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More and more people are choosing to go green and live as sustainable a life as possible, and one primary way to achieve this is to invest in a sustainable home. Maintaining a home includes many interconnected facets. How food and water is brought into the home can affect how sustainable it is. The transportation used to arrive and depart a home is also a factor. Energy and waste disposal are even more essential elements to sustainability, and a critical element includes all of the materials that make up the home, including kitchen countertops and bathroom surfaces.
Sustainable Materials
A sustainable home must be built with sustainable materials. These materials have a lowor zero impact on the environment and are either renewable or made from recycled products. In addition, any coating or finishing on the materials must be organic, or at a minimum, water-based.
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When it comes to the frame and walls of a home, sustainable materials include adobe, bamboo, rammed earth, straw bales and reclaimed brick, stone or metal. However, most of these materials do not make for decent countertops.
Some of the common sustainable materials used for kitchen countertops are as follows:
- Recycled glass based materials – This is one of the most common materials used for green countertops. The recycled glass is mixed with concrete, resin or other solid surface materials, and it can comprise anywhere from 5 percent to 50 percent of the total mass of the countertop as a whole. It may also be mixed with other sustainable materials such as fly ash, which is a byproduct of coal fuel.
- Recycled paper – Recycled paper has become increasingly popular in recent years. The paper is mixed with a resin base and fabricated into slabs ranging from 0.25 to 2.0 inches in thickness. The resin base from at least one manufacturer is made from cashew shells. Although made of paper, these countertops are surprisingly heat and stain resistant.
- End-grain bamboo – These chopping block type countertops are a type of plywood made from thin, rectangular pieces of bamboo. Bamboo is considered one of the best substitutes for wood because it grows much faster than trees. It is also relatively inexpensive and easy to handle.
The NSF is currently working on guidelines for a Product Category Rule (PCR) for sustainable residential countertops.
More Than Material
As a fabricator, you may think you are covered by simply offering one of the above materials to your eco-conscious clients. However, there is more to sustainability than the types of materials used. For some of your customers, the background of the materials and the facilities where they are fabricated are vitally important.
Many people seeking to build a sustainable home or make their current home eco-friendly will only use locally sourced materials. The transportation of materials from distant corners of the country or from other countries creates a large carbon footprint, and it is even larger for materials that are sourced from one location and manufactured in another before entering into the consumer market.
Another factor that may concern some customers is the sustainability of the fabricator. If you carry sustainable products but your building and processes are not green or LEED certified, then you may miss out on some sizable sales.
Ultimately, if you want a piece of the growning “green” market, you have to cater to that market on some level, and many of those that do, have found it to be well worth the effort.
