If your in the process of planning a new kitchen for your home, you may want to keep the color green in mind.  And, no I don’t mean for painting.  What I was thinking about was coming up with a new kitchen that is a little nicer to the planet.  If your thinking of having your kitchen redone, then it’s probably more than a couple of years old.  In which case, there is probably lots of room for improvement with it comes to reducing the carbon footprint of your kitchen.

So, lets start at the beginning.  If your doing a major renovation, that likely means your replacing a lot of stuff.  That can include fridges, stoves, dishwashers, microwaves, tables, chairs, cupboards and flooring.  That’s a lot of waste to throw in the dumpster, and I’m sure your already thinking you can do better with it.  First of all, you should try to either reuse some of this stuff your self if you can.  Cottages, and other rooms in your house are a good place to start.  If you don’t have a need for it, then try and give it away to friends, family, second hand stores, or places like Habitat For Humanity.  They’ll all make good use of it, or find someone who can.  If none of these places want your old stuff, then check if your city or town has a recycling center.  That way, at least it can get made into other useful stuff.

Now, as you move in to the actual redecorating, give some thought to your new construction materials.  Try to choose paint, drywall and flooring that’s friendly to the environment.  Both from a sustainability standpoint, and a non-toxic standpoint.  Low VOC or Volatile Organic Compound paint is a good place to start.   It’s not only nicer to the environment but to the people living in your home as well.

Sustainability is the key word when picking out any wood based products for your new kitchen.  That includes cupboards, flooring, trim, chairs, tables and kitchen islands.  Bamboo is becoming increasingly popular in today’s new  renovations projects largely because it grows so quickly and replenishes itself much faster than traditional wood tree forests.  It also has the added benefit of looking great as well.

Use natural energy as much as possible when redesigning your kitchen.  Natural sunlight is really the best light around, and if you can position your windows to collect the most real sun you can, you’ll benefit in a number of ways.  You’ll save on both heating, cooling and hydro.  Just make sure the windows you choose are energy efficient.  Older kitchens were lucky enough to incorporate a place for the garbage can, let alone the multiple recycling containers we see everywhere now.  If you can include some good recycling bins in your kitchen, you’ll be more likely to use them and make your life a little easier.