Opening Green Design Expo: A Scientist's Journey from the Lab to Central Ave.

Despite what certain naysayers may croak, it is easy being green.

It’s also cost-effective.

“The average American can have a green home — from their cleaners, to their carpet, to their wall insulation, to their power, and on and on — without spending more than what they’d shell out buying it all from Big Box stores,” Eva Finkelstein, the founder and owner of , told Scarsdale Patch.

Finkelstein should know. She has spent most of her life wrapped up in environmental causes — sometimes due to circumstances, sometimes by design — and has dedicated the last several years of her life into researching the benefits and inherent flaws in sustainable solutions for businesses and the home.

“Every step along my path led me to founding Green Design in Scarsdale,” Finkelstein said. The design store opened its doors officially after Earth Day this year; it is an educational resource and a product warehouse for architects, designers, businesses and regular people who want environmentally friendly building and lifestyle items.

Finkelstein's path to Green Design has not always been straight and easy. In fact, it has been long, and at times, strange.

“I grew up on farms with horses, goats, chickens and vegetables in Virginia and Florida,” Finkelstein said. “And I spent most of my free time swimming, riding horses, fishing and enjoying the outdoors. When I graduated from college, I worked as a teacher in Chappaqua and Greenwich, and then as a researcher for Albert Einstein Medical Center."

It wasn't until Finkelstein encountered some health issues, however, that she fully began to explore natural alternatives to traditional medicinal and energy practices.

“I became ill with a debilitating blood disease, and I automatically turned to doctors and researchers. But I found a profound lack of help from the allopathic medical community,” Finkelstein said. 

Instead of throwing up her hands, listening to her doctors and just hoping for the best, Finkelstein funneled her considerable acumen for research and analysis into finding alternative paths toward her cure.

“I discovered that nutrition can be one of the building blocks toward healing yourself – and that chemicals can be a stumbling block along the way,” Finkelstein said. “It was quite a journey, but after reading countless books, talking to experts, going to a retreat center called The Tree of Life and giving my body a chance to heal itself, I was able to recover.”

The process the journey took her on changed her – and her family’s – life forever. A married mother of three (her children are 21, 20 and 16, and all attended Scarsdale High School), she began to explore the allergies that had plagued her children.

“I found that something as simple as bleach in all of the cleaners I used, in all of the carpet treatments – everywhere – was the culprit for a lot of their problems,” Finkelstein said.

After successfully tackling and eradicating her entire family’s catalog of major and minor chronic diseases with a few relatively simple and cheap dietary and lifestyle tweaks, Finkelstein turned to the world outside her window.

“My husband really inspired and supported me to open Green Design,” Finkelstein recalls. “I wanted to work with the public in a one-on-one setting, instead of just in a lab, so that they could have easy, practical, one-stop access to a healthier lifestyle. Not everyone has time to do all of the research — and I wanted other people to benefit from everything I have learned along my path.”

Green Design, in addition to providing everything from light bulbs to area rugs to solar panels, aims to make the average consumer more aware of what they can do to take control of their indoor environment and help larger businesses outfit their buildings with planet and worker-friendly accouterments.

“You know what the most expensive part of every building is?” Finkelstein asked. "It’s people! When people call in sick, productivity goes down and health insurance goes up. By simply creating clean environments, employees are automatically healthier and happier.” Not to mention … cheaper.

Everyone at this point knows – deep down, in some cases, very deep down – that being environmentally conscientious is better for the planet and our bodies. But one insidious, recurring stereotype about green home options is that they cost, well, a lot of green.

“I don’t sell anything that won’t pay for itself with energy cost savings in five years or less,” Finkelstein said. “And many of our every day items like throw rugs, cleaners and lighting are competitively priced with Big Box stores.”

The store's items are also guaranteed to be legitimately green.

“There’s a lot of green-washing out there, so people will think they’re going green, whether with toxin-free or sustainable or both products, but really, they will be the victims of deceptive labeling and marketing practices.”

Green Design Expo offers residential and commercial products, services, educational programs, systems and consultations. For a full roster of the store’s resources and events, log onto their website.

Green Design Expo is located at 640 Central Park Avenue, Scarsdale. The store is closed on Mondays and is open Tuesday – Saturdays  from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and on Sundays from 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. Find out more information by visiting www.greendesignexpo.net or calling the store at (914) 902-5305.