|
GREEN: Emerging Demand |
| Print |
|
E-mail
|
|
Written by Jessica Timmons
|
|
Tuesday, 01 July 2008 |
Green is all the rage in home and garden. But is that translating into real eco-action? Here in Northern Nevada the answer is yes! Demand for eco-friendly living and eco-friendly products is gaining momentum, and with it, the ever more locally-offered options! What’s hot is not necessarily the newest in new, but the tried and true.
We used to see recycled glass products come through only a couple times a year,” says Winston Seymour, co-owner of Atomic Stone, a local custom stone fabrication shop. “In the past about six to eight months we have increased to at least a job a month if not several.”
Recycled glass surface materials, such as Vetrazzo and IceStone, may have been around for more than a decade, but local distributors are now seeing an upswing in demand. “When I show people the recycled product, especially the recycled glass, it’s like jewelry,” says Seymour. “People are just drawn to it. It’s a big magnet because it’s such a beautiful product.”
The earth-friendly brands both manufacture their materials from one hundred percent recycled glass and respective binders of cement, additives, and other secret ingredients. The material can be used wherever you’d put natural stone, including counter- and tabletops, hearths and fireplace surrounds, even flooring. It’s an extremely durable product that resists chipping, scratching, and cracking, so it’s a great—and green—alternative to granite.
Another eco-friendly substance that’s gaining local praise is a composite material called Paperstone. Local custom cabinet and furniture maker Tony LaMorte of Ruby Crest Design is putting the solid surface material, which is made from fifty to one hundred percent post-consumer recycled paper and petroleum-free resins, to good use. “We’ve used it on hearths, as countertops and of course, in our furniture,” he says. “People like it very much. We have people buy it because it’s a green product. And it’s attractive. It’s very pretty.”
LaMorte estimates that only a quarter of his current clientele requests products made from green materials. “But that’s changing, that’s growing,” he says. He chalks it up to simple unawareness, saying that more and more of his clients are interested in going green once he shows them the options. “A lot of people don’t know this stuff is available,” he says. “But we’re getting more and more calls.”
Even the local Sherwin-Williams is noticing increased demand for its no- and low-VOC paint lines. “It’s not new for us,” says store manager Randy Redfearn, who says the company has had the low-VOC technology for a good ten years. “But it’s just now picking up speed. Homeowners are really insisting on it,” he says.
VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are chemicals including formaldehyde that are mixed into paint as preservatives. Not only do they give wet paint its distinct smell, they also emit toxins into the air long after the paint has dried, as well as contributing to ozone and smog. “We reformulated our top three lines to no- and low-VOC coatings,” says Redfearn. “It’s just the way to go.”
The demand for green materials isn’t just limited to environmenl-friendly products. The local application of eco-friendly business practices and construction is on the rise, too. “There’s a great deal of buzz happening around the green building industry,” says Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited professional Kimberly Phipps-Nichol. “I’ve seen it in our area in the last eight to ten months or so. It’s the first time that pretty much everything on my book has come to me specifically as environmental responsibility.”
One of those projects is for The Glenn Group, an advertising agency that’s going green with what they believe may be the first LEED-certified commercial interior remodel at a silver rating level. The LEED Design Green Building Rating System, which was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council a decade ago, gives third-party verification that a particular project meets sustainable design, construction, and operation standards.
“I think personally the CI Rating is actually going to explode with growth here in the next year or two,” says Phipps-Nichol. “Rehabilitation of existing building stock is always a greener solution than building something new so I think we’re going to see a great deal of increase in that area.”
For The Glenn Group, going for their LEED CI rating means demolishing and rebuilding with very green considerations. Not only have they gone through a rigorous recycling process for their demolished materials, from the wood to the metal to the carpet, they’ve also chosen new materials that are almost exclusively recycled and emit no toxins. One of those products is a bio-based concrete stain known as SoyCrete, which, frankly, is edible, says Valerie Glenn, president and CEO of The Glenn Group. “Not that you want to eat your floor stain, but you could.”
From recycled carpet tiles to no-VOC paint to a natural light- and motion-sensing lighting system, the remodel is not only environmentally driven, but also community driven as well. “One of my motivations has become trying to communicate this out into the community,” says Glenn. “There’s a lot of new building that’s going to take place in the years to come and if people build green on those, that’ll be great. But if you think about all the existing structures in our community and in our world, if we began to change those out so that they were green, what an impact that would have.”
According to Phipps-Nichol, it’s already begun. “It really interests me that while the construction industry has really been hit, the demand for green building is actually still increasing,” she says.
Jessica Timmons is a freelance writer who’s loving life in Reno with her family.
 |
|
