Eco-Renovation Tip # 1: Painting the Town Green

Many of our readers, both on and offline ask a lot of questions about how to go about doing eco-friendly renovations. When we looked at online resources for do-it-yourself renovations a few weeks back, we highlighted The Green Home Guide, which is a great site for planning out ecologically-conscious home projects. But since this is a topic of such interest among our readers, we'd like to start our own on-going series here as well offering tips and tricks for making your renovations as green as possible. Today's topic? Paint.

Every renovation involves painting at some point. Whether you're doing a freshening coat, or building an addition to your home, at some point the walls are going to need some colour! That's why we want to start today with a look at how you can make this part of the reno earth-friendly.

Just to Clear the Air

When it comes to paint and the environment, the main consideration is the level of VOC's in the product. Volatile Organic Compounds are toxic fumes that leech out of the paint when you're working with it and afterwards. Many of these are thought to be carcinogens when exposure is prolonged. Obviously, the lower the level of VOC's in a paint, the better it is for both the earth... and your lungs. 

Paint companies have been making low and no-VOC paints for some time, but independent testers have found that each brand varies in the amount of smell they emit, regardless of labeling. 

One brand that has come up several times in our review of many comparative studies, however, is called Aura by Benjamin Moore.  So keep your eyes peeled for that one, available at any Benjamin Moore retailer. 

Other brands that have received top marks from independent testers are True Value Easy Care and Glidden Evermore. True Value is a US-only hardware store, but Glidden's should be available at any Color Your World location or ICI affiliate in North America.

What Goes Around...

While VOC's are the most common measure of a paint's ecological standing, another issue to consider is the life-cycle of the paint production process: the very system of creating paint (and disposing of it later) can be harmful to the environment in and of itself. 

One innovative company I have come across that tackles this issue is called Boomerang Recycled Paint.

Based out of Quebec, this company uses patented technologies to take unused, unwanted paint and mix it together to form completely recycled product for commercial or residential use. 

The color selection is more limited than most paint lines because of the challenges of combining multiple paint varieties into one can, but other than that, the paint is largely the same in finish and durability as any of the paints that go into it. And of course, you can rest easy in the knowledge that by using Boomerang, you're keeping toxic paints out of landfills, and that virtually no pollution was created to produce the product. Oh, and a a bonus, because of the savings of reusing discarded product, their prices are very competitive too!

You can visit their web site, linked above, to see if Boomerang serves your area.

Now the floor is yours: Are there any other Green-Painting tips that you'd like to share? If so, let us know in the comments, and we'll update the post with any additional tricks!