Trend Story
By Allyson Bain

Diane Elliston wants to “go green,” but her aspirations don’t suffice. For financial reasons, Elliston cannot own a green home, an environmentally-friendly house. Her only hope is to own one in the future. Complications such as cost and time leave Elliston finding alternate methods to help the environment.
           
“We need to be responsible for ourselves and for our environment,” Elliston, 40, of Colorado said. “We’re going to have serious issues if we don’t start turning things around. We are leaving a huge footprint on the Earth that isn’t good.”

Elliston is one of thousands of Americans who are not only concerned with the environment but who want to take action. “Green homes,” houses certified to use energy more efficiently and decrease the reliance of natural resources, have increased as a result. Ten percent of homes in 2010 will be considered “green,” an increase from 2 percent in 2007, according to the United States Green Building Council. The demand for green homebuilding has risen 50 percent since 2004, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Elliston has done what she can to make her house more environmentally-friendly. While she doesn’t have an entirely green home, the exterior paint color of her house is dark green. Dark colors in a cool climate allow the sun to transfer its energy onto that select spot, which in turn heats the house without the need to turn on the heater, Elliston said.

Similar efforts have been made by people across the country. Samantha Feld, 17, a student at Vernon Hills High School in Illinois, attends the Green Fest every Earth Day. Although she said she’s a nature fanatic, Feld is not sure if green homes will have a major effect on the environment unless everyone gets involved, including the government.

“The government needs to give itself whole-heartedly to the environment,” Feld said. “It’s kind of scary. It is not an issue to take lightly. You have to fully change your habits. Everyone needs to do it.”

Maureen Smithe, a buyer for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, a Chicagoland chain, said she believes furniture stores are also supporting this environmental movement. She added the store provides customers with environmentally-friendly furniture. The store’s Summit Dining Collection is made entirely out of mango wood, Smithe said. New trees are planted each time one is cut down.

“We’re not just cutting forests to make a dining collection,” Smithe said.

Walter E. Smithe’s exclusive upholstery is 10 percent soy-based and made with recycled wire and steel, Smithe said. The seating system also has 50 to 100 percent recycled fiber content for batting.

“We try to do whatever we can as a corporation,” Smithe said. “We take it seriously. We will offer the furniture as long as people are interested.”

Since green homes and furniture are a more recent phenomenon, Smithe said the store’s selection is limited.

There are other drawbacks to green homes and furniture aside from the limited selection: the price of a piece of green furniture or even a green home is more expensive than its traditional counterparts.

Smithe said the furniture pieces are more expensive because they come from the United States and there are many certification programs each product has to pass. Although customers are asking more about green furniture, Smithe said the interest is higher than the actual profit.

“Customers are definitely talking about [green furniture], just not buying it a lot yet,” Smith said.

Colorado mother, Elliston, showed her interest in green furniture when she entered the Green Furniture Design Contest in June. Each contestant built a chair out of recyclable materials. As a designer and an environmental activist, Elliston made a lounge chair out of rubber. However, since she only found out about the contest a week before the deadline, the mother of three didn’t finish in time.

“It was exciting, fun, and great,” Elliston said of designing the chair. “I will probably [compete] next year.”

According to Jennifer Roberts, author of “Good Green Kitchens,” “Redux,” and “Good Green Homes,” the public’s interest is growing. She said she believes green homes have “caught on” and have gone “beyond a trend.” With the help of Al Gore’s documentary, “Inconvenient Truth,” and the scare of global warming, Roberts said it is no surprise green homes have become a growing success.

“[Green homes] are an overnight phenomenon that has been building for 20 to 30 years,” Roberts said.

Kevin Greene, from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in the Pollution Prevention Office, said green homes and the awareness of global warming is “gaining momentum.”

“More and more people are interested in purchasing green products,” Greene said. “[They] are not just a blip on the radar screen.”

However, Roberts also thinks that “green” is a very broad term. “Standards are critical,” Roberts reported. “[They are] key to making sure green homes and green products are credible. Consumers need to know about standards and ask for them.”

According to Roberts, not everyone is as committed to the green concept. She doesn’t believe it is good enough when people put in bamboo floors and call their house “green.”

Although Roberts said she thinks it’s wrong to only partially commit to the green concept, people such as Nikki Friedman, 17, of California, disagree.

Friedman’s family recently installed solar panels. These store sunlight and use it for the house’s energy, according to Friedman. Although she admits the “big, ugly silver squares on the roof” are not the complete green package, she is proud of her family’s contribution in helping the environment. Friedman said it’s extra important to help the cause since her father, Glenn Friedman, is the president of the Golden Gate Chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers. This international organization promotes an environmentally-friendly world by progressing heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration through education and research.

“My dad really wanted them because he is cutting edge on doing green business,” Friedman said. “He wanted to represent the same values at home as he does at work.”
           
Elliston said she’d like to install solar panels onto her roof, but with the high expense, she knows she can’t at this time.

Laura Spriggs, communications manager at Greenguard Environmental Institute in Georgia, focuses on preventing bad air quality in buildings, another way to keep an atmosphere “green.” Greenguard looks at building materials and tests them for certification, Spriggs said. Greenguard, founded in 2001, sets the criteria for chemical emissions production, according to Spriggs.

Due to bad air quality, Spriggs reported that billions of dollars are lost each year on cleaning the air. She feels that more education can eliminate the large amount of money spent on the problem.

“If they know the effects bad air quality can create, it is kind of a no brainer,” Spriggs said.

According to the United States Green Building Council, residential areas are responsible for 21 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions. With more knowledge and understanding of the importance of quality air, Spriggs said these numbers can decrease.

Greene said there is a growing demand for green products; however, he agrees with Smithe: people still have ways to go before purchasing green products in bulk. Greene said the Illinois EPA does its part to encourage people to use greener products.

“We regulate industries to make sure they don’t produce pollution in the land or water,” Greene said. “It doesn’t mean the jobs are done. There’s still a lot we can do. Pollution doesn’t respect state or national boundaries.”

Although Greene acknowledges the high expense to “go green” and the limited products available, he said people need to be more educated on the topic before committing to the cause.

“The big challenge will be education,” Greene said, “so people can make better decisions.”

Barbara-Ann Lewis, a Northwestern University Professor Emeritus in Civil and Environmental Engineering, teaches about environmental issues. She said the problems affecting the environment are related to the nation’s growing population.

“As the population of the world increases, adverse environmental consequences of our actions are increasing at a faster rate, and thus the adverse conditions are close to crisis conditions,” Lewis said. “Americans, in general, currently use way more than their fair share of the Earth’s resources, so the Earth is being stripped and exploited beyond its capacity to sustain itself.”

While Elliston waits for a green home of her own, she is content with following some easy steps to help the environment: reusing bags, turning off lights when not in the room, not using heavy duty appliances if not necessary, and turning in recyclables.

The hope for a green home stays in Elliston’s mind but so does another one.

“[People] need to be conscious of what they are doing, Elliston said. “I hope we have a world that is happy and healthy for centuries to come.”