There was once a time when getting green paint required so much traveling, the benefit to the environment would be a wash.
One business owner is hoping to change that by opening a local Green Depot, an environmental building supplies store that celebrated its grand opening on Wednesday, Dec. 9.
Green Depot is located at 86 Railroad Ave. in Albany, and founder Sarah Beatty said it is the company’s ninth location, with the first having opened in Brooklyn in 2005.
`We’ve been planning this for nine months,` she said of the Albany location’s grand opening.
Beatty, a self-described `accidental entrepreneur,` started her business after she had a toxicity issue in her apartment and could not find a store in the area where she could purchase new, cleaner materials.
Since then, Beatty said she had learned from the Environmental Protection Agency that 90 percent of a person’s life is spent indoors, but the indoors are generally two to three times more contaminated. This furthered her desire to provide clean, healthy building materials in New York.
`We’re a one-stop shop for green supplies. [Shopping green] is accessible, affordable and gratifying,` she said.
A big part of Green Depot, she said, is providing information for customers so they understand what they are buying and why it is good for them and good for the environment. Informational signs are posted throughout the store.
Politicians, customers, suppliers and business are all still learning about the power of green, Beatty said.
`Everyone is on this massive learning curve,` she said.
One product offered at the store ` kitchen caesarstone quartz surfaces ` offers `exceptional stain, scratch, heat resistant products, that is twice as strong as granite and never requires sealing.`
Jim Millhouse, a supplier with National Fiber, said the cellulose insulation that National Fiber sells to Green Depot is made from recycled newspapers and blue jeans. He said air is trapped inside 40 percent more efficiently.
Other items at Green Depot include nontoxic cleaners, paint and other household items.
Jenny Gitlitz, who helped Green Depot work on a screening system for its products, said only products that have gone through a `very rigorous internal green filter,` make it to the shelves.
Also, Green Depot only buys from suppliers within a 1,000-mile radius to cut down on the carbon footprint left from cross-county transportation.
Tracy Hall, the executive director of the U.S. Green Building Council New York Upstate chapter, gave a guest presentation about the benefits of shopping green.
She commended the store for its innovative practices.
`I think this filter that has been developed is going to go a long, long way,` she said.
She spoke about how making small changes in lifestyle can have a big impact on the environment.
`We need to go beyond the light bulb,` she said.
Washing clothes in cold water, weatherizing homes, using a programmable thermostat and `thinking about what you have plugged in,` are all pivotal.
Hall said keeping cell phone charges plugged in when the phone is not charging still draws current, sometimes more than when the phone is charging.
Wayne Williams, chief sustainability officer at U.W. Marx Construction Company addressed another angle affected by the `green` initiative. He spoke about how the building industry is changing in response to the availability of new, green products and how federal funding is available for many new projects that are `going green.` He said if funding expands to existing structures the potential benefits to the environment would grow. He is optimistic that funding will become available.
`We have a finite amount of natural resources moving forward. We have a finite amount of places we can build,` he said.
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