BuildingGreen's Top-10 Products for 2008
Building Green points consumers and pros to a double fistful of great products to green your home.
There are several of interest to anyone contemplating a kitchen remodel:
FSC-certified Plyboo Pure bamboo flooring from Smith & Fong
This is the very best in bamboo flooring and as green as it gets for an imported product.
Natura Paint from Benjamin Moore
Who wouldn't want to use great paint without smelly after-odor? Natura uses Benjamin Moore’s own Gennex zero-VOC colorants. This great green paint is available as a primer as well as in flat, eggshell, and semi-gloss.
PolyWhey Floor Finish from Vermont Natural Coatings
PolyWhey is a water-based wood finish that uses recycled whey protein, a by-product of the dairy industry, as a binder. These LEED-qualifying, low-odor coatings contain no toxic heavy metals. They provide a clear coating with water, chemical, and scratch-resistance and with twice the durability of other waterborne finishes, according to the company, making them suitable for high-traffic residential and commercial areas. PolyWhey finishes dry to the touch in under two hours and fully cure in under a week. Available in gloss, semi-gloss, or satin finish.
Take a look at all ten products (I am really excited about the Matrix furnace for our home) and see what you can do to make your home more energy efficient and safely less toxic.
Posts
that matrix system thingy seems pretty sweet. how much do they typically run?
ReplyDelete-jack
I have been doing research on the Matrix furnace for our own home. I haven't been able to get in touch with anyone who is installing them in California yet.
ReplyDeleteI have had some email exchanges with the rep for the West Coast.
I DID run across one site that was selling them online for around $6900 U.S. This is frowned on by the company on their web site. I don't see this as a DIY item. I would want an experienced installer with a history of installing and servicing them.
I also ran across a site where HVAC installers were saying THEY didn't want to be the first to put one in (the old devil you know rather than the devil you don't argument).
All this tells me that the product is so new it's not quite ready for "prime time".
I'm hoping they get their act together before we install our new furnace this year, because I really would like to go as green and foreward-thinking as possible on such a big investment in our home's infrastructure.
Peggy
Hi Peggy,
ReplyDeleteDo you design green kitchens? (btw. I was unable to access kitchenartworks.com). Do you have a email address I can reach you at?
thank you,
-Karen
Everybody is designing green kitchens these days Karen. It is the hottest trend there is.
ReplyDeleteA green kitchen is simply a kitchen that uses the very latest in sustainable products. And more are coming on the scene every day.
We kitchen and bath designers are being bombarded with green products; just as consumers are.
We all want to do our part to slow, and ultimately stop, global warming and live sustainably.
In the early 90's I started encouraging my clients to use 100% fluorescent lighting in their kitchens after a seminar with Randall Whitehead taught me that indirect fluorescent could be used in ways I hadn't seen before.
I proudly drive a 2003 Prius (the first model Toyota imported). I started saving up to pay cash for it as soon as I drove one. My current mileage is 48.3MPG.
Our tools to create green kitchens may be new and trendy; but designers like me have been doing green kitchens with the tools at hand since before green was "in".
My email address is in the WELCOME! box in the right sidebar. It is not a link because I am bombarded with SPAM as a price for my visibility on the web.
Sorry my web site was down when you hit it. Such things happen more than I wish.
Peggy