Eco-friendly home decor alternatives - Yourhome.ca

It takes more than painting the walls chartreuse, moss or sage to create a truly green interior.

Whether it's renovating the kitchen or redecorating the living room, more homeowners are making design choices that reduce their carbon footprint, save energy, do less environmental damage and deliver better indoor air quality.

"When I started out, there really wasn't much available information about sustainable design and sustainable products," says Barbara Nyke, the interior decorator behind Toronto's Nikka Design , which specializes in environmentally conscious decor. "I've had to go beyond the world of decorating and design to find out how things are made and how they affect our air and our water."

The first task is navigating the third-party certification systems that help determine a product's environmental impact. As the number of such programs increases, it's getting harder to avoid those that are mere greenwashing–that is, driven by marketing rather than verifiable evidence. Founded in 1988, Canada's EcoLogo is a respected certification system that allows consumers and professionals to search a wide range of products to find suppliers that meet its standards. Nyke also uses the Forestry Stewardship Council certification program to find wood products that come from sustainably minded producers.

Nyke has a few favourite eco-substitutions for common interior-decorating demands.

- Granite surfaces are popular because they feel luxurious and durable, but Nyke reminds her clients that mining, processing and transporting the igneous rock uses a lot of energy and water. As an alternative, she suggests countertops made of highly compressed recycled paper. Available from several manufacturers, they're billed to be as tough as granite and, unlike the competition, they don't need to be resealed.

- Fabric for upholstery and curtains is increasingly being made of sustainable materials like bamboo pulp, organic silk, organic cotton and even from post-consumer waste like plastic pop bottles. Nyke prefers chemical-free fabrics that use vegetable dyes, which are less environmentally damaging to manufacture and are less toxic in the home. She's also found upholstery foam that's 60 per cent soy-based with the same quality and longevity of petroleum-based products.

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