Certification
LEED Certified:
What is LEED®?
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.
LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings' performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=222
FSC Approved:
About the Forest Stewardship Council - FSC
FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not for profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world's forests.
Products carrying the FSC label are independently certified to assure consumers that they come from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations.
Forests provide us with clean water, fresh air, and help combat global warming. They also provide food, medicine and important natural resources, such as timber and paper. If managed responsibly, forests and plantations benefit forest people and the global community.
However, in some countries as much as 80% of the timber is harvested illegally. This often involves violation of human rights and felling of protected forests.
FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not for profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world's forests.
It provides standard setting, trademark assurance and accreditation services for companies and organizations interested in responsible forestry.
Products carrying the FSC label are independently certified to assure consumers that they come from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations.
GreenGuard Certified:
The mission of the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) is to improve public health and quality of life through programs that improve indoor air. In accordance with that mission, GEI currently has three third-party certification programs.
GREENGUARD Certification Standards for Low-Emitting Products
The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) has established performance based standards to define goods with low chemical and particle emissions for use indoors, primarily building materials, interior furnishings, furniture, cleaning and maintenance products, electronic equipment, and personal care products. The standard establishes certification procedures including test methods, allowable emissions levels, product sample collection and handling, testing type and frequency, and program application processes and acceptance.
http://www.greenguard.org/Default.aspx?tabid=14
Energy Star Approved:
About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. Results are already adding up. Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved enough energy in 2007 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 27 million cars - all while saving $16 billion on their utility bills.
For the Home
Energy efficient choices can save families about a third on their energy bill with similar savings of greenhouse gas emissions, without sacrificing features, style or comfort. ENERGY STAR helps you make the energy efficient choice.
- If looking for new household products, look for ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR. They meet strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the EPA and US Department of Energy.
- If looking for a new home, look for one that has earned the ENERGY STAR.
- If looking to make larger improvements to your home, EPA offers tools and resources to help you plan and undertake projects to reduce your energy bills and improve home comfort.
For Business
Because a strategic approach to energy management can produce twice the savings - for the bottom line and the environment - as typical approaches, EPA's ENERGY STAR partnership offers a proven energy management strategy that helps in measuring current energy performance, setting goals, tracking savings, and rewarding improvements.
EPA provides an innovative energy performance rating system which businesses have already used for more than 62,000 buildings across the country. EPA also recognizes top performing buildings with the ENERGY STAR.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=about.ab_index
Kitchen Designers Plus and Umbrella avoid VOCs in our "Green Kitchen":
VOCs
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemical compounds that have high enough vapor pressures under normal conditions to significantly vaporize and enter the atmosphere. A wide range of carbon-based molecules, such as aldehydes, ketones, and other light hydrocarbons are VOCs.
Canada
Health Canada classes VOCs as organic compounds that have boiling points roughly in the range of 50 to 250 °C (120 to 480 °F).The emphasis is placed on commonly encountered VOCs which would have an effect on air quality.
VOCs are sometimes accidentally released into the environment, where they can damage soil and groundwater. Vapours of VOCs escaping into the ambient air contribute to indoor air pollution and outdoor air pollution.
VOCs are an important outdoor air pollutant. In this field they are often divided into the separate categories of methane (CH4) and non-methane (NMVOCs). Methane is an extremely efficient greenhouse gas which contributes to enhanced global warming. Other hydrocarbon VOCs are also significant greenhouse gases via their role in creating ozone and in prolonging the life of methane in the atmosphere, although the effect varies depending on local air quality. Within the NMVOCs, the aromatic compounds benzene, a carcinogen , and suspected carcinogens toluene and xylene, may lead to leukemia through prolonged exposure.
Some VOCs also react with nitrogen oxides in the air in the presence of sunlight to form ozone. Although ozone is beneficial in the upper atmosphere because it absorbs UV thus protecting humans, plants, and animals from exposure to dangerous solar radiation, it poses a health threat in the lower atmosphere by causing respiratory problems. In addition high concentrations of low level ozone can damage crops and buildings.
Contribution to indoor air pollution
Many VOCs found around the house, such as cleaning and personal hygiene products, paint strippers and wood preservatives, may contribute to sick building syndrome and other effects of exposure to indoor air pollution because of their abundance indoors and their high vapour pressure. VOC's are often used in paint, carpet backing, plastics, and cosmetics. They also occur in and are released from most the common indoor materials from natural sources such as trees, animals, and plants as well as from synthetic sources such as petroleum derivatives. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found concentrations of VOCs in indoor air commonly to be 2 to 5 times greater than in outdoor air and sometimes far greater. During certain activities indoor levels of VOCs may reach 1,000 times that of the outside air. In fact, VOCs with only indoor sources may not be detectable in outdoor air except very close to the indoor environment from which they originate. Not all organic compounds are volatile; many plastics (polymers) and other large molecules may not have significant vapor pressure at normal temperatures.
The definitions of VOCs used for control of precursors of photochemical smog used by EPA and states with their own outdoor air pollution regulations includes exemptions for compounds that are technically only those volatile organic compounds but that are determined to be non-reactive or of low-reactivity in the smog formation process. EPA formerly defined these compounds as Reactive Organic Gases (ROG) but changed the terminology to VOC for simplicity's sake. However, this specific use of the term VOCs can be misleading, specifically when applied to indoor air quality because many chemicals that are not regulated for purposes of controlling outdoor air pollution but that are important from an indoor air quality perspective are still found in products that are labeled as to VOC content according to the requirements of ambient air pollution regulation.
In recent years many common materials and products used indoors have been developed and are labeled by their manufacturers as "low VOC" or "zero VOC content" and other similar terms. While some of these products may actually have low VOC content in the broader definition of VOC relevant to indoor air, some products so labeled may actually have larger VOC content but the VOCs contained in them may be exempt from the EPA's definition. For more information on VOCs, visit EPA's indoor air quality web pages at http://www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatile_organic_compound
- Wikipedia may not be a completely reliable source
- Avoid quoting in detail when using info from the above source *
ECO-Friendly Materials Used in "GREEN KITCHEN"
Bamboo:
Bamboo-ply is manufactured from 100% Bamboo, a rapidly renewable material and a contributing finish under the 6.0 section of the U.S Green Building Council's LEED. (LEAD - Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Materials and Resource Point System.
Bamboo-ply is made from 100% rapidly renewable bamboo, using adhesives that are both reliable and emissions free.
Bamboo is a low resin, open grained material that takes stains and finished exceptionally well.
General info on Bamboo:
- Bamboo is the fastest growing plan on earth
- grows to full height within 6 months
- will achieve harvest maturity in 5 - 8 years
- bamboo consumes more co2 than trees
- harvesting bamboo does not require planting
- Regeneration occurs from the existing root structure which helps prevent soil erosion
- Mature bamboo has similar density characteristics to that of domestic hardwoods
Mdf - Particle Board - Plywood
Formaldehyde-free
Meets FSC* and LEED* Certification
Zebrawood - Veneer
Formaldehyde-free
Meets FSC* and LEED* Certification
Laminate Countertop
Meets GreenGuard Certification*
Paint:
Zero VOC Technology Latex
Water - Based
Lacquer finish:
Water based - Zero VOC content
Can brush, roller, air spray or airless spray
Dry times at 21 Degrees Celsius, and 40 - 60 % R.H.:
To touch: 15 - 30 minutes
To handle: 1 hour
To overcoat: 2 - 4 hours
Leather Flooring:
Made from 100% recycled leather
FSC* and LEED* Certified
Appliances:
Energy Star approved*
(Cooktop with Induction heating is 70% more energy efficient than gas and 20% more than electric)