Much has been written about the impact of the kitchen on the overall health of the home. As the saying goes, if you can organize your kitchen, you can organize your life. So then, if someone were looking for a way to introduce a more eco-friendly mind set to the family home, then the kitchen isn’t a bad place to start.

There are plenty of numbers backing up just how much of an effect we can have on the bigger picture by what we do in the kitchen. For example, a stat from Natural Resources Canada states that the average North American will throw out 600 times their weight in garbage in their lifetime, with more than a third of that amount originating from the kitchen.

“By having a more eco-friendly kitchen, you’ll probably have less impact on the environment,” says Ashley Lubyk, coordinator of residential environmental services for Green Calgary, the non-profit urban environmental organization devoted to the creation of healthy homes and communities through environmental education, products, and services.

“A lot of people believe that we need to be wiping everything down with antibacterials and such,” says Lubyk. “But one of the active ingredients in antibacterial products is triclosan, and it’s actually a known carcinogen and pesticide.”

Although Lubyk is quick to warn of the trend that has seen many cleaning manufacturers slap an environmentally friendly label on their product, he does suggest that homeowners looking to use green products should use one of the cleaners available at Green Calgary’s Ecostore, and try to eliminate products with artificial fragrances.

Another way that environmentally conscious homeowners can give Mother Nature a hand, and save money at the same time, is by limiting the amount of energy they use in the kitchen.

As outlined on Green Calgary’s website, homeowners can sign up for ecoENERGY audit, whereby they can find out just where energy is being lost in the home. After the audit is conducted by a certified energy advisor, homeowners have 18 months to implement any suggestions. All Albertans who participate in the federal government’s ecoENERGY Retrofit Program are eligible for a provincial rebate.

Which brings us back to waste. Although a recent study released on Canadian attitudes towards water usage indicates that nearly 80 per cent of Canadians try to conserve water, there are many who could still be doing more. Under Alberta’s pricing system, homeowners are actually rewarded for using more water, as the price decreases with increased use.

Lubyk says that by making simple changes like not leaving the water running when brushing your teeth or rinsing dishes, only running the dishwasher when it’s full and replacing that leaky toilet, homeowners can drastically reduce their water usage.

And then there’s solid waste. Canadians produce around seven million tonnes of organic waste every year, two-thirds of which can be composted. “The best thing that a person can do is compost,” says Lubyk. “Really, it’s solid waste that people need to cut back on. Upwards of 50 per cent of household waste that we send to the curb is organic waste, a large part of which comes from the kitchen. All that material can be composted.”

— For more information on composting and how to make your home more eco-friendly, visit the Green Calgary website at www.greencalgary.org