The Advantages of Buying Local
By Sarah Pinneo
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The last few years have brought forth a profusion of creatively green building materials. Consider countertops-you can purchase one made from recycled beer bottles or another pressed from post-industrial quartz dust. But the former is made in California and then trucked to New Hampshire, and the latter hails from Israel and is shipped here by sea.
So which is the more eco-friendly? To help answer that question, try "Green Math"-the science of weighing each product's planetary implications. Or, simply choose the locally manufactured building materials. Whatever their contents, items produced closest to home often represent the most ecologically sensitive choice. Whole Foods' definition of "local" is a one-day's drive away, up to seven hours. But we found a wealth of products for every room of the house within one hundred miles of Concord.
"Take concrete," says Jordan Castro, owner of Stone Surfaces in Burlington, Massachusetts. "It's the original green countertop surface, allowing us to get back to the basics of locally sourced materials and minimal waste." Made of recycled fly ash and stone-cutting waste, concrete's versatility is often overlooked. Because it's fabricated to
order, there are unlimited choices of thickness and color. And every ingredient is local to New England.
While concrete is gaining in popularity, stone is still a more popular choice. Incredibly, most new stone countertops installed in the Granite State are shipped here from Brazil. Yet within a hundred miles of Concord are quarried stones every bit as beautiful and durable as foreign stone. From western Vermont comes slate in green and plum, and milky white Danby marble. Both are available at Shaker Hill Granite Company, Inc., in Enfield.
As for Granite State granite? "A variety called Tapestry is very beautiful," says Gail Fuller of Ripano Stoneworks in Nashua. "It's gray and white with beautiful motion of black and pink."
But she's installed very few Tapestry countertops. "People tend to want more exotic colors," she says. Those homeowners who want to use local granite, slate or stone should talk to their suppliers, adds Jeff Forman of Bluefish Granite in North Hampton, as those products are readily available from quarries in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.\
Educating shoppers
The lack of information about materials' origins may be the biggest hindrance to conscientious local shopping. Grocery stores have caught on-people want to know where their food is grown. But the market for building materials is a few years behind. For example, knowing that National Gypsum is the only manufacturer of gypsum board in New Hampshire is difficult-unless you happen to know that "plant code 107" sticker on the back of each board refers to the Portsmouth factory.
Fortunately, there are indications that manufacturers will soon be more forthcoming about their products' origins. Using materials from fewer than five hundred miles away earns credits through the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system.
That means vendors have to be ready to produce this information for customers applying for LEED certification. Likewise, the Buy American provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 specifies the use of domestic building materials.
As a result of the new interest in local, many companies have begun to make the information available. "Just ask," says Lauri Buffum of Carlisle Wide Plank Flooring in Stoddard. "Of course, it depends on what look customers want, but in New Hampshire, we can always find local options."
Eastern White Pine, for example, can be timbered right here in New Hampshire. "Antique boards are another local option," Buffum says. Carlisle Wide Plank Flooring often has
reclaimed boards in stock for clients who want a material that's local, recycled and full of character.
Knowledge of the local environment
When you shop locally, the benefits accrue to the buyer and seller as well as the planet. If you have questions about a local product, you can often take them straight to the manufacturer. Try doing that at national chain stores.
"Another facet of local is service," says Dave Genest of Trikeenan Tileworks in Keene. "It starts when you begin to research a product and only gets more important as you move
through the buying cycle to ownership. When you buy locally, you deal with a person who is closely connected with the creation of the product-if not the person who made it. This means when I meet with a customer in our Keene store to help him or her design tile or glazed thin brick for a kitchen, bath, restaurant or hotel, there are no questions that can't be answered."
Economists may say that New England's manufacturing heyday is long past. But a look at locations within a one-hundred-mile radius of Concord shows otherwise. Not only is a large number of building materials made nearby, the products are made by people who understand the demands of a New Hampshire winter. Staff members at The Copper House in Epsom have been making interior and exterior copper lighting fixtures for
thirty-seven years. That's plenty of time to perfect the craft of producing fixtures that handily survive all four New England seasons.
When a product is timbered, quarried or manufactured near your home, there's a reverse NIMBY ("not in my back yard") effect. If a company works near your back yard and uses environmentally unsound practices, you're going to see-or smell-the effects right away. You are, in a sense, your own watchdog. There's something to be said for eyeing a company's headquarters from the driver's seat of your car, as opposed to decoding the fine print on each new green seal of approval.
"I believe when you push 'green' as far as you can, it will eventually come back, full circle, to local" Genest says. "Not too far back in our history, we all lived a local life. We didn't need to worry about packaging, preservatives, hormones and transportation. Living
local also made thinking local a natural part of our lives. We naturally recycled and supported our neighbors' businesses.If we don't get back to local, the green movement may be another soon forgotten fad and environmental issues will persist."
Fortunately, we live in a state with an awe-inspiring breadth of natural resources. Within one hundred miles of Concord, building products for every room of the home are found, milled and made. Many are beautiful gems just waiting to be rediscovered.
