Of all the things we have done on our house, identifying and defining which products are “green friendly” has been the most incredibly challenging and completely perplexing single process. Obviously you don’t have to be Al Gore to know that using rare, exotic hardwoods like Zebrawood, Rosewood or Ebony for cabinetry is not exactly a green friendly choice. However today you can get the look of many of these rare beauties with out the “bad karma” that goes along with pillaging the earths resources.

Initially when we first started looking at cabinet materials we had ruled out the possibility of having the look of some of the beautiful exotic woods that we both loved. However to our amazement we found there were dozens of incredibly realistic high pressure laminate options available. Unlike the laminates that most of us remember from the 70’s, these were highly detailed and incredibly realistic looking. We quickly found an Indian Ebony laminate that we loved and it seemed that our search was over. Laminates were certainly more environmentally friendly than harvesting wood, right?

Then a few weeks back our cabinet maker Matt Eastvold offered us a new option, reconstitute or composite veneers. A line of veneer products from Brookside Veneers that offer a line of real wood veneers by Alpi, with the look of exotic hardwoods but made from highly renewable and abundant native trees. With a stunning range of materials to choose from and a very convincing, green friendly story behind the use of a an abundant and renewable resource to create the look and feel of an exotic material, it seemed we were back to square one. Both products offer the exact look we were going for, yet which one actually the “green” choice. With so many factors to consider around each products carbon foot print we’ve done hours of research and have yet to decide on a clear winner and our deadline is looming closer.

One of the composite veneers.

A high pressure laminate.

The veneer and laminate together, can you tell the difference?