I looked into it and found them all to be much more expensive than granite or silestone. The recycled glass counters are gorgeous, but way out of my price range. The paper countertops (like richlite and paperstone) are expensive too.

I thought concrete would be a good, green option, but not at that price. There were several other recycled countertop options and all of them were over my budget. I thought buying something made of reused materials should be cheaper but I'm guessing it's the fad of being "green" that's making a lot of this stuff expensive.

I think granite is a nice, "green" alternative. :-D

I really wanted concrete and recycled glass, but it was more than double the cost of the granite that we chose.

This is a great example of where the term "green" is almost completely meaningless. You might love the look of Icestone and think that the production in Brooklyn is green, but if you live on the west coast then you have to ship the slab-- not very green. Vetrazzo is made out here-- great for CA residents, but not very green if you live in NYC.

With that caveat in mind, there was a nice story in Fine Homebuilding about alternative countertops (last issue I think).

I tend to like concrete and the price is quite reasonable, if you are willing to do it yourself :)

But concrete isn't particularly "green", as there is a lot of embodied energy in the cement.

And from what I understand, DIYing concrete countertops...well...it ain't exactly EASY!!! If you have them made, at least where I live, it was twice as much as my granite. I'm all for green, but I just can't afford green countertops.

Granite is more green than concrete.

Granite is more green than concrete

I'm just curious - why?

When I think of all the energy it would take to take a slab of granite out of Brazil or Iran or India, the fuel that would be expended to transport it and the energy needed to finish it, I can't see how it could be greener than some concrete that could be mixed in your backyard?

(I'm not looking for an argument, just some knowledge because I really don't know!)

I'd like to be as green as possible, and I'm troubled by the idea of a slab of granite being shipped from Brazil to Italy and then to California, but IMO those recycled glass countertops are just greenwashing. I suppose the best countertops from a green POV would be locally quarried stone or renewable wood (which is usually a bad idea for other reasons). However, keep in mind the relative impacts of our choices in daily living compared to once-every-decade-or-more. The two biggest impacts a homeowner can have inside the house are: 1. changing the refrigerator and 2. changing the lightbulbs. (#1 gets very little argument here -- after all, we're all on this site because we want new appliances! -- but #2 seems controversial.)

The amount of energy involved in transporting something by ship is very small--ships are a quite efficient way to transport things.

With a slab of granite, all you're doing is sawing up something that already exists in its final form, and polishing it, both of which are low-energy operations.

Concrete is made with Portland cement, which requires a lot of energy to make. The components of Portland cement are fired at very high temperature in a kiln, and they absorb a lot of energy in the process of becoming "cement."

Other than that, both granite and concrete are basically rock quarried out of the ground. Six of one, half a dozen...

.

However, truth be told I'm basically laughing at this thread. Yes, I do believe that granite is quite "green", and more "green" than concrete. However, consider: A house of the sort people here are talking about has perhaps 100 tons of concrete in the foundation, basement, slabs, driveways and patios. The amount of hydrocarbon products in an "engineered stone" or "solid surface" countertop is around two orders of magnitude less than the amount of hydrocarbon products in the OSB sheathing, subfloors, roof deck, and I-joists. It is also dwarfed by the amount of gas you burn in your car in a month, or by the fuel used to heat and cool the house.

The countertops are easily the most important surfaces in a home--they're "where the rubber meets the road" in terms of most of the work that's done in the house. They're the place where, rationally, the greatest emphasis should be given to the functional and aesthetic aspects of the materials, and the least to other considerations, such as "greenness."

If one is really concerned with being "green" in building a house, the way to do that which will have the most impact is to build with Thermomass construction, heat and cool with a ground-sourced heat pump, and put in code-minimum windows except where you can get winter solar heat gain. (And, of course, to make the house as small as possible.)

I consider worrying about the "greenness" of one's countertops to be in the same category as "tilting with windmills."

(I suppose I should now don a flameproof suit...)

Note: I was replying to Sandsonik; I cross-posted with BlueKitObsessed, and did not see her post before I made mine.

Does that mean I'm gonna get flamed next? :)

I found that Icestone was more expensive than even higher levels of granite. I think that if they become more popular the prices will come down. Right now it seems to be priced for people who want green no matter the cost. I decided against the Icestone not because of the price. I thought I would become bored with the smaller all over pattern.

To the original poster- I'm ordering countertops made with recycled glass for a small kitchen-10x10. The cost is $3800 for 2 walls which includes shipping and a sink.The brand is Icestone.
Good luck!
Bluecrab

Another possibility for a green countertop is one that's *reused*. I mean bought from salvage removed from someone's kitchen. I've seen marble countertops at our local salvage, granite, corian (which can be recut and seamed invisibly)...I even bought some very high-end lyptus butcher block that looked completely unused (except for installation screw holes underneath) just because it was there. I tried and tried to find a place for it but couldn't, so sold it on c's list to someone who would use it. Hated to part with it, but I also have a concrete countertop that must have been from the same house/display room and it will be our garden potting bench counter :)

Please look at the local building salvage (esp. if it's cool and not overpriced) for counters that will be "green" through the second R: reuse.

Well, if the $20 per sample that IceStone wants to charge me is any indication, I'm thinking they're pretty expensive. Idealbite.com had them listed as $75-$150 per square foot in their overview of green home improvement products.

Solarpowered, you say that "The amount of energy involved in transporting something by ship is very small--ships are a quite efficient way to transport things."

I'm not going to make an argument about exactly how much energy is spent transporting a piece of granite but I will say this: energy efficiency isn't everything. Transporting things by ships is very bad for the environment. Ships use the lowest grade of fuel available (heavy bunker fuel) which results in large amounts of air pollution and significant amounts of oil discharged to the ocean. Ships also discharge large amounts of invasive species into our waters, causing a drain on our economy.

All materials have an environmental impact. It is very difficult to do a cradle-to-grave analysis of materials unless it's your area of expertise.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are, in that order, the best way to go "green". So you should move into a tent -- and not a 6 person tent either. Go for the 4 person.

FWIW, concrete is recyclable and granite is not. But kudos to fern4 -- it is indeed difficult to analyze green claims. We do what we can to tread lightly.

I tried and tried to find a viable green countertop. Materials prices generally start at $50/square foot. Add on to that installation, tax, and often transportation costs, and it's easily over $75/square foot.

It is possible to get wood countertops out of bamboo or lyptus. However, several recent articles on bamboo have said that increased demand has resulted in less responsible harvesting practices. I got a quote from Daniel DeVos Woodworking (Texas) for sustainable wood countertops, and it was equivalent to the cost of engineered stone or a mid-range granite. I believe I found a high number from Teragen, too, but can't recall the details.

Some argue that concrete counters are green if you use recycled ash, etc. (Please, no one pick on the details. It's been a few months, and I've shoved them out of head to make room for backsplashes!) I found Sonoma Stone recycled-ash concrete tiles (San Francisco? Denver?) for about $50/square foot, with a contractor's discount.

Enviroslab: Custom epoxy resin color brings the price of EnviroSLAB to $70 per square foot and EnviroPLANK to $35 per square foot. They're in Plano, TX (Dallas area); and this doesn't include shipping or installation.

Paperstone, when I talked with someone, was around $50/square foot (or more), before installation.

Recycled glass tiles (not terazzo, but actual tiles) are another option from companies like Oceanside. Not Lowe's and Home Depot prices. I'm sure the experts could argue up a storm about relative savings in energy and materials costs on that one.

I know you didn't ask for it; but if anyone wants a place to learn about some of the options, look at the Green Home Guide. Also, I may still have my file of green counter links. If someone out there wants it, let me know.

In the end, even though I tried to find a green option for every part of my kitchen, the only things I managed to be environmentally responsible about were the refrigerator (Energy Star) and the corbels (made from rubberwood). Possibly the lights, but the electricians used theirs; and I haven't gotten out a big enough ladder to check them out. Others here have done a better job. It's expensive and limiting. Good luck, and hth!

* All prices were from last fall and the first couple of months of this year. Prices not guaranteed. I'm in SE Michigan.

We investigated Paperstone and found it, in central Texas, to run about $150/sf installed (about $65-70 for the material, the rest for fab and installation). We're going with soapstone.

We really, really liked Alkemi when we remodeled last year (more for the look than the "green" element, but that was a part of it), but it was totally unaffordable. The first bid was over $200 per sf installed, and it never got anywhere close to realistic. Beautiful stuff, though.

Paperstone if you live in the Northwest, where it is made, is more affordable than elsewhere. It is made from recycled paper and cashew nut oil rather than petroleum.

we also investigated paperstone and richlite, more for the soft, matte look than the green aspect, although that does have some appeal.

one fabricator in the chicago area. richlite $85-$100/sq ft installed. paperstone $115-$125. 4-6 week turnaround time.

oh, and our samples took stains and scratched when i took my car keys to them.

no go. went with caesarstone and granite.

oh, and i'm enjoying your posts, solarpowered!

Hmm. Maybe it was Richlite and not Paperstone for which I got that one quote. Gah. Sorry for the mix-up.

I'm replying to solarpowered's comment: "But concrete isn't particularly "green", as there is a lot of embodied energy in the cement. "

You can definitely find green concrete countertops. I know it sounds crazy but it's possible.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eco Friendly Concrete Countertops

DIY Decorator, I looked at the link, and it appears that they're using the same Portland cement as everyone else is. It's "green" because they say it is.

However, please understand that my point was satire. A typical house has a 100 tons of concrete in it, if not 100's of tons of concrete. Worrying about quarrying a few hundred pounds of rock for a granite countertop is silly when you're quarrying 100 tons or more of rock to make the concrete with.

The same with a concrete countertop--a few hundred pounds of concrete in a countertop is irrelevant compared to the 100 tons of concrete in the rest of the home.

And even engineered stone and solid surface, which are "not green" because of the petroleum products involved, are insignificant compared the the petroleum products in the engineered wood in the structure (each and every sheet of OSB has something like 50 pounds or more of plastic resin in it), the gas you use in your car (a 17 gallon fillup is around 100 pounds of petroleum), and heating the house.

My point is, there is no point to worrying about whether your countertop is "green." Get something that you enjoy, and that works well as a countertop. If you want to be "green", build the house with Thermomass construction, and heat and cool it with a ground-sourced heat pump. That will have orders of magnitude more effect than your choice of countertop.

The fact that it costs so much more green to go green caused me to lower it on the priority list. I will still use natural materials and energy efficient appliances where possible. I will also recycle as much as possible. But I'd rather put any hard earned green that I can save towards my daughter's future than line the pockets of people capitalizing on the green movement.

I looked into using Alkemi on just our island when we were designing the kitchen, but the estimate was that it would cost $2,000 more than the estimate we had for granite on the island. I loved the look of it though and wish we could have used it. Here's a photo for those of you who might not have heard of it...

Patti

Here is a link that might be useful: alkemi site

I, too, looked into Richlite, but more for aesthetics rather than "green factor". It was very expensive and I also found that it is made almost identical to the counter tops used in labs. The only difference is Richlite uses about 70% recycled paper in the counter. Manufacturers of laboratory counters don't use any recycled paper, but the basic paper embedded in phenolic resin is the same in both counters. Richlite ran about $120 s.f.installed, and the lab counters ran about $40 s.f. both the Richlite and lab counters samples I got scratched and gouged VERY easily. We're going with Silestone.

As mentioned earlier, granite (and soapstone, and marble) are just as green, if not more green, than these manufactured "green" products, which are held together with Portland cement or plastic, neither of which is green.

And in response to Fern4's comments, these "green" alternatives are generally manufactured in exactly one place, and have to be shipped to wherever you are--no saving there over granite. And with the manufactured "green" products, you also have the impact of transporting the materials to the plant, which you don't have with natural stone (it's already just sitting there, ready to be cut and transported to you). And also there is the energy involved in manufacturing the "green" products.

This has been a great thread. In my family, we want to be environmentally responsible, and we're learning that "green" can be a marketing ploy just as shallow and self-serving as any other. Still worth it, without doubt, but you do have to work at it.

"Greeniness" of granite, recycled glass, and other countertops.

1. The huge amount of resources to extract natural substances from the earth.
2. The environmental damage in extracting substances from the earth.
3. The power to transport heavy, huge slabs to a warehouse to be prepared for shipping.
4. Shipping.
5. More transportation to a new, main warehouse in the country.
6. More transportation to warehouse hubs, to be wholesaled.
7. Power to prepare rough slabs for wholesale.
8. Power to hone rough slabs to be shown in retail stores.
9. More transportation to retail warehouses/locations.

10. Transportation to consumers' homes.
11. Power to fabricate slabs for consumer's homes.
12. Ability to be recycled, or does the slab end up in a landfill.

These things are involved in granite. Granite is beautiful, and I may get granite. But let's not equate granite with recycled countertops that will, in the end, be recycled again, and again, and again, and never end up in a landfill or cause environmental damage.

Enviroglass is manufactured in my city, which is a good "green" advantage. All the power required for all that transportation noted above....not needed for enviroglass. Or concrete, for that matter, since that is made locally.

The deal with concrete countertops, which are not by definition green, is that (according to one show I saw) they are usually made locally. So there is no transportation involved, to speak of. But unless it can be recycled, I don't know if this is a big enough green advantage. Still, the guy on the show acted as if the power to transport is a huge consideration (I guess because of the weight of concrete, in part).

No man-made or fabricated substance is perfect. They all use power. They all do some damage. They all have drawbacks in their use, too (even granite cracks).

But it seems to me that if something is renewable, that would be a flag that it is likely to be the "greenest" of the items. Maybe not, but it just seems common sense to me that if you can use an item, and re-use, and re-use it, then it is the greenest. Add to that any product that is locally made and requires little transportation, and voila, that would be the greenest. Seems to me, anyway. Maybe granite can be recycled? I don't know. I don't know why not. It can't be melted down, but it can be re-fabricated for a smaller countertop, I would think. Lots to think about.