your house - Andrea Kantelberg

home≠
Recycle
Green Up
FUrniTUre
•Look for wood furniture that is Forest
stewardship Council (FsC) certified or buy
furniture made from reclaimed or
salvaged wood. better yet, give new life
to vintage or secondhand furniture and
materials, which can be purchased at
flea markets or places like habitat for
humanity’s restore.
Look for upholstered pieces containing
silk, wool, latex or natural rubber.
your House
•
Transform your living
space with eco-friendly
home decor products
and furnishings.
brentwood manufactures a line of sofas
and chairs stuffed with bio Plush Foam,
a foam product made from soybeans.
For every million pounds of bio Plush
substituted for petroleum-based flexible
foams, about 2,200 barrels of crude oil
are saved.
avoid items with plasticizers, polyvinyl
chloride (PVC) or brominated flame
retardants.
•
for an ecofriendly look
>Check out salvage, secondhand and
antique stores or thrift shops, such as
Habitat for Humanity reStore or The
Salvation Army, for finds that can be
spruced up with water-based, low-VOC
paints or organic fabrics.
>Use reclaimed wood in new furniture
construction or flooring.
>recycled metals like stainless steel
work well in updated kitchens.
A chest of drawers made from
reclaimed pine (salvaged from an
old house) gets a new life with a
water-based finish by Hodges
Landing Urban Country Furniture
and Kitchens in Orillia, Ont.
By Gail SwainSon
ProduCed by Karen KirK
and danieL Cayer
How to
buy green
Sofa set from The Not So
Classic Collection by
Normand Coutures,
FSC-certified and Bio
Plush Foam construction,
Brentwood Classics.
>Buy local. This means as
little nonrenewable fuel as
possible was used to get the
item to market.
>Purchase paints, stains and
wallpapers with low volatile
organic compound (VOC)
ratings. Use linseed oil as a
finish on wood floors,
furniture and cabinets instead
Upholstered chair made
with natural wool fabric,
natural latex rubber and
organic cotton gets a
green stamp of approval;
Pure by Ami McKay Design.
Look for PVC-free draperies, window
blinds and shades or ones made from
natural fibres, such as cotton, linen, wood,
reed, grasses, bamboo, silk or hemp.
plastic coatings.
>Ask the retailer if the
product was made with
sustainable manufacturing
practices that conserve energy
and water.
>Purchase organic and
pesticide-free fabrics, such as
cotton and wool.
>Look for mattresses, sofas
and chairs made with natural
latex, organic silk, cotton
or wool.
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t’s not easy being green – especially when you fall in love with a
new sofa and decide that your living room just has to have it. We
all think about size, price, colour and style when we shop, but we
don’t always think about the impact on the environment. In fact,
where on earth do you even find eco-friendly furnishings?
At the forefront of a growing movement to create home
interiors with the environment in mind is interior designer
Andrea Kantelberg, owner of Kantelberg Design, based in
Toronto. “Knowing what and where to buy is the biggest challenge facing
eco-consumers,” says Kantelberg, who has recently brought her own ecoproducts to market. So we went shopping for decorating and furnishing
options. Here’s what we found for today’s stylish and sustainable home.
≠ www.canadianliving.com
PhotograPhy, Luis aLbuquerque
(bottom right)
of polyurethane or other
Bedding
•Pesticide-free cotton, hemp
and bamboo bedding and
towelling is best, particularly
for children.
to be considered eco-safe,
upholstery fabrics should be
manufactured from natural
materials, such as silk, organic
wool or cotton, without any
•
Clockwise from top: Hypoallergenic, natural
silk-filled pillow protector, Smartsilk. Organic
cotton Coyuchi sheets and organic cotton
jacquard blanket in taupe. Both Organic
Lifestyle. Wamsutta cotton/bamboo
comforter, Home Outfitters. Shredded natural
rubber pillow with Coyuchi Birch linen-andcotton sham, Organic Lifestyle. Organic cotton
sheet set, Home Outfitters. Organic wool
youth pillow, Organic Lifestyle.
applied waterproof or flameretardant finish.
Look for eco-friendly
mattresses made with organic
wool or nontoxic latex or
natural rubber. shop for pillows
and comforters made with
organic cotton covers and
stuffed with silk or down.
•
>
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The day can’t come soon enough when
“consumers
will no longer have to ask
LigHTing
•Light-emitting diode (Led)
whether a product is environmentally
safe – it just will be.
”
bulbs, which are mercury-free
and use only one-tenth of the
electricity that incandescent
bulbs use, are a great ecoalternative to incandescent
and halogen lightbulbs. each
bulb lasts 50,000 hours and
greatly reduces carbon dioxide
emissions while saving you
money, too.
– Andrea Kantelberg, Kantelberg Design, Toronto
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FLOOring
•natural linoleum, made from
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pine resin, linseed oil, cork and
sawdust overlaid onto a natural
jute backing, contains few
chemicals or petroleum-based
products, unlike vinyl flooring.
Check out carpet tiles made
from recycled materials with
low VoC emissions.
go for floor mats in natural
materials, such as sisal, jute and
coir, which are widely available.
Cork is a natural choice for
your home’s floors. although
it’s imported from
mediterranean countries,
meaning high transportation
costs, it is a completely
renewable product.
When purchasing wood
•
1. Shaw recycled/recylable Acacia carpet in
Seaside, Carpet One Floor and Home.
2. Organic silk-and-cotton Jewels in Sand by
Emma Gardner Design, Modern Weave. 3. Stile
by Refin porcelain tile, Stone Tile International
Inc. 4. Reclaimed hemlock barnboard flooring,
Nostalgic Wood Inc. 5. Bamboo flooring,
Neopolitan, Taproot. 6. Burl Natural cork
Uniclic tile, Torlys. 7. Fringed wool rug
Nomadic Rural Collection #23598, W Studio.
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•
floors, ask if the wood is FsC
certified. it’s the most stringent
certification system for wood,
and ensures that it comes from
properly managed forests.
Flooring made from
reclaimed or recycled wood
from salvaged timbers found
in old barns, homes or bridges
is a smart choice and is now
more widely available.
renewable bamboo flooring
is an eco-safe alternative. ask if
the bamboo was grown without
pesticides, using FsC standards
with low VoC emissions.
other eco-friendly flooring
includes ceramic and porcelain
tile and resilient flooring made
from recycled tires.
•
graham and brown use only
timber from FsC forests in their
papers. Wallpaper should be
vinyl-free and made with
nontoxic inks and natural
materials, such as hemp
or grasses.
Eco paper: FSC-certified Super
Fresco Easy, (1) Bijou, 17611C; (2)
Romantic 16495C; Graham and
Brown Wallcoverings Ltd. Vinylfree, made with natural fibres
and water-based inks, The Perfect
Faux, Studio Vue, (3) TPF10245;
Provincial Wallcoverings.
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1. Ikea Dioder LED
four-light set
2. Ikea Sparsam 20 W CFL
3. Ikea Sparsam 11 W CFL
4. Ikea Sparsam 10 W CFL
5. Ikea Sparsam 5 W CFL
6. Sylvania LED linkable
Strip Light 2.1 W
7. Sylvania Indoor/
Outdoor LED Flood
Light 1.5 W
Paint it green! Check
out home-improvement
centres for water-based,
low-VOC paints (below),
which are now widely
available.
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12
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8. Lowe’s Bright Effects
15 W CFL
9. Sylvania Dot-it LED
10. Sylvania Super Mini
Daylight Extra 13 W CFL
11. Ikea Sparsam 7 W CFL
12. Sylvania Soft White
Micro Mini 13 W CFL
13. Sylvania Dot-it
motion activated LED
14. Ikea 7 W CFL
USE THIS HANDy GUIDE TO DETERMINE
EqUIVALENT WATTAGE.
inCAndeSCenT BULB
PhotograPhy, Luis aLbuquerque
with a new line of water-based,
low-VoC paint called aura. sico,
behr, Valspar and others also
produce low-VoC paints.
boomerang recycled Paint is a
Canadian company that offers
reclaimed products made from
lightbulbs (CFL) that are energy
star rated use 75 per cent less
electricity and last 10 times
longer than incandescent ones,
up to 10,000 hours. CFL bulbs
come in a wide variety of sizes,
shapes and wattages. they
generate less heat, thus
reducing cooling costs, and also
give off fewer gas emissions.
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To be eco-friendly and safe, products must have less environmental impact than
conventional ones or provide a positive environmental change through their use.
PAinT & WALLPAPer
unused portions of recovered
•Choose low- or zero-VoC
paints, which are low odour and domestic paint and stain.
safer than oil-based ones.
•Wallpaper companies such
•benjamin moore has come out as Provincial Wallcoverings and
•Compact fluorescent
CFL BULB
60 W
13 W–15 W
75 W
20 W
100 W
26 W–29 W
150 W
38 W–42 W
from www.gelighting.com
understanding
eco-lingo
CFL (compact fluorescent lightbulbs): use about onequarter the energy of incandescent bulbs.
EcoLogo: a North American certification
program that rates the eco-safety of
about 7,000 products in 120 categories.
For info, visit www.ecologo.org.
Energy Star: a rating ensuring that a
product is significantly more energyefficient than the minimum government
standards. For info, visit
www.energystar.gc.ca.
FSC (Forest Stewardship Council):
certification ensuring that the wood was
managed using sustainable practices.
For info, visit www.fsccanada.org.
Green Seal: an independent nonprofit
organization ensuring that a product
meets rigorous, scientifically based
environmental leadership standards.
For info, visit www.greenseal.org.
LED (light-emitting diode): low-energy, long-life
lightbulbs.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design):
rates the environmental credentials of new homes in five
categories (sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and
atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor
environmental quality). For info, visit www.cagbc.org.
SFC (Sustainable Furniture Council): a nonprofit industry
association founded to promote sustainable practices
among manufacturers, retailers and consumers. For
info, visit www.sustainablefurniturecouncil.org.
VOC (volatile organic compounds): toxic gases emitted
by a wide variety of products, including paint, varnish,
wallpaper, building materials and furniture.
FOR SHOPPING
INFORMATION,
SEE PAGE 228
CFLs should not just be tossed into the garbage. Check your local waste management
agency for recycling options. Ikea, Home Depot and Lowe’s all offer free recycling of CFLs.
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