Green Kitchen Design

Designing and installing a green kitchen can give you satisfaction every day knowing that your green kitchen matches the highest quality standards of any kitchen whether it is green or not. Reduce electric, gas and other utilities saving you money while doing your part for the environment.

In case you have not heard, green is the new black, but mind you, this is no fashion trend. Decorating, designing, and building sustainable homes is the wave of the future.

Sustainable design and build, aka building green, is defined by the efficient use of energy and material resources in the construction and maintenance of a structure so as to minimize its overall impact on the environment. Designing and building green is really nothing new. It's a staple that has been around for decades but is now getting renewed attention due, in part, to high energy prices and concerns over the US’s reliance on foreign oil and global warming. The fact that green design/building has historically not garnered a lion’s share of the construction market can be attributed to both lack of financial incentive as well as a perception of poor product quality and selection. Today there is a wealth of well studied environmental building science along with an incredible selection of innovative green products that are making sustainable design and construction not only easy but affordable. This is evidenced by the fact that Big Box retailers like Home Depot are promoting environmentally friendly products.

Designing and building green is not an all or none proposition - every little bit counts! It is not a matter of single-handedly saving the environment on one’s own, but rather focusing on the small things that individuals have control over such as installing dimmer switches on lights, replacing incandescent light bulbs with fluorescents, or fixing leaky faucets. If everyone does a little bit, the benefits will add up.

To expand on this philosophy we turn to the four R’s of sustainably designed and built homes – rethink, reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Rethink

We need to rethink the way we have been designing and building residential spaces. Start by siting houses on their lots so that you can maximize day lighting and minimize western exposures (unless you have sufficient roof overhangs) which will reduce the need for artificial lighting as well as cooling needs in summer not to mention maintenance of the home, all of which will have a positive impact on the environment.

Reduce

It is important to minimize a home’s energy and water consumption as well as its operating and maintenance requirements. To reduce energy and water consumption focus on selecting Energy Star rated appliances (www.EnergyStar.gov), low flow plumbing fixtures especially those that sport the WaterSense certification logo (www.epa.gov/watersense) and using native plants for landscaping which have much lower irrigation requirements than non-native species. The key to reducing maintenance requirements and material replacements is by selecting the most durable products a project budget can afford.

Reuse

Consider remodeling or expanding an existing home rather than building new. By reusing an existing lot, foundation and framing, you are preserving what is referred to in the trade as embodied energy. Embodied energy is the total amount of energy required to produce, transport and install a product. Preserving embodied energy can be augmented by using salvaged materials. Reusing materials whenever possible reduces project costs by avoiding the expense of disposing of them and by reducing the need to purchase new materials. When reusing structural materials, it is important to check with your local building authority regarding strength reductions or limits. Code may require some downgrading of structural capacity. Some materials commonly reused include: framing timbers, concrete forms, windows, doors, cabinets, moldings just to mention a few.

How do you get the most reusable materials out of a project? You deconstruct. If you really believe that you need to knock down an existing house to build a better one, consider deconstruction first and this same concept can be applied to remodels too. Deconstructing is just as it sounds, you take the structure apart sometimes stick by stick. According to Quarterly Remodeler magazine, the average new home produces between three and five pounds of construction waste per square foot (or 10,000 pounds for a 2,500 square foot home) while the average remodel produces between 70 and 115 pounds of construction waste per square foot and that 85-90% of this is recyclable. I recently deconstructed my own 2,000 square foot home and in the process diverted approximately 40,000 pounds of house from the land fill not to mention saving myself at least $8,000 in dump fees.

Recycle

As was mentioned a moment ago, 85-90% of construction waste is actually recyclable. So whether a building project entails deconstructing and building back up or building new, a concerted effort should be placed on recycling construction debris. For example save the end cuts from framing timber for kindling or give them to someone who uses a wood burning stove for heat. Maintain a collection bucket for bent nails, bits of wire and metal straps from wood deliveries and periodically recycle this at your local transfer station. Save the plastic wrap off product packaging and use as drop cloths, masking off painting areas or covering materials being stored out of doors. Recycling will reduce dump fees and minimize the quantity of materials being placed in landfills while potentially providing useful items to others and a tax deduction to the donor.

There are multiple motivations for designing and building green. For some it is the monetary savings, for others it is the sense of wellbeing by living in a healthy home and for many it is the idea that they are reducing their impact on the global environment. What ever the reason, the key to successfully designing and building green is the same as conventional design and build – planning. By incorporating the four R’s of sustainable design and build into the planning of a remodel or built new project, you can ensure that your efforts will be paid off aesthetically, ecologically and economically. So ask yourself, is green your color? In the next installment we will look at “how do you know that you are really getting a green product/home?” The final installment will look at design features and materials to make your kitchen, bath or laundry room environmentally friendly.

Why Go Green

Energy consumption, followed very closely by bad lighting and bad ventilation. The kitchen is the most energy-intensive room in the house. Oversized and energy-inefficient appliances are the number-one problem with conventional kitchen remodels. Do we really need refrigerators that can store 12 different bottles of barbecue sauce, eight different salad dressings, 14 containers of leftovers, etc.? And how big do we really need that microwave to be? Are we using it to defrost 30-pound turkeys (a bad idea), or simply to reheat small containers of leftovers? Bigger is definitely not better in this area.

Many: use of too much energy as the result of poor appliancee choices; over-consumption of water due to incorrectly sized dishwashers; chemical sensitization due to overexposure to chemical emissions from high-emitting cabinetry, insulation, and flooring products containing formaldehyde; overconsumption of energy due to poor natural lighting and ventilation; poor air quality due to inadequate ventilation; excessive use of environmentally degrading cleaning products (i.e., chlorine bleach, ammonia) because of high-maintenance surfaces and floors; and generation of too much garbage because of lack of space for storage of recyclables and compostables.

First of all, we must consider the positive mental health benefits of having a brighter, well-ventilated work space. That’s very, very important. As for the physical health benefits, the green remodeling process—and more importantly, the ongoing use of a green kitchen—brings us less or no exposure to toxic chemicals (such as finishes, paints, cleaning products, etc.), lower injury rates (because appliances are smaller and materials safer), and perhaps a little more exercise as we deliver the recyclables, compostables and waste materials to their appropriate receptacles.

Lots of operable windows for natural daylight and free ventilation; a receptacle for compostable materials very near the work prep area; easy access to and sufficient room for recyclables storage in the kitchen; a dish-drawer dishwasher, which is great for smaller loads; a small, energy-efficient refrigerator-freezer; hardwood floors, which are easier to stand on than stone or tile, have no grout to clean, and mop up easily with soap and water; a place to grow herbs; storage designs that are sufficient and easy to use, but don’t encourage you to become a pack rat; and a cold box, which keeps fruits and veggies such as apples and potatoes fresh without requiring refrigeration.