The term green room is usually associated with the backstage room where television guests will wait for their turn to come onstage, but with the recent boom in environmental awareness, green rooms are taking on a whole new meaning.
Most of the talk concerning environmentally friendly housing is about new construction, but not everyone concerned with the environment can afford to go out and buy a new house. With that in mind, here are a few tips on how to make the rooms in your house green, without the need to move or renovate:
Past, Present, and Future: one of the keys to maintaining a green lifestyle is to think about what has happened to a commodity before you got it and what will happen to it after. Where do these things come from?
If you need new flooring, find a product made of recycled materials that can be recycled again when you're done. New furniture? Well, old is the new new, so try some antiques or have your current furniture refinished (new paint, new upholstery, etc).
Energy Efficiency: Try more efficient light bulbs, and do it now. Also, if you have old single-pane windows, try replacing them with new double-pane windows to reduce heat loss. If this is out of your budget, put up insulating curtains to reduce the loss as best you can.
Natural Energy: What's better than reducing your electric bill by lighting your house with efficient light bulbs? Not paying for that light at all.
Rooms painted in lighter colors naturally reflect more sunlight, reducing the need for light fixtures during the day. If you do repaint, choose a water-based paint.
Materials From Mother Nature: Here is a pop quiz: is your kitchen cutting board made from wood or plastic? It may seem like a small thing, but wood is a sustainable resource and plastic production usually involves the use of petroleum and the recycling of most types of plastics is not currently cost- or energy-efficient.
This applies to other household materials like carpeting and insulation, so do your homework on the materials either you or your contractor will be using.
Pollution During Production: There are a lot of products on the market that have been heralded as the next great advancement in green technology. While these products may be great once they're in your home, it is important to consider how they got there.
Buying a countertop made of a recycled composite material may seem eco-friendly, but if that composite was made using a variety of chemicals and energy-taxing processes, the environment suffers a net loss. Don't look for products that are advertised as eco-friendly, look for companies that are devoted to eco-friendly manufacturing.
Going The Distance: Think about how far a product had to travel to get to your house. If you want to buy a cabinet that is made from Brazilian Rosewood, then you had better realize that no matter how eco-friendly the production was, there was a lot of energy used getting that material from Brazil to the manufacturers, and then from the manufacturers to you.
Try to buy from local producers. This is not only eco-friendly, but can also bolster small businesses in your area, a win-win situation.
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