Hi Umihana, thanks for your question about green baby rooms. Greening your baby’s room is a great idea because not only is it healthier for your baby, but also better for the environment.

The main components of a green baby's room should be eco-friendly materials, low-VOC emitting products, non-toxic materials and green cleaning techniques.

Eco-Friendly Materials

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system addresses green buildings, and it does contain some guidelines that are applicable to individual rooms.

LEED provides guidelines for materials that reduce environmental impact, whether it is through reduced demand for finite and virgin materials, reduced waste, shorter shipping distance or responsible management of finite materials. Using materials that have one or more of the qualities below will make your baby’s room greener:

- Reuse: “Reduce demand for virgin materials and reduce waste” by using salvaged, refurbished or reused materials.

- Recycle: Reduce environmental impact by increasing demand for products that incorporate recycled content. Post-consumer content has less of an environmental impact than pre-consumer content.

- Regional Materials: “Use building materials or products that have been extracted, harvested or recovered, as well as manufactured,within 500 miles of the project site.”

- Rapidly Renewable Materials: To reduce depletion of finite raw materials, use materials made from plants that can be harvested in 10 years or less, such as bamboo, wool, cotton insulation, agrifiber, linoleum, wheatboard, strawboard and cork.

- Certified Wood: To encourage environmentally responsible forest management, used wood products that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Indoor Air Quality and VOCs

It is important to limit the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in your baby’s room. VOCs are toxic fumes that off-gas from thousands of common household items, including adhesives, sealants, paints, coatings, office furniture, flooring, carpets, composite wood and agrifiber products, even cars. That "new car smell" is actually the smell of VOCs. VOCs have numerous negative health effects, ranging from headaches to allergic skin reaction to damage to the central nervous system.

Whenever possible, purchase low-VOC emitting products or materials. There are several rating systems and guidelines that can help you find low-VOC emitting materials. For example, Green Seal designates paints, stains and finishes with low-VOCs. The Carpet and Rug Institute has a Green Label and a Green Label plus program that designate low-VOC carpets, adhesives and cushions.

Natural and Non-Toxic Products

Mattresses may be treated with polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), chemical fire retardants that are shown to have negative health effects. Many natural and organic mattresses do not have this chemical, so they will be better for your baby’s health. Here's a link to Mama's Organic Baby that offers a no PBDE mattress. Alternatively, you can purchase your baby’s mattress in advance and let it off-gas for at least a month before your baby uses it... Arguably a less appealing option.

Green Cleaning

Once you’ve decorated your nursery, you should maintain it with green cleaning products. Conventional cleaning products contain toxic chemicals that persist in the environment and could be dangerous to your baby’s health.

You can create your own homemade cleaning products using these recipes.

Alternatively, Green Seal has a listing of green cleaning products that have met their stringent standards.

Good luck, Umihana!
Claire Moloney

Related Advice:

• An Introduction to Green Cleaning



• Low and No VOC Paints, Stains and Finishes: An Expert Review



• VOC Removal: Five Plants that Clean the Air and Remove VOCs