By Blakely Blackford

If you want an affordable one-stop home supply shop and a green alternative to Home Depot, Green Depot lives up to its name. With stores in five states and distribution centers in six, it’s now the nation's largest supplier of green building materials.

The idea for a green home product supplier took root when founder and president Sarah Beatty was renovating her house and pregnant with her first child. She notes, "when you're pregnant, you're more sensitive to your own health because you are literally a host to another being." A Harvard graduate with a husband in the traditional building supply business, Beatty quickly realized the industry lacked accessible green alternatives.

From the beginning, Beatty's goal has been to make green products accessible.  She started in 2005 with contractors and builders. "Your typical builder is wary of change, and understandably so," she explains. In order to switch to green products, contractors need them to be affordable and reliable. "When green becomes practical, that is what makes a difference." To convince design and building professionals, she created Flip It Green, a unique service where a consultant reviews blueprints and budgets to identify opportunities to use green building material alternatives.

Founder and President, Sarah Beatty

But Beatty also realizes that the driving force behind the transition to green living is the consumer. The Bowery flagship store, which opened in February, along with Green Depot’s online shop cuts out the middleman. “New Yorkers live in an environment where we go and do it ourselves,” says Beatty. Green Depot's product filter weeds out the "green-washed" goods. And a unique icon system illustrates how each product chosen for the store’s inventory is green. “Green is like religion,” says Beatty. “It means different things to different people, and I don't want to be anyone's priest.” Instead, the store’s icon system acts as a guide, focusing on five main categories of green—Conservation, Local, Energy, Air Quality and Responsibility (CLEAR)—and these icons enable shoppers to pick products that match their priorities.

The store's space itself is many-times recycled. The Y.M.C.A. opened the building as the Young Men's Institute in 1885, and the floorboards are the thin pine of a gym. Patches of tiling from the old swimming pool peak out from walls of environmentally friendly flooring options and color swatches for the only no-VOC paint mixing center in the city.

As for her own priorities, Beatty admits that her home is not 100% green. Having created a healthy environment for her family, she isn't replacing all of the old with new green goods. After all, sometimes the best way to be green is to not change. But if you want to change light bulbs, redo floors, paint walls or bedeck them with art, stop by Green Depot. Maybe it's just the air-filter floor samples, but the store is a breath of fresh air.

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About the Author
Blakely Blackford is a writer who focuses on what people create, from high-rise buildings to low-priced menus. She believes that the challenge to go green, when tackled, invigorates any design.

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