Sustainable Window Coverings: Protecting the Planet and Your Wallet
Sustainable window coverings are an increasingly popular choice for homeowners who want to save money on their energy bills and do their part to protect the environment. By blocking the sun’s rays and reducing the need for air conditioning, sustainable window coverings can help reduce a home’s energy consumption and carbon footprint. The materials used to create window coverings are important for sustainability as well to not contribute to harmful practices. Let’s will explore some of the benefits of choosing sustainable window coverings for your home and the best choices for eco-conscious home owners like yourself.
Save money with your window coverings
One of the biggest benefits of sustainable window coverings is that they can help you save money on your energy bills. By blocking the sun’s heat and reducing the need for air conditioning, sustainable window coverings can help keep your home cool during the summer months. This can lead to significant savings on your monthly energy bills. In addition, many sustainable window coverings are designed to be energy-efficient, which means that they use less energy to operate than traditional window coverings.
What window coverings are best for reducing energy bills?
Solar & Roller Shades
Solar shades are designed to block the sun’s heat and glare while allowing natural light to enter your room. They are typically made from a durable, light-filtering fabric that reflects the suns rays and reduces your need for air conditioning. This can help save you money and lower your electricity bills. Additionally, blocking UV rays reduces damage over time to floors, furniture, and artwork. This means you keep your existing home elements in great condition for much longer. We offer solar shades in a wide variety of colors and openness factors, which determines how much light can come through. Lowering your carbon footprint has never been so easy! We also offer exterior solar shades. Block light from hitting your window in the first place, or create a screened patio without the permanency of a solid screen. These can be powered with built-in solar panels, which means no energy from the grid is needed at all.
Much like solar shades, roller shades also block plenty of UV rays and heat from the sun. Roller shades are more opaque than solar shades, and come in a wider variety of colors, patterns, and styles. You can layer roller shades and solar shades together for a dual shade! Pull down the solar shade during the day to block UV rays, and the roller shade at night for a darker bedroom, better sleep, and more privacy.
Cellular Shades
Cellular shades, often called honeycomb shades, provide several sustainability benefits. One of the main benefits of course is they help improve your home’s energy efficiency. Cellular shades are designed to trap air in their honeycomb-shades cells, creating a barrier that helps insulate a room and prevent heat gain through your window. It also helps prevent heat loss in the cooler months. This keeps your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer, reducing your need for air conditioning or heat. Not only can this reduce your energy bills, but you know you aren’t adding to the demand of non-renewable energy sources unnecessarily!
Wood Blinds, Faux Wood Blinds & Composite Blinds
Blinds provide their own insulation factors which vary based on materials. The slats can be adjusted to allow in or block out as much natural light as desired. They can also be raised to allow in much more natural light than simply tilting the slats. With so much light customization, you can prevent more heat from entering your home, and UV damage to your valuables. Blinds come in a wide variety of materials, stains, and paints. You can even do custom paint on many of our blinds to match other elements in your home for a cohesive style!
Roman Shades & Drapery
Fabric allows unique levels of customization in every aspect – including eco-friendly designs. In terms of saving money, fabric functions as a wonderful insulator. You can add thermal liners for enhanced insulation that prevents you heated air from going out the window in cold months. In warm months, closed fabric Roman shades and draperies block sunlight from entering and warming your home. With draperies, you have the additional benefit of adding layers. Whether you put a sheer drapery underneath or another window covering is up to you and your tastes. Having options for a sheer layer and a darkening, insulating outer layer means you can allow in filtered light and prevent some heat gain when the sun doesn’t hit directly. At night or when it’s cold or receiving direct sunlight, close the thicker layer for enhanced insultation and UV-blocking capabilities. Additionally, fabric is the most customizable window covering there is. We offer thousands of beautiful colors, patterns, materials, and styles. We also can use your own fabric, so if you have one you love, we’ll turn it into your own custom Roman shades or draperies for you!
Choose eco-friendly window covering materials
Another benefit of sustainable window coverings is that they can help protect the environment. By reducing the demand for non-renewable energy sources like your city’s power grid, sustainable window coverings can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. Furthermore, many sustainable window coverings are made from eco-friendly materials, such as recycled plastics or natural fibers, which helps reduce the amount of waste that is generated during their production.
Which window coverings are best for sustainably-sourced materials?
Natural Shades
Natural shades, often called woven wood shades, are a beautiful choice for environmentally conscious people like yourself! Not only do they reflect the beauty of nature, but that’s where their materials come from. Our naturally organic and beautifully handwoven natural shades are made from sustainably harvested jute, bamboo, grasses, and reeds. They’re both smart and green! Much like Roman shades above, you can also add a variety of liners to increase their insultation abilities. These make beautiful options for those with more rustic or earthy design themes.
Solar Shades
Our Eco-Friendly Collection of solar shades from Graber are made with 100% PET plastic. That’s the plastics marked #1 that you put in your recycle bin. But what makes these unique is that plastic doesn’t come from you – it comes from the ocean. When plastics are left on beaches or dumped in our waters, they cause harm to plenty of sea life. By using plastic recovered from the ocean, we turn that trash into something beautiful. Each shade is made from about 5 plastic bottles! Even better, because of their construction, these solar shades are also recyclable. While all shades are made to last, you know that you’re not contributing to landfills with each solar shade. Lastly, a closed loop waste system is used in their manufacturing to prevent water waste.
Draperies & Roman Shades
While we offer a large variety of fabrics and materials for draperies and Roman shades, some choices are best for eco-conscious buyers. Natural fibers like cotton, linen and bamboo are renewable and biodegradable. No filling up the landfill with these! We recommend blending fibers to make the best out of the properties of each one, and reduce the downsides. This creates long-lasting, beautiful designs. They also are tested for off-gassing of VOCs – volatile organic chemicals – that often come into our homes. If you’ve ever bought a pillow or mattress that smelled terrible for a bit, that’s off-gassing. These chemicals enter your home’s air, are harmful to the environment, and to your home’s residents! When you choose low or no-VOC fabrics, you know they’re healthy for your family and the planet from day one.
Wood Blinds & Wood Shutters
Our hardwood blinds and shutters are certainly eco-conscious. Made from 100% North American hardwood, they’re durable, consistent in color, and lightweight. The forests these trees are harvested from sustainably-managed forests, which means that the trees are replanted after they’re cut down. This helps preserve the environment and ensure a continuous supply of wood for current and future generations. Thanks to practices like this, the volume of hardwood trees in North American forests is 90% larger than it was 50 years ago! Using local forests reduces costs on transportation of wood, reducing emissions and gasoline use. Additionally, our manufacturer of wood blinds and shutters also is processed in their facility. They use wood shavings and trimmings to heat their plant in the winter as well as power up the kiln to dry the wood! Nothing goes to waste in their creation.
Add Beauty to your home while being eco-friendly
In addition to these practical benefits, sustainable window coverings can also add to the aesthetic appeal of your home. Many sustainable window coverings are available in a wide range of styles, colors, and patterns, so you can choose the option that best fits your personal needs and décor. Furthermore, many of the options we offer can be customized to fit any size or shape of window, which means that you can get the perfect fit for your home. All our window coverings are designed to be durable and long-lasting, which means that you can enjoy them for years before considering a replacement. This can help reduce the amount of waste in landfills and the overall environmental impact of window coverings.
Overall, there are many eco-friendly options for homeowners who want to save money on their energy bills, protect the environment, and enhance the aesthetic appeal of their home. With so many options available, it’s easy to find sustainable window coverings that meet your discerning style and let you feel good about your choices!