Easy Ways to Green Your Home Improvement Project

Home improvement offers the opportunity to improve your daily environment, boost your home’s value and upgrade energy efficiency. Even if your opting for traditional building you can implement green strategies that will make your project a little greener. While there is a lot of focus on high tech green building, even low tech projects can be environmentally friendly.

The 3R’s

Even toddlers are catching on to the 3R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle. You can reduce the impact that your home improvement project has on the environment by reducing the amount of materials you use. Plan and measure carefully to avoid excess waste material.

If you find you’ve overestimated the amount of materials you need either return them or donate them to a non-profit building organization. Carefully sort any materials, like packaging, so that they can be easily recycled at the end of the job and do the same with the old materials you’ve removed from your home.

Clear the air

Indoor air quality is affected by the chemicals that are commonly found in many construction materials. Substances like formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds are being replaced with low toxicity compounds but not with every product. These chemicals not only affect indoor air, they can negatively impact outdoor air by releasing ozone causing compounds.

The carcinogenic formaldehyde is high on the least of indoor air contaminants. The substance is found in pressed wood products, cabinetry, shelving, underlayment, Urea-formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI), glues, adhesives, paints and finishes. Whenever possible opt for formaldehyde-free products. Also look for low VOC paints and finishes, soy-based adhesives and natural finishes.

Choosing products with indoor air quality in mind not only promotes human health, it also helps keep these chemicals out of the wastestream and the natural environment. These options are becoming more widely available at small hardware and large retail building material stores.

Buy good wood

Home improvement and construction consumes natural resources so its important to choose wood products carefully. Many products today carry a “chain-of-custody” certification, most prominently on the market is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) seal.

The FSC label means the wood you’re choosing was harvested according to sustainable forestry practices that promote diverse ecosystems and are socially and economically viable. The products are of the same quality as uncertified materials but don’t come with as high of an environmental burden. They are available throughout retail stores, in fact you’ve probably purchased certified wood before.

If your project requires pressure treated wood it’s not unlikely that these will contain pesticides and other pollutants. These additives affect pose a hazard to your health and that of the environment. Several manufacturers are offering earth friendly, non-toxic pressure treated wood with warranties comparable or superior to traditional products.

You can also consider plastic lumber made from recycled materials or wood-plastic composites. Both of these choices alleviate the amount of natural materials harvested. They also have added benefits of being lower maintenance, higher impact resistance and don’t fade, rot or splinter. Structural capacity varies from wood products so just be sure to consider this when choosing materials for load bearing placement.