After tackling home improvement projects and becoming frustrated at a lack of green building materials and supplies, Sarah Beatty took matters into her own hands. The result? Green Depot, an online retailer founded in 2005 that has expanded to several East Coast stores, including a flagship location in Manhattan.
Green Depot stocks a wealth of eco-conscious supplies such as paint, cleaners, FSC-certified wood, lighting, plumbing and decorative accents, including Timbron molding (pictured above.)
When you begin a construction project or renovate or even just redecorate, use green building materials to benefit not only the environment but the health of its inhabitants.
According to GreenBuilding.com, “Green building is a design and construction process that promotes the economic health and well-being of your family, the community and the environment. A smart step towards personal economic rewards, Green Building also has positive social and environmental ramifications that assert your commitment to the future and the way we live for years to come.” GreenBuilding.com also has a fact list of the environmental and personal harms that come from traditional building practices, including:
Water:
- Older toilets use 3.7-7 gallons per flush
- Dishwashers use 8-14 gallons per cycle
- Top-loading washers use 45 gallons/load
- A dripping faucet waste 15-21 gallons per day
- US water users withdraw enough water to fill a line of Olympic-size swimming pools reaching around the world EVERY DAY (300 billion gallons)
- Although our planet is 71 percent water, humans depend on a mere .65 percent of the water for survival - much of which is polluted.
- About a quarter of the nation’s largest industrial plants and water treatment facilities are in serious violation of pollution standards at any one time.
- An estimated 7 million Americans are made sick annually by contaminated tap water; in some rare cases this results in death.
Indoor Air Quality:
- US EPA ranks indoor air pollution among top five environmental risks. Unhealthy air is found in up to 30% of new and renovated buildings
- W.H.O. reports that indoor air pollution causes 14 times more deaths than outdoor air pollution (2.8 million lives)
- Of hundreds of EPA-regulated chemicals, only ozone and sulfur dioxide are more prevalent outdoor than indoors
- 20 percent of all housing in the US has too much lead dust or chippings (causes kidney and red blood cell damage, impairs mental and physical development, may increase high blood pressure)
