Green Business
of the Week

November 9, 2008

Green Home Experts

Every town should have one, and Oak Park does. Green Home Experts is a great resource for green building products, like paint, insulation, and flooring. You can get a beautiful PaperStone countertop to coordinate with your cork flooring and your locally made cabinets with non-toxic finish. You don’t have to make a trip into Chicago to make your house as green as you want it to be. But just as important to owner Maria Onesto Moran, your child can buy an organic wool ball for your dog and start learning to live green.

Moran grew up in a family that cared about the environment, and her own interest burgeoned when she was involved in the development of two LEED-certified apartment buildings in Chicago. She opened Green Home Experts nine months ago. She helped her infant business along by selling rain barrels at community events, making them herself by washing strawberry flavoring out of bins from a candy company.

Moran believes that buying green products should be easy and non-threatening. So the Green Home Experts store is located right on the main drag, Oak Park Avenue, between a kids’ clothing store and an upscale bar. There’s organic hard candy and moisturizer in the window, along with reusable window insulation kits. The Chico bags and cleaning products, the no-staple stapler and the compost caddy are all up front where you can browse on your own. The displays of low VOC paint and other hardcore building items are further back. The store offers expert consulting and has installation associates.

Moran and her staff will welcome you with just the right degree of readiness to chat and willingness to leave you alone. But children do seem to get a little extra welcome. After all, they are the future of green.

For more information, go to www.ghexperts.com or call (708) 937-5403. Or you can go to the Green Business of the Week page at www.mikenowak.net.