Environmentally Friendly or "Green" Cabinet Options

     Case Green Cabinetry is dedicated to using environmentally friendly products, materials and construction techniques to build custom cabinets for our customers.  We seek out suppliers who have the same commitment.    

Our cabinet boxes and drawers are manufactured locally.  Producing our cabinets locally allows us to not only oversee the quality of production but also limits shipping costs and the environmental impact of shipping. 

Cabinet Boxes

Our cabinet boxes can be built using a low emission Agriboard substrate such as wheat board composites or Medite II.  Wheat sheet is a material manufactured from harvested wheat straw fiber and a high performance polyurethane resin – instead of the wood and formaldehyde binder found in most fiberboard products. Wheat sheet is a low volatile organic compound (VOC) emission alternative to products such as medium density fiberboard (MDF) and particle board. 

 

The process of making wheat sheet provides many environmental benefits.  The product contains wheat straw fiber, which is an annually renewable resource material.  Wheat sheet products turn a waste product that would otherwise be burned in the field into a high performance wood replacement product – and at the same time reduce the associated smoke, carbon monoxide and other products of combustion emitted into the air.

 

Besides its environmental benefits, wheat sheet provides superior moisture resistance compared to competitive products, making cabinets made from it a wiser choice for installation in humid environments such as bathrooms or even kitchens.

 

Medite II is an environmentally certified product that is also available for construction of our cabinet boxes.  Medite II is an interior grade, engineered wood-based panel manufactured from soft wood fibers combined with formaldehyde free synthetic resin.  The manufacturer of Medite claims that no commercially viable tree has been cut solely to provide wood for their products.  It is commonly used for cabinet installations in schools or hospitals.

Environmentally Friendly Wood Species

We offer several wood species that are environmentally friendly.  They can be selected for cabinet doors, drawers, drawer fronts and other cabinet components. 

 

Bamboo -  Botanically, bamboo is not a wood at all, but a grass.  Like grass, it has a short growth cycle and is considered a highly renewable and sustainable product.

 

Lyptus Wood – Lyptus is the name for a wood product manufactured by Weyerhauser from eucalyptus.  These products offer excellent quality, remarkable beauty and environmental attributes, making them an excellent choice when selecting an eco-sensitive, exotic hardwood species. 

 

Wood veneers – are just a thin slice of wood.  Veneers are applied to a base doors made from MDF or wheat sheet.  Selecting a veneer provides the look and feel of wood without using an excessive amount of valuable hardwood in the cabinet door. 

 

Reconstituted veneers – are wood veneers engineered from sustainably harvested African hardwood trees and Italian plantation grown poplar trees.  These veneers replicate wood species that are under environmental pressure.  Our veneers are supplied by Brookside Veneers and Tree Frog Veneers. 

 

Laminates and veneers are applied using low VOC glues.  Some of the laminate companies now offer green thermoplastics.

 

Other “Green” Options

Sustainably harvested woods are available in other species for doors and drawer fronts as demand dictates.  We can often find reclaimed and recycled woods from our suppliers and use them in the production of our cabinets.  In addition to finding environmentally friendly woods, we will work with you to identify and source alternative building materials for your cabinets, such as bio-composites.  These are wood free, non-toxic alternatives to wood and wood fiber materials.

 

Another environmentally friendly option that we provide is to substitute ABS edge banding for traditional PVC edge banding on the cabinet boxes and drawers.  ABS edge banding does not have the chlorine content of PVC. 

 

Production Efficiencies

Besides offering environmentally friendly wood species, we have selected suppliers who achieve high yields from the woods.   

 

They use customized optimizing saws that produce higher yields out of hardwoods.  Lumber that is provided in 8’ to 10’ lengths is cut lengthwise using a high speed laser rip saw.  Then the boards go to another high speed optimizing chop saw to be cross-cut.  This process provides the highest possible yield from the raw material and yields different grades of material out of the same length of wood.   

 

Our door manufacturer works with wood suppliers to keep just a two week supply of hardwoods in inventory.  As a result, they are more efficient with the raw material. 

 

Finishing Process

Our suppliers use solvent based finishes.  The sealants and topcoats are applied on a flat line finishing system that is designed to only spray solvent where it is needed.  Any solvent that misses product ends up on a specially designed finishing belt that automatically squeegees the solvent off the belt.  The solvent then goes into a solvent distiller and is reused in the finishing process, thus drastically reducing waste.   

 

We have also identified options for water based finishes and sealants.