Our environment is something special. We should all strive to be good stewards of it. Going green is a trendy way to protect our environment, but for many it is more than a trend, it is a way of life. There have always been things you can do around your home to be more green, like recycling, planting a garden or simply being considerate of your energy consumption. Today more than ever you can be environmentally conscious by buying from sources that have a proven track record of good stewardship. In the past there wasn't a wide variety of green products available, but now a growing number of companies are making green products that are more available and more cost effective.
Harlan Cabinets is a proud member of the KCMA's Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP) , which was created to help cabinet manufacturers demonstrate their commitment to environmental sustainability and help consumers easily identify green cabinetry. In order to produce ESP certified green cabinetry you must meet their stringent requirements. Some companies choose to only certify one or two of their brand lines. Every box made at Harlan Cabinets is certified as green cabinetry and has components that meet or exceed the ESP's requirements.
Some examples of how we keep our green cabinetry certification are as follows:
- Our sawdust shavings are sold to a farm supply distributor for reuse as animal bedding.
- We use CARB certified (California Air Resources Board), low-formaldehyde emitting plywoods that are industry staples when building green cabinetry.
- Wood scrap that is not chipped is used for heating our facility in the winter (Did you know that rotting wood emits the same amount of gases as burning wood?)
- We do random checks of our suppliers to ensure environmental compliance is being maintained.
- We have a comprehensive recycling program in place for all of our cardboard and wood byproducts.
- We promote the use of recycled materials within our facility (including buying used machinery if possible).
- We have available green cabinetry products like recycled glass counter tops, concrete counter tops, in-cabinet recycling centers, bamboo plywood, etc.
One thing we have found in building green cabinetry is to not use "green" products that will fall apart in a couple of years. In an attempt to exploit the current demand for green cabinetry manufacturers are creating things like plywoods that are made with 100% natural adhesives. The concept is great, but the practice is far from perfected. This is more and more becoming an issue and when green cabinetry has to be replaced within a few years of production it obviously eliminates any positive environmental impact that was intended. At our current level of technology there is a great need for balance and we believe we've got a pretty good sense of where that lies. We are not in this to make a quick dollar and we have always valued good stewardship. Our interest is deeply rooted in customer satisfaction and we want to produce green cabinetry that will last a lifetime.
Are you ready to build or remodel using green cabinetry? Have we got what it takes to be your green cabinetry provider? Give us a chance to answer all of your green cabinetry questions...
Email us or call us at (260) 657-5154
On a side note; Here is an interesting article about a green house that Charityworks built to demonstrate eco-friendly design- green cabinetry included. "Everything in the space was kept organic and neutral-connected to the natural world" says Lead designer Larry Dixon. Larry goes into detail about all of the products that were used in creating the green house.
This green cabinetry article was written by Angie and Lee.
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