Going green doesn't mean emptying your bank account

"Going green" at home can mean far more than fluorescent light bulbs, if the green home set up in the lobby of the Merchandise Mart is any indication. The 300-sq.-ft. house, part of the Chicago Market: Living and Giving trade show that closed Wednesday, incorporated over 100 green pieces, including rugs, wallpaper, furniture and artwork.

In addition to demonstrating how homes can be green all over, the display combats the idea that green equals expensive. Many of the furnishings cost less than $50.

"I was shocked," said Mick Santiago, the Chicago-based interior designer who created the display, of the wealth of green products he discovered during the project -- his first foray into green design. "I thought we would have about 50 percent green product, and we ended up with about 98 percent." Only three pieces in the house are not green.

Affordability fits Santiago's design philosophy. "The average person should never be afraid of design," he said. "It should be available and accessible to everyone." He often encourages people to work on their home interiors themselves if they can't afford an interior designer.

The home is meant to be a "lake house," a second home that someone living in Chicago might have in Michigan or Wisconsin. The space includes a living room, a porch and a dining area.

The structure's paint is low in VOCs (volatile organic compounds, gases that can pollute the air when the paint is applied). In the living room, the armchairs are made out of 100 percent organic cotton, the foam filling is soy-based, wood is taken from re-planted forests and the glues are low-emission.

A soft rug is made out of wool untouched by machine or chemical; it's hand-carded, hand-combed, hand-spun and hand-knotted. Not one of the display's more affordable pieces, the rug retails for $6,700. On the other end of the financial spectrum, however, are recycled glass bowls in the living room that cost $25 to $40.

The porch area includes hanging lanterns, $25 each, made of old cookie tins. Sitting on the outdoor bench are stuffed animals made from recycled fabric. Fair-trade throw pillows made by women in Thailand out of water hyacinths retail for $180 each.

In the dining area is a wooden table made from a reclaimed door, flatware made from recycled aluminum and dinnerware ($76 per place setting) made from recycled glass. Interior designers prefer to call such pieces "repurposed" rather than "recycled," Santiago said, so as to not make them sound cheap.

Even antiques can be considered green or sustainable, Santiago explains, because they are old, found objects that last for a long time and don't need to be replaced.

Upstairs on the trade show floors, the 300 retailers who offer green products -- only a third of whom are represented in the show house -- are marked with green tags that say, "Living and Giving Green." Several of these exhibitors said that buyers are constantly asking for green products, and some of them offer fact-sheet explaining what makes their products green.

Each manufacturer defines green a little differently, according to Trisha Schultz, director of marketing for the Merchandise Mart. Values that are often shared by the green manufacturers are products made by hand, products made from recycled or "found" materials, products that last for a long time and those that don't leave waste behind during manufacturing.

Within the home furnishings industry, there's no universal measurement of how green a company's products are, though the Sustainable Furniture Council and the American Home Furnishings Association (AFHA) both offer green certifications.