Sustainability | FOCUS


GREEN LIGHT FOR innovation


Emily Covey (pictured), an independent designer and proprietor of Covey Kitchens, based in Somerset, recently designed a kitchen where eco-friendliness was the client’s top desire. She talks us through how and why she chose its constituent parts


G


illian was my fi rst client to genuinely put the environment at the


forefront of the design for her new kitchen and it’s been an interesting journey for us. After weighing up the pros and cons of different decisions on the parts of the kitchen, it became clear that there isn’t always a right or wrong answer. Gillian lives in an upside-down house with the kitchen upstairs in an open-plan, loft-style building. The kitchen is quite small, taking up only 3m by 2.5m. Previously, her main prep area was in the darkest part of the kitchen and so by using this area for storage instead, I brought the main working space closer to the light and will be creating an internal window to allow in even more light.


Once I had the design worked out, I could start working out which bits of her old kitchen we could reuse so as to minimise its environmental impact. Some of the units and drawer boxes will be the same size. The kitchen is not in good enough condition to sell on and so we are looking into alternative ways to have the kitchen recycled, but there is not an obvious solution to this dilemma.


Doors and carcasses I decided on plywood for the doors, as this is structurally stable and is a very effi cient way to use a tree. I will fi nish off this with a clear, low-VOC [volatile


realise it will be more susceptible to knocks and bumps, which means that the kitchen may have to be renewed earlier than if it were made from the more durable MFC. Secondly, would most clients be happy to have a plain brown interior? It is these questions that have no right or wrong answer and we have still not fully decided which material we are going to use.


Worktops


I worked out which bits of her old kitchen we could reuse, as this


would minimise its environmental impact


organic compounds], with a water based lacquer.


For the carcasses, plywood was too expensive to use throughout this kitchen and so I investigated the difference between MFC and raw chipboard. Egger has compiled very


These CAD designs show Covey’s ‘green’ project coming together


May 2020 ·


thorough life-cycle analysis on each of its materials that is extremely interesting to understand each component. Both materials are the same until the resin-soaked papers are added to the fi nal board to turn it from raw chipboard to melamine-faced chipboard. As trees grow, they absorb carbon, making them carbon-negative. Because Egger uses wood from FSC [Forest Stewardship Council]- managed forests, the trees are replanted as they are harvested. The chipboard is made from the waste produced by solid wood products, so is already being created from waste and after reaching the end of its recyclable life, it is incinerated to create energy. However, because of the carbon-negative wood, it does just about balance out its global warming impact and so has no net effect. MFC uses formaldehyde as the resin to bind the papers and cannot be separated from the chipboard once bonded together. This means that it can only be recycled as low-grade materials as opposed to raw chipboard, which can be recycled as a higher-quality material before eventual incineration. So, on paper, it is better to choose the raw chipboard over MFC until you


For worktops, I explored those that have recycled material as their base, such as Silestone’s new Eco Line Quartz, Caesarstone’s recycled quartzes or recycled glass worktops. But price was prohibitive on these worktops. So I started looking at stainless steel. This is 100% recyclable, so although there are high energy costs during mining and manufacture, I thought it could be a viable option as it can be fabricated in the UK.


I also looked at a thin layer bonded to plywood, but again the end-of-life recycling would have been diffi cult. I eventually settled on a wooden worktop. It is carbon-negative, will be replanted as it is from an FSC-managed woodland and is much lighter to transport and can be sourced closer to the UK, in Scandinavia for example, as opposed to stone, which often comes from far across the world like China, Africa or South America.


Appliances


Appliances often account for as much as 80% of a kitchen’s carbon footprint. I chose A+++-rated appliances for Gillian as they use 60% less energy than A-rated appliances.


I am removing her gas range cooker and replacing it with induction, as this can be run on renewable power, rather than relying on a diminishing resource. Indeed, gas is going to be banned in new-builds by 2025.


I have found a lot of data online to help with our decision-making, but it has not been user-friendly to access and we have been left to draw our own conclusions to issues like the carcasses, for example.


Appliance ratings have been a great step and have clearly helped consumers make informed decisions. If there could be a step towards making similar charts for materials but again this is hard to weigh up in one letter the effect each item has.


53


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64