "The underframe of the stairs is reclaimed from the deconstruction, and the treads and risers are reclaimed from a barn just outside of Boise," she says. "They're just beautiful. They have all the richness and history and texture, like the nail holes and the knots, of old wood." When framing new homes or additions, sourcing locally is often a good way to go when looking for bracing products. The best way to do this is by choosing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood, says Jay Hall, acting director of the U.S. Green Building Association's LEED for homes program. "With FSC-certified wood, there's a chain of custody, so it's tracked from the forest all the way to the store," he says. "Wood changes hands so many times, it's easy to lose track without that chain of custody, and FSC is the only wood certification system that has that feature."

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