Renovating a kitchen can result in lots of landfill bound waste and can contribute to the ongoing damage of our natural resources. Don’t panic though, you don’t have to do your cooking in a woven hemp igloo. You can update your kitchen design without upping your carbon footprint.

All homeowners have a bit of vanity as far as their kitchen is concerned. After all, the kitchen is one of the most expensive and important rooms in a house. These days it’s important to balance our desire to impress with our desire to do something good for the planet as well. Luckily, there are all sorts of accessories available to add style and function to your kitchen while keeping you in the green, both financially and ecologically. Look for renewable materials like bamboo, jute, and organic cottons. Bamboo is a grass, not a tree, and it can grow up to two feet per day. Once harvested, the plant automatically grows a new shoot, making it endlessly renewable. Jute fibers are biodegradable and recyclable, plus the jute plant can be regrown in 4 to 6 months, making it one of the most sustainable fiber sources in the world.

 

 

While you may not be able to find kitchen cabinets made of organic cottons, you can keep your air clean by using paint that is low in -- or free of -- volatile organic compounds. VOCs are gases, some of which can be toxic, that are emitted from products such as wall paint, paint stripper, cleaning supplies, and some building materials.

 

 

Natural flooring, such as wood, or cork doesn't contain the toxins found in some of the man made substitutes. Cork is not much more expensive than wood, but it's a sustainable material. Cork trees take only 9 years to regrow, compared to 30 or more for hardwoods.