Always Research The Origins of Major Product Purchases

Three weeks ago I posted a blog titled Confessions Of A Green Compromise.  The gist of the blog was that due to a pipe break in our house while a bathroom remodel was underway our budget had to be amended.  We had to choose between properly insulating the ceiling above the drive under garage or using a super sustainable, high-end tile I sell at the store for the remodel.  In the end, we decided to insulate properly and compromise by selecting a standard grade, perhaps non green tile.

Thus began the trials of selecting a new wall tile to go with the floor tile we had already ordered.  When we did find a perfect match I did what I usually do with a product: I researched it.  These days, that’s important.  First of all, I wanted to know where the tile came from.  The company website said it was sourced, meaning imported.  So when I gave the company a call all I received was a run around.  Experience tells me that such behavior is a company’s effort to hide where the tile came from.  After several calls and the help I unlisted from a dealer we finally found where the tile was made: you guessed it, China.

As much as possible, I don’t buy Chinese products, for a lot of reasons.  First off, many products we buy are “private label” products.  These are goods designed, created and marketed in China to American (or other) brands with the offer to put a label on the product.  Frequently, American private label companies selling a Chinese manufactured good have no idea how the product was manufactured and rarely any control over that process.  So, could lead have been added to those tiles for weight, just like children’s toys?  Whose to say.  My efforts to find out from the manufacturer led me no where.  I also avoid Chinese products because I’m not confident I won’t be supporting child labor or some form of slave labor.  There may not be slavery in China, but the next closest thing surely exists.  My belief is that those who are good to people are good to the planet as a whole.  Those who are bad to people are bad to the planet as a whole.  There is nothing sustainable about that.

Ultimately, we found a tile from Crossville made with 30% recycled content, made in Argentina.  Crossville was able to answer most of my question about how the tile was made, under what conditions, and why they chose to source the product there.  Certainly, I would have preferred an American made product such as Fireclay, but unforeseen problems that hit our budget forced us to change our plan.  We will be using American made Squak Mountain Stone and Ultra Touch insulation is already in the wall behind the new shower.

Everything I just mentioned is in reference to the wall tile we are using for the shower.  The real kicker of the story is that when I picked up what I thought were Canadian made tiles for the floor, I saw stamped on each box the words, “Made in China.”  After all that.  Of all people, I should have been able to avoid this.  I give public lecture that cover this subject after all.  Unfortunately, I had let my guard down when selecting the material.  Like so many people, I was duped by a common marketing game.  Right on the sample tile there was a label that read: Anatolia Tile From Canada.  The woman selling thought it was from Canada, too.  I can live with that I thought.  Canada is real close.  Anatolia tiles according to the website is from the Toronto area.  What neither of us knew was that Anatolia simply imports tiles as a private label.  The lesson here: your salespeople rarely know the origins of these products.  You have to research products yourself.  I do for every product at my store, but I’m an exception.  I don’t carry 30 lines of tile and 10 wood floor brands, etc.; I carry a niche of sustainable goods.

We did send the tile back to the distributor 30 miles away that sold it to our local shop.  Yes, I can hear the grumblers about carbon footprint, but to me, voicing your objection, speaking through your dollars and telling companies that uncontrolled products are not acceptable is a sustainable action of great value.  Travel miles account for 2 to 5% of the embodied energy in most materials. (Far less than most people think.)  A lack of ethic or commitment to human and planetary health accounts for 100% of bad stewardship of the planet.

Winter Break Hours

Greenovations will close early Saturday, Feb. 18 @ 2pm and remain closed through Wednesday, February 22nd for winter break.  We will re-open Thursday, February 23.  Please check in with us again.

Reclaimed Sorghum Straw Meets Custom Woodworking

Love custom woodwork, but want a more modern appeal in your home?  Made from reclaimed sorghum chaff, kirei board offers a lightweight, durable and extremely environmentally friendly product that is sure to bring a comfortable, yet modern feel to your home.  Whether you’re looking for a coffee table, cabinetry, wall covering or a bar, kirei can fill almost any niche in your home.

Sorghum is a genus of grasses typically grown in tropical and sub-tropical environments.  The United States is now the leading producer of Sorghum (about 12 metric tons a year), which has significant commercial value for use as food, livestock feed and in the production of alcoholic beverages.  It is now being used by several breweries as a grain substitute in gluten-free beers.  The harvesting techniques used by sorghum growers typically generate a lot of waste from unused stems.  This is where Kirei comes in.  Although sorghum can be composted, there is too much to break down in a reasonable amount of time.  Farmers can sell off the stems for use in kirei board.  This not only provides an additional income for the farmer, but saves space in their fields and provides the construction market with a sustainable wood substitute.

The sorghum stalk is cut into various thicknesses and held together using a no-added-formaldehyde and low VOC adhesive.  The arrangement of stalks in each kirei board provides a unique grain pattern that is sure to be a conversation piece in your home.  Click here for additional information.

Love The Term Green, Hate The Term Green

For a variety of reasons, over the last couple of years I started to develop a dislike for the descriptor “green”.  This, of course, should seem quite odd.  I am a green business owner and I named my business Greenovations, after all.  But with the over use and excessive misuse of the term I was developing a sense of snobbery towards it.  Like any good thing that gets diluted too much too resemble its original self, green began to feel passe, meaningless and bland.  Everything these days is green, after all, and every company has some sort of statement validating their green-ness to the not so weary, typical consumer.  In fact, most consumers, lacking the knowledge or motivation to verify claims will fall prey to bogus statements and ambiguous green labels.

So for the most of two years I have been favoring the word sustainable over green.  Sustainable had seemed to cover more ground, while at the same time being less susceptible to green washing.  And yet, at the same time, the term green has developed a greater meaning and as a result I have learned to appreciate the word again.  These days, for those committed to a green lifestyle, the word green has grown to include more factors than eco-friendliness.  The term now seems to encompass the additional concerns of human health and fair labor practices.  Green is about health when you really think about it; a healthy planet, healthy people, healthy practices – they’re all connected.  At the same time, clear correlations between sustainability and labor practices have been identified.  Generally, those companies willing to abuse employees through poor working conditions and poverty level wages have been shown to be equally likely to have no concern for the environment and no concern for human health.  Just the same, companies committed to the environment have been show to be committed to their work-force, as well.  So, I think it’s awesome that green has grown to include issues of fair trade and fair labor.  Even concerns of human health were once secondary to eco-friendliness when defining green.

I don’t think this is a new phenomena, however.  For a long time now, businesses like Greenovations have required our products to meet all of these criteria, but now the growing meaning of the term green is becoming more mainstream and will need to continue to grow as more people adopt green, genuinely or dishonestly.  Every product I sell is produced by companies that provide good working conditions and fair, livable wages, such as EcoTimber and UltraTouch insulation.  Even the few import products we have such as Mexican made Premier sinks meet these standards.  A lot of that has to do with simply seeking out products made right here in the USA or places like Canada and Europe where working conditions and wages are required to meet a fair standard.

Green is growing in more ways than one.  What more can I say.

Confessions of A Green Compromise

As a green building supply owner (Greenovations), and something of a local green guru, a lot of people ask me for sustainable prescriptions regarding various areas of the consumer choices they make.   Typically people look for that silver bullet approach, but there is no likeliness of success with such an approach.  I approach my building decisions holistically, just as I employ a holistic approach to my eating choices, health care management, and even investment choices.  My green compromise of the last few days is a case in point.

My wife and I are about to begin a master bathroom remodel.  One of the key design decision of the project has been choosing the right tile for the shower.  We have been willing to pay a premium for our favorite high quality, hand-made and sustainably made tile, even with a high shipping cost to get that tile – $270 from California to Maine for 90 sf.  On a personal level I am always willing to take the painful financial hit to do what I think is right or I won’t do it.  (Usually, green doesn’t cost more, contrary to myth, but no matter how it is made, all hand-made tiles cost a lot.)

My high standards unfortunately had to drop a little due to an unexpected problem at my house.  Two weeks ago sub-zero weather caused pipes above my drive under garage to freeze. Once the pipes were thawed the three breaks manifested themselves by flooding the sheet rock and insulation in the garage ceiling.  This is the result of poor craftmanship by the builder of the home (I am a second owner) that I was aware of six months after we purchased.  At the time I spent a few grand to upgrade my attic insulation but did not have the additional $2000I needed to fill the space between the garage ceiling and first floor subfloor.

Fortunately, by doing clean up work and some of the pipe insulating after having them fixed and leaving the sheet rock for myself to replace, my insurance gave me nearly enough money (after the $1k deductible) to properly insulate the space with dense packed paper cellulose instead of the useless fiberglass that was there.  In the end, that $2000 upgrade only cost me $600 out-of-pocket and whatever it will cost me in time to install new sheet rock,  instead of the $2000 it would have cost on my own.

The crux of this story is that after making that decision I still had to fork up $600 I had planned to use for the bathroom renovation. Something in the budget has to give.  And the choice I have made is to go with a less expensive, conventionally made tile with a low freight cost to cover the gap.  (The cost of freight had a heavy influence on this decision $270 for $1k in tile.)  So, I confess, I am not going with “green” tiling in the shower.  But did I commit a “green sin”?  Not at all.  As I began this post, I look at these things holistically.  You have to unless you have buckets of money.  That $600 that would have gone to tiling went to something else that was very green: a drive under garage ceiling properly insulated with a terrific material made out of locally made, recycled newsprint – CelPak from National Fiber.  This choice will pay itself pack multiple times with reduced energy costs and certainty that I won’t damage more sheet-rock, more fiberglass for the land fill, more wood.  The net result, in my opinion, will be an even more sustainable home for this choice.  But I sure wish I could afford those tiles.  Installing what I sell at my business would be better for the business, too.

Note:  Sustainable elements in our bathroom will include 85% recycled BeachStone counter top; custom-made, FSC certified vanity cabinet; Plyboo bamboo plywood on a half wall and American Clay Earth Plaster instead of paint on the walls.  Toilets and fixtures will be re-used.  A Panasonic Whisper Green fan will replace the current, and severely faulty ventilation fan.

Featured Builder: Marc Hovde

In an era when the word “green” has been co-opted for the promotional purposes of businesses large and small it can be very difficult to distinguish truly sustainable professionals from the rest of the pack.  This is as true in the world of residential construction as anywhere else.  Every builder today talks at least some of the “green” game, though the vocabulary may differ from person to person.  Most commonly we hear about energy efficiency and advanced insulation products.  Nearly every builder out there touts the inflated merits of building Energy Star homes and a few have had experience building LEED certified residences.  Marc Hovde, owner of Hovde Construction Services, is perhaps the last builder on the seacoast likely to use the word “green” or any other such label, yet since beginning the start-up phase of Greenovations two and a half years ago, no builder has shown us a greater committment to sustainable or “green” building than Marc Hovde.

According to Hovde, the real difference in the residential building world, is between smart, common sense, well built homes and typical home building practices.  That sense of building quality encompasses durability every bit as much as it does efficiency.  Though highly versed in energy efficiency, Hovde is equally concerned with the numerous details on a job site.  “Every day there are a hundred questions I have to answer [about the project] and every one of those questions effects the quality and durability of the home.  Do we prime end cutts on our siding trim?  Every time.  Do we take thirty minutes to properly block and seal the exposed bays of floor joists cantilevered over a foundation or review that design with architect and home owner?  Of course.”  These are small details, details many homeowner’s never see, but highly influential on the performance and life of a home when added up.

Naturally, that attention is carried through in every aspect of a Hovde home, from framing to interior trim work.  We’ve seen the framing done by Hovde Construction and it’s immediately clear (especially compared to typical homes) that the homes he builds are built to last generations.  In the same token, interior finishes and millwork reveal the management of a perfectionist.  Hovde has surrounded himself with some of the most skilled and detailed oriented craftsmen in the seacoast.  That’s why Greenovations owner Christopher Ring has used Hovde’s crew and referals for his own home improvement.

Ultimately though, it’s the green element that has created the connection between Hovde Construction and Greenovations.   Long before we opened, Hovde was traveling to Portland to acquire one of our favorite counter-top materials, Paperstone, after encouraging customers to experience this fabulous surface.  And yet, while other conventional and so-called green builders are rushing to implement new techniques in home building efficiency, Hovde patiently assesses these practices through trial and continuing education coursework.   This is perhaps the most admirable part of his approach to a noble profession – his dedication to continuous learning of building science.  As a result, no technique is implemented without a thorough understanding of how to use that technique or material and how it interacts with the whole house.  For example, Hovde is an avid proponent for dense packed paper cellulose insulation.  In addition to excellent thermal performance, paper cellulose is healthy, supremely more flame resistant than spray foams and terrific at air sealing.  At the same time, Hovde uses an older and a more time-tested technique for wrapping a house by using felt paper instead of the ubiquitous Tyvek, for its ability to mitigate moisture issues through its hygroscopic properties.  The end result is a durable, high performance home that is comfortable to live in, stylish, super efficient and ready for generations of use.  As one homeowner of a Hovde house built in Kittery Point noted, December had come and their heat hadn’t even turned on yet.  “We could leave the windows open at night and listen to the ocean.”

Recycled Copper, The Green Option To Love

At Greenovations we’re huge fans of recycled copper sinks, perhaps because few products epitomize the meaning of green better than this vital fixture of every home.  In fact, when thinking green for home building products, sinks are rarely at the top of anyone’s list.  Odd considering no fixture, nor hardly any other building material gets more use.  So, before plodding into our love for recycled copper sinks let me just define “green” for a moment.

Like it or love it, the term “green” has stuck and has evolved to mean more than just eco-friendly.  In fact, we think the term green is an umbrella for 3 important factors when assessing the value of any product:  1) Is it eco-friendly  2) Is it healthy  3)  Is it produced with fair trade/labor practices.

Some materials meet the concerns of all these factor, some meet just one or two.  Whatever the end result, demanding these qualities is better for all of us.  Recycled copper sinks, such as Premier Copper hand-hammered sinks, are a terrific example of a product the lives up to the full meaning of Green.

Why We Love Premier Copper Hand Hammered copper sinks:

• Made from 97.7% recycled copper – ever wonder where all that copper plumbing is going to after be stripped out of buildings prepared for demolition?  Now you know.
• Copper is endlessly recyclable.
• Copper is cleaner than stainless steel.  A study at the University of Southhampton in England revealed that bacteria – in this case E coli 0157 – survived on stainless steel for 34 days while only 4 hours on copper.
• Premier Copper sinks are hand made by experienced artisans, not by machines.
• PC sinks are hand-made with a trough for proper drainage.  Machine stamped copper sinks have flat bottoms that lead to drainage and durability problems.
• Premier Copper artisans are paid fair wages in a fair labor facility.
• Premier Copper sinks are made in Mexico a short distance from their American headquarters.