JOIN USDo your bit for the environment by going green in your home decor. Bindu Gopal Rao tells you how.
Your home is your haven and you do all you can to keep it comfortable and functional. However, one aspect of a home where you can do more is keeping it environment-friendly.
While much is said about keeping home exteriors green, there is a lot more that you can do to give an ecological lift to home interiors. Wondering how? Read on to find out.
Materially speaking
Using the right kind of materials in the interiors can make a world of difference. According to Swati Gupta, project officer, Sustainable Habitat Division, The Energy and Resources Institute, “While choosing materials, minimise the use of hardwood by using other alternatives like composite wood panels, veneered panels and MDF board that use lesser wood, but provide the same finish. Products from rapidly renewable small trees like rubber, bamboo and eucalyptus can also be used.”
“Furniture, door and window frames, carpets and other materials can be reused with innovative design ideas. Use products which are made of recycled matter like the use of coir for door panels, tiles for flooring with recycled material, furniture made of trash and so on. Use products which are locally manufactured rather than imported. Be sure that the material being used for finishes like door polishes, paints and adhesives are free from volatile organic compounds (VOC). Water-based products are the safest to use.”
Flooring plays a key role in enhancing the ambience of the home. While wooden floors enhance the aesthetics of any home, they lend warmth and give your home a timeless appeal. With little care and maintenance, wooden floors last longer.
“It’s easier to clean when compared to carpets that trap dust. Though stone and tile flooring are hygienic and easier to maintain, they don’t provide the warmth that timber provides. Usage of natural solid bamboo or reused wood for flooring makes a sustainable choice for a green design. Wood is a carbon-neutral product that produces oxygen during its growth cycle and stores carbon during its service life,” says B S Harikrishna, president-ZED communities, BCIL ZED Habitats.
Intelligent choices
Using LED lighting fixtures, installing low-flow faucets and even glass to ensure natural lighting are simple ways to go green.
Savita Jain, owner and managing director, Ratan Jaipur says, “Conservation of natural resources is central to ensuring an eco-friendly approach to living.
Increasingly, people are moving towards setting up solar energy-based heating and power systems, using bamboo rather than wood for making furniture. This is why our products are innovative, attractive, utilitarian and are made out of recycled paper. Our products include paper and pen stands, storage and presentation boxes, gift bags, cards and much more.”
In fact, today, several furniture manufacturers are using recycled wood or even wood from cultivated forests. Select furniture that are made from sustainable, harvested, FSC-certified timber like rubber wood. Use furniture that don’t use nails so that they can be recycled.
Also, use furniture that does not use any formaldehyde-based adhesives since they emit toxins. Organic fabrics — primarily organic cotton and wool are good alternatives to synthetic non-degradable materials.
“Salvage-chic or dumpster-chic is a new trend in the home space. A great way to redecorate homes is by coming up with furniture and accessories made by reusing or re-imaging everyday objects into completely different things. Use small rugs instead of synthetic carpets, change your waste baskets to eco-friendly materials. They look trendy as they are or paint them with the colour of your choice,” says Vivek Juyal, VP-Merchandising, Urban Ladder.
Get your home ready
Use of reclaimed, repurposed and recycled articles is one of the most popular ways of making homes ecologically sensitive. “Going in for draperies, window blinds and shades that are in natural fibres like cotton, hemp and linen are a good idea. Eliminating the need for petroleum-based foam stuffing in sofas is another important step one can take to make the home eco-friendly,” says Anand Agarwal, CEO, NaturalMantra.com.
Going green cannot and should not be restricted to any one aspect of your home. Installing solar panels, solar water heaters, rainwater harvesting, good roof insulation are some of the must do’s in order to reduce your carbon footprint.
Getamber Anand, CMD, ATS Group adds, “The core concept of each project remains the same: to create beautiful, well- lit habitable spaces that inspire better and healthier living, while catering to the basic needs of serenity within areas, solitude contained by the living spaces and a grander scheme of living. This, of course, includes the involvement of the optimum usage of the area in the complex for manicured landscaped areas that provide respite to one and all due to the impeccable placement of the greens at the heart of each project.”
Lighting plays a major role in making home interiors eco-friendly and beautiful. The most important step is to check the kind of lights you are using for your home space.
“For eco-friendly lighting, you need to get the old light bulbs changed and fix CFL or LED light bulbs. The reason behind this is that CFL bulbs not only consume much less energy than the old bulbs, but also save on your electricity bills. Even better are LED lights which are new in the market with eco-friendly specifications like energy efficiency and direction specifics which reduces the amount of light being wasted. Also, they last ten times longer than CFLs. While purchasing lamps to enhance the beauty of your bedrooms, you can opt for lights that are ‘BEE STAR’ rated,” says Shyam Sujan, secretary general, ELCOMA (Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers’ Association of India).
Trend check
Cladding materials like raw stone and slates not just give a rustic look, but are also low on energy. Opt for materials which are locally available as they are lower in cost and are available in equally good finishes. To improve indoor air quality, add plants in your home which will bring in a fresh look as well.
Stylising indoor gardening has taken shape in a big way. Gone are the days when you just brought in a plant in a plastic pot and tray and dumped it in a corner.
“A whole new range of indoor garden products have exploded in the market, spoiling the consumer for choice. Using self-watering planters is the latest trend that has caught on. Matching planters with interior decor in terms of colour and look is also in. Indoor foliage planting has stepped up to provide thematic indoor landscaping for residences. Green walls or vertical gardening has taken the indoor gardening world by storm,” opines Myna Batavia, chief consulting director, Green Carpet.
Build in a skylight to create an atrium look and landscape the area to take advantage of light streaming inside the house. “Things like day-light harvesting and adjusting the light intensity based on ambient light, automatic adjustments of AC based on ambient temperatures, minimising stand-by currents in various devices within the home conserve energy, maximise the usage of natural resources and reduce electricity bills. People are also looking at alternative energy sources like solar cells to ensure that the homes become as self-reliant on energy as possible,” opines Avinash K Gautam, CEO of Silvan Innovation Labs.
Product mix
Home appliances are also pushing the pedal on sustainability. In fact, concepts like inductions cooktops is said to save up to 25% more energy than a ceramic electric cooktop and is up to 40% more efficient than a solid hotplate cooktop. Likewise, Electrolux eco-range refrigerators, freezers and fridge-freezers use a more eco-friendly, non-synthetic refrigerants with lower global warming potential.
Remodelling your bathroom by installing the dual flush system to save water is a good idea.
“Likewise, the first wall-hung WC to have the cistern and the operating plate integrated within the closet, thereby removing the need for any behind-the-wall plumbing, installation and servicing is also in. Also, cleaning the rim of the gap, through the introduction of an efficient distributor at the back of the toilet reduces the flush volume and also makes the WC extremely hygienic and easy to clean,” says Arjunpreet Singh Sahni, executive director, Solitaire Group.
Satyendra Tomar, JMD, Proplarity Group says, “We use low-cost green material for plumbing purposes like CPVC (Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride). Durable UPVC (Unplasticised poly vinyl chloride) windows would be used that are sound-proof, water- and UV-resistant and require low maintenance. UPVC has excellent thermal insulation that reduces dependency on AC and heaters in our project.”
So, making your home interiors green is really more simple than you think – just be creative and let your green thumbs do the talking.