By Ann Jarmusch

There’s a growth spurt in the greening of Uptown and it stems from Olive Branch Green Building Supply, a store in North Park that caters to homeowners and contractors.
With products ranging from environmentally friendly paint and glittering recycled glass countertops to blue insulation made from denim scraps, Olive Branch is San Diego’s only store exclusively devoted to green building products, according to co-owners Lisa M. Cunningham and Lynn Wilson.

The store, at 3030 North Park Way, “is a result of a passion for building, an intense desire to protect the environment and the creatures who inhabit it, and an excitement about raised awareness regarding green choices,” the owners say on their Web site, www.olivebranchgbs.com.

In April, Cunningham and Wilson opened up shop after transforming an ordinary storefront into an attractive, user-friendly showroom that also demonstrates what they preach. The walls are either painted or papered with toxic-free materials. The allergy-free linoleum floor is made of rectangular sections that easily click together in what Cunningham calls “instant gratification” for the owner. The non-green florescent ceiling lights that came with the place are screened with arcs of artist’s drawing paper suspended from ordinary chains.

Here you can abandon dangerous yet common building products containing formaldehyde, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and harmful resins in favor of green alternatives made with linseed oil, cashew oil and cork. Don’t you feel better already?

Water-saving, dual-flush toilets in sleek shapes from drought-stricken Australia stand with displays of dense samples of countertop material made from paper. Wood flooring – from silky bamboo to hand-scraped hardwoods in triple layers – hail from sustainable tree farms.

Olive Branch has sold a single quart of primer, bought by a lady unable to carry any more on her bike, and, on the other extreme, enough natural cotton insulation for an entire house.

The greening of American households can be confusing and daunting, as new products emerge rapidly. Cunningham, a former city of San Diego building inspector who enjoyed helping homeowners comply with a sometimes onerous building code, is committed to demystifying the green building-products scene. She’s a LEED-accredited professional (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by the national Green Building Certification Institute, an offshoot of the U.S. Green Building Council.

“We take in all this massive information and bring it back to simple,” said Cunningham, who bikes to work from her North Park home. “We want to assure someone coming in they don’t have to do all that (research) work.”
Before opening Olive Branch, the partners attended several conventions, notably the GreenBuild International Conference and Expo in Boston last November, to educate themselves on the best available products. Now vendors, such as EcoTimber, established in 1992 – a lifetime ago, as green materials go – are seeking them out.

“We try to use every single product” Olive Branch sells, said Wilson, who is also employed as a psychologist. They tried 11 paints at their initial location, a warehouse in Barrio Logan, before deciding to carry only YOLO Paint. They also recycled their Marmoleum Click flooring system from the warehouse floor.

Both Cunningham and Wilson seem to embrace their roles as researchers and educators, but they also shoulder distinct responsibilities. Acknowledging Wilson’s natural design abilities and her own construction experience, Cunningham said with a laugh, “She’s form, I’m function.”

Wilson is determined to ferret out “greenwashing,” the unscrupulous marketing practice of latching onto the green movement with unwholesome products. “We love the companies that are totally green,” she added, referring to their manufacturing and recycling practices and working conditions, such as IceStone, a maker of recycled glass countertops that come in 42 colors, some of which look like granite. “They’re the ones doing this not just because there’s a market but because it’s the right thing to do.”

Cunningham decided to start the business after spending 10 months in post-Katrina New Orleans as a senior construction manager for the nonprofit Rebuilding Together. The shock of finding many people still living without running water or electricity three years after the hurricane drove Cunningham to work 12-hour days, seven days a week. The result: She and her teams of volunteers moved 20 families out of FEMA trailers and back into their rebuilt homes.

Equally appalling to her were the tons of trash and debris, laced with mold, lead paint and other hazardous waste, left in Katrina’s wake. She heard people say that when the levee broke, 50-something years of trash washed away, so “if anything like that ever happened again, it would be better if the (building) products were non-toxic,” Cunningham said.

Women like Cunningham and Wilson are among the entrepreneurs and consumers who are leading the way in seeking out green building supplies for renovations and new construction, according to market studies Cunningham consulted. The partners know of two other national green businesses in the home furnishings field started by pairs of women. Olive Branch’s business also confirms this, with mothers making choices about interior tile, flooring and paint geared to their children’s long-term well-being.

Some green building products cost more than those we’re accustomed to using, although in the long run a number of them – LED lights, for instance – may save both energy and money. Cunningham offers suggestions and compromises, where possible, to reduce up-front expenses.

“We can’t always compete with big box stores” on price, she said. “We compete on customer service.”

Olive Branch Green Building Supply
3030 North Park Way
San Diego, 92104
(619) 237-1234
www.olivebranchgbs.com
Hours: Tues. – Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Ann Jarmusch, who lives in South Park, writes about art, architecture and historic preservation for local and national publications. She can be reached at [email protected].

Caption for Olive Branch logo:
Jere Halligan of Hillcrest was inspired by lumber grade stamps when he designed the Olive Branch store logo.