Don't badger me Anthony...

Got some interesting feedback on my assertion that we were trying to be green. Questions about appropriate materials, etc.

Lee emailed from Wyoming about flooring: We’re just trying to finish our remodeling...One decision we are happy about: bamboo floors. Sustainable source and it appears they will hold up well, even under the clack-clacking of a dog’s toenails. Less expensive than “traditional” hardwoods too. We were told, and I trust this is true (at least I believed our source), that the bamboo comes from renewable sources that don’t affect panda habitat.

There just are no clear cut answers on this stuff. Floors are a great example---I really like the look of bamboo. Very interesting. And yes, very green since it is basically a grass on steroids with a super-fast growth cycle. Three problems though: first is how old the bamboo is---the stuff harvested too young is not hard enough to stand up to the abuse it will get in a typical home; second, it is so popular now that there is concern that it will begin to affect habitats (though not a huge problem yet---but it is coming); third and most importantly---carbon footprint. It is green, but you have to boat it over from the other side of the earth…so there is no way to weigh out that damage---the cost in pollution and fossil fuels that it takes to get stuff to your home…

We are going with ipe. It is hard wood, but we are buying what we are told is FSC-certified sustainably harvested wood. It comes from this hemisphere so it has less of a carbon footprint and it is super hard so it will last at least 50 years (plus we are using it inside and out---for our “patio” to make fire code it was the only wood that we could use since it is so hard it has the same fire rating as concrete!). Frankly, I just don’t know how to balance those issues…

Probably, Anthony is right when he says: Sadly, the greenest thing to do is not to do anything. It is far more environmentally responsible to keep using the shitty cabinets you had than to buy anything new to replace them. Unfortunately, non-consumption doesn’t make it into the magazines. We’ve discovered a long time ago that “green” today is simply marketing. Brilliant, calculated, insidious marketing. Since it plays on our post-industrial, digital-age, intellectual, liberal guilt, companies can charge a lot more for anything “green” than for an identical non-green alternative. You get greenest by keeping the crap you already have, but the good news is that by doing that, the other green stays in your wallet. Sorry for the bad news.

True. Absolutely true. But we are Americans---trained consumers. So that just ain’t gwonna happen.

Plus, any of you who saw our old crappy kitchen and the cheap cabinets that hung in it knew that nothing in there was going to last. So that is the caveat to Anthony's web blanket statement----the greenest thing to do is to do nothing; but if you have to do something, make sure you use the best possible materials so that what you do lasts and does not need replacement quickly… Maybe?