Treehugger

From the very beginning, TreeHugger has been interested in finding ways to live a greener lifestyle without having to sleep in a cave or wear burlap sacks; we want living green to look good. The good news is that there are countless ways to do so, and you'll see lots of them on this blog before long; first we wanted to introduce a few of the terms you're likely to see more of when it comes to interiors. Things like furniture, upholstery, wallcoverings and flooring may seem simple enough -- a chair is a frame with a couple of pads, right? -- but there's a lot that goes in to the things we furnish and decorate our homes with that we think it's important to know.

When it comes to wood used in furniture and flooring, there are a couple things that TreeHugger looks for. Perhaps the greenest option is reclaimed or salvaged wood; it often comes from old buildings that have been taken down, so it’s already been cut down, milled and processed once and no trees need to fall. For virgin wood, we like to look for wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council [www.fsc.org], who painstakingly insure that the trees are harvested in a way that, in short, assures that there will continue to be a forest (along with everything that typically lives in the forest) where they’re cutting from. Bamboo, which we already mentioned at length [www.sundancechannel.com], is another good option, along with other quickly renewable materials like rattan and sea grass.

How wood is finished and put together is also an important consideration. Glues and polyurethanes are often used, and they’re bad news for indoor air quality. You see, just about everything in your home off-gases whatever is inside of it; think of it as a way for your furniture, flooring & walls to “breathe.” When there are toxic chemicals in there (as with lots of glues and wood finishes), they come out to, contributing to poor indoor air quality and increasing your risk for health problems. In fact, the air quality inside is often 10 - 100 times worse than outside, and is compounded in the winter (when the windows are shut most of the time) and when your home is well-insulated (which is a good thing for energy-efficiencies' sake). Formaldehyde and flame retardants in upholstery and cushions are also a big contributor to toxic off-gassing, as are the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in paint. The good news is that non-toxic, water-based alternatives are available for all of these, so there’s no reason to poison your home with these nasties. Remember, just about everything off-gases, so it's important to consider what you bring in to your home because you'll be breathing it for years to come. Greenguard [www.greenguard.org] is a certification which ensures furniture is low toxicity, and can help you find furniture that won't contribute to negative indoor air quality.

Lastly, something we like to see in furniture and interior construction is the efficient use of materials. Building furniture with bent plywood is a great example, because it uses only about 1/8th (that’s about 12%) of the wood that other techniques typically use. This is also where materials like medium-density fiberboard (MDF) come in handy, because they’re made from the sawdust that results from milling and working with other wood -- just be sure it’s not made with polyurethane or toxic glues. The story is the same with plywood: it can be extremely green, when it carries a sustainable certification and doesn’t use toxic binders, but can be pretty nasty otherwise. The number one rule: do your homework, and look for the big three (certification, no toxic substances and material efficiency). Stay tuned for some fabulous examples and tips for getting greener in your home.