What's Green for Your Home in Northwest Arkansas

... From Biz2Biz NWA May 2009

By Janie Pritchett-Clark

Adopting a green lifestyle at home, at business and in your community may be easier than you realize. Companies from one end of NWA to the other are focusing on the green issue, learning to change their choices to help you change yours. Here’s a sample of what we found to be green in Northwest Arkansas.

You have the most control over your home environment. These companies and their products can help you make greener choices for your family.

The Home Energy Audit • Jim Jones Construction

Saving 25-50% on energy is a strong motivator behind the Home Energy Audit offered b Jim Jones Construction. Added benefits are many. Homeowners may find a more comfortable living environment, with a safer indoor air quality, and increased home value. An energy efficient home is the quickest and cleanest way to extend our energy supplies. A professional audit will detail the improvements needed to create the energy efficient- green living home.


Green Your Home Loans • IberiaBank (formerly Pulaski Bank)

Financial institutions have traditionally been known as anything but green, but IberiaBank is taking action in Northwest Arkansas to change that perception.

“Consumers and businesses alike share the responsibility to recycle, eliminate wastefulness and minimize resource consumption, but banks have the unique opportunity to combine these efforts with community investment,” says Retail Development Officer/Sustainability Coordinator Keaton Smith.

To help homeowners save money on energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint, IberiaBank now offers ‘Green Your Home’ home improvement loans, along with expertise on the incentives available from government and utilities.

“There are so many ways you can improve the energy efficiency of your home,” Smith says. “Simple things like sealing and caulking around doors and windows or adding more insulation to your walls, attic, and ductwork can reduce energy bills up to 50%.” And with the new federal tax credits (30% of total costs), homeowners see ROI for improvements like solar, small wind, and geothermal systems in less than 10 years.

“Green Your Home loans allow the homeowner to make several types of efficiency improvements, with only one monthly loan payment. We try to structure the loan so you can make loan payments with the money saved on your utilities each month. As energy prices continue to rise, using less energy will become even more important, and efficient homeowners will see even greater savings.”

Come Home to an Organized Garage • NWA Garage Solutions

Did you know the garage is one of the largest, most under utilized rooms in the home? Energy efficiency begins with a look at how well you use what you have. That includes all that clutter in your garage. One solution is NWA Garage Solutions, which specializes in turning a cluttered mess into an organized and efficient room.

The approach is to custom design storage to fit your family’s needs with a variety of cabinets, slat wall, flooring options, accessories and bins. The cabinets are made from recycled materials and the floor coatings are zero VOC. And, unlike others, they don’t use muratic acid to clean and prep the floor.

With a solution like this, the house you thought too small becomes bigger– just from opening up the storage inside the home because now it fits in the garage. Now you can find it!

NWA Garage Solutions’ service is a four-part process. They start with a consult to identify your needs, measure and inventory your items. They help with the de-clutter as you sort for reduce, reuse, recycle. They will even make the arrangements needed to haul off discarded and charitable items or schedule storage while the work is being done. Once Installation is done by a professional team equipped to complete the job in one to three days depending on the size of your garage and the extent of the work to be done. And last but not least, they know you will enjoy the results.

As one customer in Fayetteville says, “NWA Garage Solutions are true professionals in every step of the process. They took the time to develop a plan to not only organize my garage but also take it to the ‘next level.’ Rarely does a week go by that I do not receive a positive comment on my garage.”

Enjoy the Green Inside and Out • Spavinaw Stove Company

Now that warm weather is finally here your family will be enjoying the outdoors with backyard barbecues and gatherings. Spavinaw Stove Company wants you to know there’s a green solution to gas and charcoal grills. Traeger barbecue pellet grills uses the same eco-friendly concept used in pellet wood stoves.

The benefits are many. Using a natural biomass fuel means no fossil fuels of any kind are used in the combustion process. The pellets are made from 100% recycled hardwood sawdust and burn at an extremely high combustion efficiency rate. This means low emissions and a lower carbon footprint. And that means it’s the environmentally responsible way to cook outdoors.

It’s healthier, too, because the in-direct cooking system reduces the fat and charring thought to cause cancer. The hardwood smoke created by the pellets produces anti-oxidants similar to Vitamin E.

By partnering with hardwood furniture manufacturers, Traeger adds economic value to materials that were once considered “waste” and in the process creates new business, products and jobs.

With Father’s Day just around the corner, it’s time check out your options. Spavinaw Stove Company is a well-established dealer for stoves, fireplaces and vents from high-quality manufacturers like Harman, Traeger, Lopi, Buck and FPX. They use NFI certified installers and service technicians and have earned a reputation that garners them happy, loyal customers.