Ann Moore Spencer

Eco-De­sign style is more than a de­sign aes­thet­ic. It is a com­mit­ment to liv­ing with as lit­tle as pos­si­ble im­pact on the earth with an en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious lifestyle and us­ing sus­tain­able prod­ucts. Here are some tips for a 'green­er' home.

The more win­dows the bet­ter.

Win­dows let in nat­ur­al light and ven­ti­la­tion. We can re­duce the use of air con­di­tion­ing and ar­ti­fi­cial light­ing, there­by sav­ing on your elec­tric­i­ty bill. Al­so con­sid­er sky­lights and tubu­lar day light­ing fix­tures. But win­dows can al­so be a point where cool­ness is lost, es­pe­cial­ly if the sun hits the glass di­rect­ly. You can use tra­vers­ing drap­ery to fur­ther reg­u­late the cov­er­age at the win­dow – open for max­i­mum light and close to keep the heat out.

Use deep roof over­hangs.

Deep roof over­hangs and win­dow awnings will al­so shade the win­dows from the di­rect sun, while still al­low­ing the breezes in. Roof over­hangs al­so pro­tect you from rain, sun and wind and pro­tect the foun­da­tion from wa­ter runoff.

Use your land­scape to your ad­van­tage.

Trees and shrubs are great air con­di­tion­ers. They fil­ter the sun and can re­duce glare and tem­per­a­tures sig­nif­i­cant­ly in the home and in the gar­den. So say that tem­per­a­tures can be up to 15 de­grees cool­er be­low the trees.

Use clean en­er­gy.

Con­sid­er us­ing so­lar en­er­gy where pos­si­ble. Wind en­er­gy is not a well-de­vel­oped op­tion here in Trinidad and To­ba­go, but oth­er forms of en­er­gy im­pact di­rect­ly on our car­bon foot­print. In our homes we are main­ly de­pen­dent on gas or on elec­tric­i­ty (which is gen­er­at­ed from gas). We do have the op­tion to use so­lar wa­ter heaters, for in­stance.

Use en­er­gy ef­fi­cient ap­pli­ances.

Seek out En­er­gy Star rat­ed ap­pli­ances and use your ap­pli­ances ap­pro­pri­ate­ly.

• Wash­ers and Dry­ers. Do not over­load your ap­pli­ances. But, on the oth­er hand re­frain from wash­ing too many small loads.

• Re­frig­er­a­tors. They use up to 15 per­cent of your home's elec­tric­i­ty con­sump­tion. If you over fill your re­frig­er­a­tor, it will have to use ex­tra en­er­gy to keep your food cool. Over­sized units are cool­ing va­cant space. So, size your unit ap­pro­pri­ate­ly. Ac­cord­ing to Con­sumer Re­ports, top freez­er mod­els, at 80 per­cent, have the greater pro­por­tion of us­able space. At 63 per­cent, side-by-side units use space least ef­fi­cient­ly. They al­so use 20 per­cent more elec­tric­i­ty. Fea­tures such as ice mak­ers and wa­ter dis­pensers can in­crease en­er­gy con­sump­tion up to 15 per­cent.

• Cook­ers and ovens. Keep the lid on your pots to keep in the heat and cook foods faster. Re­frain from open­ing the door of your oven fre­quent­ly. The larg­er the oven, the more en­er­gy it us­es. It's bet­ter to have 2 small­er ovens, us­ing the sec­ond oc­ca­sion­al­ly when more ca­pac­i­ty is re­quired. Pre­fer a con­vec­tion oven, where a fan as­sists in the heat cir­cu­la­tion and foods cook faster. Use a vent­ed hood. It will as­sist in main­tain­ing good air qual­i­ty.

• Dish­wash­ers. Scrape dish­es be­fore wash­ing and al­ways run a full load and opt for 'no-heat' dry­ing. Up to 90 per­cent of the en­er­gy con­sump­tion of the dish wash­er is as­so­ci­at­ed with heat­ing wa­ter. And what about hand wash­ing the dish­es in­stead?

• Mi­crowaves. Place food close to the perime­ter of the tray for faster cook­ing. Mi­crowaves use half as much en­er­gy than a reg­u­lar oven, but are best for small­er meal por­tions.

Re­cy­cle, Re­pur­pose, Reuse.

This is the clas­sic mantra that most home own­ers are fa­mil­iar with. So sort and re­cy­cle your waste, re­fin­ish and pre­serve your fur­ni­ture rather than re­plac­ing them and use the small­est space that is prac­ti­cal for your lifestyle. Vin­tage is in. Us­ing sec­ond-hand fur­ni­ture is not on­ly trendy and af­ford­able, but al­so sus­tain­able. Man­u­fac­tur­ers are re­spond­ing with prod­ucts such as tile and coun­ter­tops out of re­cy­cled glass, for in­stance. These prod­ucts are beau­ti­ful and will not sab­o­tage great de­sign. Sal­vaged wood can be re­pur­posed for fur­ni­ture, floor­ing and cab­i­nets. It is full of char­ac­ter and his­to­ry and is a very sus­tain­able op­tion. Build durable items. Dura­bil­i­ty is es­sen­tial for re­cy­cling, re­pur­pos­ing and reusing; can't do that if it does not hold up to use and time.

Use or­gan­ic ma­te­r­i­al.

Ply­wood, par­ti­cle board and fi­bre­board are made by bond­ing with car­cino­genic, formalde­hyde-based glues. Try to use formalde­hyde-free and low-VOC al­ter­na­tives where pos­si­ble. Many man­u­fac­tur­ers, even lo­cal ones, have low-VOC paints in all fin­ish­es and for all sur­faces. Or­gan­ic fab­ric such as jute, hemp, burlap and linen are quite in vogue and come in many dif­fer­ent weaves mak­ing them suit­able for any d&ea­cute;cor use. Some man­made fi­bres are al­so eco-friend­ly. Some poly­esters are made from re­cy­cled plas­tic, for in­stance. Bam­boo wood is read­i­ly re­new­able and is very ver­sa­tile. Bam­boo can be used for floor­ing, ceil­ing ma­te­r­i­al, cab­i­netry and even fab­ric.

Liv­ing green is pro­gres­sive and has a pos­i­tive im­pact on our well-be­ing and qual­i­ty of life. No, you do not have to re­tire to the forests or be­come an ex­treme tree-hug­ger.