It says "energy efficient" not "environmentally friendly".

Updated! I bought energy star appliances last time they had to be replaced, and we do recycling already. Those two are the no-brainers for me.

I do love the reclaimed countertop. That would be a nice change.

We already have energy star appliances,we are going to do a remodel in about a month, still trying to figure a way to install a recycling station in the kitchen.

It's hard! Space is a real premium in my kitchen, so we don't have a built in cabinet one. I wish we had the room.

For me, the energy star appliances are an energy-saver, but not necessarily an environmentally friendly choice. It takes a lot of horrible chemicals and metals/minerals harvesting to build just one of them. I'd only by ES appliances (always have since it became an option), and try to get the one with the best rating that would handle my larger-than-life family, but the real difference maker here is in adding something that takes something away, not replacing something that was probably still doing its job just fine (let's not upgrade just for the sake of upgrading to something "green" if what you have isn't cutting trees or failing in its job, etc. -- get my point?). I'd add a better composting/recycling system. I have a great recycling system (with curb-side service, so there is no excuse for my neighbors who don't recycle -- and we can drive larger loads to a free recycling station, only a mile from the house....) but I could definitely upgrade it to something more stylish and larger capacity to make it the whole week without running over. And I'm terrible about composting, so something in the kitchen to jumpstart the process or collect-prior-to-delivery (like the backyard is so hard to get to, I know...) would really be ideal.

Agree with Catherine. Except for composting, these changes mean additions to the landfill. Until something becomes unuseable I would keep it and find other ways to be environmentally responsible. It's difficult, because the intention is right, but the implementation still has a cost to the environment. Good luck

I vote for energy star appliances. These are plugged in ALL day, everyday & can reduce our carbon footstep exponentially compared to the latter. There is also more steps being taken to recycle parts than ever before. Changing countertops, cabinets, & flooring would only produce more waste, unless of course this is a new project & your starting from scratch. As for compost/trash/recycle center, no brainer! We've had all for years, and it's now become second nature. Eco-flooring is also a tough one; so many brands claim "eco" or "sustainable", but there is a small percentage that is required to be green in order to promote it as such. Then there is the issue of the process of laying the flooring. Often contractors still use toxic glues and other materials that can void all your hard work at being green! Long story short...definitely appliances!

thinking of "green" or environmentally friendly changes for me is not about what I can buy or replace right now because that would be contributing to a waste or re-use situation. I'd love an addition to my recycle compost station. My idea is to install a shoot system next to my sink/food preparation area that connects to the outside of the house to a series of enclosed bins that I can access outside of the house. It would make it easier to do the composting and separating the recyclables.

The recycling, compost and trash station would encourage the entire family to pitch in by being accessible and user friendly. It would also be an inexpensive addition to the kitchen (or nearby) and can make a big impact.

I'm planning a kitchen for a house I'm going to build and I want to do all of the above.

Be careful what plumbing pipes are used. The new (very cheap compared to copper and popular with builders) Pex pipes can not ever be recycled. There is also some concern about chemicals they can leach into your drinking water.

An effective environmentally-responsible approach is to update your appliances to HIGH-QUALITY energy efficient upgrades so that they remain in service (keeping them out of landfill) while consuming less energy. Cabinetry should also be long-life items. European style cabinets are designed to accept new fronts, panels, drawers, hardware, slides, etc. as the older ones wear out or become outdated. This keeps the carcases (which contain the bulk of the wood in cabinets) out of landfill and in continuous service. A small but important detail is to keep your cabinet fronts adjusted properly, so that corners and edges don't start to degrade before the faces. As well, quite often it's the worn-out drawer slides that cause the ripple affect that results in a substantial refit or renovation. Take care of your cabinets and they will last longer. This is an effective approach to reducing waste in many forms.

Update the light bulbs...that is the first thing everyone should do!

Composting and recycling is very important and should become a natural part of each person"s life on this planet. Too many things have been dumped into our environment where they were either not beneficial at all, or are plain out harmful. Composting creates good, healthy soil to enrich your environment, while recycling saves on natural resources and prevents the danger of our environment being polluted by their being negligently dumped.

composting is easy, it is basically a good habit and needs a minimum installation !!

These ideas are only really green if that is in need of replacement anyway. Voted for energy star appliances since appliances are likely to need replacement first.

Agree with light positive above, CFLs should have made the list.

As with many others, we already have ES appliances, we compost and recycle religiously but thinking about our next home purchase, the main change I would like to make is flooring. currently we have slate tiles and I've been reading that poured concrete is very energy efficient. So, I think this will be our next leap forward on energy efficiency. By the way, if recycled/reclaimed was a more economical alternative, I believe the majority of people would choose it. We should be getting on board with Europe and having each home energy self sufficient even if it means some government subsidies to achieve this! It just seems like we are so short sighted here in the US. Where's the long term vision at the top??

Recycling is easy to do in the kitchen. I love the dual trash bins right next to each other, recycling and trash.m

I voted EF appliances as we too already buy those, but I do buy other recycled products such as note books as they looks so nice too, some furniture companies sell them. I used to do compost recycling but here that is a big problem with cockroaches. I do keep staled bread, as animals on the farms such as goats and sheep love to have a crunchy snack now and then. Bread, I either dry out in the sun or freeze in bulk until the time comes to take them to farm. Vegetable & fruit compost those really make a good fertilizer for the soil.

All are great ideas but just so many positives from composting and recycling in particular. My garden has never been better!

The composting and recycling station is great. However, I no longer use the compost station bin in the kitchen. The smell of rotting fruits and veggies is gross, I have moved it to the garage. I use the space for paper now, and have a trash compactor to handle all the unruly styrofoam packaging.

I'm trying/hoping to do it all! We are in the process of rebuilding a small weekend home that was destroyed last year in Hurricane Irene. Before our house was demolished, I recycled/donated to charity everything I could, although appliances were not, because we were told that the insulation would have soaked up the flood waters with unknown toxins, bacteria, mold, etc brewing in them. So the energy star appliances will be ordered, we were already recycling and composting, we are even reusing a few doors and timber posts, and rebuilding in the same footprint of the house, so we can still use the same septic and well. We had already wanted to keep the house small, but now it is the exact same footprint because it would have been extremely expensive to have to replace the septic and well. Cost is the biggest challenge. Right now I am trying to find the least expensive eco-friendly flooring, (and that's what I checked off) which I think will end up being Marmoleum linoleum, but even that is more expensive than what was budgeted. It is definitely a challenge. It's exciting, and nerve wracking, and challenging, and we will be compromising along the way, but working to get the most eco-friendly home we can afford.

If you do have to buy new items for your kitchen, make them investments. Have them be made from recycled or repurposed material from a responsible manufacturer, and have their design be timeless enough to endure generations. When we think about sustainable buying, we have to think about how to recoup the environmental "cost" of what new material we introduce to the world. Might your new recycled aluminum sink, over its lifetime, prevent at least 3 chemically epoxyed sinks from entering the waste-stream? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves.

Composting and recycling are relatively easy and can be started anytime. As many of those posting have mentioned, replacing functional materials with recycled material still uses energy and adds to the waste stream. There may be a point at which energy consuming appliances are so inefficient that replacing them will be a net savings of energy but for the most part I would use appliances until they wear out and then replace them. The energy required to make them has already been used. Throwing them away before they wear out just wastes that "embodied" energy.

LED replacement lights and fixtures are a good choice for two reasons. One, they use less energy both for lighting and in reduced heat output. Two, they last a long time and can save the nuisance of replacing bulbs.

The premise of this poll is kind of ridiculous. None of these options are all that environmentally friendly.
What material is more eco-friendly and sustainable than wood? So I am going to replace my wood cabinets with what, thermofoil? As far as recycling, yes we have bins for that but does all this stuff return to the raw materials stream? Again, for flooring, what is more eco-friendly than wood?
If we want to be honest, we need to return to the pre-Industrial Revolution days to be "green".

at my house i will be setting up my sink to be a dual drainer. really simple concept, one side gets drained to the septic tank, one side gets drained to the garden.. That way when im doing mundane tasks like washing veggies I can have the water go to my veggies, instead of my fruit trees. (Fruit trees live off of the septic lines)

Composting and recycling has the biggest impact. It reduces consumption, keeps things out of landfills, reduces dependency on trash removal services.

Replacing counters, floors and cabinets does not create a more environmentally friendly kitchen unless it's done as part of a planned remodel or a new build. Just replacing is actually a drain on the environment.

Energy efficient appliances make a difference, but only in one area -- energy consumption. They still take mostly non-renewable resources to build.

We have six different types of disposal in our kitchen in order to minimize garbage (and it works--we hardly generate anything that goes to the landfill!). We have a freestanding garbage can for the garbage and mixed recycling (it's divided into two compartments). On the countertop we have two bins for food scraps--one for chickens and one for garden compost. And one bin below the sink for municipal compost. I would love to see a system that makes it easy to store all of these and easy to communicate to guests how to use them. Maybe it's freestanding or rolls out from under a kitchen sink...

Grey water pipe to the garden.

I already have energy star appliances and I recycle plastic and cardboard. I am looking into doing a compost pile though.

How on earth is throwing out the counters, cabinets or floors you have and replacing them with something else "environmentally friendly"?

Why not "salvage" your own stuff and skip the whole step of removing and putting it back?