Product Description

With more than 150 color photographs, comprehensive text, and extensive resource lists of recommended products, manufacturers, and retailers, Good Green Kitchens is a must-have—whether taking small steps to a green kitchen, or planning a thorough remodel. This newest book from green living advocate, Jennifer Roberts, is loaded with inspiration and information for creating a dream green kitchen.

What makes a kitchen green? Good Green Kitchens shows that eco-friendly design is a continuum that’s shaded from light to dark green. At the light green end are easy-to-do steps such as choosing less polluting paints or selecting energy-efficient appliances. At the darker green end are strategies like using certified or reclaimed wood, consciously choosing to simplify or downsize, or using the kitchen project as a launching point for greening the whole house. Good Green Kitchens gives the low-down on what’s green and what’s not when it comes to kitchen design. It includes: up-close profiles of beautiful, green kitchens and the people who created them; tips for environmentally responsible redecorating, remodeling, and building from the ground up; in-depth chapters on greener alternatives for floors, cabinets, countertops, and appliances; strategies for greening the whole house; tips for keeping costs in check; and much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #237348 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Review
This is an encyclopedia of great ideas on how to build a kitchen with a conscience. -- The Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2006

About the Author
Jennifer Roberts is a green building advocate and freelance writer based in San Francisco. She is the author of Good Green Homes: Creating Better Homes for a Healthier Planet, and Redux: Designs That Reuse, Recycle, and Reveal.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Let's talk about what's underfoot. Whether it's antique chestnut planks in a farmhouse, cool ceramic tiles in a bungalow by the beach, or artfully stained concrete in an airy downtown loft, the right floor can make a kitchen.
With so many beautiful flooring options available, how do you choose what's right for your kitchen? Start by becoming aware of what you want and expect from your floor: style, feel, cost, durability, maintenance, and other general characteristics. Once you have a handle on your preferences, use the Checklist for Choosing a Green Floor to understand what green means when it comes to flooring. Then turn to the descriptions of flooring materials to learn more about what's best for your kitchen.
Wood & Bamboo Floors
You can't beat wood floors for their beauty, natural look and good feel underfoot. There's a wood floor to complement every style of kitchen, whether it's blond maple in a contemporary townhouse, warm cherry in a suburban colonial, or hickory planks in a rustic weekend retreat.
Wood floors are available to suit a wide range of budgets, although the greenest options-such as antique floorboards or FSC-certified products-generally cost more than the low-price products available from home-improvement centers and conventional flooring retailers. Be aware of potential hidden costs of some of the less expensive options, such as urea formaldehyde glues offgassing into your home, or environmental damage resulting from unsustainable or even illegal logging activities.
If your budget is limited and you can't afford an FSC product or refinished antique planks, don't despair. Check under your existing floor covering: many owners of older homes are pleasantly surprised to find beautiful old fir or pine floorboards hidden beneath their existing kitchen floors. Assuming the floorboards aren't badly deteriorated, they can be sanded and finished at relatively low cost. Also check local building reuse centers: many sell bargain-price floorboards that were removed from deconstructed old homes, gymnasiums and warehouses; while the labor to refinish and install the old wood may be considerable, if you're a well-seasoned DIYer it could be an economical option.

Customer Reviews

Green, but top of the line, Kitchens
What? Yet another book on kitchens? And what does GREEN mean in terms of a kitchen, certainly not the color?

San Francisco based writer Jennifer Roberts has developed a philosophy that discusses the remodelling of a kitchen in terms of its impact on the world.

Key to her philosophies are reuse, recycle, salvage, and when buying new avoiding old-growth or tropical woods, particleboard or plywood made with urea formaldehyde-based glues (that can out-gas bad things into your house). Green includes appliances that use less energy, less water, and cost little more (if any more) than un-green equipment.

The book is a heavily illustrated study of several green kitchens that clearly illustrate that being green does not have a penalty in design, style or utility. Nor do they have to be cheaply made. Here are green kitchens with professional grade appliances.

Green is beautiful
... and so is this book. It's packed with beautiful kitchens and guidelines on choosing the greenest items for your reno or build. Green includes considering the manufacture, transport, durability, recyclability and health effects of the materials or appliances.
There are 5 sections: an overview lays down general principles and considerations for affordability. Ch. 2 considers Flooring, Ch 3.is Storage (cabinets etc.), Ch. 4 is Counters and Walls. For each there is a table summarizing the pros and cons of the options, as well as more detailed text that will explain how it's made, if it can be recycled, whether it presents health concerns, etc. I found this text to be quite comprehensive. The final section considers energy use by major appliances (fridge, freezer, cookers, hood ventilation), water use (dishwashers, sinks, water heating, filtration and gray water), and cleaning (recycling, garbage, compost, and cleaners). There are sources listed in each section.
The only annoying thing was that a few brands seemed to be "pushed" -- mentioned with great frequency in picture captions and text. Perhaps that reflects the lack of competing green brands, however.
Bottom line: definitely worth getting if you are doing a kitchen reno or building a new house.

Green or greenwash?
This book is not worth much of a review. Far from being "green" it's what I'd call "greenwash". It's for people with a spare $20,000 - $50,000 who want to feel good by what they BUY, but there is precious little to indicate that the kitchens pictured actually lead to living a green life. You can't buy more stuff to become green - that's an oxymoron. The first thing to DO to have a green kitchen is to reduce your ecological footprint by what you do and then build a kitchen around your genuinely green lifestyle. This book is based on the unstated assumption that you first dream of living a green life, then you drool over plans and then you buy lots of stuff and that somehow makes you green. Sorry - this might fool your friends, it might even fool yoursdelf, but it won't fool the planet. Almost anyone can reduce their ecological footprint by a change in behaviour far more than they could by following the examples here. Any book on green design that features pictures of buildings, rooms and kitchens without people in them living a green lifestyle is - by my reckoning - just another example of greenwash. I give it two stars rather than one because there are a few ideas here that you might be able to adapt to support a green life. But you'll need to go elsewhere to learn about ecological footprint, environmental load and living green. There is one-third of a page on "environmental costs" when such a book should feature this at its core and the rest of the book should be about building a life and a kitchen around this principle.