Regardless of where you look, the global community has made "green initiatives" a hot button topic, regardless of what topic you are discussing. Everything industry from construction to cooking, to education, are implementing programs to reduce their environmental impact. The home building or home improvement industry is no exception. Many construction companies, home improvement centers and building products advertise some level of commitment towards “green” or environmentally friendly construction. Are these companies actually fulfilling their promises? That is a discussion for another day; what we want to focus on is how a wood kitchen cabinet can help you become environmentally friendly.

Everyone should want to reduce their “carbon footprint”. This carbon footprint is roughly defined as the amount of CO2 that you, as a living person, put into the environment each day. It can be everyday activities like driving a car, running an air conditioner, or building a house. Almost everything you do has a connection to the environment, be it direct or incidental. With that in mind, if you look at each and every task you perform on a daily basis, there are literally thousands of ways you can help reduce your carbon footprintTaking products and using them is basically us being consumers and from this consumption we are taking from nature; thus putting pressure on the environment.

So again, if I am building a house or renovating my kitchen, how do wood kitchen cabinets help lower my carbon footprint? The first thing is to define a “wood kitchen cabinet”. With wood being a limited resource, most "wood cabinets" are not actually solid wood. It is not economical and it just does not make sense in the building industry. What you are getting in wood kitchen cabinets is one of two things. Solid wood faced cabinets with plywood sides (these are the good cabinets) or the lesser quality cabinet that is a wood front and a particle board side (places like Home Depot and Lowe’s sell these inferior cabinets).

Now that you have a definition of what really is a wood kitchen cabinet, you can then ask where I find these solid wood cabinets with paneled sides. The very best, easiest, and least expensive method to buying these cabinets is actually online. Yes, the internet cabinet websites easily beat any retail prices. (Mostly because of less over head).

Finally, how am I saving the environment, if I am buying wood kitchen cabinets? The trick to saving money and the environment is the RTA kitchen cabinet. It is not a brand name, but rather a style of cabinet. RTA stands for “ready to assemble”. These cabinets are about thirty to forty percent less than an assembled cabinet and they are actually helping to cut down carbon emissions and save lumber. These all wood RTA kitchen cabinets use the entire tree, thus cutting waste. Furthermore, these cabinets save space on shipping. They are unassembled so they take up to fifty percent less space. This “space savings” contributes to less shipping; this produces less carbon dioxide. You may say that does not seem like much, but when you add up the number of shipments, this becomes a huge amount of carbon dioxide that is kept out of the atmosphere.

So in the end, every little bit helps. Yes buying wood kitchen cabinets, especially RTA kitchen cabinets will help the environment. Now all we have to do is get everyone to do their own small part.
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